Why do we exist?
To elevate the story our users are telling
What do we do?
Lightstock is a two-sided marketplace that collects, curates, and licenses stock content to the faith-based community.
How will we succeed?
By offering stock content that can't be found anywhere else – content that helps break down the cheesy stereotype found in Christian media.
Core Values
The culture we foster
Seek First His Kingdom
Seeking the kingdom is the first of our core values–everything else is derivative. We cultivate a kingdom-first mindset quite simply because Jesus said so. Kingdom means rule. So to seek God's kingdom means to interactively rule with God. Practically speaking, we rise early and spend time with God. Jesus mastered and modeled this with ease and we take our cues from Him.
Be a Lifelong Learner
Our qualities and potential aren't carved in stone. We develop ourselves daily by cultivating habits that stretch in every direction. Travelers not settlers – we never stop learning.
Choose Optimism
Choosing optimism profoundly affects the way life is led. It's not automatic, it's a choice. Negativity is draining – we believe in filling others up. It's not easy – it's a daily decision we make.
Celebrate Risk
What others call failing, we call learning. That's why taking the "calculated risk" is celebrated. We confront problems, accept challenges and try new things because we believe that, "Nothing ventured," is indeed, "nothing gained."
Have the Heart of a Teacher
We challenge each other to share what we're learning. – Our heart is to foster ideas and freely give. We aim to be a well of fresh water for others to drink. Blessed to be a blessing just about sums it up.
Default to Transparency
We state our views, fears, failings, hopes, ideas honestly. We're aiming for automatic vulnerability. We don't hide. We're transparent with everyone – automatically. Clarity and over-communication rule the day.
Engage in Lean Thinking
We don't know what we don't know. We learn what works by taking what we have, where we are, and getting the most out of it. Engaging in lean thinking is how we validate our ideas and protect ourselves from that one dumb decision that could wreck it all.
Together We Become More
The belief that one person alone can achieve greatness is a myth. Others help us do a better job than we can do ourselves. We glean from each other –leveraging the collective knowhow of our team.
Don't Forget the Polish
Beauty requires polish. It's not enough for something to work. By bringing beauty and utility together we create lasting work. Good work. Polished work. It's what God meant, in Genesis, when he said, "It's good."
We've been partners for a while now.
Our Story
Sometimes we say we’ve been working in the church world since 1991. That was the year my father pioneered his non-denominational church in Dallas, Texas. Of course, we were only nine years old at the time, but we watched in excitement as my Dad (by God’s grace) built a wonderful community from the ground up. Maybe that’s why we enjoy building things today. We grew up immersed in every facet of the church. We loved it and soaked it in for fifteen years.
In 2003, as we sat listening to one of our father’s sermons, we got bent out of shape over his visual presentation. He was using a generic blue background and bright yellow text. His sermon title: The Wonders of God. We thought to ourselves, “Surely we can do better than this! Can’t we create a presentation that compliments the message and helps draw people in? Couldn’t we use the screen to show the congregation his wonders?”
We eagerly put our father’s sermon presentation together the following week and, to our excitement, the congregation loved it! My Dad received so many positive comments that he asked us to create one for him every week from then on.
In 2006 we decided to start a faith-based media company called Graceway Media (formerly PowerPoint Sermons) because we felt the church (like our father’s) wasn’t well-equipped with the visual tools they needed to reach a new generation. Seven years later we were creating and supplying 5,000 churches with their weekly visual resources such as sermon slides, motion backgrounds and print banners. During those years we poured our energy into creating media that would help ignite pastors' sermons and support their overall mission–spreading the good news of Jesus.
Our time at Graceway, however, uncovered a gaping hole and helped kickstart a new, growing passion and project. There seemed to be a lack of faith-based content for Christian designers to work from. We ran up against this problem daily at Graceway. We couldn’t understand why this was so. It seemed (to us) that a place should exist for creative, faith-focused, royalty-free images & video and it also seemed like there would be scores of Christian photographers & filmmakers who would love to participate.
In early 2012 we decided we would no longer wait for it to come to pass; we would build it. We launched twelve months later with 175 contributors participating to create a combined library of over 20,000 images. After 2 1/2 years of being in business we’re happy to report we quadrupled our content library and now include vectors and video clips. Our contributor base has grown by over 400% and we consistently average 100,000 page views per week and service over 9,000 customers.
Nowadays lots of churches are using visuals - and using them exceptionally well - in their services and communications. Many no longer need pre-packaged media; they have a person on staff or even an entire team dedicated to it. Our belief is that what’s lacking today is not pre-packaged media, but the raw materials for Christian creatives to work from. Lightstock’s library of content is that unique raw material which can be utilized in countless ways. Pick any other stock site and slog through their faith-based images... what do you get? The same stuff you’ve been seeing for a decade. Lightstock is fresh, creative, faith-focused and professional. We’re young too. We feel like we’ve just set out on our journey. We’ve already met some amazing people along the way. We can’t wait to see what God will do through this project. Our vision guides us - let’s get to work.
Jon & Josh Bailey
Co-Founders at Lightstock
P.S. You can find each of us sharing what we’re learning on twitter at @jonathanrbailey and @joshdavidbailey
Who's Using
?
We love these guys
And the many more...
Here's what our Customer and Partners are saying...
“The site, the brand, the language, it all communicates effectively in an attractive, creative, and professional way. Cheers...thanks for making it simple!”
Mario Mattei
GVP Founder
“I have been waiting for a resource like this! Thank you! And thank you for the diversity of people in your photos!! Blessings!”
Tina Harris
Youth Minister
“I’m extremely thankful to Lightstock for filling a void in the market. You’ll be tickled pink by what Lightstock has to offer.”
Lauren Hunter
Founder, Church Tech Today
“Really love the stock images on @litghtstockphoto. Great images for churches!”
@jonmrogers
“I found a new sight 4 images 4 worship, sermons, etc. VERY cool and legit. Check it out & sign up!”
@_jason_adams
“People who work in ministry and need stock photography on a regular basis would do well to check out Lightstock.com”
@jasonwhelpley
“If you have not checked out this new company, you are missing out! @lightstock great photos, great prices!”
@seventy8prod
“Great website, fills a specific need in the church for sure….”
Dan Loewen
rethinkworship.com
“Man am I glad you found you guys! I'm a small business church media designer and I have been scouring stock photo sites for faith based images such as yours. So glad that you guys are here!”
Kenneth David Lee
Creative Director, NewParadigm Media
“I really appreciate the Lightstock site, it's going to be a really helpful resource for our church!”
Andrew Finden
andrewfinden.com
Meet the Team
We've been friends for a long time.
Kicking butt is what we do best.
We're here to serve you
Jon Bailey
jon@lightstock.com
@jonathanrbailey
David Yount
david@lightstock.com
@davidryount
Josh Bailey
josh@lightstock.com
@joshdavidbailey
Extra! Extra! Read all about it!
Churches and ministries using our CMS ask all the time about where they can find quality images for their website. Recently, I was introduced to lightstock.com Lightstock has some amazing photography to purchase, it's affordable, and it's Christ Centered.
I asked if they would write a little about their company so we could share it with you.
"Launched in late November 2012, Lightstock is a faith-focused, safe-searching, carefully-curated stock photography website geared exclusively for the Christian community. Its images are perfect for any number...
There's a stock photo on the Internet I've seen in a 1,000 different places.
With his right arm crooked and the same hand just slightly out of his pocket, a headless white male holds the spine of a large, opened black Bible in his left hand.
There have only been a few times in my life where I have genuinely wished for a product/service to come out and it has actually made it’s way to the market. One of these items that I felt the world desperately needed was a Waterproof Notepad so that you could jot down ideas while in the shower. (Am I the only one that has their best ideas there?) Luckily, I found Aqua Notes and they’re at the top of my Christmas list this year!
On a more serious note, another product/service that I’ve hoped would make it’s way onto the scene is a resource for Christian stock photography. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve grown frustrated with sites like iStockPhoto.com because they didn’t have the quality photos portraying Biblical themes that I needed. The few decent photos that you can find on there seem to be used on every church website and billboard that I see. What’s worse than their lack of variety is that it’s not a very safe place for your eyes...
Stock photography sites are booming online, but there is a newcomer to the industry that is helping to improve not just graphic design, but lives around the world.
Here at DuoParadigms, we frequently use stock images in projects for our clients. But finding quality Christian images can often be a challenge in today’s secular society. Not any longer, thanks to a wonderful new start-up, Lightstock.
As a blogger in the church technology market over the last five years, I’ve felt a void; there’s been a significant lacking in the way of faith-focused images that adequately represent the Church. I’m sure you’ve felt the void too. When I came across Lightstock a few weeks back, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I wasn’t the only one frustrated about the selection of available faith themed images available on the internet. Others were frustrated too, and went out and formed a company to help people just like you and me.
But what is Lightstock.com and how is it different from every other stock photo site? First off, have you ever gone to a stock site looking for a church related photo? Normally you find cheesy shots that don’t feel authentic and many times their are only a few good shots available.
With Lightstock.com that’s not an issues, All of the contributors are Christians, so they know what shots are cheesy or overdone in the church and nearly 100% of the shots can’t be found on other stock sites. So you are going to find tons of unique shots to fit your projects.
I wanted to introduce you to one of my site sponsors this month. Lightstock is a new stock photography website devoted to Christian images. I’ve tried out many different stock photography sites, and I’ve had trouble finding images that work well with church websites and print material. Lightstock looks very promising because of the quality of the images. As I browsed through their collections, I found several great pictures on baptism, on prayer, and on Bible study.