http://prochurchtools.com/008 - In this session of the Pro Church Podcast I continue my conversation with Pastor Brett Esslinger from last week. We talk about video announcements, traditional vs. contemporary worship services, confetti canons, awkward video pauses, and that's just the beginning.

Show Notes & Resources Mentioned

• Follow Pastor Brett on Twitter here.
• ProPresenter: mentioned and highly recommended on the podcast.
• Brand new motions graphics every single month from Church Motion Graphics for only $10/month!
• Haters Video

Brett Esslinger, senior pastor at Engage City Church answers questions about media in the church in this session of the Pro Church Podcast.

2 Instant Takeaways

1. Digital relevancy is subjective. Younger congregations, urban congregations, or pastors with a strong media emphasis will have different ideas about how much media to bring into the church. When making your choice, consider your demographic. But keep in mind that young people -- and this includes everyone under 35 -- live lives embedded with media, technology, images and digital effects. If your church wants to attract that demographic, you need to speak their language.
2. Don't be a miracle worker. If you are the worship media person at your church, back off on the complicated stealth maneuvers that save the day. You are scrambling to meet a standard that no one else can meet (and that includes you) so make it easier on yourself and other volunteers by investing in decent software that minimizes errors, hangups, delays, buffering and frozen screens.

http://prochurchtools.com/007 - How do you convince stubborn leaders that media is important? I thought the best person to answer this question was a lead pastor himself. On this session of the Pro Church Podcast I have a discussion with Pastor Brett Esslinger, the lead pastor of Engage City Church. We talk about closed minded pastors, and what NOT to say when you're proposing a church media idea to leadership.

Show Notes & Resources Mentioned

• Follow Pastor Brett on Twitter here.
• ProPresenter: mentioned and highly recommended on the podcast.

3 Instant Takeaways

1. Make allies. If you're a media-savvy churchgoer or volunteer with great media ideas, get some weight and influence on board before you approach senior leadership. No doubt you know exactly what you're talking about, but gaining some credibility with other leadership will make it easier for the senior leader to value your input. Once you have an audience, be sure you have a solid plan to present.
2. Come under the church's vision. While you may have the best media ideas ever imagined, you won't get any traction if your vision contradicts the church's. Bring your digital plans to the leadership in ways that media will enhance and support the current goals. Find the intersection between the church's passions and your own.
3. Don't start with an all-in approach. Walking up to your pastor with a comprehensive makeover -- fog machines, expensive stage lights, and stage backdrops -- is probably too much too soon. Introduce a few useful, purposeful changes and keep a long-term perspective. Too much change can freak people out.

http://prochurchtools.com/006 - The songs you play before church starts and after church ends are very important. It's easy to think of this portion of church as a throwaway time. But wait! Don't. Choosing the right songs can positively impact your church service in ways you've never likely considered. Plus, it's free and easy.

Show Notes & Resources Mentioned

5 Practical Tips For Choosing Better Songs To Play

1. Don't play a song you're about to play in worship as well. It's not fair to your worship band.
2. Match the energy of the church service (ie. Good Friday = solemn; Easter Sunday = high energy)
3. Play music that matches your church's story & culture, or the story & culture that you're trying to build.
4. Time the playlist to have no gaps and sync well with the countdown.
5. Make the playlist consistent with genre, tempo, and emotion.

Highly Ambitious Playlist

1. Alive - Hillsong Young & Free (remixed by pKal) 
2. My Lighthouse - Rend Collective (remixed by pKal)
3. Break Every Chain - Jesus Culture (remixed by Kevin Aleksander & pKal)
4. Your Love Never Fails - Jesus Culture (remix)
5. I Know - Lecrae (Cardec drums remix)
6. You Are My Vision (remixed by pKal)
7. Where the Spirit of the Lord Is (remixed by Leandro Alencar)
8. Tell the World (remixed by Matthew Parker)
9. God's Great Dance Floor (remixed by pKal)
10. Relentless (Young & Free remix)

More Average Playlist

• My Lighthouse - Rend Collective
• Joy - Rend Collective
• Every Little Bit of Praise - The Royal Royal
• The Lights - The Royal Royal
• New Song - Carlos Whittaker
• In Sync - Hillsong Young & Free
• Brighter - Hillsong Young & Free
• Praise Him - The Royal Royal

iTunes Tip For Seamless Transitions

You don't have to be a crazy DJ with mad skills, or mad hardware to seamlessly transition songs and avoid those nasty silent moments. This playback tricks works inside of iTunes and it crossfades the playback of two songs. For instance, when a song has 5 seconds remaining, iTunes will begin to fade that song out while automatically fading the next song in simultaneously.

Here's how to set up iTunes to automatically transition songs seamlessly:

• Click on Preferences
• Click on Playback
• Check the Crossfade Songs option
• Choose your crossfade time interval (between 5-10 seconds is recommended)

And that's how it's done! Do you have any songs or remixes you can recommend? Let me know in the comments!

http://prochurchtools.com/005 - It's finally here! ProChurchTools.com has a brand new look! In this session we'll discuss the new design and why we made the choices we did. We'll also talk about the 3 cores of a quality church website.

Show Notes & Resources Mentioned

• The 3 basic elements of a church brand
• The easiest way I know to create a quality church logo

Three core, essential, foundational features of a good church website, in this session of the Pro Church Podcast.

3 Instant Takeaways

1. Give your website one focus. Your church website should have one clear goal that drives its entire structure. Your homepage should have only one or two 'calls to action' which visitors to your site immediately see. As well, your menu should only have 4-6 pages, all of which are consistent with your main goal: whether that is inviting visitors to your church, ministering to your existing church, or creating evangelistic content. If your main goal is to attract visitors, leave pages or information for 'insiders' accessible through a smaller channel like a link on your footer.
2. What can you remove? And don't say, "Nothing." Chances are, unless you've recently done a minimalist redesign (in which case, feel free to skip this part) your website has extraneous clutter. A busy slider, social media icons, extra buttons, your latest sermon series plus lots of other activities, a calendar of events . . . have I hit one yet? Pare your site down to its core message and purpose.
3. Solidify your brand. Your logo, your color theme, and your fonts should be consistent across your website. That means every single page needs the same color family and fonts. That doesn't mean you can't use more than one color or font, but that you should choose a minimum amount and stick with them.

http://prochurchtools.com/004 - Video is one of our biggest focuses at Pro Church Tools. There are simply so many opportunities to inject video into your church services. In this session of the Pro Church Podcast we explore 18 different avenues.

http://prochurchtools.com/003 - Church media can be daunting. It can feel like there's just so much to learn, and if you're starting from scratch it can be intimidating. But this is how I started, and if I can do it...so can you.

Show Notes & Resources Mentioned

If you want to excel in church media you don't need any prior experience, or necessary skills. You just need a willingness to learn and a desire to improve.

• The first video I ever made (scroll down half the page)
• Music from the album my wife (girlfriend at the time) did together

http://prochurchtools.com/002 - The future of church media revolves around your church. And your church's story. It's not about mass production and following the big guys. It's about identifying your church's unique story and letting that influence every type of media you produce. But how do you find that story? Just ask yourself these 5 questions.

Show Notes & Resources Mentioned

Identifying your church's unique story and narrative isn't always easy - but it's absolutely necessary. And once you figure it out it should inform every type of media your church produces.

• Branding interview with Mars Hill
• State Farm advertisement (focusing on the convenience and comfort)
• Progressive advertisement (focusing on the price)

5 Action Steps

1. Identify church leadership
2. Examine your church's size
3. Examine church demographics
4. Identify church talents
5. Identify church values

Switchfoot Lyrics

I wanna thrive not just survive
This is your life, are you who you want to be?
You and I were meant to live for so much more
I made a mess of me, I wanna get back the rest of me
I’m ready to come alive, I’m not waiting for the afterlife

Beginning to see a trend? Switchfoot has found their niche in the alt-rock scene. They continue to sing the same song over again - but not in a bad way. They voice their story and narrative and they do it better than most.