Following my post about Easter media resources, Jeremy Halcrow asked what resources I would use if I was putting together an Easter service. I thought I’d share some of the ways my church (Church by the Bridge) is promoting Easter services to the community, and some of my thoughts on the best media to use.

We’ve produced a postcard (front pictured below) to be delivered to each letterbox in our parish. We’ll also be handing out these postcards at a fair trade market we’re holding this Saturday. On the reverse of the postcard are the times and details for each of our Easter services.

This is complemented by a banner on our website (pictured below). Many of the visitors to our church come via the website, and we’d like to ensure that any people who receive a postcard in the mail can easily see when they visit the website that we’re the same church.

Church by the Bridge will hold nine services over the Easter weekend, running with the theme “Words of life and death”. Some of these services will be traditional (such as the 8am classic Anglican service), whilst others will attract a very different crowd (e.g. the 6.30am dawn service under the Harbour Bridge, with hot cross buns and coffee).

I’m still thinking about what media would be appropriate for the different services, and also given the theme. I would like to interview people in the community about what Easter means to them. I think the personal interview is a good way not only of making contacts in the community, but also of displaying some real thoughts and opinions that might resonate with newcomers, but also give regulars insight into what other people in the community might be thinking. For example, we did some vox pops last year during World Youth Day:

What happens when you die? from Church by the Bridge on Vimeo.

I’m not sure any of the suggested videos will tie in with what my church is doing, but I think that some of the imagery will be powerful on PowerPoint slides in communicating visually that some of the important themes of Easter. I’m also keen to produce a video that focuses on words and their power, (hopefully helpfully) relating back to the theme.

Is your church running with a theme this Easter? What media will you use to support your communication of that theme?

Back in December I shared some videos that could be used in Christmas services (Christmas Media Resources and The Christmas Story in Less Than 30 Seconds). A couple of weeks out from Easter, here’s some video inspiration for before and during your Easter services.

Hyper Pixels Media has a contemporary Easter invite, to get your congregation pumped about inviting friends, colleagues and neighbours to church (click on the image to view the video):

Mars Hill Church have bought the URL http://whokilledgod.com/ that links to a video to prepare the hearts of the congregation before the Good Friday  services (click on the image to view the video):

Shift Worship have produced a unique line drawing video depicting the Easter story (click on the image to view the video):

Igniter Media have turned a great old hymn into a video (click on the image to view the video):

Igniter Media have also produced Proof – it’s simple, but effective:

If mini-movies aren’t your thing, you might be interested in background videos. These are basically images with a little bit of movement that could be played, for example, on the data projector during a solo item, or as communion is taking place. Here’s a background video from Shift Worship (click on the image to see how the movement works):

There’s also a large range of ‘stills’ – images that could be used in PowerPoint presentations, or in handouts, service sheets or on outreach materials:

There are stacks more Easter resources out there for you to explore. Worship House Media have the largest collection in their Easter Store (gathering resources from a number of producers and artists), with a large collection of mini-movies, background videos and stills. I also recommend Igniter Media and Shift Worship.

If you’ve discovered some good media resources for Easter, please share them with us!

Poll: videos in churches

I’m running a poll to discover how willing churches are to use video in their services. If your church is reluctant to use video, why is that? Don’t have the hardware to play video? Too worried about something going wrong with the technology? I’d love to learn more about why your church is reluctant to use video (if it is!).

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