CMG Profiles: Evan Schwartz

Where do you serve?

I serve at Current – A Christian Church in Katy, Texas.

What is your position there?

I am the Worship and Creative Arts Pastor.

How did you get involved in church media?

I started with church media where most do, getting things from Worship House Media and the like. in 2009, we decided to upgrade our projection system and in my research, I came across Camron Ware. We did a full install with Camron for environmental projection and he opened the door for tons of media producers. Our library of media expanded by buying products from Playback Media (Playback Drive & Playback 360), Igniter Media’s yearly subscription and CMG’s Mega Packs. These resources provide consistent and quality media for us to use in services week in and week out.

How big is your media team?

Our media team is made up of two staff and four volunteers. The staff prepares all the planned media within services and the volunteers have creative license for the rest of the service. We keep record of our background playlists so we don’t repeat backgrounds within a week or two of each other. I also send info to all volunteers when media is added to show them what we’ve added to the media library and where they can find it. They often scream at the volunteer who has access to them first since they will likely use all the new ones the first week.

What does your setup look like?

Our media set up currently goes something like this:

iMac using ProPresenter
Into Matrox Triple-Head 2Go
Into 3 Sharp XG-C335X projectors
EP makes up about 90’ by 25’
Used for motion/still backgrounds and series designs

We’re about to install a new set up utilizing our 2 outside EP projectors and moving them out, replacing the middle with a Hitachi CPX8150 and mounting it much closer from the ceiling. Installing 2 Hitachi CP-WX8265 projectors with 2 16’x9’ Draper screens for IMAG & backgrounds. Planning to use ProPresenter on 2 iMacs together for EP and screens in services.

We’ve mainly introduced the concept of being more than a mouse clicker and more of a visual worship leader. Our volunteers run house lighting, stage lighting & EP at the same time and they decide what gets your attention that way. They do a great job telling a visual story and helping our folks come into the presence of God.

What is one piece of advice you would like to share with the CMG community?

Don’t be afraid to keep it simple and do one background for an entire song and don’t be afraid to go crazy and make a song come to life. Sounds like an oxymoron, but changing it up and never being the same will always help people worship God in a fresh way.

How has the CMG Monthly Pack impacted your ministry?

The CMG Monthly Pack is probably our best resource for content. We always pull from our CMG collection on a typical Sunday. Without it we would be using the same content over and over.