Effective Church Communications

Effective Church Communications provides Timeless Strategy and Biblical Inspiration to help churches create communications that fully fulfill the Great Commission

Effective Church Communications provides Timeless Strategy and a Biblical Perspective to help churches create communications that fully fulfill the Great Commission. Our tools constantly change; our task doesn’t; Effective Church Communications can help.

FREE, legal music tracks for your videos and podcasts

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ccmixterIt isn't easy finding truly FREE music  that is legal for your videos and podcasts. Though this site does not have a lot of specifically Christian music it does have many instrumentals that can be used in videos and podcasts. In addition, it is one of the most honest, easy-to-use, free music sites I've looked at.

Below is a short video that shows how easy it is to select, download and give proper credit to the songs you choose. This is the site I used for the music for the POWTOON video I created . I simply downloaded the music from ccmixter and imported it into the POWTOON file. I copied the attribution and put it in the YouTube video file and on my website. Super easy--I may try putting music on some more of my videos in the future.

Here is the site: http://dig.ccmixter.org/

Fun and FREE Illustration creation software

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This is a situation where I had so much fun playing around with this, I couldn't wait to share it--even though I don't know very much about it. This software, POWTOON is still in beta, but it is very easy to play around with and allows you to create some sketch-like presentations without actually having to draw anything. It would be great for church announcements.

One bothersome thing--it has a pretty obnoxious credit ending--that you can pay to get rid of. If you decide to use it frequently, you definitely want to do that.

Below is the short video I created with it.


CLICK HERE for more information on the program.

Play around and have some fun with it!

Attribution for the music:

"heavenly harp" by Tomas PhUsIoN
http://ccmixter.org/files/phusion/34462
is licensed under a Creative Commons license:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Linotype, the Film…..or how typesetting was done before computers

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Typography is a topic of almost endless fascination to many of us who love words and work hard to craft our messages. Though our message is unchanging, during my lifetime the methods for communicating this message have changed dramatically. One part of the history of type has recently been made into a movie and one of the ECC readers sent me this fantastic movie trailer about Linotype machines, which were extraordinary for their time in how they were able to cast an entire line of type rather than a typesetter having to assemble them letter by letter.

Take a minute to enjoy it. The brief material and link below the movie tell you more about it.

More about the film from the website:

Linotype: The Film is a feature-length documentary centered around the Linotype type casting machine. Called the "Eighth Wonder of the World" by Thomas Edison, it revolutionized printing and society. The film tells the charming and emotional story of the people connected to the Linotype and how it impacted the world.
The Linotype (pronounced "line-o-type") completely transformed the communication of information similarly to how the internet is now changing communication again.

Although these machines were revolutionary, technology began to supersede the Linotype and they were scrapped and melted-down by the thousands. Today, very few machines are still in existence.

The highly-skilled operators of the Linotype are in a battle against time. If their skills are not passed along to a new generation of operators, the machine will die completely. There is a small group of former operators that want to save the Linotype from the scrap yard, but some see this as a fruitless endeavor.

What place does the Linotype have in the age of new technology? Should the machine be shoved into a museum and left to rust? Why should anyone care about typography or the technology of communication? The film seeks to answer these questions.

For more about the film, go to: http://www.linotypefilm.com/

Video: How I create training videos–software, process, tips

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Over the last few years I've created over 100 videos on a variety of topics to help church communicators. I get great feedback from many of you on how much they help and in addition to that I've had a number of requests for questions on how I do them.  Several church communicators have suggested that this type of video would be great to do to help church volunteers learn various tasks and I agree.

The video below is an overview of the software I use, my process and some tips. If you have additional questions or if you do this and want to share your video or ideas, PLEASE put them in the COMMENT section below on this website--that way everyone can see your comment or question and my answer.

HD Video Version for Effective Church Communication Members

The video below is a higher resolution and is suitable for large screen and projection viewing. These options are for ECC Members only. For information on how to  become an ECC Member, CLICK HERE.