Calvary Church Communications Blog

Calvary’s Mobile Site

Posted on 22. Feb, 2010 by Chuck Scoggins.

We recently launched Calvary’s mobile web site and I thought I’d share some of the experiences I learned along the way. This is not meant to be a comprehensive how-to on developing a mobile site, but perhaps these lessons-learned might help someone along the way. In no particular order:

1. The trickiest thing (in my opinion) about getting a mobile site to work is the mobile redirect from the non-mobile site. There is lots of information out there on how to do it, but the method we ended up using is an adaptation of the WURFL open-source configuration method. This is basically a database that is kept of mobile phone browsers’ user agents that is regularly updated and that is free for anyone to implement. A programmer at our hosting company, Vitasite, helped us with the implementation as well as the folks at AspireOne. We also decided to put a link near the top of our home page on the main site so that if someone’s phone didn’t redirect them, they could click on the mobile link and go to the mobile site right away.

2. The second biggest problem was getting the pages of the  mobile site to render properly in all of the phones I was testing on. For example, a page that rendered correctly on the iPhone, would be zoomed out and would look tiny on the Palm Pre. That was, until I ran across this little gem of code:

<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width">

This code tells the viewport of the mobile browser to be set to the width of the device. Combine it with this piece of code which sets the zoom level to a default of 1, and things were displaying on the mobile devices much better.

<meta name="viewport" content="initial-scale=1.0">

3. Thinking through what content would be best on the mobile site was the next big challenge. We wanted people to have information about the church, but not be overloaded with all the things that were on the main site. We asked ourselves, “What would someone who is looking at the church’s website on their phone be looking for?” The obvious things were contact information and directions. We also wanted to have information about the worship services so people sitting in the worship center could take advantage of the mobile site. So we added a page with our service order and a link to the message outline on YouVersion (a separate post on that is coming soon). Finally, we wanted to give users a quick top-view look at upcoming events and serving opportunities.

4. The next big decision was to decide whether to promote and publicize the fact that the mobile site exists or to just allow people to discover it on their own. We decided to do the latter with the exception of the Pastor mentioning that people could follow along with his message notes on their phones in the service for the first few weeks. That seemed to work well for kick-starting the use of the site.

5. One last thing that we didn’t think about until the site was in use and we started getting feedback from people using it. People with more modern smart phones wanted a way to get back to our main site. So, after a few weeks of this feedback, we tweaked our redirect with a cookie to let people override the redirect and use the main site if they so desired.

One resource that really helped me with designing the mobile site was a training resource from Creative Techs on developing iPhone web apps. Even though I wasn’t designing for the iPhone specifically, the principles learned through those training videos were transferable.

So far we’ve had excellent feedback on our mobile site. We’re using Google Analytics to track the traffic on our mobile site and during the week it is about 10% of our overall visits, and on Sundays it jumps to about 60%. It was one of those things where we were not sure how many of our attenders and guests would use the site until we put it in place, but now that it’s there, we’re glad we put the time investment in.

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The Purpose of Communications Ministry

Posted on 09. Feb, 2010 by Chuck Scoggins.

I was recently asked what the ‘Purpose Statement’ of the Communications team at Calvary was. I wasn’t able to articulate one off hand, and that disturbed me, so I wrote one for our team:

The Communications Team exists to enhance the Calvary experience by making what you read, touch, click, or see remarkable.

At first glance, you might get hung up on the word ‘remarkable.’ however, I think remarkable is exactly what we’re shooting for.

Dictionary.com defines remarkable as something that is notably unusual or extraordinary. We want to leverage communications tools to make the Calvary experience extraordinary. We want our communications to be remarkable.

Specifically, there are three areas where we want to be remarkable:

Remarkably Simple
People in our congregation are bombarded all day long with media and messages and the last thing we want to do is add noise. We want to communicate what is needed, no more and no less

Remarkably Inspirational
The message that we are charged with communicating is the most important, most life-changing, and most inspirational message out there. Through intentional story-telling, the communications team can be on the front lines of helping people realize the transformation available to them.

Remarkably Actionable
It does us no good to communicate an inspirational message in a simple way if it doesn’t lead to life change. That’s why we want to help people understand their next-action in their faith-journey.

One last word on the topic – Our communications team’s mission is bigger than publications, web sites, and media. It’s about enhancing the entire experience that people have with our church.

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Calvary’s Christmas Production – Unto Us

Posted on 26. Jan, 2010 by Chuck Scoggins.

A little background…
For Christmas 2009, we (the Calvary Church Creative Team & the  Leadership Team) decided to take a different approach than in previous years. In the past we’ve put on a big, carnival-style event with children’s events (crafts, games, puppet shows, build-a-bear stations, snacks, etc), a petting zoo, a hayride through Christmas lights, a mini-train ride, and culminating with a full-length custom written and performed theatrical stage show. It was always a great event, but the amount of work that we had to put in to pulling all that off really taxed our staff and caused our worship services and other ministries to suffer in December – which is typically when we have the highest attendance at our weekend services.

This year, we made a strategic shift to focus all of our attention on making the weekend services in December be the most irresistible experiences that they could be. We decided to split our one-hour theatrical show into four 10 to 15 minute dramas that supported the theme of the message (which we titled, Unto Us) for each of the first three weeks in December and for Christmas Eve. We performed the dramas live at our Mid Rivers Campus and pre-recorded a video of the show for our other two campuses.

We got great feedback on this strategy and we had a nice attendance bump in December – which we interpret to mean that people invited their friends, neighbors, etc.

Here are some of the nuts and bolts of our production…

• The Worship Productions team wrote, cast, and produced the four dramas. They rehearsed several months prior to and after our video taping, which was in mid-November. They also built a remarkable set of an interior of a lodge, complete with a stone fireplace.
• The tech crew rented and installed 10,000 foot candles of additional lighting for the video production. They also installed several snow machines and two wire-rope wenches to add to the effect. They put in several 20-hour days prior to the video shoot.
• The video shoot itself was a 16 hour ordeal involving 4 HD cameras, one camera crane and dolly, time-code sync, a rented engineering rack, a crew of about 8 people, and all the other video pre-production equipment and details you would expect.

Below is the promotional video using clips from all four weeks of the production that we showed prior to the first week to get our people excited about inviting others to the services.

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A Call For Ideas: Behind Enemy Lies

Posted on 29. Oct, 2009 by Chuck Scoggins.

In January we’re beginning a message series called “Behind Enemey Lies.” We’re wanting to make the communications pieces a communal effort so we’re challenging you to come up with the design branding for the series.

Most of the movie posters for Behind Enemy Lines have Owen Wilson’s and Gene Hackman’s photos on them, which makes doing a “copy-cat” look a bit difficult. We do, however, want it to have a military/action-adventure move feel to it. If you’re interested in submitting a design concept for the series, send it to me (Chuck – cscoggins@calvaryonline.cc) by November 15. If there is a really good one, we’ll use it!

To guide you, here are some final pieces that we will create from your concept:

• Logo
• Poster
• Website Banner(s)
• Bulletin Insert(s)

Please note: I am very sensitive to asking designers to work on ’spec.’ We’re doing this as a fun, challenging opportunity…and you’re probably not going to get paid for your work even if we do pick yours. If you’re a professional designer and would like to do this because you love to create – go for it! If you feel that it would be ‘putting you out,’ please do not get involved. Thanks!

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Worship Opener For This Weekend

Posted on 23. Oct, 2009 by Chuck Scoggins.

The worship segment in this week’s service will open with this little video we put together. It will lead into the song, Let The Praises Ring.

Created in Adobe AfterEffects
Grunge Background: VideoCopilot Riot Gear
Flourishes: VideoCopilot Evolution

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I John 2 Video

Posted on 15. Oct, 2009 by Chuck Scoggins.

Among the things we’ve been working on this week is this video:

Shot with our JVC GY-HD100
Cut in Premiere Pro
Effects applied in After Effects
Special Effects: Magic Bullet

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Philippians Video

Posted on 07. Oct, 2009 by Chuck Scoggins.

Kyle and Jacob slapped together an awesome ‘kinetic video’ last week for Mosaic. It is set to the music of a rap group called 116 Clique, a group of solo artists on the same label that come together for certain compilations. I thought you might like to see a little preview of it:

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Genuine Message Series – Part 2 Brainstorm

Posted on 05. Oct, 2009 by Chuck Scoggins.

Last week we (the Creative Team at Calvary) brainstormed the support elements for the second half of our Genuine series. I took some photos of our notes on the dry-erase board. I always find it interesting how other churches brainstorm and develop their services, so I thought I’d post pictures here for those who might be interested.

Of course, if you weren’t there or don’t have the chance to experience any of this in a service, it might not mean much to you. If you have any questions about it, leave us a comment and we’ll try to explain what ideas we ended up keeping from these marker board shots.

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Genuine Message Series

Posted on 27. Sep, 2009 by Chuck Scoggins.

Today we start a new series called “Genuine.” It’s a series on the book of 1 John. The creative team started planning for this series about 4 months ago. I thought I’d show you some of elements that we’re providing for the 10-week series.

Genuine Journal

Click here to download the Genuine Journal

Pastor Terry wanted to replace our usual DDP (Daily Devotional Plan) with a special, 10-week, journal that goes specifically with this series. Several of our staff members were involved in the creation of the content, and we did the layout and cover design. We decided to go with a non-standard 6″ x 9″ size and to have a full-color, glossy cover and a perfect binding. We used Lulu.com to purchase our 3,000 books from, and they did not disappoint. The most difficult thing about publishing the book was securing permission to use the NIV version in it from Zondervan.

Inside the book there are 10 weeks worth of devotions, consisting of a brief introduction for that week, questions for meditation, suggestions for further study, and a place for message notes. Overall, I’m very pleased with the way the books turned out and it was a blast working with the various staff members on the design.

Stage Design

We wanted to do something special for the 10 weeks that we’ll be in this series. After some brainstorming by the Creative Team, we came up with a stage design that uses our 42″ plasmas and some lighting truss. Deron, our Tech Director, did most of the mounting, rigging, and lighting. I think it turned out really well.

Here is the background loop running on the plasmas:

Website

We also created a companion website to go with the series. Check it out at www.CalvaryOnline.cc/genuine.

Miscellaneous

Of course, there were all of the other elements that we create on a normal basis for any series such as website home page graphic, e-newsletter graphic, PowerPoint backgrounds, etc. There will also be other videos and elements as the series progresses. I’ll post some updates as we go along.

I think this series is going to be something special for our church and I really appreciate Pastor Terry’s leading us to it. If you have any questions or thoughts, be sure to leave them in the comments! We’d love to hear a story about how this series is impacting you.

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