Do you remember the scene in Jaws where Chief Brody was chumming the water at the back of the boat all the while complaining about it to the crusty old sea captain, Quint.  Just then he turns around and sees the shark up close for the very first time, and he delivers that memorable line, “We’re gonna need a bigger boat”. 

I think that’s the vision we need for our ministries when we are trying to share our message in video.  We get very focused on the message that we want to deliver.  But we need to have a message that helps the pastor and the church reach their goals. 

We Have a Mission

A number of years ago, I was part of the launch of a new video product for a national missions agency.  For years, we had produced longer (6-10 minute videos) that were primarily designed to be shown by small mission groups.  Our new assignment was to come up with mission videos that pastors would want to show in their full worship service. 

KISS (Keep it short stupid)

What we learned in the next few years was we needed to get shorter. (Duh!)  Then pastors were famously protective of the time in the worship service and that’s even more true now.  As we started, we tried to keep videos under five minutes, but over time we learned this was still too long.  Eventually, we arrived at the conclusion that anything beyond three minutes would never be played in a church-wide setting.  That was five years ago.  It’s become an even smaller window now.  I was recently told by a media minister at a large church that their mantra was 90 seconds or less.  All of that to say, you have to respect the pastors time if you have any hope of getting the time of day. 

Share the Message

The second thing that we learned was we would only get the opportunity to share our mission vision, after we had delivered the video message that the pastors or worship leaders wanted.   Pastors want the themes they are preaching on; family, discipleship, sharing your faith.  If we could deliver those themes and use our mission message to deliver it, it was a big win all the way around.  If we tried to jam our program messages down their throats then they weren’t going to be viewed anywhere. 

Don’t Jump the Shark

The main thing we learned was that our boat needed to be big enough to include the messages that pastors wanted to deliver.  If our vision could deliver their vision then we could catch that shark, and hopefully not jump it.  As a media ministry person, what works for you? 

Next week; why the local church needs a bigger boat.