Ministry-Friendly Software... Pt. 1 VIDEO

This new series is for all of you who are trying to present the message of Jesus and wondering how to afford it all. I've been where you are and I want to help you out by offering my proven free software solutions. This is what I like to call "Ministry-Friendly Software."

As a church staff member, I frequently come to an impasse where new software or equipment is readily available to solve my problem for a fee. But I've decided to use as little resources as possible on solving things like video clips, Times New Roman, and digital storage. We live in the digital age, where almost everything we need is accessible through the "cloud" and many free options exist if you're willing to learn how to use them. Do you want to know how to be more successful in your mission? I think there are two things we can do right now to make a lasting change in your ministry.
(1) Use less of Jesus' money on things that don't directly help people come to know him.
(2) Be willing to get creative, both in doing your work and getting other people involved.

Video.

The first category I want to address is the area of video, especially video clips that you want to use to illustrate an idea. These are really effective for people in our world because movies are the new world's novels. So you want to show a clip from that XYZ movie? Chances are it's been uploaded to YouTube because someone else likes it too. Here are your best tools for the job that won't cost you a dime or more than 5 minutes of your time.

1. Firefox add-ons
   Mozilla Firefox is a powerful web browser with a lot of add-ons available. Video DownloadHelper is a good tool, as are Easy YouTube Video Downloader and DownThemAll. However, stay away from 1-Click YouTube Video Download because it always downloads blank files for me.
2. Free FLV Converter
   This program will let you paste in the link to any YouTube video and download it for you if you prefer not to use Firefox. It also gives you the added benefit of converting the video into any format you need. Go to http://www.koyotesoft.com/indexEn.html to download it.
3. Free Video Converter
   This is the sister program to Free FLV Converter, but it supports file conversion from formats other than FLV into any format. No built-in YouTube downloader on this program because it's a workhorse for conversion, including audio file conversions. Find it at http://www.koyotesoft.com/indexEn.html
4. VLC Media Player
   I hate Windows Media Player. I also hate iTunes. They're just too heavy on the system resources and are prone to slow down your computer. And if you're in ministry you probably aren't running the latest and greatest so light software like this that handles more formats than either Windows Media or iTunes is great. Get it at http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

These are video tools I've been using quite successfully for the last 18 months of working at my church, so trust me when I say you don't need to buy a DVD recorder, Matrox capture card, full-featured editing suite, or a costly video editing computer. If you have any questions, please comment and I'll be happy to answer. Look for more software coming as we cover audio files, presentations, graphics, composition, storage and computer maintenance!