December 2008
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Cover Story
Thou Shalt Laugh
By Benjamin Venegas
Of all the words commonly associated with evangelical Christians, seldom is the word comedy brought to mind. Not to say that Christians are incapable of being funny (Left Behind was a joke right?), but few accomplishes had been made in stand-up comedy for faith-based audiences until the Thou Shalt Laugh comedy series debuted in 2006. Pioneered by producers Jonathan Bock and Hunt Lowry, Thou Shalt Laugh—a trilogy of stand-up shows—has continued to amass plenty of laughs and sales making the series the most successful Christian comedy DVD's ever made.
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Editorial
Ah Christmas
By Steve Hewitt
I love this time of year! I know that some people seem to get dragged down by all of the trappings they see during Christmas. There is the shopping, the decorating, the gift exchanges, the special music we hear everywhere, the Christmas cards to get out, the office party, etc., etc. However, instead of looking at these things as a chore, I look at them as an opportunity and a celebration of the birth of my Savoir.
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Article
Into the Wild - A Spiritual Journey
By Martin R. Baggs
We are surrounded by hypocrites. If we are honest with ourselves, we too are hypocritical much of the time. Yet, how do we respond to hypocrisy?
Chris McCandless responded to the hypocrisy he saw in his parents' lives by departing on a spiritual journey leaving no forwarding address. Without telling his parents, he got in his old Datsun, after graduating from Emory University, and drove west. He disappeared. "Rather than love, than money, than faith, than fame, than fairness . . . give me truth," he said and went looking for truth. "The core of man's spirit comes from new experiences" and he sought the experience of nature apart from mankind.
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Article
Illuminating Understanding and the Much-Needed Message of Religulous:
By Stewart Redwine
Let there be light: Dead text. Asking questions of the storyteller: Brilliance. Christmas is not about gifts. Christmas is one of many stories in the Bible we are presented with to ask questions of the storyteller; God. Instead of viewing the Bible as a dead text, we can interact with it as a spiritual living text which God uses to reveal Truth to anyone who wishes to ask questions.
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Article
Creating Vs. Collecting
By Gregory Fish
I believe that I am just like a lot of you who are reading this magazine. Before I started creating Christian video content I spent some time collecting content. There are a lot of different web sites where you can find short Christian videos to enhance your church service or event. Usually the videos that I have uploaded have first been tried out in my church context. The church that I pastor, becomes the guinea pig, so to speak, and is the first to view my videos. I create them to coincide with our preaching schedule and topics, etc. and then I upload them for other churches to use as they see fit. Many times, however, I will be speaking on a topic of which I have not yet created a video, and do not have the time or inspiration to do so. That is when I will go outside of myself and turn to a number of great producers to see if they have a video to fulfill the need. They usually do. The selection has grown tremendously over the last few years. When preparing a talk or an event, it is very easy to quickly find a perfect video to either open with or conclude with or to strengthen a point made. Of course by mere use of technology, one keeps the audience engaged. And that, I believe, is the point of it all. At least it should be.
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Article
My Picks - Sermonspice Short Films
By Benjamin Venegas
Happy holidays to all of you short-film enthusiasts and Christmas lovers. It only seems fitting to choose this issue's picks from the very best collection of the season: Christmas films. You can see the excitement everywhere – the lights, the music, the crowds – and filmmakers everywhere are providing their interpretations of the holiday on film for you to enjoy. I hope you enjoy my picks of five inventive, captivating, and funny Christmas films.
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Special Feature
The Bible in 3-D – Keys for Making the Bible Come Alive
By Lynn Wilford Scarborough
It is said that the bible is deeper than it is wide. On my recent trip to Jordan, many familiar stories and words were morphed into a 3-D Bible experience. I have wanted to visit the Holy Land for decades and have had dozens of friends tell me that the land of the Bible has to be experienced to understand. Even though I patiently nodded in agreement, as media professional, it is my goal to use our tools to give those who can’t go, a deeper biblical understanding and spiritual experience.
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Special Feature
Lower Your Standards – Record and Share More Video with “Informal” Video Techniques and Equipment.
By Eric Halverson
In the last couple of issues of Christian video magazine, I have pushed a term that I call “Informal” video. The “Hollywood” $200,000,000 production budgets that are required for the production of the likes of Titanic, Spider Man, Pirates of the Caribbean and other Hollywood blockbusters have stifled the creativity of many churches around the world.
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Article
If You Switch Video Inputs on Your Video Projector During the Service
By Jay M. Delp
Once a ministry moves beyond a single projected video source (and most have) such a lone computer to, perhaps, a second computer (or three), a DVD player (or two), or a camera (or two or three), they run head on into the switcher vs. scaler question. Although some attempt to post-pone or avoid this question (expense!) by connecting multiple sources/cables to a single video projector and selecting the different sources via the projectors input selection features, this is far from ideal when it comes to accomplishing the goal of seamless integration of media and media technology within worship settings. Video projectors are definitely NOT seamless switchers/scalers as is readily apparent by observing the resulting flashing screen (and accompanying on-screen text indicating which input is being accessed) when cycling through a video projector’s multiple input settings.
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