New Media Ministry » Tutorials

Lyric Presentation for Worship: The Series!

Nick Heller — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 19:22:01 +0000

Worship Presentation Made Easy

In celebration of the newly released ProPresenter version 4, I wanted to take a few minutes and introduce everyone to the incredibly powerful and user-friendly lyric presentation software that’s being used in churches and ministries around the nation. However, in order to understand the ease of use and power behind ProPresenter, it’s important to know what the alternative could be or has been, and how ProPresenter has solved many of the problems of the past.

Printouts, dual computer systems, and a ton of mistakes. . .

For the past seven years I’ve been involved in lyric presentations for worship in some way, shape, or form. I started in the early 2000’s helping with XLT, a weekly prayer gathering for teenagers from parishes all over the Diocese. Way back then (when AOL was still cool) we were using Microsoft Powerpoint. At that time, Powerpoint hadn’t begun to utilize ‘Presenter Mode’ yet and when you were in the middle of a presentation, you weren’t able to see forward or back to know what lyric slide was coming next. This made operating the presentation and being accurate nearly impossible. Not only would you have to know each song being sung inside and out, but you’d have to be familiar enough with the lyric slides to know how much of the next line, verse, chorus, etc. was on the next slide. Timing was difficult and mistakes were abundant.

Before I came on to help, the initial solution for this problem was to save a final copy of the full presentation and print out all of the slides in Powerpoint. There was also a master excel spreadsheet – in alphabetical order – with the corresponding slide numbers that would need to be referenced initially and then the first slide number inputted to jump to that slide. The only way to know which slide you were on was to number them in a color just lighter than the background and to reference that against the book-sized printout of slides to know what was coming next. For the tools given to them, the guys running the lyrics presentation did an excellent job. That being said, it was a cumbersome and frustrating process that allowed for very little flexibility to include or delete any of the slides during the presentation. We finally upgraded our process about six months later. Instead of printouts and spreadsheets, we included a second laptop that had an identical lyric presentation file saved to it. Instead of cross-referencing the spreadsheet and following along on the printout, we were able to use the secondary computer as a guide for the primary. This increased accuracy and timing, but it didn’t fix everything. This continued to be our mode of operation for the next couple of years, but we weren’t able to progress much further using Powerpoint as our main presentation software.

A breath of fresh air.

Many of you are most likely familiar with the Passion movement in the Christian church (and if you’re not, check out www.268generation.com for details). If you’re familiar with the Passion movement and the Passion conferences, then you’re most likely also aware of their progressive and technically advanced worship presentations. Many ministries follow the lead of Passion in ministry and worship presentation – including several that I’ve been a part of. In 2006, I was able to attend one of their conferences in Nashville and was introduced to ProPresenter and ProVideoPlayer by Renewed Vision and in 2007, it became the primary presentation software for the Matt Maher band. Impressed by it’s quick learning curve, multiple features, and powerful performance, we immediately knew that it would become the fore runner of worship presentations around the country and were excited to get to know the program.

Over the past 3 years, I’ve used ProPresenter on over 500 occasions, in both small (20 people) and large (100,000+ people) formats, and for concerts, talks, presentations and more. ProPresenter is incredibly versatile and has virtually endless possibilities. With that being said, let’s take a look at a few of the key features:

Getting Started

*Note: For the sake of this blog, I’ll be referencing ProPresenter 3, but if you’re interested in what’s new about ProPresenter 4, check it out here.*

Getting to know the user interface is the biggest change from a Powerpoint or Keynote type platform. Because ProPresenter is used solely as a lyric presenter, the interface doesn’t have different views, just different frames with the varying parts of the program.

As you can see, the layout is quite different. In the top left is the Program Screen. Across the top half is the Foreground Element window and below that the Background Element window. It is important to think of these two windows as layers in your presentation. The foreground element will ALWAYS be layered over your background element. Lyrics will always be in the foreground and the background is reserved for pictures, videos, or graphic loops to liven up the presentation.

Click to Enlarge

Following the windows clockwise, you’ll see a notifications window where messages can be typed in at any time and shown at any time if necessary. *Note: this message will ALWAYS supersede the other elements. If lyrics are being presented, the notification message will layer over the top anyway.* Above the notifications is the Playlist Window and above that is the Lyrics Library. As song are added into your library, you can drag and drop them into a playlist to create a specific list of songs to pick from. Much like a playlist on iTunes, this creates a filtered list of songs to select from, keeping you from having to search through the entire library to find your songs.

To Be Continued

I could continue to open up and explain ProPresenter, but the truth is there’s just TOO much for one post! Next time We’ll focus on the process necessary to open the program, load the library, load the background elements, and create playlists. If you’d like to follow along, I believe you can still demo Version 3 through Renewed Vision’s website: http://www.renewedvision.com/downloads/ProPresenter3.5.5.dmg. The demo is fully functional, with the exception of a watermark that exists on the Program screen. This will go away if you decide to purchase the software. Also available for download is the brand new version 4 here: http://www.renewedvision.com/downloads/ProPresenter4_b3479.dmg.

Introducing: Audio/Video/Production Blogs!

Nick Heller — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 07:00:41 +0000

I’m finally back!

Hello readers and friends,

It’s been a few weeks since I last surfaced here at NMM.com. Please, forgive me. It’s been a CRAZY hectic time in my life (my wife and I bought a house, I’ve been knee deep in work for the Cardinals even though its the off-season, school is back in session, various other design projects are stacking up on my plate, etc…sigh… that’s alot!). I am VERY excited to be back with you and am also excited to bring you the newest installment to my contribution to the new media ministry blogisphere.

Drum roll please!….

Oh, that’s right. You probably already read the title! Welcome to the Audio/Visual & Production side of my blogs!

I’ve got some great segments in store. Everything from quick lessons, and video tutorials… interviews with guests who lead in the industry of Christian music and presentations (on the production side of course. No interviews with Chris Tomlin YET), as well as reference guides and some tips from my experience over the past 5 years, there will be PLENTY to talk about.

I’m excited to share this part of my life and most especially the passion I have for creating quality and memorable moments in ministry settings that can be achieved through A/V & Production skills. Please check back often over the next few weeks. Loads of new content/interviews/information will be coming your way.

I need YOUR help.

Leave me a comment. Or have the guy/gal who volunteers to run the sound board at your church for your service or mass… have him/her leave a comment. I want to know what you all need help with, would like to hear about, or have recommended to you. Comments are a great help in preparing topics and blogs that fit the need of you – our most important readers.

Thanks again and God’s peace.

The Youth Group Shirt

Nick Heller — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 08:21:20 +0000

“T-shirts are a dime a dozen. . .”

I’ve been involved in ministry for almost ten years now. . . which means a few things:

I’ve experienced many events, conferences, retreats, and conversations that have had lasting impacts on my life.
I’ve got several memories of poignant moments from each and every of those experiences.
I have about 3 DRAWERS FULL of retreat and conference shirts!

“I only give them out because they’re expected. . .”

“That’s great, Nick. Congratulations. You should make a quilt or a sail with all that fabric. What does that have to do with my ministry?”

It has a TON to do with your ministry, as silly as it may sound! And here’s why: Each one of those retreat shirts in my dresser is a visible and tangible sign of the two preceding points. Each retreat t-shirt reminds me of one of the many powerful ministry moments in my life. And not only do they serve as reminders, but at times have also become symbols of my faith journey, prayer experiences, and even an incredible tool of evangelization with my peers and friends. If you ask around, I think you’d hear similar responses from the recipients of similar times in your ministry.

Many of you involved in youth and young adult ministry know the importance of the retreat shirt. In fact, I’d be willing to bet that nearly all of you have already utilized shirts in this capacity. If you have, great! Keep doing it. They’re important. And if you haven’t yet, get started. They really will make an impact on those that you minister to.

“So if they’re that important, what sets the newest one apart?”

As the designer of over 20 shirts in print currently, I would never claim to be an expert, but I do try and speak from my experience on trends and client needs. With that being said, a few things to keep in mind about utilizing retreat shirts to their full capacity:

Remember the season in which you’re printing shirts. The Fall season usually warrants warmer/earth-tone colors, the Spring season is better for light/airy colors (think pastels for Easter), and the Summer is always a great time to try brighter/louder colors.
Depending on your budget, fabric selection will be a major player in the frequency your teens/young adults wear their new shirt. Keep in mind the latest trends. Make sure to check out popular clothing stores in your area (here in Phoenix that means everything from PacSun to Old Navy to Hollister and so on) for the most current trend in fabrics. As of late, the softer/thinner fabrics have been the most popular.
Pay attention to the trends in artwork among your audience. I’ve found this to be a regional issue. Artwork trends here in the Southwest/West Coast are much different than the South or back East. Regardless of where you live, there will be reoccuring themes among your teens. Pay attention to these when designing your next shirt.
Research, research, research the printer you decide to use. If you have a parishoner or connection that can print for discounts, definitely use them. If not, find someone you trust and you know can get the job done. Check their portfolio for previous work and ask if you can see some examples of prints they have recently made.
Most printers print in minimum number of shirts per run (the average is 72 pieces, but there are companies who will print less than this). Keep in mind that the fewer shirts you print, the more expensive per shirt it will be.
It may sound crazy, but building in a design fee to have a professionally designed shirt can be quite cheap per shirt. If you’re printing 50 shirts and you pay a designer 100 or 150 dollars for their artwork, it will only be a $2 to $3 per shirt to have that artwork. Adding this to a normal printing cost of $4 to $8 dollars per shirt (depending on complexity) means a cost of $6 to $11 per shirt. Not too shabby
Lastly, if you have ANY questions at all, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me. From design to color combinations, and from ink types to print standards, I’m available to help you create something great.

Where Do I Start? – Picking the Perfect Theme

Matt Brown — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 15:00:02 +0000

Today we continue our series on the site called “Where to Start?” Where to Start? is a step by step series that helps you build a website from scratch on your own by giving you a variety of options to choose from.

Follow the Series Step by Step:

Free Theme vs. Premium Theme

There are literally tens of thousands of WordPress themes out there that have been developed for distribution. Some WordPress themes are available for free while others, Premium Themes, are available for purchase. Obviously, most ministries have tight budgets and may opt for the free themes. However, if you’re one that plans on customizing the theme even in a little bit to make it fit your style, I would recommend going with the Premium themes. They all have support forums and message boards to help you in every step of the way, and can even help you fix something if you mess up.

Premium Theme Vendors

There are literally hundreds of Premium Vendors out there. These are a few sites that I have used in my own business and have seen really great results from. Note that for budget-constrained ministries, ThemeForest sells the cheapest of the Premium Themes, starting at around $20.

Free Theme Vendors

Here is a list of a variety of free WordPress themes to hopefully get you started. If you happen to find one not listed here, please let us know in the comments.

Installing a Theme

Once you’ve acquired your WordPress theme, you have to install it in the WordPress Backend. Installing a theme is very easy in WordPress. Just follow the steps below:

1. Navigate to Appearance

Considering the tips that we gave you above, download the theme files. In your WordPress dashboard, navigate to the Appearance tab, and then the Add New Themes page under that.

2. Browse for the Theme

At the top of the Add New Themes page, you will see a link to an Upload page. Click and you will be taken to this page.

3. Upload the Theme

To upload your theme, all you have to do is click browse, and then navigate to the .zip file of the theme that you want to use. Click Install Now.

4. Activate the Theme

The next page you will see is the progress of the theme uploading. Once it is finish, click Activate Theme, and voila, you are done!

If you run into any troubles or have questions, please don’t hesitate to ask in the comments below or to get in touch with me directly via the Contact Page.

Handle Information Overload: Diigo

Matt Brown — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 19:44:50 +0000

You’ve probably seen the new Sprint Marketing campaign that’s been out for about the last 6 months to a year – The Now Network. Sprint has even built a website that allows you to see all kinds of information and numbers and random facts that are happening now, right this instant.

As ministers, we’re always on the lookout for new ideas. However, in our quest for information and new resources, often we find ourselves surrounded with far more information than we could possibly ever absorb, let alone use. The same stands with the Sprint website – sure, it’s really cool in how they built it, yet it’s not practical information at all. This is what I call the Information Overload.

In the resources we find, whether it be online, in a video, in a book or somewhere else, much of what is being offered is good, sound advice. Here’s the problem: it’s good advice, if only one had the time to put it all into practice.

What Are We To Do?

You want your ministry to be successful. You want to work efficiently. You want to offer the best to those who you minister to that you possibly can. But, there’s no way that you can absorb, let alone follow, all of the various resources and pieces of advice that are currently available.

In fact, it’s all too easy to be overwhelmed by the information explosion that surrounds us today, both in and out of ministry. You don’t have to let the information overload leave you with a defeated feeling. There are ways to manage information to your advantage. One tool that we’re going to explain today is called Diigo.

Diigo is a free application and community that is designed to help manage the information that we find online. It can also be used for collaboration. In this post, we’ll examine how ministers can use Diigo. We’ll also explain how to get started with Diigo and provide some tips. Hopefully, you’ll be able to see the value of Diigo in your daily use to help you avoid the Information Overload in your ministry.

What is Diigo?

Diigo is a free Firefox add-on that has been around for a while. I would describe Diigo as a cross between a social networking site and a research tool.

If you’re a web worker, especially one who uses the Internet for research or who regularly collaborates with other ministers, this tool could become an invaluable part of your work routine.

Diigo itself promotes three uses for itself: research information, share information, and collaborate.

Some of the capabilities of Diigo include:

Bookmark and tag web pages
Highlight words or portions of a web page
Keep sticky notes with a bookmarked web page
Organize bookmarks by tags
Search through your bookmarks
Connect and discuss bookmarked pages with other Diigo users
Automatically tweet bookmarked sites
Retrieve information through iPhone app

Once you join, you can download the toolbar and mark web pages as you browse.

Now that we’ve explained what Diigo is, let’s move on and explain how to create a Diigo account.

How to Create Your Account

To create a Diigo account you simply need to:

Choose a Username
Enter your first and last name
Enter your email
Select a password

Once you have created and activated your account, you need to install the Diigo toolbar. After you restart Firefox, the toolbar appears above your browser window. You can use the toolbar to bookmark information any time that your browser window is open.

Now that you have an active Diigo account and a toolbar, let’s try some bookmarking.

A Trial Run with Diigo

After you download and install the toolbar, give the application a try. I just quickly added our website as a bookmark for demonstration. To bookmark a site, simply click the bookmark option on the Diigo toolbar.

The dialog box that appears each time you bookmark a post makes it easy to tag and comment on the post.

After you book and comment on a variety of posts, you are able to go back and view the sites that you have bookmarked as well as sort them by keyword.

After only a short time, you can quickly find a plethora of resources that you will have bookmarked. The great thing about Diigo is the simple way in which you can sort through these bookmarks by searching for keywords to show only those bookmarked URLs that meet the tagged criteria that you searched for.

Don’t Forget to Fill Out Your Profile

To get the most out of Diigo, be sure to fill out your profile. Include your work experience and your industry. Diigo also allows you to automatically include links to your other social media profiles.

One drawback that I saw was that, as far as I can tell, you can’t really link to your own blog by name. I linked to my blog under the category of My Other. The My Other category also seems to be limited to a single link.

Once you have a profile that can be viewed by others, you are ready to start connecting with other users.

Connecting With Others

After you have been using Diigo for a while, it is likely that you will want to connect with other users so that you can share information. There are three ways to connect to people on Diigo:

Search the users by the tags, site, URL, profile information, language, or industry
Import friends from your email address book
Invite friends by sending them an email invitation

I found this task to be a bit cumbersome. Personally, I would have liked to a way to automatically import friends or followers from Facebook or Twitter.

Now that we’ve made some connections through Diigo, let’s take a look at some tips.

Diigo Tips

If you’ve been following the steps in this post, you should now have an active Diigo account.

When using Diigo, you should keep the following in mind:

Your online brand — Any social site that you participate in online becomes a part of your online brand. Customers and potential customers will be able to search on your name or possibly company name and discover what you have posted here.
Your participation — Like any social media site, you will only get from Diigo what you put into it. If you consistently bookmark and tag URLs as you run across them you should have a useful and sortable base of information in no time.

I’m still a new user to Diigo, but I’ll continue experimenting with it over the next few weeks. I’m hopeful that it will allow me to better organize (and therefore, better use) the huge quantity of information that passes before my eyes each day.

Some Other Bookmarking Sites

There are several other bookmarking sites available. You may wish to consider one of the following:

We haven’t tried these particular platforms personally, but they have a good reputation online. If you do try them, let us know what you think.

Share Your Own Experiences with Diigo

We’ve explained what Diigo is and shown you how to set up your account. Now it’s your turn to share.

Have you tried using Diigo to manage online information? Are you a current Diigo user? Or do you use other social bookmarking sites?

Share your tips and ideas in the comments.

Connect with New Media Ministry

New Media Ministry is now on Diigo. If you would like to connect with us and see which resources we share, feel free to add us as a friend – http://www.diigo.com/profile/newmediaministry

Gain Reader Suggestions: Use Skribit

Matt Brown — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 15:00:56 +0000

As ministers, it’s important for you to recognize those who you are ministering to. You need to be able to interact with them and take their suggestions in as open of a way as possible. A simple rule of thumb to keep in mind is that a good minister is an accessible minister.

Being open and accessible transfers from your in-person ministry to your online presence. There are a variety of tools available online to help you with a variety of methods of staying accessible. However, there aren’t many tools to help you figure out what you should write about and the types of content that those who you minister to are most interested in you providing. That’s where Skribit comes into play – it takes reader participation to a whole new level.

What Does Skribit Do?

Skribit helps you get suggestions from readers and then others can vote for them. For example, one reader could suggest that you video-blog and other readers who like the idea can vote for it. Readers have a chance to easily drop in their questions/interests, and you get benefit as a blogger too – yes, you can get ideas for posts! Skribit can aid in beating writer’s block.

How Do I Get Skribit?

Upon signing up for Skribit, you’ll be taken to a page from where you can add your blog by clicking on the “Add New Blog/Website” option on the left side of your dashboard, which is pictured below.

You will then be directed to a page where you will enter the details of your blog or website. Enter a quick “elevator-pitch” of your blog in under 200 characters. Be sure to enter some tags that describe your website or blog so that your site can be found among other Skribit users.

You will next notice three checkbox privacy options below your blog details. Feel free to fill these out according to the level of privacy and security that you would like.

If you leave the “Allow Anonymous Suggestions” checkbox checked, you’ll be able to receive suggestions from all readers – even readers who don’t want to register themselves at Skribit will be able to vote and contribute suggestions to you using the widget. I highly recommend allowing anonymous suggestions.

On the next step, you’ll be presented with a variety of options to customize the widget that will appear on your website or blog. There are two options, a Sidebar Widget or a Floating Suggestions Tab. We have the Suggestions Tab on the New Media Ministry, which you will see floating on the right side of your screen.

Once you decide how you would like to present Skribit to your readers, make sure that the correct tab is chose on the right side of your customization screen – either “Regular Sidebar Widget” or “Suggestions Tab”.

To customize the widget, you’ll fill out the variety of options under the “Customize Your Widget” section on the left side of the screen. The options are fairly self-explanatory. This is where you will change the way the Skribit widget looks on your blog.

As you can see from the screenshot above, you can change the number of suggestions, the order of suggestions, the header text, the colors and basically “skin” the widget and make it blend in with your blog’s template.

You now need to get the code for the widget and add it to your page. Skribit provides a nice tool to easily copy the entire code segment by clicking the website.

If you are not very familiar with any type of website coding, you’ll want to follow the detailed instructions link provided below the box.

If you are familiar with website coding, you’ll need to copy and paste the entire code segment in your field somewhere before the tag. That’s all you have to do.

Readers who visit your blog or website can now leave their suggestions using your Skribit widget. Clicking on your respective Skribit widget, a text box will appear where they can type in their suggestions and click “Submit”. Once that’s done, the suggestion will appear on the widget. Other visitors will be able to vote for their favorite suggestions by clicking on the “Vote” button next to each suggestion.

You’ll be able to see the suggestions left by readers from your Skribit management page after you’ve logged in. Furthermore, you can also see who’s left the suggestion (must be either a Skribit user or an anonymous reader) and also check how many votes each idea has got.

Skribit will also email you every week with a report of suggested reader topics and votes. You can now estimate reader participation and interest, and what kind of posts your readers would want – thanks to Skribit.

How Can I Use It?

Skribit is a valuable tool. It’s original use was to provide a resource to help readers suggest content for you as a well to help prevent “writer’s block.” But from a ministry perspective, Skribit can also be utilized in a very valuable way. We all know that in the teenage years, different teens are at different stages in their comfort levels, so there may be a teen that is too nervous or lacks the confidence to come talk to you to suggest an idea or activity. Skribit helps to solve this problem because it is a medium to help present a way for teens to suggest, either anonymously or not, potential topics and activities that they would like for you cover in your ministry as well as on your website/new media sources.

How Much Does It Cost?

Skribit has both a Free Version and a Paid Version. However, if you use promo code “PSTAM”, you can get 1 year of the Pro account for only $1. This is only for a limited time so act fast.

So what are you waiting for? Sign up for Skribit today!