Firm's items broaden events' appeal

Jesse and Pete Lewis don’t want to water down the gospel.

As co-owners of WorshipFilms in Rocky Mount, the brothers have spent the past six years helping churches share the message of Jesus Christ.

In an increasingly technology-driven and visual world, many churches have realized they need to alter the way they communicate with their congregations to stay relevant, Jesse Lewis said. WorshipFilms helps by providing video products they can use to enhance worship services.

“At one time, the majority of people learned more by the written word than anything else, but most people alive right now learn through visual images. ... People are used to learning, receiving and processing most of the things they take in that way. As a church, we have to look at that and say, ‘How do we need to change the way we are communicating with people so that we can effectively reach them?’” Jesse Lewis said.

WorshipFilms’ products include video sermon illustrators and background loops, Pete Lewis said. Serious or funny videos can be used to emphasize the theme a sermon explores. Background video loops and images, which appear behind song lyrics or announcements, are meant to inspire worship. The company also creates 5-minute countdowns, which can be used to warn people service is about to start.

“You take that song ‘God of Wonders.’ You have the option of having a black background, or you could have images of galaxies and the world up there instead. It adds a lot to the songs instead of just a plain static image,” Pete Lewis said.

Some people call such products distracting, but that only is true when they are used ineffectively, Jesse Lewis said. The videos and images are not there for entertainment. They can evoke certain emotions that enhance worship and help people focus on the message or a song.

“We could talk about tradition versus contemporary stuff, but the bottom line is: How is each individual church most effectively going to communicate with the people that are sitting in their pews on that particular Sunday? If video can help do that, then we need to use it. If it is going to be a hindrance, then we don’t,” Jesse Lewis said.

WorshipFilms was started because God gave a good idea at the right time to two two brothers who wanted to serve the church, Jesse Lewis said. In 2000, he and his brother were attending churches in different states, and each volunteered in areas of technology, creativity and video.

When Pete Lewis approached his brother about the concept for WorshipFilms, he learned they had been contemplating the same idea. They started the business in 2001 and spent more than a year filming and editing their first line of products.

The brothers launched worshipfilms.com in January 2003 and attended their first pastors conference a month later in Arizona, said Beth Lewis, office manager and Jesse Lewis’ wife.

“We didn’t have a lot of product at that point, but we sold pretty much everything we had. That helped us know that we were on the right track,” Beth Lewis said.

Many of the pastors they talked to were unfamiliar with the idea of using videos in church, so the company’s first few years also involved training them to implement the new technology, Beth Lewis said. It is a service the company still offers.

When WorshipFilms started, there were few video products on the market that small churches could afford, and the Lewis brothers felt they could address that need, Beth Lewis said. They had little competition at the time and the business grew exponentially in its first three years.

Now, the company has hundreds of competitors, Pete Lewis said. To remain viable, the company continually has to be innovative. It was one of the first Christian video producers to switch from exclusively hard copy products such as compact discs and DVDs to Internet downloads. It also was one of the first to make video countdowns and offer products in high definition.

All the competition can make being original a challenge, said Greg Hall, a producer. Hall joined the staff in 2002 and shoots and edits videos.

“The hardest part, and where I spend a lot of my time, is coming up with fresh ideas, because there is so much out there,” Hall said.