Church Video: Visions, Visuals, and Video – Part One
Church Video: Visions, Visuals, and Video – Part One
“When there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, reveal myself to them in visions, I speak to them in dreams.” Numbers 12:6 (NIV)
All throughout the Bible we see God using visions and visuals, and sometimes dreams to present his message to people. Genesis 15:5 God instructs Abram to “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then there’s the story of Jacob’s dream featuring angels going up and down on a ladder or stairway leading to heaven, pretty wild! And during the Exodus, God used the visual of a “Pillar of fire” and a “Pillar of Cloud” to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. That had to catch the people’s attention. Even before the Exodus, God used a burning bush to get Moses‘ attention. Again, a visual.
All of these visuals and visions told a story or represented God’s presence. They were God’s tools of communication, used to reveal himself to man. Romans 1:20 sums up the importance of these visuals: “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities–his eternal power and divine nature– have been clearly SEEN, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”
Of course the ultimate VISUAL God used to reveal himself to man was the coming of Messiah – God revealing himself to mankind in the person of Jesus Christ. He was a visual – a real flesh and blood, tangible, visual.
We are a visual people, so it makes sense that God would use visuals to communicate his message to people. What we see is important, and so is the use of visuals within the context of a worship experience.
We should never plan a worship service without asking the question, “What do we want people to see?” All too often – in my experience – visuals become an afterthought – something that’s tagged on after all the songs are selected, scripture passages chosen, and message prepared. If we would spend as much time on visuals as we do on the rest of the service planning, our worship experiences may become more meaningful and engaging with people.
God spared little expense in crafting elaborate visuals when communicating to people: billions and billions of stars, wild dreams with angels and stairways, fiery clouds, and even sacrificing his only Son – all of these were used to communicate a message, to engage people.
In the next couple of articles I’ll explore some ideas for implementing powerful, engaging visuals into your worship ministry experiences.
