I try to stay away from any kind of lighting/electric graphics, but I have an idea that will look great with lightning behind the text. I use photoshop / illustrator / and indesign. Does anyone know how to get that effect or where to get a plugin? Thanks

You can go to Free Online Image Editor

There they have 2 gifs you might be able to use.
Go to "Effect" menu, then choose: "Animated Mask"

There are 2 lightning effects...

In photoshop just go to filter/render/lighting effects. This has some good effects.