Technical Arts

Pursuing Good: Authentic

~ Mike Schwiebert ~ Leave a comment

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In my recent post Pursuing Good: The Backstory, I wanted to begin to process what makes something good. I ran into a couple of articles that really helped propel this idea forward. I even started to address the bad press we give good as opposed to great or excellent.

More on that later.

In this article I want to tackle the first in my master list of what makes something good:

A service is good when it is…

  1. authentic.
  2. surprising.
  3. exposing vulnerability.
  4. interesting (with a by product of engagement).
  5. appropriate.
  6. complete or full (delivers on the expectation).
  7. special.
  8. smooth in transitions.
  9. purposeful (or communicating a point).
  10. impeccably executed.

A service is good when it is authentic.

Don’t just read past this one as something that you already know. There is more to the story here.

Keep thinking! Continue reading.

Pursuing Good: The Backstory

~ Mike Schwiebert ~ Leave a comment

pursuinggoodheader

When is something good? How do we know we are doing good work?
Is there an objective standard that church technical artists can use to make sure the effort that we are putting in is paying off?
How do we know if our transitions are good? Or the infrastructure we are adding to the word and worship is good?
Ultimately, it’s really about the service itself, as an entity, how do we know it is good?

Keep thinking! Continue reading.

Easter Promotions—Adopt a Seat Campaign

~ Mike Schwiebert ~ Leave a comment

8 out of 10 are pretty good odds.

And knowing that 8 out of 10 people will say yes to an Easter invitation to church is a great statistic to build promotions around.*

One area of promotion is inviting the community to your Easter services. But the other one, a very important one, is mobilizing the congregation to invite their friends and family to church on Easter. For the last few years we have attempted to leverage this through a targeted campaign. Here is a campaign we did a few years ago. Afterward, if you’re interested,  I’ll talk about the video and how it was made.

Keep thinking! Continue reading.

4 Ideas to Improve Your Online Video

~ Mike Schwiebert ~ Leave a comment

Of all the things I get to do as a church technical leader, directing live video is one of my favorites. I love the opportunity I have to connect people to what God is doing  on Sunday morning at the church. And I like the pressure and pace of working in live video.

The thought that this may be our first connection with someone looking for a church, or a traveller needing to feel connected to his church family, or a shut-in wanting to join in worship, or a family who just needs a break from the busyness of life; all these, to me, are reasons that drive me towards creating the best online experience I can. I am sure you can come up with additional great reasons.

Here are 4 ideas to improve your live video to make it the best that it can be:

Keep thinking! Continue reading.

My Christmas Quote (uhm… prayer)

~ Mike Schwiebert ~ 1 Comment

medium-nativity

‘Tis the season for a steady diet of well-wishing, nostalgia, prayers and pleadings for sanity all wrapped up in Christmas cheer.

In tech circles it is the dreaded “busy season” where we say good-bye to our families and friends after Thanksgiving and return to them on January 3. For that reason, we tend to focus on how to not lose Jesus in the middle of Christmas or something of that sort. I actually like those articles, but I want to share something different—a meditative reflection, of sorts, in the form of one of my favorite quotes.

Keep thinking! Continue reading.