100s of Free Worship Backgrounds & Graphics [Church Media]

I was recently hired by a church in my area to maintain their computers, networks, information services, and web site.  Being a poor college student, and previously, a jobless high school student, I’ve gained an appreciation for frugality. That, combined with witnessing disproportionate amounts of cash misdirected in other area ministries, I am determined to support the ministries at this church by positively affecting the most people and supporting the ministry staff while operating under one of the smallest budgets.

One of the responsibilities I took over was the creation of the Sunday morning visual presentation (lyrics, sermon notes, announcements, etc). Previously, someone purchased stock photos from iStockphoto to use as backgrounds for lyrics. Unfortunately, it seemed that this person (long gone before I arrived) had very little money with which to work. There were only a handful of images which were only in small to medium-sized web quality; certainly not something that would look any good when blown up on a large projection screen.

So, off I went on a hunt to find web sites and Flickr users that would allow me to use their photos freely. Sure, there’s plenty of sites out there that offer spectacular photos made specifically for the purpose, but it all comes at a price. After some time, I’ve discovered a few good sites, and one really good Flickr group who freely share their works with the church community. Even if you don’t need backgrounds, or any of the images found on these sites, they’re a great place to get ideas for your own graphic projects.

Free worship and church backgrounds, graphics, and media:

• Shared Worship Background Graphics (a Flickr group pool)
• CreativeMYK Gallery (community dedicated to sharing resources)
  
• Background 4 Christian
• Church Worship Graphics (Flickr set by dtchristner)
• Christian Wallpaper (Flickr set by David Gunter)
• E-Water (offers simple, yet inspiring videos available in flash, PPT, or avi format) (Added 7/19/09)
• kineticFaith (focuses on providing a full suite of images and videos for central themes) (Added 8/20/09)
• VintageChurch.cc (web site dedicated to connecting churches with substantial resources to those with less) (Added 1/24/11)
• Free Presentation and Worship Backgrounds
  

Also, if you’re looking for videos or motion backgrounds, here’s a web site that gives them away for simply registering. They’re the real deal, and they’re doing a wonderful thing. Consider sharing your media with them if you have any to share:

• Muddy River Media

This web site provides a small selection of free video backgrounds in return for registering:

• Videos2Worship – Motion Background Loops (Added 11/30/10)

More Views of More Streets (Google Street View)

Google just doubled their Street View coverage of the United States and released more views from overseas.

Ridiculous? Nearly.

Completely awesome? You betcha.

Flickr Will Soon Host Videos

I’m not sure how this caught my eye, but somehow I ended up on the Flickr blog on a post announcing that Flickr will be adding a video hosting service to their arsenal. Immediately, I thought “Well, there goes the neighborhood,” as Flickr would only join the ranks of every other video sharing service out there with imbeciles on skateboards and babies dancing for their parent’s Internet fame. However, as I continued to read, I found that Flickr wasn’t trying to just be another video web site. Their idea surrounds the use of video to portray “long photos.” Just as photographs can capture a single moment of life, video can capture a single moment, too, just a longer moment. Flickr is trying to keep this ideal by allowing video clips no longer than 90 seconds.

No doubt this will be popular, but will it “dirty” the Flickr many of us have grown to love?