In a media-driven society, we have become accustomed to forming impressions of just about everything based on graphics and videos.
Snippets on social media can create an instant perception about a person or product. YouTube videos are strategically edited to create maximum engagement. Websites are often scientifically designed to cater specifically to the demographics of people who visit.
Whether we like it or not, this is our reality, and churches have a choice to make: are we willing to invest time and energy into intentional content capable of reaching our current (and potential future) audience?
Truly being creative involves having the time and space to do so, to dream, research, and play without an impending deadline breathing down one’s neck.
Nearly 60 years ago, media theorist Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase that “the medium is the message.” In essence, the medium through which a message is transmitted, or how that message is delivered, is just as, if not more, important than the message itself.
How something is delivered carries weight.
The church has the greatest message in the history of the universe: the story of Christ. And how we choose to tell that message in the current state of media and content delivery is critical.
And telling that message isn’t reserved exclusively for social media and websites, although that is what tends to get much of the focus nowadays. It’s also in testimony videos in the service, post-produced sermons on YouTube, worship albums, small group curriculum, on-campus branding and signage, and on and on.
It’s simply not enough to try and “keep up with the Joneses” and do something just because secular organizations are doing it, or because a big church down the street is doing it.
There must be a level of intentionality involved in all of it, ensuring that all levels of content are created and packaged in a way that allows the ministry to stay true to its own unique identity and calling.
Thus, content creation doesn’t start with the artists or content creators themselves. It starts with senior leaders clarifying vision so that the creators have clarity of direction.
“I think having high-quality content to engage with our church is enormous, simply from a leadership level,” says Adam Bender, the Creative Pastor at Indianapolis’ itown Church. “For our pastors to be able to lead our church through these same [creative] avenues with things that God is calling our church specifically to do…that’s powerful!”
“This will blow some people’s minds, but we aren’t on social media as a church (except for YouTube).”
—Adam Bender, Creative Pastor, itown Church
itown has a unique media calling as compared with other churches. Their senior pastor, Dave Sumrall, comes from a family lineage of pastors and evangelists who were comfortable using local TV broadcasts to reach their community. That vision has continued into how he has led itown, which now airs a weekly show on local TV.
While that’s a clear vision of what the church feels like it *should* do, it also has clarity from its leaders on what it should *not* do.
“This will blow some people’s minds, but we aren’t on social media as a church (except for YouTube),” Bender explains. “This certainly isn’t the strategy for everyone. Still, we stepped away as an encouragement for our church to step away from something that is highly addictive and has proven to be incredibly unhealthy [in society].
There is value in bringing hope and light into a dark place, like social media, but for our church, we felt that that wasn’t our calling,” he continues. “We’ve been off social media for over three years, and our church is still growing and healthy as ever.”
itown’s vision is a perfect example of having clear, top-down vision that then informs the direction of how content teams function. There’s clarity regarding what to do and not do, how to spend time, and what are the priorities that should be rallied around.
Once that vision is defined, it then allows content teams to function with confidence, knowing they’re pointed in the right direction.
For ministries looking to take steps forward in how they manage content in a new year, perhaps the first step isn’t just to look at how to utilize more efficient workflows or become more proficient with editing and design tools. Maybe the first step should be ensuring that all teams are aligned from top down regarding the “main thing” that defines content priorities.
Without that definition, it can be easy for artists and creatives to allow their own vision and dreams to define projects, which can easily lead to a path of unproductivity.
“I think creatives are often the ones who are trying the hardest to one-up the last idea, not the pastors,” opines Brad Zimmerman, the Creative Director at west Michigan’s Watermark Church. “When I stopped playing the ‘one-up game’ my workload became more manageable and my expectation of what a win looked like became more realistic and doable,” he shares. “And do you know what? People still showed up, Jesus was still shared and lives were still changed. Keeping ‘the main thing, the main thing’ has always helped remove the ideas that might be fun but aren't effective.”
Alignment with vision also helps drive methods of the brainstorming process, which can easily become derailed by big dreams that may have tenuous connections to productive outcomes.
“I think creatives are often the ones who are trying the hardest to one-up the last idea, not the pastors.”
—Brad Zimmerman, Creative Director at west Michigan’s Watermark Church
“I, like many creatives and technical artists, see things very practically when big dreams come up,” Zimmerman admits. “I have had to work hard to improve on how I respond to these ideas. At my best I try to ask clarifying questions to help bring that idea to a full completion and move it out of the dream state. This will help me better understand the vision, because it is often less crazy than it seemed at first, and it also helps the other person see the issues that I am seeing.”
Having an effective content creation and deployment strategy doesn’t just start and stop with clear vision, however. There must also be a clear plan of attack when it comes to managing and implementing deliverables.
There is a trove of available project management resources now available, ranging from communication tools like Slack and GroupMe, to task management and productivity apps like Monday, Wrike, ClickUp, Trello, Basecamp, Asana and more.
And while there is no right or wrong regarding what tools to use, what’s important is that a creative team have some sort of system in place to help manage communication, timelines and expectations.
“We use Asana,” says itown’s Bender, “which is great, but only as good as the people using it and the data you put into it.”
For his team, though, it’s less about the project system itself and more about how the timelines are managed.
“Building in margin is, I think, the most crucial element to ensure that we’re still able to deliver projects on time,” he notes. “If we know it is a more significant project, with many variables and contributing voices, we give considerable margin to allow for those setbacks. A lot of it comes down to mentality, too. We build in the margin and we value the feedback because 100% of the time, we are better after input and revisions.”
Cedric Tsang, who serves on the Video and Communications team at San Jose’s Cathedral of Faith, concurs.
“Based on the due date, we back-time deadlines according to when different people need to have things delivered to them by in order to have reasonable time to do their tasks,” he says, while adding, “Feedback later in the process should only be adjustments rather than overhaul.”
Though many creatives may say they work better with tight deadlines and with the pressure of an approaching due date, the reality is that’s likely not the most effective strategy of managing content creation for a growing organization. As the cliché says, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.
Last-minute requests and changes are inevitable, and the only way to be prepared for them is to try and get other work done ahead of schedule to allow for back-end margin. Otherwise, the growing to-do list and added stress creep across boundaries and affect the possibility of work-life balance. That also will ultimately impact future projects, because down time is a necessary component in one’s personal creative process.
“As far as quiet time, the key for me is to not bring work home,” says Tsang, “because when I do, that’s when I lose my rest and quiet time.”
“Some seasons are ‘all-in’ in the creative world,” Bender notes. “But other seasons are slower with more flexibility. So, stealing time away in those seasons for personal passions and fun projects is fantastic. I used to feel guilty for leaving early or dipping out in the middle of the day for stuff like that until my pastor encouraged me to do it. It’s all about the long game, recognizing that I’m better when I’m more creative and more rested.”
Truly being creative involves having the time and space to do so, to dream, research and play without an impending deadline breathing down one’s neck. It’s impossible to do that without planning for, and taking advantage of, quiet seasons.
New tools, new possibilities
In 2024, there are likely to be even more developments in how artists can practically generate content, quicker and of higher quality.
Artificial intelligence (AI) will continue to improve as a tool that can be utilized alongside content teams who may have limited time and resources for writing (“Quick! We need a script for a video shoot to promote our men’s conference and it needs to be in Ye Olde English like a Shakespearean sonnet!”) and designing (like image generation for customized series art).
Large language models (LLMs) will expand how ministries can ingest sermons that can be translated into multiple languages, or even turned into some form of small group curriculum.
Augmented and virtual reality will continue to offer options of fourth-dimensional experiences for ministries, whether as onstage teaching tools and demonstrations or how congregants can feel like they’re part of something like an overseas mission field.
And editing templates (like Envato Elements) and subscription-based stock content (such as Shift Worship, Church Motion Graphics, Twelve:Thirty Media, Worship House Media etc) will not only become more ubiquitous, but also more accepted as tools that busy video teams can utilize to help churn out projects.
However, success as a creator is not just dependent upon the tools used to create. It’s also about the vision of what will be created, which will then inform what the creation will be, and the time that must be set aside for that creation to be brought forth.
For church creatives and technical artists in the new year, perhaps the focus shouldn’t be as much on how to just become a better editor or designer.
Instead, maybe the aim should be on how to gain improved clarity of vision from senior leadership, and how to have a better system of time and task management, not only to improve productivity, but to ensure that enough margin exists to rest, refuel, and explore new dimensions of creativity.
