As the debate continues about the use of 360 video use in the church, there are some people who have fully embraced the technology and are putting it to great use. One of those is Dr. Gary Crossland with the Octagon Project. Crossland and his team from Octogon Immersive are producing some stunning Virtual Reality (VR) videos of the Holy Land. Now nearly anyone can experience hundreds of sites in Israel without ever leaving home.
What makes Dr. Crossland's tours and videos so relevant is that they are almost entirely focused on the Life of Jesus. “A lot of people will go to Israel and they will go on a normal tour.” He says, “You go to places that are interesting from an archaeological standpoint, or a historical or military standpoint but you end up scratching your head wondering if you're going to get any Jesus on this tour.” Crossland's tours take Christians to where they want to go, into the footsteps of Jesus; to the places where Jesus talked and taught and did His miracles.
Dr. Crossland is a professor of Greek and has been leading tours to the Holy Land since 2005. In 2012, he discovered VR and began shooting these immersive videos. He tells us, “What we wanted to do is replicate the experience that people get when they are on one of our live tours. We wanted them to experience that in Virtual Reality.”
How It's Done
Dr. Crossland tells us that he keeps improving the quality of the video he produces by upgrading his gear. “Our workhorse has been GoPro cameras in a 360 Rise configuration. They have 7 and 10 camera configurations and we've used both.” They are sometimes mounted fixed on a tripod and sometimes walked or extended on a monopod. The next trip to the Holy Land will include the new Insta 360 Pro cam that shoots in 8K.
For really tight work, Dr. Gary says they use a Kodak PixPro on a pole. It's allowed them to get some really unique and groundbreaking images. For example, they were able to gain access to a site that is believed to be the tomb of John the Baptist. “The tomb has not been seen for hundreds of years because it's behind a wall. Well, there's a hole in the wall and we inserted the PixPro in that hole and let people see inside the tomb.” They have used this technique in a variety of other locations, as well.
He also tells us that shooting in the Holy Land is not without an element of danger. “We've been chased through the streets by armed bandits up in east Jerusalem. I've been chased down a mountain by incensed camel drivers in the Sinai Peninsula. We've been chased by wild dogs in Jericho and we had to fight them off with our tripods.”
The professor has also had trouble while shooting in the tombs near Gerasenes, where Jesus cast demons out of a man and into a herd of pigs.(Luke 8:26-39) “A lot of people don't know it, but wild boar still inhabit the mountain. Some of these boars are weigh nearly 200 pounds. We went into one of the caves and found that it contained a boar's nest.” The film team was chased out by the pigs but they were able to get some footage.
360 Ministry
When Dr. Crossland first saw the 360 videos prior to 2012 he knew that this was the future. He concludes that this is soon going to be the way people are educated and get their information. “Billion of dollars are being spent on VR by major corporations to feed the market. We knew that this is where everything is going to converge.” He says that it just became obvious that this is the best way to bring people to the Holy Land.
Crossland believes that some churches will be quick to jump on VR video because it is has a bigger impact that 2D can. “When you put people in a virtual environment, suddenly they are not just viewers, they are participants. They learn more because they are involved in the activity rather than having the activity presented to them.” A part of Crossland's company, called Octagon Immersive, is staffed to introduce groups, including churches, to VR video and help them get up and running.
Additionally, Dr Crossland hopes that this becomes a tool for outreach. “We've had atheists watch our videos and they just want more.” He says that the project has evangelism at its core “This is where we want to go with the Octagon Project ultimately. To uplift the Body of Christ both spiritually and numerically.”
A Devotional Plan
Recently the YouVersion Bible added these 360 tours to their popular Bible reading app. The first was a set of four tours from the Octagon project, coupled with scripture reading for a unique look into the events leading up of Easter. Bobby Gruenewald, founder of the YouVersion Bible App and innovation pastor for Life Church, in Edmond, Okl., tells us, “There aren't many people who are able to visit the historical sites mentioned in the Bible in person. This 360-degree video allows people to virtually visit these places and feel as if they're walking the path themselves. We're thrilled to leverage technology like virtual reality to help people become more immersed in Scripture.”
Dr. Crossland tells us that during Easter the Octogon Project's web traffic increased more than 3,000% and they will be adding more devotionals on the app. “Our crew went up to Oklahoma City and met with all the top brass at YouVersion, and we are embarking on a new project: The Life of Jesus in Virtual Reality. “ He adds that this will bring up to eight hours of additional 360 video to the YouVersion app.
Gruenewald says, “Our mission is to help people engage with the Bible, so we are always looking for unique opportunities to help our community dive deeper into the Word. We believe offering content with 360-degree videos is just one of those unique ways.”
YouVersion is a Bible app that is free and available for most devices. It's one of the most widely used Bible apps and currently has been downloaded onto more than 265 million devices around the world. The app has more than 1,500 versions of the Bible in 1,000 different languages plus hundreds of Bible reading plans.
If you want to visit the Land where Jesus walked, but don't have the resources, a visit to the Holy Land is now closer than you can imagine. You don't need a travel agent or even a passport. Visit the Octagon Project web site () and you’ll find this collection of 360 videos from the locations you would visit on one of Dr. Crossland’s tours, and much more. “We’ve travelled to over 220 different locations in Israel. In all of these locations, we have literally retraced the steps of Jesus.” The historian and seminary professor says that your perspective is like viewing things from the “three-foot circle of Jesus.”
