[UPDATE 2/21/09]
I’ve made some changes to the timer. Here is the updated version. You can download the flash file here: Stage Countdown Timer.

—Original Post Below—
Earlier this year I was trying to figure out how to get a countdown clock setup for Barry, the preacher at our church. I did a lot of searching around trying to find a software program or an inexpensive decent clock. The best ideas I could find were using a clock that we use for our children’s basketball league. I didn’t really like that idea, but it was the best idea we could come up with.

Since necessity is the mother of creativity I decided I needed to make the countdown clock myself. I already had a program called SwishMax, which is basically a Flash animation program. I did some searching on some forums, made quite a few unsuccessful attempts, but finally was able to get the clock to do everything we were looking for. It’s a simple Flash animation that we run on an old laptop in the back of the Worship Center hooked up to an LCD monitor sitting on the front pew that only the people on stage can see. There are buttons to set the clock to different times. It also changes color to yellow when there are three minutes left, red with under a minute, and flashes at 30 seconds until zero.

It’s been helpful. I’ve uploaded it and you are free to download it and use it however you please. If you already have SwishMax you can download the swi file to edit the clock if you want.

Download Flash file (swf): Countdown timer
Download Swish file (requires Swish program): Countdown timer (original file)

Here is a mini-preview of the clock: