iWORSHiP Flexx: A Visual Worship Revolution
By Tom Curley

iWORSHiP Flexx - A Visual Worship Revolution:

If we looked at the history of worship in the church, we would see an evolution in the way that lyrics have been provided to worshippers. For hundreds of years, hymnals and songbooks provided the words for singers. In the 1970’s, many churches began projecting lyrics onto large screens with overhead projectors. The next big step came in the 90’s when churches began using computers and software such as PowerPoint paired with a video projector.

Lyric projection technology has continued to advance in the last few years with software that is designed specifically with the projection needs of worship gatherings in mind. This latest family of presentation software has brought to the local church some very powerful tools including the most commonly used and current,state of the art effect, motion backgrounds. Today, churches are enjoying the ability to place moving images such as waterfalls or swirling colors behind static text.

So what’s next in the evolutionary chain of lyric projection? That’s the question that the creative minds at Integrity Media began to ask, and the answer that they came up with will bring a quantum leap in the creativity and emotional impact of lyric delivery!

The next advancement beyond static lyrics with motion backgrounds is “motion” lyrics with motion backgrounds and it is available today with Integrity’s iWORSHIP FLEXX product.

Click here for more info PLUS watch online video.

Words That Move
I remember as a teenager sitting in a dark theater and seeing the words, “Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away” move up the screen in a trapezoidal shape finally disappearing on the space horizon amidst an infinite star field. Through the years, movies and television have found even more creative ways to animate words to create an emotional impact.

Now imagine how moving words could impact your worship service. A key word could grow for emphasis, words could “fly” in and out in a high energy song, or the word “glory” could radiate light within a phrase! No more static white Arial 28-point font with a drop shadow!

Integrity pioneered this type of “motion” lyrics years ago with their iWORSHIP series. This popular video resource has been used by many churches with great effect.

However, the iWORSHIP product presented two challenges to the worship teams that used it. The first was that iWORSHIP required a certain degree of sophistication in technology because the worship team had to play with a “click” track to stay in sync with the video. Secondly, the songs had to be done exactly as they were on the video. (No extra repeats of the chorus allowed!)

To solve these challenges, Integrity has now introduced iWORSHIP FLEXX with FLEXXible being the key word! Now you can have the emotional impact and incredible production quality of “motion” lyrics along with the flexibility of being able to arrange the songs in any way you like. No longer do you follow a “click” track but now you have “Visual Worship that Follows Your Lead.”

To achieve this goal, iWORSHIP FLEXX designer Steve Merkel developed a system for creating the lyric video presentation files in different song sections such as verse, bridge, and chorus. These sections flow seamlessly together, yet can be triggered independently by your computer operator.

Trying It Out
I was fortunate to take iWORSHIP FLEXX for a test drive in my church recently. I am the worship leader for a medium sized church that uses volunteer projectionists operating MediaShout presentation software. The iWORSIP FLEXX video files came in MPEG-1 and QuickTime formats. I chose the MediaShout friendly MPEG-1 files for the Paul Baloche’ song, “Your Name,” and loaded them onto our computer.

Next, I previewed the “FLEXX Clips” video files of the different song sections. The first FLEXX clip was titled “Intro.” It introduced the song, giving the song title, author, copy write and CCLI information in an understated way in front of a beautiful fly-in shot of the Rocky Mountains. Next was “Verse 1” where I got to experience for the first time the power of “motion” lyrics as the words to the 1st verse faded in and dissolved out as though they were a creative part of the film, not an afterthought, superimposed awkwardly on top of it.

“Chorus” is where things got even better as the two-word phrase “Your Name” practically leapt out of each sentence it was used in. An “Instrumental” video file is also provided for each song in order to keep the beautiful backgrounds moving during instrumental solos, spontaneous worship, or quiet interludes between songs! Those guys thought of everything! These FLEXX Clips allow you to customize the song structure with unlimited repeats or interchanges between song sections.

I was a little apprehensive as to the timing of the video files. Some of the video files have a lot of words flying in and out, and I didn’t want any words flying out too soon or flying in too late! The creators of iWORSHIP FLEXX must have anticipated these concerns because they have solved sensitive timing issues by having more lines of text onscreen simultaneously than the traditional iWORSHIP product. Also, there is a built in “fudge factor” of a few extra seconds on each video that allows you to do a song slightly slower or faster than the original recording and still stay “locked in” with the videos!

After exploring the product during the week, it was time to give iWORSHIP FLEXX a real test. I invited one of our volunteer projectionists to our worship band practice and showed her how to click on each FLEXX Clip as she followed my lead. Though the technology was new, the firing of different song section cues was familiar, and she had no problems staying in sync.

To ensure a glitch-free presentation, I suggest inviting your projectionist to your worship team rehearsals. All the musicians and vocalists on stage are required to come in “on time” and now your projectionist can “join the band” too by practicing firing the video cues on time!

Though the technology is new, the learning curve is easy and intuitive. The only problem you might encounter is if you radically slow down a song; but even then, most presentation software has video player controls that let you bump a video forwards or backwards “on the fly” to keep the words perfectly synced with the worship leader.

The Expectation of Excellence
This leads us to the only real problem with iWORSHIP FLEXX and that is: When your congregation sees the beauty, the quality, and the impact of this new way to project song lyrics, they will desire this level of excellence for every song you do!

Thankfully, the folks at Integrity are working on that, too! Several popular, church-tested songs are available now in this new format and more are on the way! Songs such as “I am Free,” “Mighty to Save,” “Friend of God,” and “Revelation Song.”

You can purchase video file sets for individual songs or, better yet, buy the Volume 1 collection, Mighty to Save, and you’ll receive iWORSHIP FLEXX video files for 15 songs and only pay about $10 per song! (That should keep the budget committee happy!) As a bonus, the full length song video files are also provided in Stereo and Split Trax.

So what will it be? Stark text superimposed over an endlessly looping waterfall, or song lyrics that move and are artistically integrated, theme specific moving images that add emotional impact that takes us one step closer to “Making His Praise Glorious!”.

Integrity's iWORSHIP FLEXX is the next evolutionary step in lyric presentation. It delivers affordable visually rich media to the local church from one of the world’s most trusted worship resource providers.

Click here for more info PLUS watch online video.

Tom Curley is the Christian Arts Pastor and Lead Worshipper at Northridge Church in Pensacola, FL, where he has served for 10 years. You can email Tom at tcurley@northridgechurch.org