Music, Message and MEDIA

When we were getting ready to start our preview services last fall I had a slogan I started using to inspire, describe and invite people to worship.

"You'll hear great music, a great message and have a great cup of coffee- on the house!"

We are going to keep the great coffee. In fact, we are taking it up a notch and will be serving not just fair trade organic coffee, but will enter a program to actually support a coffee grower in a developing country (find out more at www.fireroastedcoffee.com and join us for a coffee tasting tonight, Wednesday August 20 at 6pm).

But this fall I'm unveiling my new motto....

"Inspiring Media, Music and Message."

It's taken me the past few months and a lot of failures and frustrations to recognize the importance of our Media elements. Now this is not to belittle the amazing work our volunteers have done. They got this thing going, and we started at a level superior to many organizations. But we just haven't taken to the level we can go.

• I've learned that putting on a p.p. presentation is easy, but going the next step is enormously difficult.
• I've learned that too many cooks spoil the recipe.
• I've learned that media has more power to reach people than I previously imagined.

Great media, on our great big screen, with our great big projector, is absolutely captivating.

So this is where we're going with the service. It means finding focused leadership to provide the unified consistency of excellent media elements. It means working on "branding" our entire church. It means branding each series. It means branding each and every service. It means working far enough ahead to find the right media elements. It means finding the talents and resources to make our own media elements wherever needed.

But ultimately, I believe, it means we'll make a stronger impression and more powerful impact on people. They will be drawn into a seamless and flawless experience. Barriers to the gospel will be removed. Lives will be changed.

To use a Trinitarian analogy- the media elements are like the Holy Spirit, the music is like Jesus, and the message like the Father. The Holy Spirit builds the church to the glory of Jesus Christ, and Jesus' mission was to glorify the Father. So in our service the Media will be like glue, or the spirit, that holds the whole service together. The music is like Jesus, drawing people to the Father. The message will always make clear the grace and love of our God.

Anyways, the point is this- Connections is going high tech, because high tech has the power to present the good news of Jesus in awesome ways!