Transplant Ministries ONE YEAR Retrospective!
Transplant Ministries One Year Retrospective.
So over the past year God has blessed us with some amazing opportunities and true growth. It's been a long year, a slow year and a year that was not easy at all. For the most part I worked two jobs (40+ hours), went to school and ran the Youth Group at my church. It was busy, it flew buy and I think I loved every tired minute of it.
My schedule has opened up dramatically and I have spent the last month really trying to figure how to step the ministry up a notch. I am glad to say that after one year I believe that I am past the "experimental stage" of ministry development. After seeing the momentum of this ministry really pick up speed over the past couple of months it is clear that God has big plans for us and I am ready to push this thing into overdrive.
Here is a brief summary of the events over the last year.
1. We built a Studio. I believe for me this was a big achievement. It's actual usefulness isn't that great, however it really made a major impact on me. It was like "OK now your in this for real" Yes it is in the upstairs of my church, yes it consists of makeshift lighting and 3 buckets of green paint from Lowe's. But it is a place to go in the middle of the night and just create. It's as if Transplant Ministries has left the idea stage and now has a physical conception.
2. Our direction has changed. This is probably most important. I believe starting this ministry I had a direction I wanted to go, then I started listening to Way of the Master Radio. The direction in my mind has completely changed. At first it was Christian Entertainment/Information based now I think it is headed in a more evangelical direction. WOTM really showed me how to witness and place everything in God's hand completely. To a point where I can say it is not my ministry anymore but His. I am not perfect I am struggling with the concept still. It is a lot harder then normal when you have a media ministry. It's hard to balance selfish "Look at Me, Look at Me" with "Watch our videos, watch our videos" we are a media ministry by the way. If no one watches us then were lost to internet infinity. I believe there is a healthy sense of "Look at Me" allowed for commercial promotion ha ha.
3. We debated Brian Sapient. Now everyone knows him but at the time he wasn't that popular. What it did do was jump start our video counts, and gave us some independent coverage and name recognition. It also challenged me in terms of debate and challenged me to learn more, this really helped my personal walk with God transform.
4. We made Good Videos. A Good amount of them. We started off with Rapture 1 and Rapture 2 which by itself was seen over seven thousand times since November of 06. Then we made Red Letter Christians as you can see starting with the rapture videos and transforming to the Red Letter Christian Videos the passion and quality of our videos has changed over the year. We learned more editing skills, better graphic work and so on. We have started to place a lot more time into each video. We find that this really separates us from other YouTube Videos which are rushed and placed on air. The Red Letter Christian video actually took us several weeks and we actually shot it in two different locations. The current shot had bad audio because of the fountain in the background and the shot you will never see was lit terribly and wasn't passionate enough.
5. We worked with His Holy Space. This may not seem like a lot. However I believe in a few years I will look back and say, that was it. Working with HHS will be one of those points in the lifetime of a ministry that transformed it and sent it where it needs to be. The doors that can open, the lives that will be reached all because of one Commercial Spot is something I am really excited about seeing progress. I honestly thought this whole thing would never get off the ground and I believe that this little thing has tossed it pretty high. I really want to think Jeff Bridges for giving little old Transplant Ministries the opportunity to do big things.
6. We reached over 20,000 views. Now this may not be a lot in terms of YouTube video counts however what is not mentioned is the fact that YouTube will never feature any sort of Christian Media. Anyone who gets featured can have several thousand video counts over night. But after doing some research and talking to YouTube editors I discovered the only way to get attention is to promote, promote promote. So using MySpace Forums and Groups thats what I did. And about a few weeks ago we hit 20k views and rising. All the Glory to God.
So what's in store for Transplant Ministries. Honestly I have no idea. I have some ideas, dreams and prayers. Were getting off the ground. So here are my goals for the next year. (Notice I said Mine, He may have other plans.)
1. I want to reach 100,000 video views combined on GodTube and YouTube. This is small. I really want more. It's not hard to do and I believe that it can be done in months as opposed to a year.
2. I want more commercial opportunities. I believe that doing side job videos for major Christian Companies can benefit us financially but also really promote some great Christian ministries out there. I want to use the skills God has given me to help other ministries look very professional and refined in their promotional material. You don't need a lot of money to create quality products, you need someone who is creative. I believe by. Creating more partnerships like the one with HHS we can get our name out there as well as bring in a good amount of revenue.
3. I want more supporters. This is what I hate. I hate asking for money, asking for support etc etc etc. No matter how much I do it I still feel bad and I feel like the very televangelist I despise. I really do not want to have to beg much longer. By working on commercial partnerships we can avoid this but until those come in please make a donation using the link over on the right side of this page. It is all done securely via PayPal and every single dime will be used to benefit this ministry.
Right now we are in such desperate need of video equipment. It is so expensive. We don't need the best equipment in the business but we do need equipment that works. Are cameras are breaking, are microphones are losing quality and my computer is in need of serious upgrades. The cameras we need are over four thousand a piece. We really need two cameras to do some of the things I have in mind. Also we need lighting equipment. Professional Video Lighting is not cheap at all. One light kit can cost over thousand dollars. We have a green screen but we have never been able to light it effectively to use it so needless to say we don't. Oh but we want to so bad. Some of the ideas we have are really going to transform Christian Media but in order to be effective they have to be good in every step along the way.
4. I want to make more Gospel Oriented Videos. This is something that has plagued me for awhile. I want to present the Gospel using media in new ways. I know the Gospel will never change. The word will never sway or return void. So I have been racking my brain thinking of ways to show the Transforming Gospel of Jesus Christ in a snazzy short video. So pray for me as this is our work in progress. I am already feeling the creative pressure.
5. I need help. The thing is the help I need cannot come from people over the internet. I need actual communication and maybe a volonteer staff. The problem is they have to be media savy, creative and of course on fire Christians. This is not an easy task. Only God can bring together the people I need. So pray that over the next few months when I say "We at Transplant Ministries" I will not just be referring to Me Myself and I.
6. I want to start speaking at churches on the importance of good media and the use of the internet to preach the gospel. Maybe do small little conferences over two days or something. There is ton's to discuss and I believe that there is a huge hunger for information and knowledge of this subject.
So again to all those that have prayed for us. To all those that have supported us we thank you. With your help we really are reaching thousands of people with the Gospel, and encouraging others to do the same. Remember the easiest way to support Transplant Ministries is to tell others about us. Like one of our videos. Send it to some friends, place it on your MySpace. The more video counts we get the more easier our videos will be to find in searches and what not.
I want to close with this. Below is a letter from a random YouTube viewer. I get comments all of the time. Most of them are not very uplifting. Then I got this letter.
It's one of those letters that let's you know you are on the right track. Thank God for letters like that.
Again thanks for a wonderful year and heres to an even better second.
ALL the Glory to God.
- Marcus Pittman
So over the past year God has blessed us with some amazing opportunities and true growth. It's been a long year, a slow year and a year that was not easy at all. For the most part I worked two jobs (40+ hours), went to school and ran the Youth Group at my church. It was busy, it flew buy and I think I loved every tired minute of it.
My schedule has opened up dramatically and I have spent the last month really trying to figure how to step the ministry up a notch. I am glad to say that after one year I believe that I am past the "experimental stage" of ministry development. After seeing the momentum of this ministry really pick up speed over the past couple of months it is clear that God has big plans for us and I am ready to push this thing into overdrive.
Here is a brief summary of the events over the last year.
1. We built a Studio. I believe for me this was a big achievement. It's actual usefulness isn't that great, however it really made a major impact on me. It was like "OK now your in this for real" Yes it is in the upstairs of my church, yes it consists of makeshift lighting and 3 buckets of green paint from Lowe's. But it is a place to go in the middle of the night and just create. It's as if Transplant Ministries has left the idea stage and now has a physical conception.
2. Our direction has changed. This is probably most important. I believe starting this ministry I had a direction I wanted to go, then I started listening to Way of the Master Radio. The direction in my mind has completely changed. At first it was Christian Entertainment/Information based now I think it is headed in a more evangelical direction. WOTM really showed me how to witness and place everything in God's hand completely. To a point where I can say it is not my ministry anymore but His. I am not perfect I am struggling with the concept still. It is a lot harder then normal when you have a media ministry. It's hard to balance selfish "Look at Me, Look at Me" with "Watch our videos, watch our videos" we are a media ministry by the way. If no one watches us then were lost to internet infinity. I believe there is a healthy sense of "Look at Me" allowed for commercial promotion ha ha.
3. We debated Brian Sapient. Now everyone knows him but at the time he wasn't that popular. What it did do was jump start our video counts, and gave us some independent coverage and name recognition. It also challenged me in terms of debate and challenged me to learn more, this really helped my personal walk with God transform.
4. We made Good Videos. A Good amount of them. We started off with Rapture 1 and Rapture 2 which by itself was seen over seven thousand times since November of 06. Then we made Red Letter Christians as you can see starting with the rapture videos and transforming to the Red Letter Christian Videos the passion and quality of our videos has changed over the year. We learned more editing skills, better graphic work and so on. We have started to place a lot more time into each video. We find that this really separates us from other YouTube Videos which are rushed and placed on air. The Red Letter Christian video actually took us several weeks and we actually shot it in two different locations. The current shot had bad audio because of the fountain in the background and the shot you will never see was lit terribly and wasn't passionate enough.
5. We worked with His Holy Space. This may not seem like a lot. However I believe in a few years I will look back and say, that was it. Working with HHS will be one of those points in the lifetime of a ministry that transformed it and sent it where it needs to be. The doors that can open, the lives that will be reached all because of one Commercial Spot is something I am really excited about seeing progress. I honestly thought this whole thing would never get off the ground and I believe that this little thing has tossed it pretty high. I really want to think Jeff Bridges for giving little old Transplant Ministries the opportunity to do big things.
6. We reached over 20,000 views. Now this may not be a lot in terms of YouTube video counts however what is not mentioned is the fact that YouTube will never feature any sort of Christian Media. Anyone who gets featured can have several thousand video counts over night. But after doing some research and talking to YouTube editors I discovered the only way to get attention is to promote, promote promote. So using MySpace Forums and Groups thats what I did. And about a few weeks ago we hit 20k views and rising. All the Glory to God.
So what's in store for Transplant Ministries. Honestly I have no idea. I have some ideas, dreams and prayers. Were getting off the ground. So here are my goals for the next year. (Notice I said Mine, He may have other plans.)
1. I want to reach 100,000 video views combined on GodTube and YouTube. This is small. I really want more. It's not hard to do and I believe that it can be done in months as opposed to a year.
2. I want more commercial opportunities. I believe that doing side job videos for major Christian Companies can benefit us financially but also really promote some great Christian ministries out there. I want to use the skills God has given me to help other ministries look very professional and refined in their promotional material. You don't need a lot of money to create quality products, you need someone who is creative. I believe by. Creating more partnerships like the one with HHS we can get our name out there as well as bring in a good amount of revenue.
3. I want more supporters. This is what I hate. I hate asking for money, asking for support etc etc etc. No matter how much I do it I still feel bad and I feel like the very televangelist I despise. I really do not want to have to beg much longer. By working on commercial partnerships we can avoid this but until those come in please make a donation using the link over on the right side of this page. It is all done securely via PayPal and every single dime will be used to benefit this ministry.
Right now we are in such desperate need of video equipment. It is so expensive. We don't need the best equipment in the business but we do need equipment that works. Are cameras are breaking, are microphones are losing quality and my computer is in need of serious upgrades. The cameras we need are over four thousand a piece. We really need two cameras to do some of the things I have in mind. Also we need lighting equipment. Professional Video Lighting is not cheap at all. One light kit can cost over thousand dollars. We have a green screen but we have never been able to light it effectively to use it so needless to say we don't. Oh but we want to so bad. Some of the ideas we have are really going to transform Christian Media but in order to be effective they have to be good in every step along the way.
4. I want to make more Gospel Oriented Videos. This is something that has plagued me for awhile. I want to present the Gospel using media in new ways. I know the Gospel will never change. The word will never sway or return void. So I have been racking my brain thinking of ways to show the Transforming Gospel of Jesus Christ in a snazzy short video. So pray for me as this is our work in progress. I am already feeling the creative pressure.
5. I need help. The thing is the help I need cannot come from people over the internet. I need actual communication and maybe a volonteer staff. The problem is they have to be media savy, creative and of course on fire Christians. This is not an easy task. Only God can bring together the people I need. So pray that over the next few months when I say "We at Transplant Ministries" I will not just be referring to Me Myself and I.
6. I want to start speaking at churches on the importance of good media and the use of the internet to preach the gospel. Maybe do small little conferences over two days or something. There is ton's to discuss and I believe that there is a huge hunger for information and knowledge of this subject.
So again to all those that have prayed for us. To all those that have supported us we thank you. With your help we really are reaching thousands of people with the Gospel, and encouraging others to do the same. Remember the easiest way to support Transplant Ministries is to tell others about us. Like one of our videos. Send it to some friends, place it on your MySpace. The more video counts we get the more easier our videos will be to find in searches and what not.
I want to close with this. Below is a letter from a random YouTube viewer. I get comments all of the time. Most of them are not very uplifting. Then I got this letter.
KUDOS!!!! the message made me challenge my thinking of God. He's tough, He's kind and everything in between, However, If I can't stand on the FACT that God does have wrath in the end towards unsaved people, He has condemnation towards sin, and ultimately Jesus is our hope and escape from those uncomfortable things... Wow I feel stronger because of your video. I can say that if someone challenges me on those issues, I cannot with good conscious say anything but yes, He will judge sinners to hell. That's it... Can't deny it and make Jesus a mamby pamby God who just "loves everybody..."
WOW
-Scott.
It's one of those letters that let's you know you are on the right track. Thank God for letters like that.
Again thanks for a wonderful year and heres to an even better second.
ALL the Glory to God.
- Marcus Pittman
posted by Marcus Pittman at
12:10 AM
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