On May 5th, we posted a video on our blog called “Sunday Morning”. This video was posted in a catalog of other videos from our annual Church leader conference we host called DRIVE. As a standard practice, we post our videos for the larger creative community because some of our best learning comes from those who view and comment on our work. Well, one week later and over 350,000 hits, this 3-minute video has created quite a stir. If context determines meaning, we can understand some of the questions and confusion surrounding this video. We unintentionally provided no context for it (like we did for all of our Drive videos) and some people have attempted to construe their own meaning for the video. While the conversations have been rich, we now feel responsible to provide some context to help people understand our purpose for the video. “Sunday Morning” was used specifically to employ fun into the conference and set up a message by Andy. The video was meant to be satirical and comical and Andy’s message unpacked the why behind our Sunday morning programming philosophy. That’s all there was to it. Thank you for taking the time to read this and thank you for your responses on the various blogs.
Brad
“Sunday Morning” Video
Wed, May 19, 2010
27 Responses to ““Sunday Morning” Video”
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[...] worship and seeker services. Ironically enough, it was created by a huge church in Atlanta, North Point. Andy Stanley is the pastor at North Point and is well known for all the writing he does on [...]
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[...] a friend told me about this youtube video. it was created by north point community church in georgia, as a parody for a conference they were doing…when they posted it, they offered no explanation and it provoked lots of comments. to read more about the video you can go here. [...]
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[...] Update: North Point Media posted an explanation of the video on their site. [...]
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[...] Srpen 2010 Autor: oslik Academy Award Winning Movie Trailer inspiroval lidi z North Point Media k natočení této parodie na evangelikální nedělní bohoslužbu v megakostele (megachurch). Je [...]
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[...] Srpen 2010 Autor: oslik Academy Award Winning Movie Trailer inspiroval lidi z North Point Media k natočení této parodie na evangelikální nedělní bohoslužbu v megakostele (megachurch). Je [...]
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[...] By now you’ve probably seen North Point’s ‘Sunday’s Coming’ spoof of the now familiar non-ritual rite of evangelical worship services. Since May its been passed around and commented on so much that North Point felt the need to post a brief and fairly unenlightening explanation of its purpose. [...]
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[...] hou van een stukje zelfspot. Maar niet iedereen kan dat waarderen. Een statement van de makers is hier te vinden./**/ The contemporvant church 30 oktober 2011 in Kerk, Korte Films « vorige: [...]
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May 19th, 2010 at 3:42 pm
I believe one of the biggest obstacles to the pursuit of excellence is the inability to laugh at oneself. Satirical videos like these are meant to spur us on to better service programming… and to do so in a fun, memorable way.
I loved all the videos at the conference, and I can tell you that the vibe in the room during “Sunday Morning” was awesome. The room filled with knowing laughter all throughout the video. The church leaders at the conference clearly “got” the joke, which successfully created a tension that Andy addressed in his talk.
To be specific, the tension it created in me was the realization that too many of us have fallen into a lazy programming model and don’t know how to get out of it. Andy’s response was amazingly helpful!
May 19th, 2010 at 4:06 pm
I was not at the conference. However, I found the video to be perfectly hilarious. Well done. Captured what many of us in the church world feel, how to be excellent/creative while staying within very specific and intentional parameters.
May 19th, 2010 at 11:32 pm
While I agree that this video was hilarious and I would definitely have “gotten it” had I been at the conference, I am more troubled by the vimeo comments that go on and on about how great the video is while no one ever seems to reference the fact that this video is spoofing 2 different things.
1. Church and their ritualistic behaviors especially the mega-churches…
AND
2. This youtube video
http://www.BriTANicK.com/videos.php
This video is in essence akin to a Weird Al music video of the original. Even the “whispered repetition” is blatantly unapologetically plagiarized from the original.
Out of curiosity, is anyone at the church acknowledging the blatant knock-off that this video was? I was not there, so I am not saying you guys didn’t acknowledge it, I am asking if you did, and if so, how? Certainly there is no readily viewable acknowledgement of it in the video itself (which would have been the natural place for it as it posted on vimeo.)
As a comedian, I would like to say that I had nothing to do with the original video. I wish I did! I am not associated with the original in anyway. If those guys would have me I would write something with them for sure, but I am not a “hired gun” speaking on their behalf. I am a fellow comedian, and As a comedian, I am stating that this should be acknowledged.
Also, as a Christian Brother, I am keeping the church that you so eloquently and accurately depicted through satire accountable for its actions.
Inform me if I am wrong about this and I will surely acknowledge my mistake.
But from my perspective one of the lyrics to the song should have been,
“and now we make fun of a viral video without acknowledging it and he we are basking in the 350,000 hits we get on the net, all the while pretending to be as creative as the original content’s creators…” (strum chords G, C, D….)
Looking forward to being proved wrong somehow…
Sincerely,
Jim Nayzium
May 19th, 2010 at 11:38 pm
Loved it. Emotionalism will kill the church. Are we worshiping how a song makes us feel, are we worshiping the One the song points us to? Keep up the good work. CAL.
May 20th, 2010 at 3:44 am
Here’s another conversation going on about your video.. loved it by the way
especially since i volunteer at a partner church 
http://justplainron.com/2010/05/20/it-is-all-in-the-context/
May 20th, 2010 at 7:24 am
Guys, it’s all very well saying there was a context, but the video is still liable to be misinterpreted without the audience knowing what the context was. your description above still leaves too much up to the uninformed audience.
I could make a pretty good guess as to what it was but it would still be a guess (not having been at the conference).
More info?
May 20th, 2010 at 11:15 am
Hey Jim -
You are absolutely right that we should have given credit to our inspiration of “Movie Trailer“. Huge oversight on our part. It’s up there now on the vimeo page. The comments on the Vimeo site, however, do refer to the “movie trailer” about 6 times - even the third and 4th comment down. Jim, I think there is a big difference between influenced by and plagiarizing. We saw a hilarious approach to a video that pokes fun of a “movie trailer”. We felt like this approach could be used in a similar way in creating a video that pokes a little fun at programming a Sunday morning service. Thanks for the comment! Brad
May 20th, 2010 at 8:14 pm
Nice work there North Point Media team! The balancing broom piece was classic…
And for comedian Jim a few posts back - Are you serious? They take a concept and adapted it to their church services…how in the world is that plagiarism? If that’s the case, lets call the Plagiarism Police for Modern Family taking the idea of The Office…American Idol taking the idea from Star Search…
I don’t want to create a war of words here with other posters, just want the NP Team know they did great and they should not let the naysayers bring them down.
Looking forward to your next creative endeavor!
May 20th, 2010 at 9:07 pm
Now, please let us all know what Andy’s response was! I am @in2joy on Twitter.com Thanks!
Blessings for blowing the same old same old right out of the water!
May 21st, 2010 at 11:24 pm
LOVE this!! I got wind of it through a good-natured Facebook group “Praise Bands Annoy God,” a forum for those who prefer or seek after, well, worship experiences that are not found in the settings that this faux movie trailer nails.
Leaders like RC Sproul, Ligon Duncan, Derek Thomas and others have devoted umpteen books, CDs, conferences and sermons to championing the profound joy and richness of traditional worship (e.g., expositional rather than topical preaching, textually-rich hymns nearly devoid of words like “I” or “me.”).
This single video outdoes them all! Thanks so much for creating it! You couldn’t have done better if you’d filmed the worship service with the golden calf!
May 22nd, 2010 at 3:13 pm
Brad,
Your attitude and comment back make me love you guys!
I used the word plagiarized sort of in a tongue in cheek fashion referring only to the “whispered repitition part.”
I agree that the mode of the “Movie Trailer” is duplicable in other contexts….
I guess I am just sensitive to other people’s ideas getting knocked-off as I am a stand up comedian and I see it happen all over the place.
If you guys are whole heartedly admitting you saw “Movie Trailer” and then thought of your skit/sketch as a derivative work, then I applaud your AWESOME execution of this …
The idea that you have basically stated this makes me totally respect you guys on many levels.
I love the idea that you are all connected enough to the 2.0 society to tap into what is currently funny on the net and then recreate a similar production (at a very high quality level) so quickly and utilize it for the kingdom.
I am just often witness to folks in the “Christian Scene” re-tooling something that they have seen work in clubs or work in a secular environment and then passing that off as originality in the “Christian Setting.”
Sorry if I jumped a little high with my “accusations…” But LOVE YOUR RESPONSE!! and I hope you guys churn out more good stuff.
June 3rd, 2010 at 12:43 am
Is it possible to purchase/download the Sunday’s Coming video? We would love to use it to intro. a message in the coming weeks.
June 4th, 2010 at 3:08 pm
Loved It . Got it . and now re-acting because of it.
I do “church” videos and this one was great , and risky.
It was a great way to shake up the body , it might have step on a few toes , but not mine.
let us spur one another on !
June 7th, 2010 at 2:21 pm
The church I used to go to recorded an album with the band, different band members wrote the songs, they put it on Itunes, and promotes the album before service and ask people to buy it in the bookstore and has promoted it on the website that it was available on Itunes.
Someone please correct me if I am wrong - but is that right to do that? I just don’t get it.
The video is funny, but in a way it’s not. It is sad and it is the reason why people are not happy with all the hype of “big church”. It is almost like we are making fun of ourselves. Does that video secretly represent the HEART of the church? Do some churches even know that they are doing this? Do they even care? Or do they just want to sell their albums on Itunes?
I am on the edge of being skeptical of big church. Any thoughts?
June 10th, 2010 at 10:06 pm
I find it somewhat ironic that the “original” and “creative” Academy Aware Winning Movie Trailer was arguably a knock-off of the “Total Eclipse of the Heart: Literal Video Version” which was published almost a year earlier. Yet I fail to see much criticism about that. Why is that?
August 26th, 2010 at 8:10 pm
I saw the video on GodTube and as a longtime Christian saw our church in this as well. It was a great piece and I wished our Worship Team could have seen themselves, too. I’m sorry you pulled it, but I respect your wishes. It belongs to you.
August 27th, 2010 at 2:46 pm
To be frank, I don’t like this video. The message of this video may be true, but it seems to me that it’s message could have been conveyed more directly and less sarcastically. Until we, as Christians, can let go of our passive aggressiveness, we have no business using sarcasm as our means, regardless of the end we’re trying to accomplish. I don’t see how this video’s method is any different than the method it’s criticizing. It’s an entertaining satire of entertainment in the church. I think it’s fighting fire with fire, and I’m not sure that’s what God calls us to. I believe he calls us to call people to him, in love. But yes, I would agree the message of the video is true, but presenting the message by using the same style that the message critiques makes no sense to me. It would be better to preach the message by example, not mockery.
November 3rd, 2010 at 8:09 pm
there’s a church in my town which is exactly like this! i daren’t show it to anyone there it’s that similar!
December 13th, 2010 at 8:37 am
i absolutely loved the video and found it hilarious. If people took it too seriouslty then that’s a real shame. Did you take the video down? I wanted to show it to a friend
January 6th, 2011 at 4:28 pm
I enjoyed the video and saw both the funny side and serious side. Could you please advise the link to Andys talk which followed?
Blessings