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Editor's Note: This article is Part 3 of 6 in a series of articles, Using Video in Different Elements of Your Worship Service.

Claudia laughed hard, trying not to drop the tray of taco dip she was holding. She had set up this "Saturday creative getaway" for interested volunteers and staff, and it was already going so well! More than 40 people had come, filling to the rim the lodge building that her church had rented at a local State Park. The morning had already included a speaker who was an expert in team motivation, as well as a large-group brainstorming session. The group was now on a well-deserved "snack break," and the food and fun were both in good supply. The break was about to end, however, and Claudia decided it was time to bring everyone back together to narrow some of their previous ideas.

"Well, folks, we've been talking all morning about categories of ideas—it's time to get down to specifics!" Claudia shouted over the din. "We're going to break into five teams. Look on the cover of your packet; there is a color code that will tell you which team you're on, along with a map to show where you're meeting. Inside your packet is also an envelope marked with the same color code. The envelope contains your 'mission!'"

"Each 'mission' has something to do with how we use video in our services," Claudia continued. "We're not covering the message or worship songs here—we're talking about all the 'in between' places. Don't think inside the box. We want wild, crazy ideas and as many as possible! We're looking for quantity here. In fact, the group with the least number of ideas has to do the dishes after supper. Don't worry about whether the ideas are good or not … quality is in the eye of the beholder! You've got 20 minutes. Ready, set, GO!"

A short 20 minutes later, the teams started filing back into the room. Claudia had to go round up a few teams that really wanted to make sure they wouldn't be washing dishes! Once everyone was situated, Claudia asked each team to choose a spokesperson to come forward to share the ideas the team had come up with.

"Please tell us your topic first and then the ideas your team came up with," Claudia instructed. "As we all listen, ideas that we hear might set off new ideas in our brains. Use the yellow sticky notes to write down any of these additional ideas, and we'll cover them at the end of this session. We don't have much time, so each person will get only a few minutes—make it short and sweet. Blue Team: Let's go!" she said with a smile.

The first spokesperson was Vicki , the head of preschool ministry. "Our topic was using video for announcements. We thought we could make 'commercials' for various ministry areas. We'd just do one a week, so that we didn't overwhelm the congregation, but we thought it would be a good way to highlight our ministries and to give 'face time' for ministry area leaders. We could also send the pastor or someone else 'on location'—this would be especially effective if we were highlighting an outreach ministry or a special event, like the all-church picnic at the park downtown. We thought regular announcements could really be 'spruced up' if we did them in the style of a current TV show or movie—for example, we could make them look like a really sappy soap opera …"

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