A turning point in South Africa?

I was in South Africa a little while ago at an event called “Loftus for Jesus” at which approx 70,000 people gathered in a stadium in Pretoria to listen to some good music and hear a potato farmer called Angus Buchan preach – not on paper a BIG draw maybe outside South Africa.

I was there for just a couple of days BUT was struck by the gloom hovering in the air. The politicians have been and are failing, the economy is going downhill fast, crime is rising etc etc – things are bad and getting worse – most of this is not news to anyone that follows current affairs but what maybe is that all is not doom an gloom.

At the event in Pretoria, Angus boldly stood up and declared “the future of South Africa is in our hands (the Christian Church) NOT the governments – there are enough people in this stadium to change our Nation!” I know he believes it and after hearing him – so do I.

Something is happening in South Africa right now – in the midst of the chaos, the body of Christ is coming together, it’s praying and seeking God for something new – I think that Angus and men like him know the ONLY hope for their nation IS God. By the way a little bit of background – this event is as far as I know the biggest of its kind in South African history and sold out within DAYS of the tickets being made available. It also comes only a couple of months after the Mighty Men’s conference which saw 60,000 men gather in a field to pray and see the nation changed – there’s 6 or so more of these gatherings planned this year – the church is on the move.

Angus struck me as God’s man for this hour in his nation. A prophetic voice calling on the Church to take its rightful place in society – I loved his passion, but also his humility and compassion. His message was not one of criticising the government for what they are doing wrong BUT one of awakening the Church to do what it needs to do. I believe every nation needs an Angus Buchan – and I believe some nations already have them – I believe Lou Engle (founder of the Call) is such a man for the US. Sadly I don’t yet see one in the UK.

So what should our response be as programme makers and broadcasters to this? Well I firmly believe we MUST enable these men to have a platform – we are the Church’s mouthpiece and it is up to us to ensure that God’s message to His church in this hour is heard – and I believe this is that. Sadly very few broadcasters I believe will take these risks – it’s not comfortable, is often VERY controversial (for example Lou Engle’s attitude to abortion and same sex marriage certainly don’t make him many friends) it also doesn’t always make for what we think is good programming (though I would personally define good programming for Christian broadcasts as a. something the viewers want to watch and b. something that takes them from spectating to participating) – and of course it can be financially costly. BUT we have to do it I believe to NOT do so will miss God’s agenda – and I certainly don’t want to do that.

What about you programme makers – will you find ways to allow your viewers access both to these men – but more importantly to their messages – how can you build programming that will help change your nations – a big task, but think of the rewards.

Also local Churches MUST take a lead, they must allow these men access to their pulpits, encourage their congregations to get to these meetings, engage with the message and Church let’s build the Kingdom NOT our own Empires.

I actually wonder if ultimately many of our ministries and churches will be judged on how we respond right now to these Nation changers and the challenging messages they present – will we embrace and encourage them or try and pretend they are not there and hope they go away. All credit to the broadcasters and programme makers who are already engaging. As you know one of our clients is GOD TV and I am going to give them (and Wendy Alec in particular) a shameless plug as being one who will and does step out – the Loftus meeting was broadcast LIVE on GOD TV as have all the recent Lou Engle Calls etc. so well done GOD TV for standing up and being counted – will the rest of us?

I’d love to know your thoughts on this – do you agree should our attention be drawn to these “Nation Changers”? Can we achieve it? Should we support them and how? I am personally passionate about this – and I think you should be too.

Reflections on Lakeland

I recently spent 5 consecutive days in Lakeland Florida at the outpouring working for one of our clients GOD TV. I rarely get to spend 5 consecutive days anywhere so this actually felt like a considerable chunk of time for me. I thought I would share here just a few observations from my time there – and I’d love to hear your thoughts too.

Firstly let me nail my colours to the mast right up front – I do believe something remarkable is happening in Lakeland, I don’t personally think its about Lakeland as a place – I think possibly it maybe that when Todd moves on the “happenings” will stop – I don’t necessarily however think its about Todd either – in fact I can’t answer the why him, why there and why now questions – maybe we’ll only get those after its all over – BUT I do firmly believe that something remarkable is going on there – disagree if you like that’s my opinion and here are some reflections on what I experienced there:

1. Todd – he is the same on stage as off stage; I spent some time with him and was impressed with his approachableness, passion (it oozes out of every pore) and his ability to relate to those around him. He is also as sharp as a razor (in the right way) there’s no pulling the wool over his eyes – I was also impressed with his desire to ONLY focus on the genuine – if you watch him operate he rarely “proclaims” people healed instead they are the ones proclaiming and he is REALLY keen to get evidence – which despite what some areas of the press would tell you is there in plentiful supply. He’s also seen as “one of us” read Louis story below.
2. The worship and the hunger of the people – I’ve been to LOADS of Christian meetings as part of what I do but never and I really mean NEVER have I experienced anything quite like what I experienced in Lakeland – the hunger and the passion is incredible. I walked round the outside of the tent one night and the thing that amazed me was where ever I looked people were worshiping – what’s surprising about that – well usually on the “fringes” of the meetings people tend to not engage – not so here EVERYONE I saw was interacting with God in worship – that stunned me. Then there was the noise factor. I stood by the stage when the band were NOT playing and my eardrums could barely cope with the level of noise coming from the crowd as they sang, clapped, shouted, cried etc. it was an incredible sound – again see Louis story below.
3. The healings and testimonies – this is possibly the most controversial area – are people genuinely getting healed – well all I can say from what I saw yes absolutely. We were there primarily to film testimonies of people getting healed and we found plenty, ranging from the deaf hearing, to kidney disease, to depression etc. Everyone that testified you could see had been deeply touched – many were near to tears at what God had done for them and many had clear physical improvements in their condition – some total – some partial BUT there is no doubt healings happen thick and fast. And we also filmed some people who were back after being healed previously and had gone to their doctor and got medical proof – Praise God.

All in all, I had a great 5 days, and was even more convinced when I came away that God is up to something in Lakeland – oh and the trapped nerve in my back got healed – Todd prayed for me and ever since then it has been steadily improving and improving (it was still bad before this) but now I have no pain, and virtually full movement back – I’m working on getting the muscles back to full functionality now – so there’s personal testimony for you as well.

Now to Louis story. Louis has given me permission to share this – BUT I confess I may get some facts wrong – if I do, Louis I apologise.

Louis was our sound guy for the 5 days when we were there, an American from New York of Italian descent. Louis had been brought up a catholic but had stopped going to church as he didn’t find anything genuine there – he still believed in God but on a superficial kind of level. I’m not too sure what Louis expected when he came to work with us, but he was a lovely guy, really sweet spirited etc. and we got on great. You could see after the first day when we were filming some of the testimonies that Louis was touched by the stories of what God was doing and when we went in the tent he was blown away by what I described above – and was soon asking “What do these people have that I don’t?” – he was also very taken with Todd and the fact that he was just a normal guy – we had quite a few good chats – I love people that are hungry to know more. By the last day of being there Louis was already telling us of the change that his family were seeing in him, he was talking about God all the time etc. Since we’ve come back, Louis and I have corresponded a bit and I know he is moving forward in his faith, at his request we’ve given him a couple of suggestions on bible reading plans as he wants to get into reading the bible etc. I’m going to look forward to hearing more positive stuff – but the long and short of it is that if you’re asking what the fruit of Lakeland is – well there’s one story for you right away.

I know there has been lots of criticism – the above is my take on it all after being there for a few days – is everything that’s happening there God? Undoubtedly not, there’s people who are being touched spiritually and others that are having an emotional experience only – does that mean we should throw the baby out with the bathwater and disregard it all – NO – that would dishonour what God IS doing – have an open mind, don’t be dismissive, be enquiring etc. Also if you want a good solid theological argument – that’s not what I’m aiming at here – let me point you instead to an article by Rick Joyner on the Morningstar website – he’s much better qualified than me in that area – www.morningstarministries.org/Publisher/Article.aspx?id=1000034608

I hope for some the above thoughts are helpful – I would really like to know what you think so post away……..

The Church Leading the Community

I was in the US for the 4th July this year – the first time ever, and was involved in broadcasting a large 4th July celebration in Springfield (DOH!!) – can’t say Springfield (DOH!!) without saying DOH as well.

This was an event put on by the James River Assembly and has been going for a number of years and this year attracted nearly 100,000 people. It’s basically a full day event with loads of stuff happening games for the children, an air show, bands performing, all leading up to a massive fireworks display while an orchestra plays stirring patriotic songs and all the crowd take the “Pledge of Allegiance” – I must confess I did find the level of patriotism interesting and slightly bizarre – but I’m from the UK and we’re a cynical bunch.

But before the fireworks and everything happened, there was a full on Gospel presentation and an altar call that I’m told over 100 people present at the event responded to and accepted Jesus as their personal Lord and Saviour – excellent stuff.

The thing that struck me about the whole day was the significance that this was a local church putting on an event for their local community and doing it really well. It wasn’t a “covert” operation – everyone knew there would be a gospel presentation and came anyway (the fireworks were WELL worth it – I have not seen a display that impressive as close up – ever). It was great to see the Church getting out of its 4 walls and just being as Jesus instructed salt and light.

I wonder how many other churches do this kind of thing for their community – it’s a fabulous way to build relationships, introduce people to church and share the Gospel – though I wonder how many Churches actually would do all 3 (sadly these days I think many might shy away from point 3 as they don’t want to offend….)

We as the church should be the leading lights in our communities – but many of us prefer to stay within our 4 walls and wait for the community to come to us – let go to them and make a difference and let’s have FUN doing it.

What could you or your church be doing along these lines – we don’t always have to reinvent wheels, we’ve got plenty of things we could be doing – let’s do them.

Find your Niche

Recently I had the utter delight to be involved in probably some of the biggest and most complex productions I have ever done – and possibly ever done on Christian TV.

This was for one of my clients GOD TV (who I work for extensively) and was a whole series of outside broadcasts in the wonderful country of Israel. GOD TV took a tour of over 1700 people to Israel at the start of May to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the nation, and I was fortunate enough to be tasked with overseeing the TV production for the tour.

Let me say right at the start NONE of what we achieved would have been possible without the MOST incredible and committed team of people working on the productions (another reason to invest in people as they are what make the difference) – many of whom worked 16 straight days often on literally 2 or 3 hours of sleep a night. The team included GOD TV staff from the UK, US and Israel and a host of incredibly talented and wonderfully committed local Israelis who loved the experience of working on what they described as “High End” productions – thank you all.

What we did was a remarkable achievement given the budgets and time constraints we were working with. Most secular broadcasters would have had a dedicated team of people working on EACH project for months in advance and a much higher budget – we had a small team working on ALL the productions – and doing other jobs as well – I cannot tell you the incredible talent of these people I have the privilege of working with – they are awesome.

We did 3 main productions over a 4 day period – all complex in their own ways. I’ll list them in the degree of complexity:

1. On May 12th a live music concert with Kim Clement and his band in the open air on Mount Carmel. This was by far and away the easiest of the productions but looked and sounded incredible. We had 9 cameras on the job including 2 cranes, an 8 piece band and the added challenge that the event started in daylight but ended after sunset – so some interesting lighting challenges to overcome – also this came the day after the marathon I have described in number 3 below.
2. The 60th Anniversary of Israel on May 14th – a 2 ½ hour LIVE broadcast – this was again in an outdoor venue – this time with the added complication that the venue was an archaeological park – so it was a case of not being able to do much of what we wanted in terms of layout but having to come up with solutions – we ended up with8 separate “on camera” areas. This was a 15 camera shoot (including 2 cranes, a 20 meter track and dolly and a stedicam), we had 3 different musical guests – a solo violinist, an opera singing couple and ending up with a contemporary worship band. We also had a very special guest preaching – Benny Hinn, Rory and Wendy Alec hosting and a big video element – of course not forgetting the fireworks from the Mount of Olives (for which we had to provide 22 armed guards), 40 shofar blowers on the walls of the old city and some other smaller things. It was quite mammoth – but I am assured (and agree now I’ve seen it back) it was quite awesome – to me in the truck at the time it felt like total chaos – but that’s the benefit of a great team.
3. The last production (in fact the first chronologically on May 11th) was probably the most complex event I have ever done (at least the other 2 were in one place!!!) – it was coverage of the Global day of Prayer. This was an 18 hour LIVE broadcast. Here we had a studio with our “hosts” that was live all the way through, a 2nd studio at a remote location in Jerusalem, a 12 hour LIVE event we were covering also in Jerusalem (the Call) and remote satellite feeds from various prayer meetings around the globe – New Zealand, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Egypt, South Africa, Romania, Denmark, UK (which we were also doing the production on) and a feed from the US. It was immense BUT what an incredible experience – to pull all that together was some achievement – also to see all these people in all the different parts of the world uniting in prayer on that one day was humbling.

I’d really encourage you to go to www.god.tv/stream where some of the above is available as Video on Demand – oh I didn’t mention that as well as the broadcast, you could also see each of the above events and locations streamed simultaneously on the internet in their entirity (just to add to the complexity).

It was a great partnership between all the different ministries and broadcasters involved (particularly GOD TV, Global Day of Prayer – who also preprepared a host of inserts for us on the history of GDoP in these nations and the Call) and I believe a truly significant broadcast in Christian terms – not too sure how we top it!!

Having been involved in all the above (and several other things since coming back – including a 10 hour LIVE broadcast of the Frenzy music festival a couple of weekends ago and the ongoing coverage of the Lakeland Outpouring – broadcasting LIVE 4 hours every night – see my previous Blog) – it got me thinking.

In the UK right now “multichannel” viewing makes up approx 45% of ALL TV viewing. What I mean by multichannel is effectively niche broadcasting. There are now 14 Christian TV stations as part of this BUT generally most of these broadcasters are replicating what the others are doing.

Secular broadcasters in the multichannel world seem to have it right – most of them focus in on one thing – a sports channel, a baby channel, a shopping channel, a men’s skewing channel, a woman’s skewing channel etc. However we have Christian Channels – which on the face of it seems to be niche as the above – BUT I’m not sure that is enough. I wonder in fact if as Christian Broadcasters we need to get even more specific, more focused and more niche – and I don’t mean denominationally speaking. No what I mean is maybe our focus needs to be even more refined if we are going to attract audience – the days of “just” being a Christian Channel might not be enough.

For example, there is no doubt that under the guiding hand of Wendy Alec GOD TV has carved out a niche for events based (and particularly LIVE events) programming – as evidenced by the above programmes. If I can be as bold in fact I don’t believe ANY other Christian network comes close to delivering what the GOD TV team deliver – consistently well made LIVE events – in fact I think they even give secular broadcasters a run for their money in some of the stuff they do on a fraction of the budget. I wonder if viewers now associate GOD TV as the place to go to be where God is moving – I do.

I think there is a danger sometimes that a Christian Broadcast want to be a BBC or ITV and do a bit of everything – chat shows, events, teaching etc. BUT maybe would be better carving a niche in the way GOD TV has done in one specific thing and get known for that. I know GOD TV has in the past done other things and maybe it will do again but at least for now it seems clearly focused on event based content and there is no doubt that is what its audience is responding to, the response to the broadcasts, growth etc. has been incredible in the last 3 months alone eclipsing anything achieved in the past. For example the Up to Jerusalem initiative saw over 55,000 people respond and send in prayer requests and the complete obliteration of every wall in the Jerusalem broadcast centre with people’s photos – I have never seen anything like it and I have to say it was quite an experience walking in their day after day and seeing this growing sea of faces – wow!!

I have also wondered in the UK what GOD TV’s commitment to broadcasting the Lakeland Outpouring every night is doing to the other Christian Networks? Out of the people I know, I have anecdotal evidence that a people who usually watch other Christian networks are abandoning them and instead are watching Lakeland every night.. Of course for GOD TV the potential challenge is what next? If the Outpouring stops – what do they follow it with? Well who knows – other than to say as they are obedient to what God wants he’ll reveal that to them, what I do know is that it is further cementing their reputation as the Channel that takes you where God is moving. With some of the other events planned I have no doubt that will continue – in a few weeks for example GOD TV will be the exclusive broadcaster of the CallDC where over 1 million people are expected on the Mall in Washington DC to pray and fast for 12 hours for their nation – and GOD TV will be broadcasting it all live.

Perhaps other Christian broadcasters not only in the UK should be less trying to compete (can I use that word) with what GOD TV is doing and instead try and work out what their niche is and stick with it – then we’ll have complimentary channels that truly do cater for the audiences needs – if I want to watch the blind seeing, the deaf hearing I can, or if I’m bored of that and want to instead hear a local church pastor preaching to his congregation then I can – or I can watch a phone in show and listen to people talk about anything and everything……. though in all honesty why I would not stick with the miracles I’m not sure.

Maybe you’re a programme producer or a ministry reading this and thinking that I’m talking only about the broadcasters – well yes, but the same is true for you. What makes your programme stand out from the 40 others that are on the same channel – what are you saying that’s niche enough to resonate with sufficient people to build an audience. The fact the programme is well produced and has good production values goes without saying (or it should) no, I mean content – what makes your programme different to the others – in marketing terms what’s your USP (Unique Selling Point) – can I encourage you to spend time finding your niche and focus on it – I’ll guarantee you will have more success that way – also don’t try and compete with other programme makers by copying them – be unique God made you that way be an expression of his creativity in your creativity.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on all this – please tell me if you think I’m onto something here or maybe you think I’ve missed it entirely – let me know.

Is this Revival – captured on TV for the first time ever?

Well, I have spent the last 12 years or so involved in a ministry (GOD TV) desperate to see revival and to carry it to the globe – and I wonder if we may finally be there!!!!

For the past 2 weeks, GOD TV has cleared their schedule and been broadcasting the Florida Healing Outpouring with Todd Bentley (he isn’t your conventional Christian Minister) at I have to say great cost to themselves – both production wise and revenue wise – BUT they believe this is what God has raised them up for.

It has been incredible to experience the commitment of this relatively small network to capturing and broadcasting what God is doing in Florida. I was there (at the revival) for an evening last week and experienced first hand what God is doing amongst people and it is REMARKABLE. However the more remarkable thing to me is that what he is doing on the ground he is also doing through the broadcasts. The e-mails are literally flooding in from all over the globe telling of the goodness of God as people are getting healed and set free and experiencing new depths of relationship with God JUST by watching the programmes – WOW!!!

I was thinking earlier of the difference between when first Toronto’s revival and then the Pensacola’s revival started. There were networks around then who could have gone with this and broadcast them to the world – but for whatever reason didn’t – why not!!! Now a strange couple from Britain and South Africa have found themselves in the middle of what God is doing and have decided in their naivety just to run with it, clearing out their schedules, going through the pain of last minute changes of plans and just doing it!!!!!

Believe me its not pretty or planned BUT it is GOD and seeing what he is doing in peoples lives makes it well worthwhile whatever the pain – well done Rory and Wendy and GOD TV – he WILL see you succeed as you in purity seek to follow what he is doing – JUST please DON’T commercialise it and you will see God do extraordinary things – I know many people (including my wife – who had to first get past the “who’s the ugly noisy guy with the tattoos” syndrome) who are GLUED to their TV and Computer screens watching God move on his people – what more could be the purpose of Christian TV – this is what we were created for and FINALLY we are doing it – and its not always great production BUT people are flocking to the broadcasts as they simply want to see God. If we as media professionals can get beyond our plans and desires to control it and make it “Worthy of Television” then people will still watch as God is there!!

Is this Revival? Who knows, and frankly who cares – what it is (from personal experience) is GOD moving in power and blessing His people – and finally after 2 failed attempts Christian TV is carrying REVIVAL to the nations via GOD TV.

WOW!!!!!!

Can I recommend you hook into this at www.god.tv – your life simply might not be the same ever again.

What a pleasure

I have literally JUST finished a 3 day shoot for a new client Ellel Ministries for whom we have recorded an 18 part half hour series called Living the Life with Peter Horrobin (the founder of Ellel) – and WHAT a pleasure it has been.

Firstly let me say if you are a Christian broadcaster out there you should SERIOUSLY consider airing this series. It’s basically a Christianity 101 type course dealing with the foundational aspects of the Christian Faith. Peter is a gifted communicator, highly engaging who has a real knack of communicating deep things in a gentle and uncomplicated way that is very easy to listen to and packs a punch – it also looks great (I would say that wouldn’t I).

Why was it such a pleasure? Well for 2 main reasons, first the crew I pulled together did a GREAT job both technically which I would expect but also how they fitted in really and became “part of the family” for the 3 days – even though some are not yet Christians they operated as total professionals, were not aloof and didn’t mind the questions from the inquisitive people at Ellel – on fact this is something we really welcome – if we can help and impart some of what we have learnt that’s a positive thing for us as it says YOU value what WE know – and all the crew really rose to occasion – thanks to you all.

The second reason is the ministry were a JOY to work with – a breath of fresh air. There was no strife, no unrealistic demands and they just good to work with. Our crew kept commenting on how refreshing it was to work with “nice people” – and I believe this was one of the main factors that enabled us as a team to produce good work as we wanted to do a good job, go the extra mile and make it work as well as we possibly could “for them”.

There is nothing worse than working for people who are not nice – particularly when they are a Christian ministry – and in all honesty its such a BAD witness to the non Christian crews we often work with – just be nice it honestly is not hard.

Well done Ellel – I look forward to working with you again and I know all our crew would feel the same – and well done to the crew – you really did a great job, thanks. And if you as a broadcaster want to know more about the series (we’ve got to do the post production first) – but its well worth broadcasting – let me know.

What can you potentially learn from this regarding how to work with 3rd parties and consultants?

Firstly, as a ministry if you bring in outside contractors MAKE THE MOST OF US – Ellel did this, they identified a few people who have an interest in this area and asked us if they could sit in “behind the scenes” on the recordings – we were more than happy to do this and answer their questions – and I believe they found it helpful – we really don’t mind and it will help you develop people for the future if you ever want to do this by yourselves.

Secondly, allow us (as professionals) to get on and do the job that you have asked and paid us to do – give us a clear brief (which Ellel did) and then allow us to run with it and bring our creativity to play to achieve what you want – it works better this way.

Thirdly, realise that filming things for a specific purpose will change your internal dynamics of the meetings – if you want a great product then please be flexible, technical problems can happen and if for example we have a problem and need to start again – then go with us – we’re there to deliver the best we can and sometime that means you have to help us – Ellel and Peter were incredibly gracious in the way they allowed us to do what we needed – even if it meant as happened on one occasion that 8 minutes in we had to do a complete restart – BUT trust me when you see it back you’ll be delighted you did – work with us rather than against us – then we’ll achieve MUCH more.

Fourthly, prepare, get ready to make the most of the money you are spending and our time with you – work out how you can best benefit from our time together and have a clear and specific focus in mind of what you want to achieve.

And fifthly, be nice, at the end of the day you may have a purpose and a focus – BUT God may have a different purpose – the seeds you can sow by your witness into the lives of non Christians who maybe part of our teams can have an eternal impact – and at the end of the day that’s what it is about.

Ellel – thanks, it was a pleasure.

The Art of Communication

Recently there have been a couple of instances that to me have highlighted the critical role that INTERNAL communication plays in everything we do as organisations and how in some cases when we get this wrong it can have a real detrimental effect on our EXTERNAL communication – and that really is a bad thing.

The first situation was when one of our clients went and communicated something externally that was a potential hand grenade internally. Unfortunately it was a “sudden” spur of the moment decision to do this that was not thought through at senior management level where someone simply needed to ask “if we do this what impact will it have on our staff”.

Now I am NOT saying the decision to go and communicate this externally was wrong – far from it, as it turned out it was absolutely a “God inspired” decision – all I am saying was that what I noticed was when the implications of the decision were not thought through it created MAJOR havoc inside the organisation. It is essential that those in positions of influence, authority and management put themselves in the position of those who are not and simply think through the implications of what they are going to communicate. In this case a simple staff e-mail would have fully solved this issue and the chaos that took place internally would have been irradiated.

The second situation was a complete, total and unmitigated disaster. I happened to be travelling back from Israel via Heathrow airport on the very day that the new Terminal 5 opened – oh dear!!!!

Basically what happened to me was that we (I was travelling with a colleague) arrived at Heathrow on an El Al flight and because we were transferring to a different carrier (BA) could not check luggage all the way. So we arrived at T5 (which is a stunning place) at about 3.15pm – just about the same time that the entire baggage handling system ground to a halt. What this meant was that NO ONE could check their bags in at the Fast Bag Drop – so you couldn’t go anywhere. To cut a long story short, we waited for nearly 3 ½ hours in the cue – during which time our flight was cancelled (no one told us till we asked) we were then put on another later flight – BUT after asking were again told this one was cancelled (the last one of the night) so we ended up getting a hire car and driving the 5 hours home – all in all not a great experience.

BUT here was the worst thing; there was NO communication from the staff on the ground about what was going on – basically because there was NO communication to them from management – meaning they were left totally isolated and unable to deal with what they were trained to do – customer relations.

I have very little to say other than this instance to me highlighted again the vital role that our internal communication can ultimately have on our external perception. Taking your team with you, getting them on the same page and keeping them involved and engaged CANNOT be underestimated – I wonder how much time we spend concentrating on this as opposed to our external communication (which is also crucial) BUT can so easily be undermined if the internal element does not happen as well – we’re in the communications business – but I think this is an area we severely neglect and wonder if we diverted some attention to it if it might in fact not revolutionise our effectiveness as all of a sudden we have all our team on board.

Jesus did this VERY well even though his “team” didn’t always get it. He clearly communicated ton his 12 disciples REGULARLY what was going on in the ministry and what they should be aware of regarding what was coming up – even to the extent of telling them he was going to die. He concentrated on communication and spent time taking his core team with him – if it was important to him – how much more to us.

There was one other aspect to the Terminal 5 debacle that’s worth comment – and that’s the planning. Who on EARTH came up with the idea of moving the ENTIRE BA domestic and short haul flight schedule overnight into a new home that had not been thoroughly and robustly tested? Surely the thing to do was a phased move – ensuring that it was working at each stage BEFORE moving on to the next – doing what they did meant they had NO back up plan when it all failed.

Unfortunately I regularly work with ministries and organisations that do this ALL the time – never having a plan B. We somehow expect it to all be alright and when it isn’t have to unpick what we have done to get back to normal and then try again – often taking weeks (though thankfully unlike with BA not having it cost us a fortune). If we ONLY spent a bit more time thinking it through, carrying out proper planning, assessing risk and ensuring we have a good plan B – we’d save LOT’S of headaches – I wonder if its because we pull the “God Card” – it’ll be alright, God told us to do it – well honestly it rarely is and in all truth usually when it is its because the dedicated team working for the organisation would die before seeing it fail – but this takes its toll on people and really is NO WAY to run an organisation – the strain it puts is never good and in creative media teams stifles and kills the creative ingredient that is so critical – so a plea from the “little people” please plan better and ask those of us who can help you – AND listen even when the answer is not what you want to hear – its usually for the long term good of the organisation.

Thanks – and what do you think?

The Handheld Revolution

On my way back from the US, for the first time I was struck with how viewing video content on handheld devices is growing – it’s not something I had been overly aware of before, but on my flight from Dallas to Chicago – 3 of the passengers in the seats around me were viewing video content on a hand held device. The girl next to me was watching Family Guy on her iPhone, the guy in front of me was watching something (not sure what it was) and the woman opposite me was watching a movie.

It struck me at the time – taking out the idea that Christian TV is predominantly for Christians to teach, educate, inspire etc. how do we evangelise through the media using hand held devices – is there a way we can do this, what does it look like and will people want to consume it?

Well I think there is a way – BUT we have to get much more creative and much cleverer about how we do things. Firstly preaching is a no no – if you are not a Christian there is no way on planet earth that you would choose to “download” an evangelistic preach – even if its delivered in an attractive way, its just not going to make your play list. But I would even take this one stage further and say anything that is “branded” as a Christian product/video is very unlikely to get anywhere either. I think when it comes to this format we have to get “subversive” and produce material and STAY AWAY from the Christian market – we have to get it out into cyberspace in places Christian material is rarely found, onto platforms where Christians rarely venture and use clever “viral” marketing amongst our friends etc. to get our video clips etc. to the top of play lists etc. so that people wonder what they are missing out on – so they gain a kind of “cult” status.

For me as always the critical thing is creative content that people will want to watch, that will provoke them to laugh, cry, think, etc. BUT something they will react too. This coupled with clever marketing will help get the Christian message in a credible way onto these devices – as long as people don’t think they are watching Christian material that is out to “convert” them.

We also have to find creative ways of financing the production and marketing of this – that does not compromise the “subversive” nature of the material – i.e. looking for the viewers to finance it. Perhaps this is something that can be financed through a strategy of fundraising that appeals to people who want to invest in evangelism BUT they won’t get anything out of it – or maybe existing ministries and media players can assign some of their existing budgets to the production of this kind of material – however we do it, it’s a market place we have to find a way into as I guarantee that the use of handheld devices will grow phenomenally over the coming years – and if we are not there as Christians where will they hear the Gospel?

Slave Labour or a Great Opportunity

As part of my recent US trip I ended up in Dallas Producing GOD TV’s LIVE coverage of the Teen Mania Battlecry event – an event that I have to say is outstanding.

I have worked a number of times over the past 2 years with Teen Mania and have ALWAYS been impressed by the standards of what they do and the quality of the people involved – from the top of the organisation all the way down to those with the most menial of tasks.

In the UK over the past couple of years within television there has been a big debate raging over the “slave labour” issue of work experience training etc. where people are brought on for extended periods of “training” expected to do the same kind of work as those being paid – but get treated like slaves. I’ve never quite had a peace on the issue of this and the more I hang around Teen Mania the less I have. Let me tell you why.

From what I know most of the people involved in the events that Teen Mania put on (I’m talking specifically on the Production side) are effectively students who actually pay to attend a 2 year training course at the Centre of Creative Media (www.centerforcreativemedia.com) on Teen Mania’s campus in Texas. As part of this training course they are deployed on Teen Mania’s events (such as Battlecry) to run cameras, assist on sound etc. and in fact bar a small team of “professionals” they run the show – staffing pretty well every area. It’s interesting that despite these kids (most I would say are under 25) working like dogs almost every weekend – Teen Mania often will run 40 odd events per year across the US – I have rarely ever seen or heard a complaint out of them. In fact if anything totally the opposite – it is usually the case that NOTHING is too hard or too much for them – their desire to serve AND learn is incredible – FAR surpassing that of most people I work with who are PAID to do the job. Why is this? Is it because they know they will get a great job at the end? Is it because they are crazy? What is the reason?

Well the first thing is that there are NO guarantees they will get jobs at the end – although many do, in fact I understand their hit rate is VERY high. Also they are not crazy, in fact most I have met are incredibly good, stable kids – BUT they have a passion for Media and for God and want to find a way to work that out.

They really are a breath of fresh air and I love being around them and working with them – BUT is it slave labour? There is no doubt that Teen Mania probably couldn’t do half the stuff they do without their reliance on their “students” as it would cost them a fortune to replace them with paid staff – so in that sense maybe it is slave labour. However for me the major difference between what these guys do and the usual work experience scenario is that they genuinely receive GREAT on the job experience and training AND also have REAL responsibility in the productions – they are not there just to get the coffee – though I must say they do that very well too.

I have been incredibly impressed by the way the students work, behave and their skills – they really do seem to have a great REAL understanding of the industry and unlike most people in the UK who come out of “Media College” with NO grasp of the real world and the pressures of deadlines, budgets etc. these guys are well trained and equipped for the future.

Perhaps we need to change our practises when it comes to work experience etc in the UK and start offering a solution more akin to the Centre of Creative Media – PARTICULARLY for those of us in the Christian Media scene who are not just looking for capable people BUT also fully committed Disciples of Jesus – this would be a great solution for our dearth of staff in the UK and would also provide a much needed “youth” injection into our organisations and ministries. I don’t think at the moment any of our organisations are big enough to do this by ourselves BUT I wonder if we could do something collectively with the right structure and training in place – we all need new younger trained staff, grounded in the Gospel and this could provide a solution – what do you think?

The old school of Christian Broadcasting

I have just returned from a business trip to the US and as a result of that trip this will be the first of 3 short blogs based on some of that trip.

As part of the trip I had the opportunity to attend the NRB Convention in Nashville. For those of you not aware of the NRB, it stands for the National Religious Broadcasters and is the “umbrella” body of the Christian broadcasting community in the US, it covers radio, TV and to some degree web and although not a “trade body” has a large voice when it comes to Faith based broadcasting.

The convention this year was held at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville which is enormous, but a very nice hotel as well. This was my fourth NRB – I was there last year after missing it (due to other work commitments) for a number of years. But in one sense it felt like it has not really moved on from when I first went about 10 years ago.

The three things that struck me about the convention this year was:

a. It felt smaller than last years – though that may have been the venue it was in.
b. How incredibly “old” most of the delegates were – I felt young!
c. How incredibly white and middleclass most of the delegates were.

I wonder if the first point maybe as a result of the last 2.

It struck me that although there were some “new media” initiatives at the NRB and no doubt there were some people with new and creative ideas, most of it is the same old same old. Old TV and Radio networks, courting new clients to come on their platforms, new and older media ministries looking for new, better, or cheaper platforms to broadcast on, and then all the “business” aspects – the media buyers, fundraising experts etc. all propping up an aging broadcasting model that I have little doubt will not survive much longer due to the changing broadcast market.

The other thing that shocked me was how incredibly white almost all the delegates were – given that statistically the fastest growing churches are ethnic ones – Latin in the US and Afro Caribbean in the UK – WHERE ARE THEY WHEN IT COMES TO BROADCASTING!!!! Have they felt so “kept out” of the scene that they don’t bother anymore – I know for example there are some networks focused entirely on these communities but I didn’t see any of them at the NRB.

I had lunch with a friend of mine and we discussed these 2 issues and I think both of us came to the conclusion (I certainly did) that IF the NRB is still around in 10 – 15 years time it will have to be a very different organisation to what it is now.

To their credit they are trying some new and interesting things – such as a presentation on creativity by a Disney Exec and some other stuff – but generally speaking the thrust of the event is “business” rather than “creative” and is very much focused on the traditional models of what they think “broadcasting” is. One network did launch a new IPTV service which in one sense sounds new and cutting edge – but really from what I saw its just a new way of delivering the same old boring content that the next generation has already bypassed on their way to YouTube, Facebook and Myspace etc.
If as Christian Media practitioners we want to be here for the long haul then we have to engage the next generation of young people through making relevant and attractive content for them – BUT also and maybe more importantly we have to find a way of bringing them and their creativity into the heart of what we do and have them be the ones leading the way to the future – otherwise we won’t have a future.

Why is it that most successful media companies have a policy of finding and nurturing the best new creative talent and promoting them to senior positions as quickly as possible – is it because they know that’s the way forward? Conversely how many Christian media organisations do you know that have people on their management boards who are under 30? – I can’t name any!

Also it does concern me that at a place like the NRB there is so little multi cultural representation – are we as Christian broadcasters not able to find ways of integrating our content so it attracts viewers from different racial backgrounds – if we as the “Body of Christ” which is supposed to be the most integrated and inclusive organisation EVER created can’t do it then what hope does society have. Perhaps this is an area we have to work much harder at as I believe it is essential moving forward that we as the Christian broadcast market find a way of doing this and modelling it to the church and the wider world.

There again, maybe I’m just jaded and everything really is alright with the Christian broadcasting scene – I hope this is the case, but I don’t think it is and unless we engage in these discussions now BUT also actively seek ways to move forward in these areas then maybe we won’t be around in 10 – 15 years time – just a thought – maybe a worrying one, but one we do have to face.

PS – for those of you wondering if my healing has fully manifest (se previous blog) well the answer is not quite. I’ve been up and down physically over the past 3 weeks – but am now getting MUCH stronger. Still not seen it happen totally yet BUT am MUCH MUCH better.

A Blog of a different kind

Most of you who have read my blog will know I work in Christian TV and most of the content on my blog is based around Faith based media etc. this one however is going to be somewhat different.

I’m currently lying flat on my back with what the Doctor has diagnosed as a trapped Sciatic nerve – and have been for several days. Let me give you a very brief potted history of how this came about.

I have over the past few years had occasional attacks of back pain in the lower area of my back. My approach to these has always been the same – I am a Christian who believes that Jesus is alive and well and is the same yesterday, today and forever – I also believe that the healing ministry of Jesus is the same today as it was 2000 years ago – the bible (to me) makes it very clear that Jesus when he went to the cross TOOK ALL OUR SICKNESS AND DISEASE AND EXCHANGED THEM FOR HEALING, so I am healed!!! Usually I stand on this truth for a few days, carry on as normal and the pain goes.

Just prior to Christmas I had another attack of back pain, I did exactly as I have before and between Christmas and New Year the pain went – Praise God. However at about the same time I developed an irritating pain in my left leg – particularly around my thigh and ankle. It was not overly severe and if I adjusted the way I walked I could still get around. Then last Wednesday (16th Jan) I got out of bed to set off on a business trip to Israel for a few days – then going straight on to the US – BUT collapsed in agony on the floor of the bathroom and was NOT ABLE TO WALK due to excruciating pain in my left leg.

I then managed to crawl back to bed – with the support of my fantastic wife whose immediate reaction was not one of panic but one of prayer – she is a REAL woman of FAITH.

Anyway, to cut a longish story short, I eventually had the Doctor out on the Thursday who gave me horse strength painkillers and diagnosed a trapped nerve – and said see you next week. It was at this stage I had a choice, either come under the circumstances OR allow my Faith to raise me above the circumstances. I thankfully chose the later. I remember many years ago hearing a guy called Derek Prince talk about the word of God being his medicine and that is what I have chose to apply. I have certain scriptures that I read regularly that contain the promises of God – health, healing etc. PLUS I have a couple of “confessions” that I speak over myself and to my circumstances regularly and as I do this I sense my FAITH rising within me to see God’s healing TOTALLY manifest – I know that I know that I know that I know that it is coming!!!

Since then, I have continued to see breakthroughs. The pain has substantially subsided – I have no pain when I am lying down and have not had to take a single pain killer in over 80 hours now (which is fantastic) – also everytime I get up it is easier and I can stay on my feet longer till the pain builds up and I have to sit down – truly God is working his healing into me!!!

I know that very soon I will be totally healed and free of all pain and able to move around in total freedom and it will be to God’s Glory.

Now, I am sure some of you are asking questions (as I have) such as – why has it taken so long if you believe? Is your body not just healing itself? Why did you get sick in the first place? Etc.

Well in total honesty I can’t answer all these questions, I do know that I am learning an incredible amount right now about God’s Word, God’s Will for me, how Faith and Patience have to work together etc. and that these are critical lessons I must know for the future – God (as he always does) is turning this experience to my good – and in all honesty I don’t want to leave this place UNTIL I have learnt what God wants me to learn – do I want to be healed NOW and do I believe I will be – yes absolutely BUT also my priority is NOT my healing BUT getting to know God better – after all my wife says don’t seek the healing seek the healer – and that is my most desperate need to KNOW GOD MORE.

Let me also encourage you – God has a plan!!!! and it doesn’t always need us.

When this came on me last week, it could have been (and is still in some ways) incredibly inconvenient) I had 2 major trips on the horizon – BUT graciously God had already worked out a plan b for both.

Israel – GOD TV are planning a number of major events in Israel this year to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the nation. I was going to Israel for a series of meetings for planning purposes. The main reason was I had a colleague joining me from the US who will be doing a lot of the hands on when we are there and I was going to bring him up to speed – as it turned out he got up to speed a lot quicker being thrown in the deep end as I was not there – God’s plan b.

US – We were filming some important programmes in Washington DC and I was going to oversee these. However God knew and I have another colleague there who has been able to step into the breech and oversee these for me – the amazing thing is she is in the middle of a state wide trip to film testimonies all over the country and these 2 days are the ONLY ones she is not away – how good is God!!

So in conclusion. My healing is nearly manifest – it is here already (God’s word tells me that) – BUT the priority is getting to know God better as that will position me for the future MORE than just a quick answer to prayer – I believe I am learning things now that will underpin my Faith for many years. Also, be at peace – God has a plan B.

If you get 2 minutes and want to stand with me in prayer and believe God for my healing that would be great and I appreciate it – thanks to all my friends who are praying already – we’re nearly there – let’s push on through!!!!!

Next time a bit more of a normal Blog – please do comment and let me know your thoughts on this.

God’s Best.

Viewing Habits

I was recently involved in a discussion with two friends about the viewing habits we have as we move into a more technological way of consuming media. All three of us are involved in the Christian Media scene in different areas and all of us believe passionately in what we are involved in – however as we dissected our viewing habits it became very clear the challenge that we have as we move into the next phase (whatever that is) of media consumption. Let me explain how the 3 of us consume media (all of us have digital TV of various types).

1. My first friend does not watch much TV at all – instead he is an avid purchaser of cheap DVD’s of movies and would far prefer to see a movie on DVD during an evening than he would a TV programme. When he does watch TV he rarely watches anything live – instead he records it onto a hard disk recording device (sort of like a tivo) and watches it at a time that works for him.
2. My second fried is the “flicker” he rarely “watches” anything – instead he constantly channel surfs settling only if something really grabs him – for the record he does not yet have a hard disk recorder – he also rarely tunes into any kind of Christian content.
3. For myself, I used to be a “flicker” (my wife would probably say I still am) BUT we know have SKY+ (like a tivo) and this has revolutionised our viewing habits. It is now very rare that we watch anything when it is scheduled (unless it is a LIVE broadcast) instead we record what we like and watch it when we want – its worth adding there are only 8 – 10 programmes we record on a regular basis to watch as we don’t have time to keep up with more – however this does include the occasional Christian programme, but it makes you realise how hard it is to “stumble” across anything new.

So with viewing habits like that – what hope is there for Christian Broadcasting and how should those of us involved look to tackle the future? And this isn’t even starting to look at Internet TV on demand – where if I want to watch a programme I can go straight to the producer to get it completely bypassing the Broadcaster – suddenly there are NO gatekeepers!!!

Well, I’m not going to answer all that is involved in that here – what I’d like to do though is maybe suggest a few things we can consider that I believe will be important to look at as we move forward.

1. The mantra “Content is King” has always been true – but NEVER more so than today and in the future. Delivering unique, original, creative content will be the critical thing as we move forward. Where Broadcasters have built massive distribution infrastructures costing mega bucks these will fast become obsolete and those that want to survive will have to start investing in content and creativity like never before. It will be about offering the viewer an experience they can’t get elsewhere.
2. Marketing and branding – most people think that with new technologies the cost of getting content to market is much cheaper – and that is true – however what people miss is that getting people to watch it will become harder and harder – when there is so much to choose from why will they watch yours? – the answer has to lie in us finding and developing new and creative ways of marketing – I believe that the successful broadcasters in the future will be the ones who marry content generation with great marketing strategies.
3. Platform neutral operations – that’s techno speak for something that I believe will be crucial and that is that as producers and broadcasters we don’t put all our eggs in one basket. Increasingly you are seeing the big broadcasters putting their content wherever there are viewers – CNN or the BBC on YouTube for instance. Programmes available on multiple websites etc. I believe if you are insular – i.e. keeping all your content in one place – you won’t be around long – get it out there as wide as possible to attract the maximum audience – and you now have the chance to get it in front of a mainstream audience – it better be something they want to watch!!
4. Finally a question – and this I don’t feel I yet have an insight on – maybe you do – how do we financially sustain Christian Broadcasting in the future? – where ministries have raised partners how do they continue to do so as their audiences fragment and shrink more and more, where broadcasters have charged for airtime to finance their platforms – will any ministry pay in the future when they can get their content direct to those who want to watch without needing the broadcasters? Where there have been telethons etc. if most media changes from linear to on-demand – who will want to watch these and thus support? I must say it is by no means only the Christian marketplace asking these questions – ALL broadcasters are looking at this and scratching their heads right now. Maybe as we move forward the crucial thing will be building communities around our unique, creative and original content these will be essential and it is these communities which will in turn provide the funding (though donations, advertising sales etc.) that will enable us to continue in a much slimed down version.

One thing I would say is if you are in an organisation involved in Christian media and they are not having conversations like the above – across the organisation from the creatives, to the accountants, the marketers to the fundraisers – it may well be too late already as these changes are and will continue at a massive pace.

So as we end 2007 and enter 2008 – what hope do we in Christian Media have?

Well, we have to embrace the fact that change is on us and if we don’t adapt and change what we do we may not be around much longer – we have to come up with answers that work for us and our organisations and particularly our viewers and partners – we have to give them the very best, creative material possible and find ways to help them appreciate what we give them and tell them why our “mission” is critical and totally dependent on them. The future may not be comfortable – but we have to find ways of embracing it.

However let me finish off by encouraging us all. My wife, son and I have just been up to Scotland for a few days with my wife’s family. We decided on Sunday to go to the local Church of Scotland (traditional church) with her parents. Believe me when I say on the surface you couldn’t get much further away from what we in Christian Media offer content wise (generally speaking). After the service my wife and I bumped into a guy my wife has known for many years and had a brief chat with him. He knew we were involved in Christian Media and particularly that we did work for GOD TV. He then told us of a lady who used to go to the church but now through age and ill health was housebound – he then said that he doesn’t know what her life would be like if she didn’t have access to GOD TV – he said it truly is her life and offers her such great hope and encouragement and he wanted to encourage us in what we did.

I therefore want to end encouraging you – we don’t know and may never know the lives we impact through the work that we do – BUT make no mistake we are impacting people’s lives with the Good News of Jesus on an ongoing basis – and that is why we have to find a way of ensuring we continue to do so for many years to come lets have this debate and find some answers this year so we can embrace the future.

Have a great 2008.

Are Fundraising and Evangelism on Christian TV Compatible?

I recently attended a conference here in the UK focused on Christian Broadcasting – which overall was a great time. However 2 of the speakers had a bit of a “dig” at on air fundraising. The basic premise of their objection was that Christian TV (particularly) should not mix evangelism with fundraising as the fundraising in one way “invalidates” the evangelism – this was interesting territory and one that I have subsequently been considering and wanted to share my thoughts here.

The first thing that occurred to me was that the people who were saying this are not in the position where they have networks to run or the pressures of satellite bills to cover, multiple staff to pay etc. so really should they be commenting when they have not experienced the other side of life – I think the answer to that is yes so long as it is done in the right spirit and motivated by love – as this is a valid area for comment and debate.

When I moved on from this and started looking at what they were actually saying I found my thinking got more interesting. I think for me the first thing I would say is that undoubtedly Christian TV is for CHRISTIANS it is NOT primarily focused on evangelism. The role of Christian TV is in one sense to extend the impact of Church on a Sunday – to equip the Saints for the work of the Ministry – i.e. train them up to go out and be more effective witnesses for Jesus and the Gospel. Does this therefore mean that there is no role for Evangelism in Christian TV – absolutely not – there is a clear role for Christian TV to play here – in fact the vast majority of what I am involved in production wise IS evangelistic – why because there is little evangelistic programming made so we have to produce it ourselves – BUT that of course takes money.

Now a Christian TV ministry is not a church where it has regular attendees who tithe into it and through that it is able to meet its financial obligations and hopefully invest something into Missions at the same time. So Christian TV has to function differently. Most of the networks I know of have 2 main revenue sources – Ministry Sponsorship (i.e. a ministry will pay the network to broadcast its material) and Gifts and Donations – raised primarily by on air fundraising. The first no where near covers the outgoings – let alone allowing the network to invest in original content that is evangelistic – the second helps here substantially – so with no fundraising no evangelism – a bit like most ministries and churches.

The other thing I would say is that generally these fundraising events (which as I said above are primarily targeted at Christians) are confined to 2 or 3 times a year. They are also clearly sign posted as fundraising events and if any non-christians were to tune in they would have a very clear idea of what they were watching. I don’t therefore see a problem here as the messages are certainly NOT mixed up. I would say here however that it is not uncommon for Non Christians to tune in – in fact I was involved in a fundraising event last year where on one night 8 people phoned in and became Christians – and that in the middle of a Telethon!!

Coming back to the church model as an example – is that not much more mixed messages? Take my church for example, EVERY Sunday our Pastor will give anyone who does not know the Lord a chance to accept salvation – BUT also every Sunday we spend 5 – 10 minutes taking up the offering – given the arguments of the people who I heard recently this should not happen – or is it simply that Christian TV is an easy target?

I would therefore like to leave you with 3 thoughts that I would welcome comments on – firstly, we all need to be less judgemental and have more Grace – particularly if you don’t know the other side of the fence OR the motives of those you are criticising. Secondly – Christian TV is for Christians and like the Church until we find a better model to finance it will be funded by asking people to support its vision. And thirdly if we compare Christian TV to how a Church functions – its actually MUCH cleaner and much less of a mixed message.

So for those who want to take a pop at Christian TV for on air fundraising (by the way I don’t like it and never have – but it is a necessary evil – see my earlier blog) think about the above and also think about the massive investment some broadcasters make into original content which they would be unable to do without their telethons.

Two Ways to do Something

This last week I have had the pleasure of working in 2 very different environments and on 2 very differing projects – one of the major bonuses of having my own company.

The first was filming on behalf of GOD TV the Call in Las Vegas. This was a 12 hour live broadcast from the Thomas and Mack Centre and was a mixture of prayer and worship – it was a very powerful event and I’m sure the people who watched it would have been incredibly blessed. It’s the 2nd one I have done and we will be doing a number more – check out www.thecall.com – BUT I won’t do it the way we did it again. Let me explain.

Understandably these kinds of events cost considerable amounts of money to put on AND to broadcast and GOD TV and the Call split picking up the tab for it. This time the Call had the idea to try and save cash by getting local volunteers to help (I have to say at no point did GOD TV ask me to do this – though budgets are always tight they are getting to the stage they know if you want a job done properly it costs money) – but I foolishly went along with the idea (at least I only have myself to blame for nearly losing my sanity). In itself it seems a sensible idea – and let me say this right up front I though the guys who showed up did a very good job – to the viewer at home it would have looked OK – well done to all of them!!!! Though I personally know how much better it could have been.

However here is the major problem, on the day when we were rigging we had virtually NO ONE turn up – and those who did as eager as they were had little clue so there was a lot of handholding.

If we’d have had a pro crew rigging it would probably have taken us 5 hours to get everything set up checked and ready for the programme the following day. BUT instead we arrived at 10am and left at just after 11pm – and still had to do 2 hours more preparation in the morning – so instead of 5 it took 15 hours. That in itself was a problem as it meant we were all going into a live 12 hour broadcast shot!! BUT the major problem was the stress and strain it put on the professional crew we were working with (all 3 of them – Sound Supervisor, EIC for the Brits that’s the Engineer in Charge and the Driver) – plus me. Remarkably they stayed with it and didn’t walk away – though I know they must have been severely tempted – and we all agreed that the event itself went remarkably well – considering.

The biggest problem here was the strain it put on relationships and also the fact that none of us could focus 100% on what we were doing so we did not function to the best of our capabilities and couldn’t necessarily produce as good a broadcast as we could have done otherwise as we were always trying to work within the limitations of the crew – who as I said above did a great job. Is that a problem – yes, for me it is I want to give 100% and produce the very best broadcast possible and if I can’t do that I don’t feel the satisfaction of doing a good job. The other thing is the taste it leaves in the mouth of those you are working with – some of whom this time were not Christians – it’s just not a good witness. Also while in some ways you save some money (and I’m sure they will) when all the overtime of the pro-crew are costed in they certainly won’t save nearly as much as they thought they would.

Bottom line is – this is not the way to do it, at the end of the day we’re short changing the audience and that’s never a good thing.

NOW – contrast that with what I went onto do on Monday – I had the absolute pleasure of working on our first Feature film. It’s produced by Global Creative Studios in South Africa and is the life story of Hanse Cronjie – called simply “Hansie” – check out www.hansemovie.com – we (Cloak) were basically providing the production services for their UK shoot. This including organising crew, equipment, logistics (food, hotel, transport, phones etc.) and filming permits etc. It was only a one day shoot – they had 2 scenes in London to do – but it was SO unstressful and it went incredibly well – they walked away very happy and we walked away very satisfied.

So what was the difference – simple, it was 2 fold – planning and skilled people. We had been planning this for over a month and even though things were changing up till the last minute the planning that had gone into the shoot meant we could be confident we could cope with pretty well anything – and we did have some challenges to overcome – such as radio mics not turning up, noisy builders on one location etc. BUT all we got round – son much so that our wrap time was set at 5pm and we wrapped 2 hours earlier – I couldn’t believe it.

The other key ingredient was the skill of the crew (both the ones who came from South Africa – about 14 – and those who we hired from the UK). They were all a JOY to work with and the great thing was they all knew what they needed to do and got on and did it – meaning we could do what we needed to do – as they say a well oiled machine.

It was filmmaking at its best. They spent the money needed to get a good job done freeing them from the stress so they could concentrate on the creative element NOT the problems – surely that’s what it’s about at the end of the day – building a platform for creativity. I’m not saying they were not budget conscious they were very much so BUT they spent what was needed to ensure the success of the project – and I really wish more Christian companies approached it in the same way – Global Creative you are welcome back anytime!!!

So what is the lesson – basically what the title is – there are only 2 ways of doing things – the right way and the wrong way, pick which you want – BUT be prepared to put up with the consequences of that choice – and I would recommend for the sake of your sanity AND if you value the ultimate experience you are giving the viewer choose the right way.

True or not true

I have been struck recently by the debate in the media here in the UK over trust in television. For those of you who may have missed it and for those of you outside the UK, TV is currently in a bit of a state here. The most recent controversy stems primarily from 2 instances – firstly the BBC (of all people) were responsible for showing a press preview of their upcoming programmes a clip of the Queen (if your going to pick a subject to get into trouble over there are few better) where she apparently stormed out of a portrait sitting during filming of an observational documentary – however it turned out that the production company RDF had edited the sequence out of order and in fact this had not happened at all – it was purely an attempt to “spice it up a bit”. The second instance was again related to promotional material and here a renowned film maker (Paul Watson) seems to have been a bit naive at best over a piece of literature put out by ITV (the broadcaster) regarding a documentary he made which alluded to the fact that the end of the programme showed the death of one of the characters – it was a film (a very worthwhile one) about the devastating effects of Alzheimer’s – however as it turned out the end scene in fact showed the man in question slipping into unconsciousness and he in fact died some days later. Again it seems another attempt to sensationalise a programme for the sake of ratings. You also need to be aware this comes on the back of a recent furore over premium rate telephone rip offs and several other serious errors of judgement by producers and broadcasters – so have probably been given more weight than they may have got otherwise.

It has however sparked an interesting debate in relation to deception in TV programmes so much so that some are even questioning the place of the noddy (cut away of someone nodding shot later so an interview can be edited) in TV programmes. The majority of the debate has however been focused on the editing process to make content say things that are maybe a bit of a stretch from the truth but are more interesting than the truth. Now let me say I have been in TV for some time and have in my time changed sequences etc. in the edit room – HOWEVER I have never tried to deceive – let me give you 2 examples. I was making a documentary and as part of an interview the guy we were interviewing got confused over a meeting and inverted a couple of names (we didn’t notice at the time) but in the edit suite what he said was completely 180 degrees away from what he meant to say – so we corrected it by cutting the 2 names out and swapping them round under a cutaway – so that it was correct BUT was it dishonest as it was not what he said – my answer is NO as it is what happened and we were in fact correcting his error. The second example is from a documentary as well. Here we had 2 conflicting stories from 2 people both involved in the same event – 1 remembered it as one thing the other as something totally different. They were conflicting views of the same event which was a key part of the programme BUT there was no way we could put both views in the programme as it made no sense. So as the director I chose the one I felt best suited the overall thrust of the story – I don’t know which one was true and probably never will as the 2 people who do know still disagree – was I wrong, did I misrepresent the facts – I don’t think so, instead I applied “authorship” to the project as I was telling MY TAKE on the story so I believe it was totally justifiable – I also believe authorship is critical in any programme – as you are the programme maker and have to own the project ultimately.

Now I do believe this does raise some really interesting questions for us as Christian TV Producers – and it’s possibly a debate we should be having. Should it not be the case that our standards MUST be far higher than the secular world who ultimately are driven by motives of profits and ratings, whereas we are driven by a desire to put out a message of faith and hope – so should we not always prioritise the truth above all else?

Let me pose some questions that I have encountered and explore what our responsibility should be – here are some examples (certainly not exhaustive) what should we do in these circumstances?

1. We are telling the story of the impact that a ministry we are involved with has had in a person’s life. As we tell the story it becomes clear that whilst the ministry has no doubt had an impact it may not have been AS significant as we first thought. BUT we have the material in the can to make it so the impact seems greater and thus the ministry we are working for looks like it is having a greater impact – should we edit that way OR be true to the story? I would submit we should be true to the story and the integrity of the person we are interviewing we should not enhance the truth for the sake of making us or our employers look better – after all in one sense is that not what a lot of people level as a criticism of some of the stories in the bible (for example the Israelites crossing the red sea, the miracles of Jesus etc. EVEN the resurrection) – people are always questioning if these stories have been exaggerated of these or if they did in fact happen at all. If we are confident we can defend the integrity of these stories – should we not be very careful about how we tell ours?

2. Live or not live – here is one I run into a lot. The temptation to say that a programme is “Live” when in fact it is pre-recorded. There are a couple of issues here – sometimes some of the programmes I work on are promoted as LIVE events – but sometimes for the sake of scheduling they can in fact be time shifted by an hour or 2 – should we promote these as LIVE? I’m not sure there is a straight forward answer to this but I don’t have too many problems with saying it is LIVE if in fact we are sending it off the site as it happens even if a transmission site somewhere in the world is delaying it by a couple of hours – because in reality there is no time to reedit things and in fact what the viewer sees WILL be what we recorded LIVE – others may have a different view on this. HOWEVER what I do object to is when we “pretend” that something is live when in fact it is something that may have been recorded months before and we are now replaying BUT it suits our purposes to pretend to be live – that I personally do feel steps over the bounds and we start deceiving our viewers – never a comfortable place to be.

3. How about this one using tools such as laughter tracks or telephone backgrounds to enhance the viewing experience – making things seem funnier or busier than they really are. I’ve not totally made up my mind on this one, but overall I think I favour not doing it as again it seems a bit too deceptive to me – but what do you think?

These are just some examples, I’m sure you can all think of plenty of others from your own experiences and situations.

Overall though I am convinced that as Christian TV producers we have to operate at a far higher standard than the secular media and that our integrity should never be able to be called into question. There are MANY detractors of Christian media – plenty of people who due to the excesses of some tar us all with the same brush – lets ensure we don’t give them more ammunition by our own actions.

My advice and the place I have come to personally is that if it does not resonate with the “still small voice” inside you then you MUST question it.

How you then deal with the repercussions of that however is a difficult one – for example, imagine you are working for a Christian Leader who wants you to do something (I’m referring to things like the above – NOT things that are illegal or immoral – if that happens RUN) that just doesn’t quite sit right with your conscience – what do you do? Well I would suggest there are a number of approaches:

Firstly PRAY – take the issue to God and see what he would have you do – I’m dreadful on that BUT when I have done it I often find the problem either goes away or I get clarity on what to do.
Secondly (this and all the rest are determined by the result of praying) – make your feelings known IN A NON CONFRONTATIONAL WAY – tell the person asking you to do the deed why you feel uncomfortable.
Thirdly – let it go. That’s a hard one, however I do believe spiritually the Christian Leader has the responsibility before the Lord for his decisions – we are entitled to disagree with them and question them BUT ultimately if they still decide to go ahead it is their responsibility to make that decision – you then have 2 choices either you let it go and get on with your job or you let it eat you up – and believe me letting it go is far easier.
Fourthly – ultimately if you keep running into these situations that compromise your integrity and you can’t see beyond them – LEAVE – get out and move on – but do so with a right attitude.

I’ve found these 4 things usually sort out most problems one way or another and allow me to continue to work with people who sometimes I disagree with BUT without compromising my integrity or my conscience.

I hope you find this helpful – and let me know what you think – should we be worried about telling the truth truthfully or does it not matter so long as the message gets out there?

A summer of LIVE events

Wow, what a summer it has been – I’ve been incredibly privileged to be involved in some of the best and biggest Christian events on both sides of the pond over the summer. These include The Global Day of Prayer, Frenzy, Ultimate Event, Onething Jerusalem and The Call – all in all, probably LIVE audiences of over hundreds of thousands of people and some of the most significant events to be shown on Christian TV!

So, what have I learnt through it all? Well firstly that God is alive and well and living on planet earth. Secondly that the younger generation (I’m 41 so getting a bit older to be considered the younger generation) are a passionate committed bunch and if you give them something to get involved with they will – all they need is a cause. Thirdly that to capture the moment when these young people worship God in abandonment is not easy but can be done and is incredibly rewarding both for you and the viewer – however there are a number of things you need to watch out for, be aware of and find some answers for (and believe me I don’t have them all)!!!

So, firstly lets ask the basic question – why do we film events such as these? Well it’s all about “capturing the moment” and taking them to a wider audience. These are significant happenings that should be brought to the attention of the body of Christ, for example the Onething Jerusalem event was the first significant spirit filled gathering of young Christians in the nation of Israel. It saw approx 1000 young Christians from Israel come together to worship God – let me put that in context if proportionally this had been in the US it would have been a gathering of over 100,000 young people so a substantial gathering. The Call in Nashville was a gathering of close on 70,000 people to pray and fast to see their nation change – again significant. Surely the role of Christian TV is to be there and capture these moments and take them to a wider audience – but why?

Well, there are a number of answers to that, but I guess the key issues are two fold, firstly to show what God is doing in the nations and encourage people that he can do the same wherever they are, and secondly to connect people – the bottom line is we believe in a God who transcends time and space so if we can connect people LIVE via television and bring them into unity, worship and prayer together is that not a powerful thing – I think so which is why I am thrilled at being critically involved in these programmes and gratified to be so.

OK, so what are the challenges associated with filming these kind of events and how do you try and find a balance to them:

1. To intrude or not intrude – these are personal moments where an individual is connecting with God and you are looking in and bringing the TV audience into that experience – how do you balance the sense of intrusion with needing to tell a story by showing what God is doing in someone’s life? I would suggest that these are key moments that as you want to show what God is doing you MUST show these moments – however it is vital that you don’t intrude on the person. So I always try and keep the cameras at a distance and do more using zooms etc. and try and be sensitive to what we show – so for example we try not to show deep emotional moments or what we consider to be things that are too intrusive – however clearly that is a balance and one that you as an individual HAVE to be personally happy with – other people may disagree with you BUT be happy to defend your position.

2. How do you capture what you can’t see? – bottom line is we can’t see what God is doing and yet that is exactly what we are trying to capture – so how do we do it? Well as I said I don’t have all the answers – BUT my take on it is essentially what we are trying to do is tell a story – in fact I believe all TV is about telling stories so we try and paint pictures and tell stories through the pictures that we capture and the moments that we commit to tape – always think about the viewer – what would I want to see if I was at home watching, and when – for example when there is a preacher preaching, why would I want to see irrelevant cutaways of people in the audience – NO rather show me the whites of the eyes of the preacher – let me connect with him!!! Don’t show me things that are irrelevant – always capture the moment and think of the viewer.

3. Voyeurism – now here is an issue we need to be aware of and find a way past – let me share a problem for you: generally speaking most of the time in Christian circles its females who most visibly respond to God so as a director or a cameraman you naturally chase the action – in this case usually females. THEN add to that you want to try and find “beautiful” people who look good on camera and I would say the average filmed Christian event consists of primarily cutaways of “beautiful” females. Now you don’t always notice this when you are filming BUT the viewers may – so you have to try and find a balance. So throw in plenty of cutaways of ugly women and ugly men as that way it will balance it out – its not a science BUT it does help to have it at the front of your thinking – of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder!!!! The other option is to have female camera people etc. as hopefully then we’ll balance it out.

4. Having everyone on board and working together – I say all the time, its about teamwork – I want everyone to know and understand what we are trying to achieve and to have at the forefront of their minds what we are trying to communicate and to whom. It’s very important that everyone on your team is on the same page, that way you’ll all be working for the same ends – although admittedly that can be difficult when you are using freelance staff – for example in Israel we often work with freelance secular crews – but we also often find that their professionalism overcomes the issues of spirituality – so if you can’t find “anointed” crew, find professional crew – preferably find both!!!!

Capturing these events is certainly NOT easy BUT if we can get it right then these are moments in history that we can take to the world. It is our privilege as TV producers and directors to be there in these “moments” and use the skills and talents that God has blessed us with to bring these historic moments to the world – BUT we have a huge responsibility to the audience and the viewers to represent them at the event and be their eyes and ears and capture these moments in such a way that if we succeed they forget they are watching on TV and effectively are there part of the event.

Long may we continue to bring these moments to the screens of people world wide, and long may we continue to perfect our skills and talents to be able to do so.

Nine days of fundraising – hurrah!!

Now here’s a funny thing – why is it that you can tell people what God is doing through an organisation/ministry, you can even show them LOTS of fruit – changed lives, people getting saved, healed, set free etc. BUT it’s not until you tell them that if they “sow” money into that vision they will be blessed – their finances will increase, their family will be saved, they will be prospered etc. – that they actually put their hand in their pocket and give – WHY!!!!!!

That’s the question I have been wrestling with these last 9 days as I have been producing GOD TV’s Missions Week. GOD TV, the ministry that Rory and Wendy Alec started over 11 years ago has profoundly changed lives on a global basis- they have numerous testimonies of this. They started broadcasting 2 hours per day in the dead of the night on the Sky Analogue satellite in the UK (I know, I joined them on day 2) and have grown incredibly ever since to where now they broadcast to a potential audience of 125 million homes, 6 different 24 hour channels – on 14 different satellites, plus cable etc. Globally All this has been achieved through the vision and the drive of Rory and Wendy with very little help from LARGE investors, churches etc (though there is 1 man who has been an incredible financial support to them) – no one can deny what they have achieved – and yet it still takes an appeal to the selfish nature of the viewers to see the finances come in to fund this – and I don’t understand that.

I do wonder though if Christian TV has done this to itself. Have we created a culture in our viewers where they have become selfish – and if they don’t see something in it for themselves they won’t support it? If so then that’s very sad, but not surprising when you consider how prominent the “prosperity” message is on Christian TV. Now let me nail my colours to the mast here – I believe passionately that God wants us to prosper, I believe that God does not want us poor and in lack, I believe that God wants us to be prosperous for 1 reason – to release finances into His Kingdom for His work – otherwise we won’t be able to fulfil the great commission. BUT and I believe this is a big but – we are supposed to give out of obedience to His word – I believe in Tithes and Offerings (I also believe you can’t “out give” God) – but our motive for giving should never be out of what we can get from it – it should always be out of a motive of obedience. My Bible tells me that God loves a cheerful giver – not a selfish giver. It’s this I believe that is hindering Christian TV. Most of the time the “message to give” is tied into some “blessing” coming back – and whilst I believe this is true that if we give (from a motive of obedience) we will be blessed – every time it is said it reinforces the selfish motives of our giving – so much so that people now wait to hear what’s in it for them before they respond. But how do you break away from that and get back to sharing vision and people responding – in obedience to the prompting of the Holy Spirit?

I personally believe (maybe I’m naïve) that the answer has to be faith. Our Telethons, Missions Weeks, Fundraisers, call them what you will is NOT our source and supply – that is God alone and every time we look to our ingenuity, cleverness, maybe sometimes “manipulative techniques” to raise the finance we need, instead of to God himself we will always come up short.
My wife and I sometime back read the story of George Muller and were incredibly inspired (get hold of the book and read it) – put simply; here was a man who founded Children’s homes in the South West of England BUT he never asked anyone for anything, he never had an offering, never passed the plate round – simply when he had a need he prayed and God supplied!! Am I saying ditch our offerings, get rid of our Telethons etc. and instead lets go to our prayer closets and pray – categorically NO (though I for one could do with praying more) we must give people the opportunity to support our activities, we must “publish” the vision – it’s scriptural to do so and if you don’t you maybe denying someone an opportunity to get blessed through their giving? What I am saying is do them in full integrity – don’t try and manipulate people to give by offering them blessings etc. but lay out your vision and ask them to support it. But what happens when they don’t – that’s when the prayer kicks in – let’s believe that God provides all our needs – not our Telethons. Now here’s a wild thought – maybe if he doesn’t come through we shouldn’t be doing it anyway!! Perhaps then we can slowly break the cycle that has been established and slowly people will start supporting our ministries for the right reasons – not for what they are getting out of it but because they believe in what we are doing – I’d be very surprised if in the long term these type of partners were not far better for us than those who give out of more selfish motives.

Let’s tough it out and change how we do things, if we don’t I believe we are storing up big trouble for the future – ‘cause the next generation (the kids) don’t buy into this at all – if anything they are turned off by it and they need to be our future funders – but they do want a cause they can get behind, you only have to look at the success of the Make Poverty History movement to see that – let’s us in the Christian Media give them a cause they can get behind and support but do it with total integrity, no manipulative techniques, no promises of blessings – BUT just because its worth it and we can TOGETHER make a difference.

Live from Oshogbo

http://www.cloakproductions.com

Day 2 of the LIVE

I thought I would share with you some of my experiences while working as a Producer in Nigeria for GOD TV as they aim to broadcast Live the Oshogbo Christ For all Nations Gospel Crusade. What I’d like to do through these paragraphs is give you an insight into both the practicalities of what’s involved, my spiritual thoughts along with some hints, tips and suggestions that if you are a media professional you might find helpful.

Today is the second out of our four live broadcasts on GOD TV of the CfAN crusade from Oshogbo Nigeria. As I write this, I am sitting in the presidential suite (believe me, this is NOT as grand as it sounds) of the Leisure Springs Hotel in Oshogbo, with my colleague from GOD TV Steve Cunningham. Steve’s currently editing the highlights clip from last nights broadcast for play in during tonight’s programme. This being in the middle of power cuts, spikes and all sorts of nasties that come with the territory – oh the joys of editing in Nigeria!! We’re 5 hours away from tonight’s broadcast and still not only have this clip to edit but also one more filmed at the fire conference that always accompanies the Bonnke Crusades – but we’ll get there (by God’s Grace).

What an amazing experience this has been for me and for GOD TV. To be the first ever Christian network to broadcast LIVE one of Reinhard Bonnke’s crusades across the world is a tremendous privilege. To be able to bring to the global audience what happens on the crusade ground is incredible. We’ve already had feedback from viewers around the world commenting on the awesomeness of the experience. For me it has been a big headache, but also humbling that I am producing and directing this unique broadcast – I am honoured and thank GOD TV and Rory and Wendy for this opportunity.

So far this has not been an easy programme to get on air (and that’s an understatement) and it continues to be a challenge. We’ve just had a phone call telling us that the Satellite Phone we are using as our Communications feed to the GOD TV Transmission Facility has fallen off the roof of our container and broken. It’s a bit of a nightmare as this is our only stable form of communication. There are many challenges we’ve faced, including the dust and humidity/heat (we had 2 cameras fail last night due to this), but we have a great crew who seem to be able to perform miracles at the drop of a hat – well, I suppose we’re in the right place for that.

The logistics of pulling this off have included hiring a charter aircraft (a DC9) from South Africa to move a whole OB, Crew and SNG (3 ½ tons of equipment and 22 people in total) – getting customs clearances, on the ground transport, satellite time (which is very limited here in Africa) and the list goes on. All in all by far the most difficult job I’ve undertaken yet – particularly when you take into account the HORRENDOUS communications issues. However as I said above we have a great great crew on the ground here, and tremendous support from the local CfAN office here. Nonetheless, it has not been easy and I have learnt a lot that will be very useful should GOD TV or another of our clients need us to do this again (which I sincerely hope they do). Here (based on what I’ve learnt so far) are some general recommendations for filming in “foreign parts” and also for filming in EXTREME parts of the world like Nigeria – I hope you find them helpful:

Always have a local fixer who can help you on the ground with logistics – and where possible have this person dedicated to you.
Do not rely on being able to communicate to “base” etc. – though try and have a system in place for this.
Ensure you get a great crew (preferably people you have worked with before and can trust) – even if they cost you more – INVEST in people.
If you’re in places like Nigeria, do not rely on any local infrastructure, BRING IT WITH YOU – again even if it costs more. At the end of the day getting the programme on air or to tape is worth an extra bit on the budget. Spend £100,000 and guarantee that something can be taped or spend £70,000 and run the risk of wasting it all – no contest in my book.
Talking of budget, always negotiate the best deals that you can, but be aware that you probably will exceed your budget as there is always the unknown – so build in a contingency.
Travel with plenty of CASH, credit cards are no use in Nigeria for example.
· Try if possible (for me it wasn’t this time) to do a full site visit prior to coming.
And the biggest one of all – give yourself as much time as possible to plan. That way you’ll save money and also ease the way and headaches as much as you can.

Those are some starters which I always try and work within.

Now to the most important thing, the spiritual impact of this event – on the people here, at home and on me.

This is my first time in Nigeria and only my third in Africa in total and I am struck by a number of things. Firstly, I am struck by the number of churches, ministries, and missions that are here present in Nigeria – Christianity is a BIG thing here in Nigeria and coming from the UK where it is a small thing, this is interesting to see. Maybe it’s from the hope that the gospel offers to people, or because of their lack of “materialism” means they are more open to spiritual things – whatever it is we need what they have in our nation!!!!

Secondly though is the “gimme gimme gimme” mentality of EVERYONE here, they all have their hands out – particularly if you are western. This isn’t just the people you meet on the street but it also applies to the local church people (though that maybe an over generalisation). I was stopped by one guy outside our trailer yesterday who said “what are you going to give me,” when I asked him what he wanted, he asked for money. At that stage I replied that I was not going to give him money, so he said “you need to give me something I am a Pastor, and there is no money in Nigeria”. It struck me at that point that a country living on hand outs rather than looking at how it can better itself has little hope.

However the third thing that struck me most profoundly was the impact that Reinhard Bonnke has had, not just on Nigeria but also the whole of Africa. I’m sure he would not agree with me, but the seeds he has sown in this country, I believe, will bear enormous fruit in the years and decades to come. What particularly impressed me was the impact of the Fire Conference. This goes alongside the Crusade itself and operates in the mornings. It’s aimed at the local church pastors to come and get envisioned and receive the power of the Holy Spirit to do the work of the Gospel. I believe it is partly through these Fire Conferences that have been operating over many years that we are now seeing Africa transformed by the Christian Gospel, Churches are growing at a staggering rate and slowly this continent being changed. Reinhard has deposited in the local Churches a fire that cannot be quenched and that now sees Africans reaching to their own kind, and becoming less reliant on preachers from the West coming to carry out Crusades (though clearly that is still happening). We heard yesterday of one Church in Nigeria whose building is 1 ½ Kilometres long and has a congregation of 1 ½ million – incomprehensible to me. So in effect Reinhard is working himself out a job which I’m sure he is delighted about – but is that not what we are all supposed to do? Pass on what we have to others so that they can go further. Do more, have a greater impact and effect than we ever could? In truth though how many of us can really claim that. It’s certainly something that I feel more and more passionate about – though I have to confess that the passion has not yet translated to action. I know that I need to be sowing my own life, my gifts, and my knowledge into others so they can learn, grow and develop their giftings and in time totally exceed anything that I can do. Was this not Jesus’ model of working with the disciples and was it not he who said that they/we should far exceed what he achieved – wow, that’s a challenge. I know I’m not living!! Let’s hope we can all start living the way Reinhard lives. Not just doing the work God has chosen us for (in his case the Crusade) but also inspiring and investing in others to see them exceed and excel (the Fire Conference).

Day 3 of the LIVE

Well, last night was interesting!!! We managed to get the satellite phone fixed, but that actually became the least of our problems. We managed to get the 2 insert pieces edited and played out – again thanks mainly to the ingenuity of those on site and various “get out of jail free kits”. And we finally managed to get onto the satellite. However after that the next 30 minutes was a tail of disaster, technical challenges miss communication and bad decision making under pressure.

The first thing that happened was (and this was also the case last night) our downlink station was only receiving one leg of our audio, so we had to mono the feed. However we have since discovered that one of the NEW cables that was connected to the encoder was wrongly wired, so hopefully tonight we will have this sorted. The next problem was the GOD TV transmission facility was unable to get an outside line to dial our satellite phone for communication purposes, so instead I had to dial a mobile number in Israel to talk with them via my mobile – with a bad line and lots of delay, this made communication very hard.

It was however to get worse still. The GOD TV studio in Washington was supposed to be opening up the programme, but for some reason the transmission facility in Israel was unable to receive their audio signal. So with 30 seconds to go till we were live I suggested to Israel that they put us straight to air so we would have the programme on air at the scheduled time and not disappoint the viewers. This way if the DC studio managed to get their audio sorted they could go to air once established and we could throw to them. So Oliver Raper (our on camera talent) took off bang on schedule and started most eloquently to explain to the viewers where we were and what was going on. He then threw to a VT highlights package of the previous night and then another problem hit – there was no sound (due to a technical issue) so we went back to Oliver. Then the most bizarre decision was made. Israel transmission was instructed to take us off the air as the DC studio needed to be on first before us. So that’s what they did and played a Christian Music Video instead!!!! Now at this point some of you may be thinking “DC couldn’t be first as the viewers had already been introduced to Nigeria” – and you are correct that’s why I said it was a totally bizarre decision and to my mind the wrong one for other reasons as well. Imagine you’re a viewer sitting at home waiting expectantly for the broadcast from Nigeria to start and that’s exactly what happens at 18:45 when it should – then all of a sudden and without any explanation 5 minutes into it a music video pops up – are you going to stay watching, I wonder. I still cannot see the logic in this and to add to the farce, DC didn’t get their audio sorted and after the music video (a 7 minute one) they came back to us at the crusade and the DC studio was not heard from that night!!

Now you might think that after that it was all plain sailing – well you’d be wrong. The next thing that happened was after Oliver did his link we then had the burning of the witchcraft symbols – which was amazing on TV. Then Reinhard got up and started welcoming the viewers on TV at which point one of the site generators failed and all our power went taking us off air instantly. It took a few minutes to resolve this and re-establish the satellite connection, but once we had we went straight back on air and Reinhard then welcomed the viewers.

After this everything went fine and the programme was fantastic. However there are lessons to learn from this and one thought I’d like to explore.

Here is a question, were the difficulties we were having with power, communications etc. in any way a spiritual battle due to the stand being taken over the witchcraft symbolism? Well I don’t know the answer to that but I would say that we are often too quick to blame the devil for things that naturally happen. For example the Generator failed because it overheated – but we’re in Africa in extreme temperatures, so not an unnatural occurrence. The communications challenges from Israel seem to happen regularly so again not unnatural. I do however believe we fight a spiritual battle, and my take on it is that there is a balance here somewhere. I think there is an argument to say that all these things happen naturally – but I also think that it’s not necessarily the full picture. I have no doubt that the devil does not want our broadcasts to succeed and will do everything in his power to stop them – and I think often uses “naturally occurrences” to help him. For me the major thing it highlights is the need for prayer cover when undertaking these kinds of endeavours and that’s the first lesson I’d like to mention that we can learn and implement when doing things like this:

When filming “spiritual things” abroad (well anywhere in fact) ensure adequate prayer cover and support – also if possible arrange for continual prayer updates and requests to be given to those praying and that if you are doing LIVE broadcasts then ensure the prayer is going on over these times too.
Plan on the basis that your communications may fail and ensure you have a backup scenario – in our case we really should have had a 2nd satellite phone in place that we could have called Israel on.
If you do these things regularly for the same broadcaster, ministry etc. ensure they have in place the correct resources needed at their end – and if not follow through to ensure that things are changed for the future.
Learn from the experiences and mistakes and do full post mortems with all those involved.
Be prepared (as a producer) to make swift, split second decisions and try to communicate these as effectively as possible – you must be in control of the situation, not the other way around.
Try and ensure if you are working with other remote sites that everyone is on the same page and the decisions made are not driven by what is beneficial for your organisation, but are for the benefit of the viewers – that way ultimately the viewers will be impacted most effectively and that ultimately will be of major benefit to your organisation.

Despite the mayhem it was a great broadcast and I personally continue to be blessed by what Reinhard is doing here in Africa, and by the commitment of GOD TV to spend their money and resources on bringing it to viewers globally.

Day 4 of the LIVE

Well, it’s nearly over. Tonight is our last LIVE broadcast from here in Oshogbo and the last 24 hours has been incredible.

Firstly let me tell you about last nights broadcast. Thankfully due to the horrors of the previous night the Washington DC studio live piece was cancelled – hoorah!! This certainly makes our lives much easier. However despite this last night still had its challenges. The main one was we had an intermittent fault with our audio feed of Reinhard’s microphone which meant we kept losing his sound – certainly not ideal. The CfAN sound team and our own sound guys worked as hard and as quickly as they could to resolve this and eventually managed to find a solution that was workable, but the broadcast had been impacted by it – that’s Live TV for you. I also had a small situation last night when I was communicating to our tape operator that I wanted a certain VT cued up (we only had a short time to do this) and due to complete misunderstanding he thought I meant a different machine and was trying to point out we only have 1 player – the problem was in South Africa VT is the machine, not the tape – I meant the tape, he thought I meant the machine – certainly not his fault. After I made myself clearer he eventually got it though and I apologised to him later.

The programme itself though was amazing. As well as doing the usual Gospel Message, Altar Call and Prayer for healing, last night was also the prayer for the Holy Spirit and WOW was that a site to behold. 50,000 plus people paying as loudly as possible for over 5 minutes is not a site I will forget in a hurry. The sound was out of this world and it is an experience that nearly brought me to tears, even as I was explaining it to my wife last night on the telephone, my words could not do it justice and I felt the tears welling up again. I’m not going to try and explain it other than to say it was probably the most amazing thing I have ever witnessed – try and find a way of seeing the tape sometime. Even our non Christian crew were affected by it – you couldn’t fail to be.

Despite this we all came away with a slight despondency as we all knew it could have been better. Its really hard when you pour your energy, life and skills into making something as good as it can be, because you both believe in it and are totally passionate and committed to your “profession” and you are let down by a piece of wire (which was what the fault was traced to) – HOW FRUSTRATING. There are of course lessons to learn here as always:

When working in different countries, work out how to communicate (technical things) with local crew – it’s your responsibility to communicate well to them, not their responsibility to adapt their understanding to you.
In the heat of a live programme, sometimes you can lose your cool (everyone does) – but afterwards always make it right and if you’re the one in the wrong (as I was) apologise.
Things can go wrong in live shows that are no ones fault – everyone will try and fix it as soon as they can – allow them to get on with it and do the autopsy afterwards – they will get it fixed as soon as they can (assuming you’re working with people you can trust).
Don’t scrimp on equipment or crew when in difficult places – if possible have extras of everything (we did to some extent) and also have sufficient crew – it’s always particularly useful to have an extra men/women not assigned to any specific task.
Allow people to do what they are good at doing and don’t try and do it all yourself – it’s about team work.
Tape stock is cheap compared to anything else, so shoot everything you might need – BUT don’t over shoot – you’ll regret it in the edit.
When things go wrong (and they will) try and walk away at the end of the day, and MAJOR on the positives – particularly encourage your crew and particularly those who may feel most responsible for the problems – they need your support. Team bonding cannot be underestimated.

Now to the real highlight of today (so far). Every Sunday on one of these Crusades, Reinhard and the CfAN team get together for devotions – 1 hour of teaching from Reinhard, worship and communion (for about 20 people in all). We were invited to go if we wanted and a few of us gladly took up the invitation and boy were we glad we did. It was so inspiring to hear what Reinhard had to say and in all the busyness and chaos going around to take time out to refresh our spirits. I can honestly say it was one of the greatest experiences of my “faith walk” so far. Reinhard is so passionate about the lost it oozes out of every pour and he has devoted his life to it and has seen tremendous results so far – 50 million people saved – he’s now ½ way to his target!! He is the same when talking with 20 of us as he is when talking with 200,000 plus – he even asked us to excuse him at one point when he felt he was starting to preach as he would on the platform – but he is who he is and I’m sure God would have him no other way.

There were 2 thoughts that he shared that particularly had an impact on me; the first was he asked us how many of us loved the thought of heaven? Of course all of us put up our hands – he then went onto say that no where in the bible does it say that God loves heaven. In fact it says totally the opposite – that God loves the earth – therefore this must be the same for us. Our whole lives should be spent loving the earth and the people that live on it – now that’s a challenge. The second thing he said was that God changed his name to include ours. He cited that when he (God) was asked who he was he replied “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob”. By doing this God has put his reputation on the line and risked his name on our actions – what a responsibility – BUT also this means we have his full backing and endorsement no matter what – that’s reassuring.

These two things have challenged me, both in terms of the importance of evangelism and also the fact that God’s name is at stake, but I needn’t worry I have his full backing!!

Probably the most important thing I got out of the time was how dedicated Reinhard and his team are to what they do and how important it is for all of us to receive good spiritual input into our lives in a way that can challenge and sharpen us as we continue to do what God has called us to do.

Day 5 – post LIVE

Well that’s it, all over and I’m now on a plane heading to Washington DC to the next job on the agenda – GOD TV’s Missions Week – somewhat different.

The last night it all went right – there were of course the odd error - a bad cut here, a late fade on a mic there, but that’s LIVE TV for you. Overall though we could not have had a much better show. Reinhard was his usual totally passionate self, Olly Raper our “on camera” talent did a great job and we had NO technical hiccups.

There was only 1 small issue that we had to work with and that was a bizarre request for us to do a kind of weather report on the temperature in Nigeria contrasted with the fact that in Washington it was snowing. This we all found somewhat irrelevant to what was going on, but in obedience did it anyway – I do wish though people would have a bigger picture of things and decide on what content is done based on its relevance to the viewer at home. I said this before, but it’s worth reemphasising that the viewer MUST be our primary focus and we often need to step back and ask the question – how relevant is this to the viewers at home.

We even managed to cut together a highlights piece of the whole time and I for one certainly had a lump in my throat when it was played out. It was very well edited and also brilliantly shot by one of our local cameramen the images he captured were simply stunning – if you’re ever shooting in Africa and need a cameraman I have the perfect one for you!!

I was also really pleased as we managed to run a credit scroll over the programme – which I felt was really important and often gets omitted to give credit to those behind the camera who make it happen. Talking of which we also interviewed some of the CfAN crew for a Behind the Scenes piece we will put together – I won’t spoil it for you by telling you the stories – but they certainly have a few to tell that will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.

That’s where I’m going to leave this report as ultimately it boils down to people – both those responsible for making it happen (both the event and the TV broadcast) and also those effected by it – those at the Crusade and those at home watching.

What an incredible experience for me and what an honour to be the Producer of the first Global LIVE broadcast of a CfAN crusade. I know those who will have seen it would be blown away by its scale – we had 260,000 (conservative estimate) people in attendance at the site and 120 million homes worldwide who received the signal. This is what Christian TV should be for, capturing what God is doing globally and bringing it to the masses – more power to Rory and Wendy for their vision to do it. I can’t think of many other LIVE broadcasts even secular ones that have had that quantity of people in attendance – and Christian TV did it!! You could see that reality and potential catch hold of Reinhard too over the few days and broaden his understanding of what was possible.

Ultimately though Rory and Wendy are only a small part of it (as are we all) and I’d like to finish by encouraging all of you to build up your people, encourage them, enthuse them, envision them, recognise them and praise them as it can’t happen without them – People are your MOST VALUABLE ASSET – God did not lay his life down for a vision, technology, TV or anything else BUT PEOPLE!!!!! Treat them right and together we can impact the world.

Well that’s me, I’m now off to Washington DC for 10 days of Missions Week fundraising – which I confess does not thrill me in anyway – BUT without it I can’t go back to Nigeria or somewhere else and do this all again and the viewers won’t be able to see what God is up to in the world – so that’s why I’ll do it and pray it goes well and that we can do many more broadcasts like this one from Oshogbo.

Thanks to all the crew in Nigeria, both the CfAN guys – Freddy, Dave, Boyo, Derek etc. and all the guys on the TV side, Steve (lots of them), Eric, RiC, Anja, Troy etc. you were all tremendous. Thanks to Olly – bless you as you move on with what God’s got for you. Thanks to Reinhard for allowing us to come and be a part of something so incredible – God strengthen you and I pray you reach you target of 100 million!!! And thanks to Rory and Wendy for trusting me with this project. But particularly thanks to God for the lives saved, healed and transformed through the power of your Holy Spirit both in Oshogbo and around the world. This really is fulfilling Mathew 28 – the Great Commission.

If you watched it I hope you enjoyed it, if you didn’t and you’re just reading the above then I hope you find something of interest either professionally or spiritually and until next time, God’s Very Best to you all.

Graeme Spencer, Series Producer/Director the Oshogbo CfAN Crusade for GOD TV





Graeme provides consultancy services to GOD TV and other clients as well as full Production Services on a range of television and video content through his company, Cloak Productions.

To contact Graeme or Cloak Productions, please write:

Cloak Productions
The Quadrus Centre
Woodstock Way
Bolden Business Park
Bolden, NE35 9PF
Tel: 0191 519 7336
E-Mail: enquiries@cloakproductions.com
Web: www.cloakproductions.com



© Cloak Productions 27th February 2007.