i am an offering

Warning - geeky material, but if you are a graphic or web designer, this is a must read! I promise that I will tie it in with worship, though, so no worries!

There might be several of you who have been asked by your churches to design a weekly email newsletter for them.  If you are a designer that holds fast to web standards, you know what a headache email newsletters can be.  There is not much standards support for CSS-based design so you have to make a choice:  design your email with CSS, keeping a prominent link to the html file so that those who can’t view it correctly can click there, or go old-school and design with ugly, bloated code using tables without current standards for design.

So the question is, why in the world do certain email clients not support CSS standards for emails?  If they did, html emails would be cleaned up, viewed correctly in each mail client, have much more accessability and many more benefits.

Enter email-standards.org. Campaign Monitor, probably the best service for sending html emails has been at the forefront of fighting a battle to get web standards in email.  I think with enough people speaking up and joining them in the fight this could happen.  Check out their new website and help spread the word.

So why does this matter for the church?  You’re probably thinking, “Okay, who cares, it’s an email!”  The only problem is, even emails have an effect on how people view the church.  Undoubtedly, churches are going to use html email newsletters.  We should learn all we can to be able to do them tastefully, in a way that will draw people to the church and not push them away.  Instead of not caring and producing either sloppy emails or emails that clients don’t support, we should lead the way in providing the smoothest way possible to get news to the people of the church.

Yesterday I mentioned that I wanted to share some Scripture, thoughts, and ideas of how to involve artists in worship. First, let me say, that I couldn’t find the Scripture I was looking for. I had thought the Levites were in charge of some of the artwork inside the temple as well as the music, but I couldn’t find the reference. If anyone can enlighten me, that would be fantastic.

*Ernie alerted me to the great reference of Exodus 31. The first six verses are an amazing testimony that God desires to use all of our gifts to worship Him:

Then the LORD said to Moses, 2 “See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, 3 and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts- 4 to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, 5 to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of craftsmanship. 6 Moreover, I have appointed Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, to help him. Also I have given skill to all the craftsmen to make everything I have commanded you:

He goes on to mention that “everything I have commanded you” includes all of the aspects of the tabernacle. Thanks, Ernie!*

Another Scripture can also definitely help us to understand using art in worship:

And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Colossians 3:17.

So often we think of “worship” as singing, praying, speaking, playing an instrument. But another deed in which we can praise God is through other forms of art. Here are some ways we can use art in worship:

• Graphic Design - Creating slides for the sermon, designing professional bulletins, designing modern banners for the foyer or sanctuary, designing a whole theme for the front of the church during a sermon series.
• Photography - Let photographers be involved. Good photos can go on banners, sermon slides, websites, promotional materials. The power of a well-taken photograph is unmatched. But please, please, let photographers use their own equipment, or make sure you invest in a good, quality camera for the church. Don’t buy the cheapest digital camera you can find!
• Painting - Paintings can be used as banners or decoration for the sanctuary, or if someone is willing, have them paint something as an act of worship during special music or during a special time in the service, then display the painting prominently. (This can get messy, so make sure you have plenty of canvas and you know exactly how you’re going to pull this off! Check this out. I’ve seen it done, and it’s powerful!)
• Dance - Some of us get really scared by this word but the Bible is very clear that dance is an appropriate way to worship God. It’s also very clear that when one despises someone because of their form of worship, bad things happen! (Check out this passage for proof!) You could use liturgical dance, you could use dance choregraphed as drama to music, or you could encourage your people to worship God with their whole bodies.
• Sculpture - Do people sculpt in your congregation? Use them! Perhaps you could have someone do bits of sculpture each week during a series, talking about how God molds us and shapes us into someone who is more like Him. Do people make pottery? You could use their pottery for a foot-washing service, or serve commuion elements from their pottery. I once saw a video of a man carving loaves of bread that were set up on a stand. The people took the bread from the carving as their bread for communion, and the fiinished carving was Jesus’ body on the cross. What a powerful picture of the Lord’s Supper!
• Video - Mark Batterson always says that video screens are digital stained glass windows. I love that! Stained glass told stories through the pieces, video can tell stories in an even more vivid way. There are so many aspiring producers and editors all over. Again, let them use their own cameras, or invest in quality equipment for the church and let them run with it.

The church is first of all about proclaiming the truth of Jesus Christ. But it is also about nurturing gifts within its people. Let’s take time to nurture the gifts of artists, letting them use their gifts to worship God, and providing a fanstastic community for them as well.

No, those two things don’t go together, but they’re both on my mind.

Usually I write a review on Thursdays, but didn’t end up having time yesterday, so I thought I’d share one today. I was blessed to spend an entire day in an Adobe workshop on Adobe CS2 products. With CS2 comes the Bridge application, which I had previously opened, looked at, and then quickly proceeded to shut down because I didn’t really know why I needed another file browser. Thankfully, my eyes were opened!

We spent a significant amount of time in the morning just on the Bridge, and let me tell you, it was worth it. So, designers, if you don’t use it yet, I highly recommend that you do.

Some things that I am already using:

• Favorites: These are favorite folders that you use on a daily basis that you can specify, and they always are quick to get to. No more digging for files. And since the Bridge shows you thumbnails of every type of Adobe file (.psd, .indd, .ai, .pdf, and probably more), you can see and find your files really easily.
• Metadata: Yep. You can tag and categories all your files. This is beneficial for searching, keeping track of versions, and attaching metadata that is Google searchable to your files. Very cool.
• Compact mode: This absolutely rocks. You can switch the Bridge to compact mode, which then basically makes it a Palette just like in any other Adobe program. It will stay in the forefront of all your applications. You can then just drag and drop any kind of files into any kind of Applicaction. No more having to do file > place all the time!

The bridge has already saved me a ton of time.

Secondly, Brian Bailey, author of The Blogging Church, has just posted a great series on blogging for ministry. Anyone who is getting into the church or ministry blogging world should definitely read these.