Not By Might
In our RiverKids worship sessions, we have been using some of those Internet kids worship videos during our worship session. I’m impressed by these “state-of-the-art” videos, like those from “Stream of Praise” kids worship videos. They even have their kids wearing makeup in the videos, which in my opinion, is a little bit over-done. On the other hand, I question myself, “We are in a big church, how come we don’t have our own “state-of-the-art” worship videos?” It is so clear to me that someone is going to do it.
“No one does when they begin. Ideas don’t come out fully formed. They only become clear as you work on them. You just have to get started.” — Mark Zuckerberg
A few months ago, I saw an email from one of our adult coworkers to the kids’ parents. She asked the kids to practice at home by following the Internet kids worship videos. At the end, she said, “one day we will make our own worship music videos. I have faith in you kids.” This statement didn’t just vanish over time; I happen to have the same faith. Since then, I recorded every single session of our kids worship. I edited the videos, inserted the lyrics, injected the original song/music, added some subtitles, etc… Basically I made the videos look and sound good with various of video-editing software. At that time, I had no idea what it took to make a state-of-the-art kids worship videos. However, the message was so strong that I just had to keep doing and trusted that this is the right thing to do.
“Trust the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:5–6)
Every week, I have a new video from our team. In the beginning, the video quality was poor and my editing skill was at baby level. I decided to still send it out to parents, just to get some feedback. I played the videos for kids to watch during the practice sessions. Occasionally, I would receive compliments from pastors or parents; but deep inside, I knew that the video quality was far away from good. However, their encouragements did propel me to seek improvement over time.
In the past two months, I was about to stop recording for my team. I thought that everyone’s focus was on the Big Shot musical event. I didn’t think that any parent or kid would have time to watch the worship videos. Instead, they would rather spend time practicing for the musical event, which is obviously more important than watching their kids’ routine worship videos on Sundays. I thought that I reached a dead end and I couldn’t improve my video quality anymore, no matter how many video editing software I used. Then, I realized I lacked a few things:
- I needed at least three professional recording equipment.
- I needed a few professional camera operators to record the stage from different angles.
- I needed better stage lighting that could be adjusted for video recordings.
- I needed kids to practice the dances and hand sign movements.
“God I think I’m going to stop recording now. I don’t think anyone is interested viewing the videos during these busy time. Maybe I’ll resume next school year. Perhaps I can’t move forward with the quality of the videos unless you provide me the things I lacked.” I said to myself.
As it turns out, I didn’t completely stop recording. Instead of editing six songs per week, I only edited the best songs. One Sunday afternoon, I received an email from a kid in my team. She asked, “Where is the video of the song I led last Sunday? Could you send it to me?” Well this little voice lifted me up to the sky! I just realized that kids were actually consistently viewing the videos I sent out, as she could tell that I missed one or two songs in my video clips. And I thought that no one would watch the videos every week! Now that I know I have a loyal audience, I will continue to edit the videos, and I will also automate my editing tools so that more videos can be processed faster, without me spending too much time on them. I also searched fancier software to make the video look even better. All because a little girl voices reminded me “I’m watching them. Don’t stop. I like them a lot.”
I often enjoy God’s humor in life. After the Big Shot musical event, I was thinking about using the Big Shot songs for our Sunday worships. I got the official video recording from Pastor Fily, so I edited the videos and transformed them into the kind of videos that we use for Sunday worships. I added lyrics, overlay banners, subtitles, and some cool special effects. I tried to make the videos look good. Then, all of a sudden a miracle happened. The moment I finished compiling the videos and started reviewing the final cut…
“Oh my God, I DID IT!”
That’s the state-of-the-art videos I was looking for. The four things that I lacked for a good video recording were all present. The Big Shot musical took place in our church main chapel:
- Our main chapel uses the state-of-the-art video equipment.
- We have a few camera operators to capture shots from different angles, with zoom in effects for every sole singers.
- The lighting effects were controlled dynamically and tailored for recording purposes.
- Kids practiced singing and dancing for these songs more than six months, and they had the best vocal and dance teachers in our church.
Plus, kids wore make-up! And it was not over-done at all.
On top of this, I didn’t even need to inject the original music from the original singers. The kids sang live! These are the best music videos I had ever seen, and it was made/acted/sang/edited by River Kids, by us. I have a feeling that if we put these videos on YouTube, then other churches might start using them for their kids worship sessions! This is the video production I was looking for. How dumb was I to not realize that God had already answered my prayers before I even prayed for it. How could I not see this coming until the moment I finished editing my first song from Big Shot? It reminded me once again that His ways are higher than my way, and His thoughts than my thoughts.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” — Isaiah 55:9
Sometime, it’s not always about making good music videos, or building good products. For example, the value of Lego is not measured by the assembled final product (e.g. a castle, a spaceship or a them park). Instead, it’s about encouraging children to use their imagination to creatively explore their own world, a world without limits. The purpose of the music videos recording was never meant to launch a state-of-the-art worship video to the world. It’s about encouraging kids to take a stance for God, to be willing to stand on stage as worship leaders. It’s all about Courage, Confidence and Commitment.
I have a kid who attended my worship team for an entire year. She never missed any single worship session. She has always been standing behind me, quietly doing all the hand motions. When I started the kids worship-leaders rotation program a few months ago, I invited her to take the leading position. At first, she was very shy to stand in front of all the kids. However, she and her parents reviewed every single video I recorded. We exchanged a few emails, and finally, in a Sunday morning, she said she wanted to lead certain songs, the ones that she practiced at home. Starting from that Sunday, she replaced me by standing in front of other kids to lead the worship team, and she did better than I did! She continuously improved her skills by reviewing every single videos I recorded. If I missed sending her a video, she would remind me. Today, she takes her first steps to become a kids worship leader. Tomorrow, she will likely take her first steps toward anything big in her life. You just have to take the first step and let God guide you for the remaining steps.
Finally I would like to conclude my video recording/editing journey by sharing the last song from Big Shot, which is my favorite. Enjoy!
We worship you
Sometime when we are scared, lost and confused
we can’t help but wonder if we’ll make it through
then we looked up to you Lord we called on your name
you conquered our giant and now we proclaimed.
(If you’re a RiverKids parent, you should have received the password to unlock the above video via email.)
