Lights, Camera, CTV

“It has stood the test of time, God’s book, the bible.  Still relevant in today’s complex world.  “It Is Written”, sharing messages of hope around the world.”

I think it is safe to say that most of you reading this article are familiar with what you just read above.  You guessed it.  It is the words to the opening video for each “It Is Written” television broadcast.  And for 28 years, that is indeed what “It Is Written Canada” has been doing, “sharing messages of hope around the world”.   Currently, “It Is Written” is “sharing messages of hope” across Canada on CTV every Saturday morning at 11am.

Since it first started in 1973, under the direction of Pastor Henry Feyerabend , “It Is Written” has been on the cutting edge of technology.  Two years ago I had the opportunity of seeing first hand just how important technology is to the production and delivery of the “It Is Written” broadcast.  At the rented studio in Burlington Ontario, the “It Is Written” team had just begun a 2-week marathon of recording approximately 68 programs a week in English and Portuguese.

While I watched and learned for a week over Doug Bruce’s shoulder, the production manager for “It is Written Canada”, I couldn’t help but wonder how approximately 30 years worth of technology had shaped what “It Is Written” is today.

To answer that question, I recently had the privilege of talking to Pastor Bill Santos, speaker/director for “It Is Written Canada”.  In our conversation Pastor Santos told me that technology currently plays a major role in nearly every stage of the production and delivery.  He said that when “It Is Written” began, they were recording 1 program a week.  Today with advancements in technology, “It Is Written” can record up to 12 programs a day.

“Newer technology has allowed us to capture more programs in less amount of time.” Pastor Santos said.  “In one word, it’s faster. Faster to prepare programs and faster to capture the programs.”

The access that the Internet provides facilitates the ability to have a continual online presence 24/7.  “A web presence with the television program has really been a significant enhancement” said Pastor Santos.

He tells me that they receive approximately 600-1000 contacts per month through the phone or online presence.  Out of the many emails received, one particular request has been seen coming in on a more regular basis over the past year.  “People are making comments like,  “I understand you folks are an Adventist ministry, where’s the closest Adventist church?” said Pastor Santos.

Pastor Douglas Pereira, Director of Operations at “It Is Written Canada”, recently received an email from a young man who watches the “It Is Written” Portuguese broadcast.  The young man said he is not Adventist, not Christian, not religious at all but liked the program.  He wanted to know if there was an Adventist church he could attend in his area.  Pastor Pereira emailed him back and gave him the address to the nearest church.  The young man later responded and told Pastor Pereira that he really enjoyed his visit to the Adventist church.  “I found myself praying when others where praying, I found myself following along.” he said, “I even made a few friends and plan to go back again next week.”

“It is Written” has approximately 140,000 viewers each week which makes it the largest congregation in Canada.  There is currently 225 active bible studies and more requests coming in every week by phone or through the website.

“A common misconception we hear is that only old people watch “It Is Written”, said Pastor Santos.  “That is not the case.  There are lots of young people between the ages of 20-55 who regularly watch.”

I asked Pastor Santos if there were any plans for new types of technology in the future.  He said, “I think the audience wants a more interactive experience.” He told me that there are plans to experiment with a Web studio.

“This would allow us the opportunity to invite viewers from the television broadcast to go to our website for a more indebt discussion and to answer questions.” Pastor Santos says that they want to experiment with this type of interactive online technology next season in Portuguese and then try it with the CTV broadcast.

Also, with the television industry moving more and more to on demand programming, Pastor Santos feels that this technology may be the most significant next step for “It Is Written”. “You should be able to watch the program whenever you want.  Whenever it is convenient for you, the viewer” said Pastor Santos.

And now you know the rest of the story behind the production and delivery of “It Is Written Canada”.

For more information about “It Is Written Canada” visit http://www.itiswrittencanada.ca.

Did you know?

That in 1995 there were approximately 18,000 websites available online and today there are approximately 206,675,000? (statistics from netcraft.com.)

In today’s technically connected society of social networks, blogging sites, video posts, cyber chat, more and more people are relying on the information highway to connect, to find, and to share.

It reminds me of a bible text:

Matthew 7:7, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”

The Internet has become a place to bond and belong.

If that’s where today’s society is at, if that’s where people are going to Ask, Seek and Knock, then we must find ways to connect and provide the information that will Lead them to Jesus.

It’s true that if your church or business is not on the internet, to most people you don’t exist.

That is why, amongst those 200 million websites online today, there is one for your Adventist church and school provided free from the North American Division?

Adventist Church and School Connect

Let me introduce you to the Adventist Church and School Connect content management system.  It is a powerful website management tool that the North American Division is providing free to every Seventh-day Adventist church and school in Bermuda, Canada, and the United States.

The North American Division has contracted AdventSource to provide customer training, support, and marketing for Adventist Church and School Connect for the approximately 3600 church and school websites.

Many people are intimidated by the word “website” because it has gained a reputation from the past as being a complicated and highly technical procedure.  Well, that is not the case anymore.

With ACC’s content management system, you don’t have to know a website programming language like html or php to add content and photos to your website.  You can edit pages as you would in a word processor similar to Microsoft Word.

Denis Prescott, a member of the Merritt Seventh-day Adventist Church, has been maintaining his church’s ACC website for four years.  I recently spoke to Denis about his experience and thoughts regarding the ACC platform and this is what he said, “The ease of adding and or editing information makes for an awesome tool”.

Adventist Church Connect Features

There are many useful features available with ACC websites such as:

• Built-in member, author, editor and administrator user levels.
• Prayer request feature allows site visitors to submit prayer requests.
• Dynamic RSS content such as daily devotionals.
• Calendar allows departments to enter and categorize their own events.
• Adventist Church News from the North American Division, Adventist News Network, and Adventist Review.

Next month, I will go into more detail regarding my opinion of the most useful ACC features and share with you some examples.

With the rapid increase of mobile Internet devices, it is important that these devices can process and display your church website content.  That is why all ACC websites are now mobile device friendly.  When a mobile device accesses an ACC website, a custom mobile template is activated with the content and sent to the mobile display.

Signing up for an Adventist Church Connect Website

To sign your church up for an ACC website, visit http://www.adventistchurchconnect.org/signup.php and for school’s visit http://www.adventistschoolconnect.org/signup.php.

Adventist Church Connect Support

Remember, you are not alone when it comes to maintaining an ACC website. AdventSource provides training and support free of charge.

There are many helpful resources available on the ACC help website such as: live online video training, archived video tutorials, information about local training events, e-mail support, and step-by-step how to guides.   The help website is located at http://help.adventistchurchconnect.com.

More Information

For more information about Adventist Church Connect visit http://adventistchurchconnect.com.

Another thing that really hit me this year and last was the commitment and dedication many people have for God.  One Philippine missionary made a statement I will never forget.  He said, “I would die for these people (meaning the mountain people called Mangyan’s).  Jesus is coming back soon and they need to know.”

We were a group of 12 mostly from Kelowna and Kamloops area who split up into 5 different sites on the island of Mindoro.   With me was Dr. Larry Shipowick and Pastor Mike Lowe, we spent 8 days at the Mangyan village called Balangabang.

Each evening we shared stories, experiences, and bible truths about Jesus while our interpreter tried to keep up.  One evening Larry handed out 5 Frisbees that had a Canada flag on them.  The next day one of the missionaries asked me what it was that we handed out the night before.  I said, “You have never seen that before?”  She said, “No, the people think it is a plate.”  We got a good chuckle out of that.  So the next night we demonstrated how the Frisbees’ worked and everyone was amazed.  They learned that it was a flying plate.

During the day, Larry ran a dental clinic while Mike and I did some visits locally and to other villages.  Larry pulled out over 100 teeth during our stay.  People came from many different mountain villages some 2 and 3 hours hike and all bare foot of course.

This time of the year, summer for the Philippines, water is a big problem for this village.  There was nothing flowing from the water source pipe until night time when the usage further up the mountain was less.  This became a big problem for cooking, washing, toilet and drinking water, etc…  Some money was donated from several people in our Kelowna church and these funds will help to provide a better solution for water supply and the churches sanitation.

From all 5 sites, there was a total of 503 individuals who gave their lives to Jesus and were baptized.

There is much more that could be said but I don’t want to bore you with any more details.  I know that it is very hard to relate to these experiences unless you were there.

When I was 12 years old, my dad bought us an awesome computer.  It was the fastest computer Costco sold. The Compaq 386 ran at a speed of 16MHz and had a 40Mb hard drive.

The sales person at Costco told my dad that he would never be able to fill such a huge drive.  I will never forget that day because it was so exciting to be going home with a new computer.  Maybe not so much for my dad since it cost him $3,500.00.

This was the beginning of computers and technology for me.  And now today, almost 20 years later, many things have changed in the computer and technology world.  We’ve gone from megabytes to gigabytes to tetra bytes over night.

And every year at Christmas, watching the hustle and bustle of crazy shoppers, I can’t help but think about that Compaq 386 and how on Christmas morning many people will unwrap their presents. Oh the excitement of it all, but eventually the novelty will wear off.

The present that was once so precious will end up techno trash or handed off to someone else.  A newer version of your latest gadget will arrive that has more mega pixels, or is smaller, or faster, or has better battery life.  In time, your Christmas gifts will mostly be forgotten, but technology is not going away any time soon.

Primary Task

The primary task of the Church is to preach the Word of God to the whole world.

Matthew 24:14, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”

In this aspect, technology can be a great tool.  As we move forward and farther into the 21 century, more and more sophisticated technology and media communication has created a global community in which almost anyone, anywhere, at any time can communicate with one another.

This technological age has opened the door way to lead many more people to Jesus in ways and places that missionaries, bible workers, pastors or teachers are not able to go or reach.

I believe God is leading us world wide to use the unique opportunities and technologies we have before us to lead people to Jesus.

For example, with over 240 million people in North America using the Internet daily, we have a mega evangelistic tool at our fingertips.  The truth is, many people are willing to watch or listen to video and audio over the Internet from the comfort of their own home, who might not be open to an evangelistic crusade or even going to church.

And, with the huge cost reduction over the years in video and media equipment, we are now able to operate a video production operation for a fraction of past costs.

I have been involved in many discussions and programs/projects that include media/technology in the church. While worship is the central aspect of the church, the focus about how technology can be used to enhance the ministries and mission of the church needs to go beyond the sanctuary.

Here are 2 important ways to utilize the internet as an evangelistic outreach tool for your church.

1.  An informational church website

As mentioned above, we live in the internet age.  People use the internet for pretty much everything these days: I found a survey (dated April 2008) by Gartner.com with the top 6 reasons people use the internet.

• E-mail
• Gather information
• Online banking
• Sharing photos, videos, and files
• Geographic navigation services
• Shopping online

The top second reason people use the internet is to gather information including information about churches in their area.  If you don’t have a church website, to the person searching on the internet you don’t exist.

You don’t have to spend a lot of money or win the web site of the year award to successfully setup a church website. A clean and simple design that reflects your church and lets people know when and where to meet is a good place to begin.

Did you know that The North American Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church is providing a FREE website to every church in Bermuda, Canada, and the United States?  For more information visit the Adventist Church Connect website.

2.  Develop and maintain a current email list

From the survey above, email is the number 1 reason people use the internet.
 People everywhere rely on email to keep in touch with family, friends, and colleagues. Of all the ways you can implement technology in the church, email is the fastest and least expensive. People want to stay connected, an email from the pastor to his/her congregation is a great way for the church and friends of the church to stay informed and up to date.

Keep your e-mails brief. Nobody has time (or will take the time) to read more than a few paragraphs.

I work hard on keeping a current email list of my congregation/friends of the church and send out a quick email about once a week highlighting upcoming events or reminders.

Many times I will share with my congregation the next Sabbath’s church information including the sermon title and topic, special guests scheduled for music, mission presentation, sermon, testimony, etc…along with some encouraging words.

Technology is definitely cool. It makes so many things easier. But don’t get hung up on the technology. Get hung up on the people! That’s how technology can help your church.  No technological advancement will ever be able to replace the need for the touch or presence of another human being.