I was looking online this week for an online tool that would help with some brainstorm/mindmap stuff and I found this – bubbl.us
The interface is really intuitive – start with your “big idea” and then hit return to create a child balloon or hit tab to create a sibling balloon. After spending 20 minutes or so playing with some ideas for our Christmas series here’s what I ended up with -
Click on the image and you can see it full-size.
At any time you can click and drag a balloon to change its location or you can “associate” balloons together (see the good->bad connection just below the “Surprise” box in the middle of the screen?). If you like you can collaborate on these things and invite other participants or export the diagram to post online for people to check out.
Good tool! I think I’ll be using this one alot.
Thanks for stopping by the blog. I'm currently on sabbatical this summer - you can read more about my sabbatical here: Personal Update - What's Next
Since I'm away from the blog I've decided to close comments. I love the interaction and discussion that happens with readers and since I'm not able to do that this summer, I'll be very much looking forward to that when I return in August.
I was asked by my friends at World Vision if I would come teach a seminar on helping artists become more effective in booking more events in churches. Because I’ve worn many hats in the past (artist, manager, promoter, consultant, booking agent, publicist, radio promoter, blah blah blah) and am now the one receiving phone calls from artists I was able to put some (hopefully!) helpful ideas together for people who are looking to share their ministry with churches.
If you want the full notes from my talk, send me an email or leave a comment but here’s the quick recap:
Top 10 Things I Wish Artists Knew About Booking Events In Churches
1. Plan ahead
My calendar is sometimes 18 months ahead. Don’t call in November for a Christmas booking. September kick-off planning starts in the spring, Christmas planning starts in the summer, Easter planning starts in the fall, Summer special event planning starts in the winter. Be working 6-9 months ahead. Coming with a tour routed and 2-3 potential dates is very helpful.
2. Know when to call
Not Monday or Friday – those are usually church staff days off – don’t call those days.
Tuesday is staff meeting – don’t call that day.
Wednesday & Thursday are good options but Wednesday is best. Thursday is usually doing final details for Sunday. Best approach – send an email Tuesday evening letting me know you’re calling on Wednesday and send me links to your website, clips of your music, video and references.
3. Who are you?
Make sure all of your promotional material (emails, websites, printed pieces) advertise the same “you”. Are you a children’s entertainer? Your promo picture should tell me that. Don’t make me figure out what you’re about!
4. Have a crystal clear mission
Are you a worship artist best-suited for Sunday morning? Do you have songs to sing specifically to women? Is your focus outreach to youth? If you have a clear description of what you’re trying to do with your ministry, it will help me decide what events are suitable for booking you. And, perhaps more importantly, if I don’t have an event that would fit you I will probably know someone who does.
5. Come with realistic expectations
If this is the first time we’ve worked together, don’t call with huge expectations of payment. Unless I’ve budgeted for X number of performance events per year I’m going to have to pull the budget money from somewhere else. If you’re calling me as a chance to get some exposure in a new market or to gain some experience then that may be “payment” enough for the event. If you’re going to a “big church” for the first time, don’t expect that to mean you’ll get a big audience unless your performance is tied to a bigger church-wide event – ie. Christmas banquet, community outreach event, etc.
6. Develop relationships Getting an opening slot through the artist vs. talking with the promoter about that opening slot. The artist may or may not be able to get you added and they may or may not ever go back to that venue BUT the promoter will more than likely work that venue again AND will have other events in the same region that will need artists.
7. Give permission to say “no”
You called me, I didn’t call you. So if it doesn’t work out and I need to say no, please don’t be disappointed or upset. “You can do anything, but you can’t do everything!”
And remember..
8. “No” doesn’t mean “never”
Just because a church says no to you this time, don’t drop communication with them. Ask if it’s okay to add them to your email or mailing list – you should have a “fan list” and a “promoters list” with different content targeted towards each group. (NOTE: You may also want to consider having an “industry list” as well for radio stations, booking agents, labels and other industry people who are looking for different info than fans or potential promoters.)
9. Help spread the word
Once the booking is confirmed, get all the info online as quickly as possible. The church is investing significant amounts of money, time, volunteer hours, energy and logistics on making this event happen – make their investment worthwhile! An artist that promotes events along with a church is an artist that will be booked again!
10. Do what you say you’re going to do
This goes back to “who you are”. If you’re booked to be entertainment for a dinner theatre event, don’t spend half the show talking. If you’re booked to perform at an outreach event and give a clear presentation of the gospel intertwined with your music, make sure you give a clear presentation of the gospel. The church is not asking you to sell out or be someone you’re not – the church is just looking for an artist with the skill set that matches their need for that particular event.
Thanks for stopping by the blog. I'm currently on sabbatical this summer - you can read more about my sabbatical here: Personal Update - What's Next
Since I'm away from the blog I've decided to close comments. I love the interaction and discussion that happens with readers and since I'm not able to do that this summer, I'll be very much looking forward to that when I return in August.
November 16, 2007 in
ideas,worship with
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Yesterday afternoon we finished our service planning for our Christmas series and I’m excited. Lots of work to do but I think the services will have lots of impact. I’ll blog through the process but basically we’re going to look at the “unexpected” side of Christmas – God Himself born as a helpless baby, coming to dwell among us as a human, born to unwed teenage parents, angels appearing to shepherds and magicians and then the unexpected responses of each of those people.
Of course those responses speak to how we should respond when God makes Himself present in our lives. Hopefully we’ll get people to a point where they’ll consider that response.
We’re building this as a three-part series – part one on Dec 16, part two on Dec 23 and then part three on Dec 24.
I’ve seen lots of people talk about being in the thick of their Christmas planning process but I haven’t seen many details from people.
Thanks for stopping by the blog. I'm currently on sabbatical this summer - you can read more about my sabbatical here: Personal Update - What's Next
Since I'm away from the blog I've decided to close comments. I love the interaction and discussion that happens with readers and since I'm not able to do that this summer, I'll be very much looking forward to that when I return in August.
I told you about a songwriters’ forum we hosted a couple weeks ago and how I thought it went really well. Out of that we decided to get together again so this week 7 of us spent a couple hours digging through this idea of what it means to write our own material for congregational worship. We talked about the importance of the lyric for “worship music” and where we can find inspiration.
After a couple of hours together we found that we had 3 potential song ideas to work with all based on the theme of grace. We’re taking those ideas home to work on and everyone will be sending me some song/lyric ideas next week. We’ll be getting together again before Christmas and hopefully we’ll keep on taking some next steps with this stuff!
If you’re interested, I’ve got a two-page outline with 14 inspirations for songwriting. Let me know if you’re interested in seeing it and I’ll pass it along. Here are some quick ideas:
Google
Decide on a topic for a song, put that world in Google, hit search and see where things take you. If you use Firefox or the newest version of Internet Explorer, click the results with the middle button of your mouse and it will open the page in a new tab. You can open dozens of new pages this way while still staying on the Google results page.
Read poetry
Great words will often inspire great words. If you don’t have a favourite poet, go to the library and get an anthology of poetry. Don’t feel like you have to write poetically but let the beauty of the language inspire and direct you.
Write a song every day
I know people who do this because it really works for them and I also know people who do this simply for the discipline of doing it. Don’t worry about quality – one great idea may come from one hundred attempts but that will make all of those attempts worth it!
Go for a walk
Be inspired by creation! I know it sounds silly but as you walk just start naming the things you see. “Oh, there’s a green leaf. It’s on a branch way up high on that big maple tree. Look at the squirrel making his nest with those sticks.” You might want to make sure that you’re by yourself when you’re doing this
Keep a notebook
You never know when a great idea will strike! Have a notebook in your car, your purse, at your office, wherever and be disciplined about using it. It’s fine to have the notebook there but if you are always putting off the actual note-taking (“Oh that’s a good idea – I’ll have to remember to write that down later”) you will never actually see the benefits. Another option is to have a small audio recorder with you – lots of PDA’s have this now.
Thanks for stopping by the blog. I'm currently on sabbatical this summer - you can read more about my sabbatical here: Personal Update - What's Next
Since I'm away from the blog I've decided to close comments. I love the interaction and discussion that happens with readers and since I'm not able to do that this summer, I'll be very much looking forward to that when I return in August.
Okay – so here’s my situation. I’ve been asked to do some teaching over the next few months with other churches and ministries and I’ll be looking for some “real world” input from all of you wise, brilliant folks. Those of you are not wise or brilliant, keep your opinions to yourselves :)
I’m teaching a seminar shortly to a bunch of musicians who are interested in booking more events in churches. Because I’ve been a travelling artists, managed artists and helped get them booked and am now on the church side of things, I’ve got some insight from both sides of the fence.
But what about you? What do you wish artists knew when they called you looking for a booking? What would be really helpful for you when it came to booking artists?
Thanks for stopping by the blog. I'm currently on sabbatical this summer - you can read more about my sabbatical here: Personal Update - What's Next
Since I'm away from the blog I've decided to close comments. I love the interaction and discussion that happens with readers and since I'm not able to do that this summer, I'll be very much looking forward to that when I return in August.
Thanks for stopping by the blog. I'm currently on sabbatical this summer - you can read more about my sabbatical here: Personal Update - What's Next
Since I'm away from the blog I've decided to close comments. I love the interaction and discussion that happens with readers and since I'm not able to do that this summer, I'll be very much looking forward to that when I return in August.
Spent the last couple days up north at the Next Level worship conference. I’ll post later this week about the things I learned while I was there but here are a couple quick things:
Brenton Brown has chronic fatigue syndrome
More learning can happen with the right people over lunch than in a whole bunch of workshops
Transitions in worship sets are really, really important
So here’s the deal – I’ll expand on each of those in my “what I learned” post. Cool?
I came home to a whack of stuff in my Google reader and found a few things that I thought were worth passing on.
Carey Nieuwhof’s blog – if you’ve seen my post on Connexus (and a bunch of you have) you may be interested in following the story of their lead pastor as he blogs through this journey
Thanks for stopping by the blog. I'm currently on sabbatical this summer - you can read more about my sabbatical here: Personal Update - What's Next
Since I'm away from the blog I've decided to close comments. I love the interaction and discussion that happens with readers and since I'm not able to do that this summer, I'll be very much looking forward to that when I return in August.
So SermonSpice.com is giving me $20 for posting this. I have no ads on my site, don’t post affiliate links, have no desire to make money off this thing. But $20 will basically get me a free download to use in my ministry so I’m going to go ahead and do it.
Here’s a list of videos I’ve purchased and used from Sermon Spice over the past couple of years. I would give you direct links to each of these videos to preview and buy but Sermon Spice doesn’t let me do that – bad choice. Instead these links take you to the results page after searching for these titles.
Thanks for stopping by the blog. I'm currently on sabbatical this summer - you can read more about my sabbatical here: Personal Update - What's Next
Since I'm away from the blog I've decided to close comments. I love the interaction and discussion that happens with readers and since I'm not able to do that this summer, I'll be very much looking forward to that when I return in August.
Got some time and want to read a pretty interesting story about a church going through some amazing changes in a very short period of time? Connexus Community Church is the newest extension (I’m not even sure if that’s the right word) of North Point. Connexus will be launching in a couple of weeks as a multi-site church in Barrie and Orillia and has plans to expand to other locations within the next year.
I know some of the guys on their leadership team (including Pat, whose blog is linked over there ->) and I know they’re excited about the next steps. This is a story worth reading – start here and follow along.
Thanks for stopping by the blog. I'm currently on sabbatical this summer - you can read more about my sabbatical here: Personal Update - What's Next
Since I'm away from the blog I've decided to close comments. I love the interaction and discussion that happens with readers and since I'm not able to do that this summer, I'll be very much looking forward to that when I return in August.
Carlos blogged this so I’m sure it’s been around the world and back several times but I thought I’d post it here for posterity’s sake.
I love the idea of using the pre-service time to communicate information. I am a believer that announcements and communications are a part of church life so they should be part of our Sunday mornings but using the time before the service starts for this kind of info does a few things, I think – encourages people to get on time, conveys the importance of beginning on time, establishes the tone of the morning very early.
(I’m not sure if the video will show up in your RSS so you’ll have to head to the blog.)
Thanks for stopping by the blog. I'm currently on sabbatical this summer - you can read more about my sabbatical here: Personal Update - What's Next
Since I'm away from the blog I've decided to close comments. I love the interaction and discussion that happens with readers and since I'm not able to do that this summer, I'll be very much looking forward to that when I return in August.
Chris Vacher Married to Sonya, dad to Avery, Emmy, Isabelle and Anderson. Director of Worship at Orangeville Baptist Church near Toronto. Founder of WorshipRises and doing my best to follow Jesus in the midst of it all.