Collide Magazine

At WorshipHouseMedia.com you’ll find almost 1,500 sermon illustration videos available to use at your church. At SermonSpice.com you’ll find more than 5,000 videos. Of course, these hundreds and thousands of videos vary in subject, approach, voice, and quality. In terms of quality, you might consider 99% of them to be OK for use during one of your services, or you might consider 99% of them to be unusable. The overwhelming quantity and varying quality of these suggests the need for discernment on the part of church leaders. In other words, we all need to learn to differentiate between availability and usability.

So … should there be a video standard for churches? The great Gary Molander says “Yes!” in this CollideMagazine.com exclusive article. Gary’s work at Floodgate Productions suggests he knows a thing or two about quality church media, but I’m interested to hear what you think.

Read Gary’s article here and then come back and comment: Should there be a video standard for churches?

2008 has been a great year here at COLLIDE Magazine. We launched our full website in May, added two new staff (Daniel Darnell and Ashley Phillips), celebrated our 1 year anniversary in September, and launched The COLLIDE Show in October, to name a few. Oh yeah, we also released 6 amazing issues. Just in case you missed them, here they all are, in order from January/February to November/December:

We just simply want to thank you for being a part of COLLIDE. We couldn’t exist if it wasn’t for you, our readers! We look forward to bringing you many new and exciting issues in 2009. Have a Happy New Year!

- The COLLIDE Team

The New Year is upon us, which means it’s time to make New Year’s resolutions. If you’re having trouble thinking of one, here’s a list of the top ten New Year’s resolutions:

1. Spend more time with family and friends.
2. Exercise
3. Lose Weight
4. Quit Smoking
5. Enjoy life more
6. Quit drinking
7. Get out of debt
8. Learn something new
9. Help others
10. Get organized

Every year we get to start over with a clean slate. Every year we manage to make many empty promises to ourselves; that this will be the year we finally ____ (fill in the blank). Yet we find ourselves failing once again. Every January gyms are filled with optimistic patrons only to be empty by the time Spring Break roles around. We set out to give up sweets, only to down a heart-shaped box of Russell Stover chocolates on Valentines.

While some people are successful in fulfilling these resolutions, the majority of us aren’t. Maybe are goals are too high. Or maybe we just give up trying. The safest bet is to not make any resolutions at all. But by year’s end we find ourselves regretting our resolutions. It almost seems natural to begin the year with resolutions but to end with regrets. However, we cannot forget that Christ carried these burdens to the cross. We don’t have to live in these regrets and failed resolutions.

Igniter Media, our sister company, created a great video on regrets with a similar message. See for yourself:

So what are your New Year’s resolutions?

First, thanks to everyone who chimed in on last week’s post with the items on their Church Media Christmas List.

This week, I want to know what your Church Media New Year’s Resolutions are. In other words, what changes do you want to make this year? What do you want to start or stop doing this year?

Perhaps, you’re resolving to make it through 2009 without streaming full-screen YouTube clips on your screens in the worship center. Maybe this is the year you get all of your copyright licenses in order, and you resolve to only use media that’s on the up and up. Or is this the year that you work with the rest of your staff to plan your media projects months in advance (instead of weeks or days) in order to improve their quality and creativity.

Give it some thought and let me know—what are your 2009 Church Media New Year’s Resolutions?

With Christmas mere days away, I got to wondering … what’s on your church media Christmas list this year? In other words, if you could ask Santa Claus (or the budget committee fairy) for one media/tech resource for your church this year, what would it be?

Would it be a new website? Maybe a RED camera? Perhaps a new projector, a Mac Pro, or some software?

Would it be an iPhone or a G1 (for ministry purposes, of course)? Or would it be a gift card to iStockPhoto?

Let me know what tops your wish list this year.