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Striving for quality

Years ago, I kept this animated GIF file of a little dancing Jesus that I had downloaded from a website that offered “worship resources.” I kept the file for one reason and one reason only. It was a shining example of what not to use… ever. To be certain, the worship resources today are miles beyond what they were ten years ago, and my little dancing Jesus was lost somewhere on the hard drive of a computer that died long ago. But I still think about it fairly regularly.

That little dancing Jesus represented a reputation the Christian community has gotten in the rest of the art world -- that we create low-end, cheesy material lacking in substance, quality and creativity.

Unfortunately, there is a great deal of truth to that statement. And that’s sad because there is so much amazing work that has been created by Christian artists in the past. And truth be told, there is still a lot of great work being done. But one little cheesy dancing Jesus can wreck a reputation.

There’s a recurring theme I’ve encountered with people in small churches or students from small schools that don’t have big budgets. There seems to be this belief that they’re incapable of creating first-rate media productions simply because they don’t have the pedigree or the resources to pull it off.

That might have been true once, but not any longer.

Twenty years ago, when I looked at putting together my own video production system, I couldn’t do it because the cost was overwhelming. The editor equipment was almost $40,000 and then tack on another $10,000 for a decent video camera, and we’re not even discussing lighting or sound requirements. Ten years ago, if you wanted a really professional website, you would have had to spend several thousand dollars to hire a web developer to build the site for you.

Now with advances in technology, a person with a decent computer can spend a few hundred dollars on fantastic software and, for a few hundred dollars more, get a decent SLR video camera that creates better video quality than anything on the market five years ago. On top of that, they can publish their productions on their own professional website that costs very little. Resources are no longer the issue. Sure, you can still spend thousands of dollars on high-end gear, but you don’t have to.

Now the only thing in question is your commitment to learning the art. Whether it’s graphic design, video production, web production or even traditional art forms, there’s nothing out there that isn’t readily available for you to learn online or in books. But the biggest thing to remember is that you can do this. It’s probably going to take a while, but creating a culture of good work can make all the difference.

Blue Like Jazz

On Friday the 13^th, a rather improbable event happened. The film adaptation of Donald Miller’s bestselling memoir, Blue Like Jazz, hit various theaters across the country. BLJ is improbable for a couple of reasons. First, it almost hit the skids because of financing problems until Miller’s cult-like following of fans collectively contributed enough money to get it back into production. But we’ve seen Cinderella stories before. I think the thing that makes this most improbable (and probably why it had a hard time getting funding) is that it isn’t your average Christian film.

For starters, the film is rated PG-13 which is a head turner for those who are used to the status quo of family friendly such as 2008’s Fireproof and the follow-up Courageous by the Kendrick brothers (whose executive pastor apparently gave less than glowing reviews). Blue Like Jazz makes no bones about it not being something family friendly. In fact, Miller has gone on to say that there is much about Christianity that isn’t family friendly and we shouldn’t pretend it is.

And there is the distinction.

If you read the book, you know that Blue Like Jazz is a redemption story. But it’s less about the central character’s redemption than it is Miller coming to terms with a religion he’s become confused by and disenchanted with in its seemingly irrelevant influence and often offensive treatment for those outside of its culture.

Which is why at some point, you’re going to see a scene with a guy dressed up as a pope in a make-shift confession booth apologizing to people for the sins of the church.

Like I said, it isn’t your typical feel-good church movie. But the real question is whether or not BLJ will reach the audience it’s after -- those disenchanted with the status quo of American Christianity and looking for something a little grittier.

Director Steve Taylor and Don Miller aren’t the only ones choosing less than traditional paths to talk about faith. Recently, Rob Bell left Mars Hill, the Michigan mega-church, to team up with Carlton Cuse of Lost to work on a new series called Stronger with a heavy emphasis on spirituality. Miller and Bell tend to stay on the leading cultural edge of connecting with the masses. Is there a lesson here?

Right now BLJ is playing in select theaters across the country. They don’t have the budget to compete with the major studios, but if the story of what it took to get this movie made is any indication, and what recent reviewers have said about the film, expect it to have a DVD following that’s probably going to be around for a long time.

Breathe

Those who work in ministry understand that there is a fundamental difference in the Sunday morning experience depending on which direction you’re facing. For those in the seats and or pews, Sunday morning can very much feel like a social occasion, and often does by design. Folks arrive in their Sunday best, get a cup of coffee, attend classes, sing along with the band or choir, fumble with their announcement sheet/bulletin/sermon notes, read along with the stuff on the screen and hopefully listen to the preacher.

For those who sit facing the crowd, as much as we try to keep focused on worship, the reality for many is that it’s very much a production. The bigger and more elaborate the service, from a logistical sense, the bigger the production. That stuff just doesn’t magically appear. Somebody had to design those graphics, somebody had to layout that bulletin, the musicians had to select and practice the music, and the pastor had to research, write and rehearse that sermon.

I’ll be honest -- as someone who has been on the production side of the church for a couple of decades, it can be exhausting. After church on Sunday, I eat lunch and then there’s typically only one thing on my mind. A nap. Get out of my way, there’s a couch calling me.

To further that issue, pretty much from November until Easter is a holiday blur of one planning meeting after another. And I can guarantee you that there are at least some of you out there who are already sketching out the next holiday season.

It’s the day after Easter. Stop. Reflect. Breathe.

I don’t know what the weather is like where you are today, but let’s hope for the best. Turn off your computer. Go for a walk. Go fishing. Do something other than work on the next big project.

You need to maintain your sanity. You need to maintain your focus. You need to remember why you got into this gig in the first place.

Channel Richness

A few random facts to start your day. In the communication world we refer to the different ways we connect with each other as channels. And by ways I mean things like: talking face to face, text messaging, e-mail, etc. These very often get lumped into a very similar grouping called media. Media is actually the plural form of the word medium. So for all practical purposes, the term multimedia is actually redundant. It's like saying multiple-multiple medium. A medium and a channel aren't exactly the same thing, but there is crossover in areas such as blogging and online video.

This is all great information to share with random strangers waiting in line at the coffee shop. They'll think you're brilliant... really.

The thing to keep in mind is that all channels aren't created equal. They all have advantages and disadvantages. One of the measurements is called channel richness. This refers to how much information can be communicated through a specific channel. The immediate error here is that when many first hear about channel richness, they think in terms of sheer word count, but that's not correct. As human beings we communicate with each other far more through body language and tone of voice than with the words we actually use. In fact, research has shown that words only account for around 30% of the information we absorb to establish our actual understanding of meaning. The richness of a channel establishes how effectively it can carry this additional information.

Take for example the four-letter word that is the bane of all men when spoken to them by their significant other.

Q - Honey, is everything ok?

A - I'm fine.

Even though the word "fine" technically means everything is perfectly...well... fine, every guy knows that it can have more meanings than we can possibly count, depending on how it was said. I'm going to have to let you rely on your own experience to sift through that one, because without posting a video of someone using that four-letter word, it's next to impossible to describe. And right there is a shining example of a limitation of this particular channel. Tone of voice and body language are difficult to relate in written form.

Next week, we'll dive into the different channels and talk about the different advantages and disadvantages of each. Have a great week!

Hierarchy of Communication

Occasionally I like to remind people that we've been studying the art and science of communication about four times as long as we've been studying science. For all practical purposes, the science community had to start from scratch about 500 years ago, or roughly since the dark ages. But, communication on the other hand, has been a professional discipline for over two thousand years. That means, in basic terms, we're really good at it when we want to be. Unfortunately, we often take for granted what it takes to be a good communicator. Too often I've experienced people who believe they're the pros simply because they know how to type or turn on a camera.

It takes a bit more. Really.

Whether people realize it or not, they're surrounded by professional communicators every single day -- from the news they watch, to stories they read, to speakers they listen to and to the web sites they surf. It doesn't happen by accident. For example, have you ever navigated your way through a new website that had an extraordinary ease to it? By that I mean you just somehow knew where to go. The folks in the industry call that intuitive design. It's a lot like the way a house that's well designed just seems to make sense. As soon as you walk in the door, you just know where to go to find whatever room. It may feel effortless, but designing it is anything but. The genius of good design as with communication is that when it's done right, it's almost unnoticeable. That's a good thing because we want our audience to focus on the message rather than the stuff surrounding the message.

I say this because a lot of folks don't realize how much is under the hood of the skill-set of professional communications. And one of the first things to learn is that all communication isn't equal. Just like a painter chooses a particular brush, good communications pros will choose their medium wisely. And that's where I want to spend the next few posts. It's something I call the hierarchy of communication. It may just help you out. We'll start out next time with something called "channel richness."

But until then, keep being awesome.

On Storytelling: Part 7, Conflict

Think about every good story you have watched or read. Now think about the main character for a few moments. Inevitably, once the character has been established and the audience feels empathy for her/him and the character has identified the thing he or she wants, a little time goes by and BAM! Something goes wrong. Not just a little wrong. A lot wrong.

Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce conflict into your story.

Conflict is crucial to every story. Why? Because conflict establishes a few things about your narrative.

First of all, conflict adds value to the thing the protagonist is seeking. If everything is easy to acquire, then there isn’t much value to anything. People don’t climb Mt. Everest because it’s the tallest mountain on the planet. They climb it because it’s hard. And because it’s hard, standing on the peak looking out across the horizon is that much sweeter.

Second, conflict is a storytelling device used to pull your audience through the narrative. If the audience is empathetic toward the lead character, then the audience will be sitting on the edges of their seats waiting to see if the character succeeds… instead of playing Angry Birds on their phones.

Third, and probably most important, conflict defines the resilience of your lead characters. How badly do they want to win? What are they willing to endure to succeed? Do they pack up and head home at the first sign of trouble? Or, do they put themselves through a grueling saga to come out on the other side victorious? Things worth having are worth being hard to get.

Finally, it is conflict that refines us, develops and shapes us and turns us into better people. Ever known someone who completely turned their life around for the good and didn’t have a struggle to get there? Me either. I believe James 1: 2-4 sums it up nicely:

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."

Go live good stories.

On Storytelling: Part 8, Suspense

There are a lot of movies with scenes that can make you jump out of your seat. Some event happens unexpectedly, and it dramatically surprises the audience. In the world of storytelling, surprise really isn’t that difficult to generate. You just jump out from behind a corner and yell “BOO!” Suspense, on the other hand, is a little more elusive. But suspense will always amplify the surprise even if the audience knows it’s coming. Alfred Hitchcock, who was a master at generating suspense, once said, “There’s no terror in the bang, only the anticipation of it.”

Think for a moment about a movie or book where it feels like one of the characters is walking into certain doom or (figuratively) playing carelessly on the edge of a cliff.

You know something bad might happen, you just don’t know when. And you’re not about to go get popcorn or stop reading until you find out.

Suspense is a fantastic storytelling device. It keeps the audience engaged as the storyteller steadily increases the pressure, then releases a little pressure only to amp it up again. If you think about good page-turner novels, this is typically what’s going on. The reader is held in a state of tension and looking for release and resolution of the suspense. From a physiological state, the people in the audience are getting surges of adrenaline followed by releases of endorphins, otherwise known as a “runners high.” Biologically, it makes you feel great.

But here's something to keep in mind. Although suspense is typically associated with horror or mystery stories, it really doesn’t have to fit into those genres. In its most basic form, suspense is simply presenting a situation/question that the audience wants answered and then prolonging that answer. Good suspense dances around the answer but never reveals it until the appropriate time. It keeps the audience guessing on what’s going to happen next by presenting new questions and dilemmas just before offering resolution to the last question or dilemma.

Here’s my advice. Learn how to incorporate suspense into your stories. Whether it’s a video for the youth or a sermon, don’t give away the ending at the beginning. Instead of starting off with publicly stating that this is a video or sermon about topic X, start out with a question that could lead more than one direction, then lead your audience a little further into the story. Then pose a second question and perhaps even a third. Masterful storytellers will wrap up an audience in a journey and hold them there. The audience is transfixed, but completely unsure of where they’re going. Supply them clues and then redirect to keep them second-guessing. If you do your job well, your audience is perfectly prepped to listen to the conclusion of the story and absorb the lessons to be learned. And if you do these things consistently, your audience will be back for more.

Ranking Communication

For the past five years I’ve asked classes of college students to rank the primary communication channels from most to least richest. While at their core the channels really haven’t changed, the order the students list them has continually evolved. The reason is because the students always consider the amount of usage into the equation whether I want them to or not. Their logic says that regardless of the channel richness, if they don’t use it consistently, then they rank it lower on the list.

Here is the list, in its most recent ranking, from most to least rich:

1. Face to Face

2. Telephone (speaking)

3. Video Chat

4. Text Messaging

5. Social Media

6. Instant Messaging (though they were inclined to remove it from the list because they feel it’s part of social media and virtually the same as text messaging)

7. E-Mail

8. Handwritten Letter

9. Typed Letter

It’s worthy to note that five years ago the students listed video chat at the bottom of the list (lack of use) and text messaging much lower because they felt it wasn’t appropriate for all conversations. It’s also worth noting that in 2008, out of a class of 30 students, only two had heard of Twitter.

However, when asked which channels the students used most frequently, the list comes out something like this:

1. Face to Face

2. Text Messaging

3. Social Media

4. Telephone (speaking)

5. E-Mail (but only to talk to parents and older adults)

6. Video Chat

7. Handwritten Letter (Seldom)

8. Typed Printed Letter (Never)

If you notice, Instant Messaging was removed from the list because the students state they don’t use it outside of a social media context. Video chat is something that’s making its way up the list, but usage isn’t across the board just yet, mainly due to a stated lack of comfort with it.

We’ll work our way through these different channels and talk about these rankings and the advantages and disadvantages of each -- and also why the younger and older generations may not see eye-to-eye on them.

Spread the Love

Here’s a piece of advice about relationships. People always want to be around the people who make them feel like the best versions of themselves. People do not want to be around the people who make them feel like the worst version of themselves -- or are a constant barrage of complaints and criticisms.

Now with that out of the way, here’s a great use for your social media campaign. Use it to help people feel like the best version of themselves. Either at random or if you see someone in your online community that needs a pick-me-up, publicly announce just how amazing @WhomEverTheyMayBe is. Be open, be funny, be positive. Be someone that people want to hang out with and spread the love. I’m not a big advocate of random acts of kindness. I think they should be deliberate and consistent. You’ll be surprised at how bringing joy to others will enhance your own.

And in case you’re wondering, we think you’re marvelous. Yes, you with the head looking inquisitively at the computer screen. You. Now go spread the love.

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