picture from flickr.com by OllyHart For the past several years we’ve been podcasting our Sunday church services at North Valley Baptist Church. Podcasting is a great tool for churches. It allows people to download and take sermons with them on their iPods, mp3 players, and other portable devices. Podcasting is fairly simple and very inexpensive. This post will take you through the steps on how to create a podcast for your church. 1. Determine the content of your podcast. There are podcasts on just about any subject you can think of ... Read More

For 30+ years the North Valley Baptist Church has had a yearly theme.  Since 2001, I’ve had the privilege to create a logo and a look for the new year.  We also have an annual youth conference, pastors’ conference, and missions conference.  For each of these conferences, there is a theme and design that goes along with each.  I must admit I’m not the greatest at coming up with the logo and theme.  It is usually a challenge, but a challenge I welcome and enjoy.  Here are some thoughts on how I design the logo and ... Read More

Working for a church is incredible. I get to work on things that matter for eternity. I also get to work on many things at once.  I have the privilege of overseeing all the media for the North Valley Baptist Church. This includes the graphic design, web, and video for the ministry.  I have 56 items on my to-do list now, ranging from book cover designs to website redesigns.  Thankfully, I have 3 incredibly talented guys that work for me.  Long ago, I tried to manage all my tasks on a running Word document.  That didn’t work out to ... Read More

I don’t know of anyone that uses the yellow pages anymore.  You may, but I don’t.  Everyone I know uses google or other search engines to find things.  Many churches know this and have built websites so prospective church visitors can find them.  Perhaps, you have paid for someone to create a website, took the time to create it yourself, or you may have used a template to design it.  So, what now?  You have a website, but does anyone even know it’s there?  Even more importantly, does anyone know your church is ... Read More

Here is some of the gear that I bring on the Missions Trip. I have the awesome opportunity to go with our church on the annual missions trip.  I document the whole trip with pictures, a blog and video.  (Check out the Missions trip website – real content will be available on October 6)  It has been an annual trip for me, and I love it!  It is truly a highlight of my year.  I covet your prayers. During the trip, I will take thousands of photos, hours of video, work on daily blog posts for nvbc.org, and have the privilege to preach ... Read More

In a week and a half, I leave on the annual Missions Trip to the Philippines.  It is always a highlight of my year.  I have the privilege to document the work being done by our missionaries. Every year I take thousands of photos and hours of video.  I post pictures and a description of the days events online every night. (view photos and videos of previous years) Usually, when we return, I have about 2 weeks to complete a 10 minute video.  The way the dates fall this year, I will only have about 3 days before the conference begins and ... Read More

View the screencast on your iPhone. Photoshop actions save a great deal of time, if you have multiple images to work on.  This screencast shows you how to create a Photoshop action of an image reflection.  It also explains how to run the action on a whole folder of images using Batch in Photoshop.  You can create a Photoshop action for anything that you have to do repeatedly. For instance, if you need to resize multiple photos, or if you have hundreds of photos that you want to make black and white, actions are the way to go.   I would ... Read More

Create a realistic bordered photo effect using this Photoshop action.  Watch the screencast and download the action. Download the Photoshop action here. You will need to unzip the action, then follow the screencast. I would recommend watching the screencast in HD for better viewing. Watch the screencast on your iPhone. Michael ... Read More

One thing that has been a huge help driving traffic to our ministry websites, is the Email Newsletter.  We have over 12,000 people we email on a monthly basis. We send the emails to our members, students, visitors, and those who have communicated to us through our websites. (nvbc.org, gsbc.edu, and nvpublications.net)  Emails are a great way to keep your church members informed.  They are also an effective and free way to advertise special events or new content on your website.  Every time we send out an email newsletter we get a huge ... Read More