Backgrounds
Mar 31, 2008 Free Stuff, Photos and Backgrounds
Have you taken or found a cool picture and wondered how you can turn it into a powerpoint background, but you don’t have a program like adobe photoshop or macromedia flashworks. What if all you had was Powerpoint?
Well it just might be easier than you think. While you may not be able to do all the slick effects possible with some of the other photo programs you can still come up with a usable worship background from one of your photos. Here I have taken a picture that I took at our recent Palm Sunday service. Let’s turn it into a background slide you can use for Power Point or Media shout or even other publications.
First I opened up Microsoft powerpoint. Then I clicked insert > file > palm.jpg.
Second I selected the photo and then found my photo toolbar. I choose brighten and brought up the brightness of the photo. Depending on your photo you may also want to reduce the contrast of the picture or if you wanted to eventually use lighter text on top of the slide then reduce the brightness.
Third I added a text box, I chose the papyrus font and typed in the Text “Hosanna”. I changed the text size to 117pt, then I rotated the text and placed it on the left hand side.
Fourth I created a rounded corner rectangle auto shape from the auto shape menu. I wanted to use the auto shape as a place to eventually put text so I drew a fairly large square on the right hand side of the slide. I went to format auto shape, chose to fill it with white and then set the transparency to 45 percent.
I think that slide would do great as a title slide or for some small announcement but what about a slide to use for song lyrics. With just a few changes I found a way to make a slide for such a purpose.
First I selected the slide and clicked ctrl+d which duplicated the slide.
Second I selected the large rectangle auto shape and dragged it over to fill the entire slide.
Third I selected the “Hosanna” text, rotated it back to horizontal, shrunk the size to 60pt and placed it in the bottom right hand corner
Fourth I chose the text box, right clicked chose order>bring to front. This placed the text box in front of the text so you can see the text faintly behind the box.
This created a slide that I would use for a song background or maybe a scripture background.
Finally to save the slide as a photo choose file>save as> jpeg and named my file palmbkg. When the box comes up that says “do you want to export every slide” I chose every slide. This creates a folder on my computer with each slide saved as a jpg image in the folder.
As you can see this is an easy way to create background files. However you are somewhat limited to the photo effects you can use. If you do have adobe photoshop then please check out this easy to follow photoshop tutorial posted on life in student ministry. Adobe Photoshop has also just launched Adobe Photoshop Express, which is free and can be used to crop, change colors, add cool effects like blur, sharpen, and more.
Tags: Background, Free, Media Shout, Photoshop, Pictures, Powerpoint, Sunday, work, Worship
Try Something Different
Mar 30, 2008 Uncategorized
Today in our worship service we decided to try something a little different. Usually we will follow the format of 3 worship songs, then children’s moment, prayer time, offertory, sermon, invitation and closing song. But in a recent trip to the “Every Member In Ministry” conference at Frazer Memorial UMC, we went to one contemporary worship service where they did not do all the music at once or sermon at once but split them up and divided the points and songs throughout the service.
So today we tried our own version. We started off with “Trading My Sorrows” followed by our announcements and welcome, then used a new version of “Jesus Paid it All” followed by the first part of the scripture, and the first point of the sermon brought by our youth director Russ Bowlin. Then we sang “Here I Am to Worship” followed by the second part of the scripture and second sermon point, and then had the offertory where I sang a new original song I wrote called “Alleluia.” Finally we had the children’s message, third scripture and third point after which we sang “I Am Free” for the invitation. We recapped with an instrumental version of “I Am Free” after the blessing.
I really liked the flow because it was different. Someone else mentioned it was easy to follow the sermon because it was broken up in three parts. I am not sure that we will do it all the time but it was good to try. What I was reminded though is that we should not feel tied by the same order all of the time. Sometimes our “contemporary” worship service becomes more rigid and tied down than our traditional services. I encourage you to try new things, mix up your order and see what happens.
What do you think?
Tags: blogs, Free, Prayer, Russ Bowlin, Songs, Worship, youth
Theoretically Speaking #1
Mar 26, 2008 Uncategorized
This is the first in a series I have wanted to write for a while called “Theoretically Speaking.” Each article will deal with some aspect of music theory as it pertains to leading worship and working with worship teams. If you have a theory question please send it in and If I can answer it I will do so. If not I’ll try to find the answer.
#1- Transposing
Transposing means taking a song that is in one key and playing it in a different key. In a worship setting I run across this in two main ways. First it may be that a song is too high or too low to sing. The second instance is when I am playing guitar and a song is written in a key like B but I want to play it using the chords I usually use in G. This is a fairly easy process.
First of all determine the key of the song you want to transpose. We’ll take trading my sorrows for instance which is normally played in the key of A. Write down each of the scale tones in the key. So
A B C# D E F# G# A
Then number those tones 1-7
A B C# D E F# G#
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Now write the new key you want to transpose to underneath
A B C# D E F# G#
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
G A B C D E F#
Now your original chords which are on top, and replace them with the chords in the new key under the numbers.
Here is an example.
Original Key
A D F#m E
I’m trading my sorrows
With the numbers
1 4 6m 5
I’m trading my sorrows
And in the new key
G C Em D
I’m trading my sorrows
You can use this to change any song in any key to another key.
Tags: Chords, guitar, Songs, Team, Theoretically Speaking, Theory, work, Worship
Fun to Hide
Mar 24, 2008 Uncategorized
This past Sunday was Easter and for the first time we were having family over to our house for the occasion. My wife’s brother and family came in, spent the night and went to services with us. After the contemporary service we went home, were joined by our friends Russ and Stacey, and we had roast and vegetables. That was all good, the kids had made a bunny cake earlier and we looked forward to eating that. But first came the hunt…
We had originally thought the kids did not want an easter egg hunt so no preparations were made, no eggs purchased, no candy bought. On my way home from church however I received a phone call from my wife. “The kids want an egg hunt” so it was super uncle Russell to the rescue. I found an open store and went to the greatly depleted, but greatly price reduced Easter aisle and found the last bags of Easter eggs and candy. I asked the cashier to give me some change so I could make the coveted “Money Egg.” I went home, broke open the eggs and filled them all up, closed them back and put them into sacks. After dinner Russ, Craig and I went outside and hid the eggs. Some were very obvious but many were hidden. Then the hunt was on.
The two kids came out and searched. They found some that I thought were hidden real well immediately. Some of them that we thought would be in plain sight they ran right past and never saw. My favorite was the one in the tree that sat there for a good 20 minutes and they never found. But after the obvious eggs were gathered and there were still 3 money eggs out came the hints. “Ok I can see 4 eggs from where I am”, or “The egg is between this tree and that bush.” The kids searched and looked, they would see where we were pointing and run to find the treasures. Eventually 36 eggs were hidden and 36 eggs were found. Hopefully I counted right and my lawn mower won’t find any suprises.
It was fun to know where the eggs were, to know what was inside the eggs, and to watch the kids run all around searching for those treasures. It was great to know what awaited them when they opened the eggs. I anticipated the surprise when they opened the money egg, and I think I might have wanted them to find it more than they wanted to find it. Because I knew what was inside. I knew what awaited them. So that’s why I gave them clues, hints and sometimes led them right to the eggs.
I think God has many surprises and treasures for us. I think some of them are obvious, and some of them should be obvious to us. Maybe it is a person in your life. Maybe it is a situation or an opportunity. Maybe it is right in front of you, but maybe you have to search a little, pull back the leaves or look at it from a different angle. All the while though I imagine God sitting there, giving hints, and waiting for the look on your face when you open the treasure.
so I haven’t written for a while…
Mar 16, 2008 Uncategorized
A wise person once told me never to start your blog, after you have not written for a while, with the words… “so I haven’t written for a while” or something similar. The truth is that many things have kept me busy and I haven’t had time. Well that’s not exactly true. If I really sit and think back on my day was I really all that busy? Wake up in the morning and get ready. Make lunch for my wife (how sweet am I) and get her off to work. Make sure the dogs have water and are safely confined in the kitchen. Go to work. Work all day long. Come home. Eat dinner Go to bed!
I could be fooled in to thinking that all of that takes up all of my time but if I really sit and think about it there are pockets of 15 minutes here and 30 minutes there scattered all through the day. Like when I finish working on something and it’s 10 minutes before lunch so I really can’t get into another project. Or when I come home and my wife is still at school for another 30 minutes. Maybe it is not that my time is not all occupied, but that it is occupied with the wrong things. Television? Purposeless internet surfing? Wasting Time?
I guess there is time to write, to share my thoughts, to rejoice in the highs and lows of the day. And really it’s not just about blogging. It’s also about prayer.
It is so easy to do the same thing in my prayer life. I can get into thinking that I don’t have time, that there are soooo many other important things that have to go on that I don’t have time. Maybe I could find some time that exists already.. maybe I should cut out some things that aren’t all that important. Maybe my next conversation with God shouldn’t start off with the words “So I haven’t talked to you in a while…?”
What about you. Do you find it hard to set aside time to pray during your busy schedule? Or if not.. How is it that you find time to spend with God during the day? Please comment and share your ideas.
