Editor's Note: This article is Part 3 of 6 in a series of articles, Using Video in Different Elements of Your Worship Service.

Claudia laughed hard, trying not to drop the tray of taco dip she was holding. She had set up this "Saturday creative getaway" for interested volunteers and staff, and it was already going so well! More than 40 people had come, filling to the rim the lodge building that her church had rented at a local State Park. The morning had already included a speaker who was an expert in team motivation, as well as a large-group brainstorming session. The group was now on a well-deserved "snack break," and the food and fun were both in good supply. The break was about to end, however, and Claudia decided it was time to bring everyone back together to narrow some of their previous ideas.

"Well, folks, we've been talking all morning about categories of ideas—it's time to get down to specifics!" Claudia shouted over the din. "We're going to break into five teams. Look on the cover of your packet; there is a color code that will tell you which team you're on, along with a map to show where you're meeting. Inside your packet is also an envelope marked with the same color code. The envelope contains your 'mission!'"

"Each 'mission' has something to do with how we use video in our services," Claudia continued. "We're not covering the message or worship songs here—we're talking about all the 'in between' places. Don't think inside the box. We want wild, crazy ideas and as many as possible! We're looking for quantity here. In fact, the group with the least number of ideas has to do the dishes after supper. Don't worry about whether the ideas are good or not … quality is in the eye of the beholder! You've got 20 minutes. Ready, set, GO!"

A short 20 minutes later, the teams started filing back into the room. Claudia had to go round up a few teams that really wanted to make sure they wouldn't be washing dishes! Once everyone was situated, Claudia asked each team to choose a spokesperson to come forward to share the ideas the team had come up with.

"Please tell us your topic first and then the ideas your team came up with," Claudia instructed. "As we all listen, ideas that we hear might set off new ideas in our brains. Use the yellow sticky notes to write down any of these additional ideas, and we'll cover them at the end of this session. We don't have much time, so each person will get only a few minutes—make it short and sweet. Blue Team: Let's go!" she said with a smile.

The Blue Team: Announcements

The first spokesperson was Vicki , the head of preschool ministry. "Our topic was using video for announcements. We thought we could make 'commercials' for various ministry areas. We'd just do one a week, so that we didn't overwhelm the congregation, but we thought it would be a good way to highlight our ministries and to give 'face time' for ministry area leaders. We could also send the pastor or someone else 'on location'—this would be especially effective if we were highlighting an outreach ministry or a special event, like the all-church picnic at the park downtown. We thought regular announcements could really be 'spruced up' if we did them in the style of a current TV show or movie—for example, we could make them look like a really sappy soap opera …"

"Time's up!" interrupted Claudia, "The rest of the Blue Team's ideas will come on the notes we're typing up. Orange Team, you're up!"

The Orange Team: Transitions

Bob, one of the church elders, came forward to represent his team. "Well, we've got kind of a weird topic," he said. "We have 'transitions'—which, as best as we can understand, means short little sections between major parts of the service. We kind of viewed it as a 'palate cleansing'—something to get you ready for what comes next. Back on the old cartoon or superhero shows, they would have a transition piece that just lasted a few seconds—it might be the show's logo spinning around or something like that. But it let you know that you were shifting to the next scene. We could do that using a sermon series logo, or the church logo, or something that had to do with that day's theme.

"We also thought of the 'commercial' idea, like the Blue Team did, except that for us it would only really work if we were using them before fairly funny or 'up' service elements. In other words, we wouldn't want a funny commercial setting up communion! We would want to make sure the video piece always matches what comes before and after. If it comes out of communion, it should probably start very mellow and build—especially if it leads into an energetic praise song. We thought that the transition should be longer if the two elements that it separates are very different in character or intensity …"

"Sorry, Orange Team—I need to stop you there," Claudia said. "Those are some really good insights. I know that you guys came up with a pretty extensive list of ideas—we'll make sure we get them all on the list. Okay—who's up for the Green Team?"

The Green Team: Vision Casting

After a few moments of last-minute discussion, another member of the preschool ministry, Bethany, came forward as the Green Team's spokesperson. "We had this 'vision casting' topic," she said, "which we figured out means getting people excited about stuff, kind of like previews at the movies or upcoming events in the newspapers. At first we thought this should really be part of the announcements, but then after talking about it for awhile, we figured we could also try a couple of other places. We could put a testimonial of someone covering the topic of the day right before or after the pastor's message.

"We could also preview a whole sermon series at the beginning of the first week of the series, or do a 'series rewind' on the last week to keep the overall theme in people's minds. If we were taking a special offering, we could get video of the ministry it's going to help. If we were trying to sign people up for the Thanksgiving dinner, we could show clips from last year's dinner to get people excited. We could end the service with a video push for the building expansion …"

"That's it for the Green Team! Sorry, Bethany!" Claudia said. "Next we've got the Purple Team!"

The Purple Team: Holidays

Billy, the church's young worship leader, stood up to represent the Purples. "Our topic was 'Holidays,'" he said, "All of the days like Christmas, Easter—even secular holidays like the 4th of July. It was pretty tricky trying to come up with stuff that wasn't in either a song or the message, so we went a different direction. We think we could use video like a special type of decoration. At Christmas, we could project falling snowflakes on the back wall through the whole service. For the 4th of July, we could run fading images of national monuments or fireworks before the service—something that's honoring without being political. For Easter, we could use video of crosses, flowers, big majestic vistas—anything to help people to comprehend God's majesty and what he did for us.

"We had an especially cool idea for Good Friday—we could have people walk through a maze and have various 'video stations' showing the stations of the cross, or following Jesus' footprints. For Mother's Day, we could have people e-mail us pictures of their moms, and we could make a video run. We didn't figure out anything for Arbor Day yet, but we have a couple of other …"

"Sorry—they're going to have to wait," Claudia interrupted. "We're almost out of time, and we still have one more group to go. Last, but certainly not least: the Yellow Team!"

The Yellow Team: Special Events

Pastor Jerry, the small groups associate, came to the front. "Our topic was special events. This covered all sorts of things:—volunteer recognitions, recruitment, baptisms, pastoral appreciation (an important one in my book), and other stuff. We do recruitment a couple of times each year, and I know from experience that one of the best ways to get someone involved is a personal explanation and invitation from someone who's already serving. People could tell why they serve on video, or they could explain it live and use video backup. I think we all know that telling a story is one thing, and showing it is completely different. We did that for Sunday School once, and had the highest sign-up that we've ever had for any ministry!

"We also think that showing family pictures before baptism or new member recognition would be a great way for people to build community. Having brief video interviews with new elders or deacons would really help people to get to know them—same thing with new staff. We could highlight our volunteers in action …"

"Hold on that thought," Claudia said. "We have some volunteers who have been preparing something for us, and it's really starting to smell good!"

"Folks, before we eat, I want to tell you that you did a great job! Our planning team works hard to come up with good services each week, but our brains take us only so far, and God has blessed our church with many more creative people than those who are currently on the team. Your ideas are going to make our services this year something really special. Thanks for who you are and all you do! And now—let's get some lunch!"

Things to Discuss:

1. Notice how many different "sectors" of the church were involved in the brainstorming session. Could your church do a better job of soliciting ideas from places outside the formal media ministry?
2. Are there any ideas here that you could conceivably use in your own ministry?
3. What do you think about having a gathering like this to discuss multimedia ideas?
4. Besides the ideas covered, how else could you see your church using multimedia?

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