How to harness the power of creative ministry in your church
The key to unlocking the horsepower of creative ministry for your church lies in how effective the communication is between those in creative ministry and those in leadership.
I want to share God's Story, an annual series for Alderwood Community Church, as an example of what it looks like when things go right.
Alderwood reached out to me on June 30 for a series that kicked off on September 11. I share those details because that is the first step of a successful partnership: lead time. Because I had time to create, the Creative Director and I had time to be creative.
If getting that far ahead feels impossible, I have a free resource that might help.
This was the vision given to us by leadership.
Year long study
Broken up into seven different series (all of which had titles and subtitles already)
Passages that would be taught through
Overarching theme and focuses for each series
Connected on a map of some sort
One of the stated goals of the series was to take the narrative of Scripture and help it feel relatable to those going through the series. As the Creative Director and I worked through different concepts, we landed on a map (though more like Settlers of Catan than the original drawing) and illustrations that gave the series a storybook feel.
Because we had such a clear understanding of what leadership was hoping to accomplish, we were able to build those goals into our creative solution.
The map was designed to reflect the region where the church is located: the Pacific Northwest.
We proposed this map as the "rough sketch" of where we planned to take things conceptually.
One of the most effective ways for creative to partner well with leadership is to eliminate surprises. Heading into this year long series, we were going to be committing to a cohesive look. The Creative Director and I knew the plan, but no one else did...
Until we showed them this.
Rather than jumping into the execution process while everyone else waited to see what we would come up with, we defined some visual elements ahead of time by building a brand guide for the series.
This document became out point of reference for all things visual–for us AND everyone else. There weren't any surprises. Everyone knew what to expect.
Whenever you can eliminate uncertainty for leadership, DO IT.
Every series graphic included multiple visual cues that pointed to what leadership wanted to focus on in each series. Because we knew that in advance, a few important things were able to happen.
We could design our solution around these major themes
We had time to show leadership our solution and adjust based on their feedback
We could hear from leadership if these references made sense and worked for them
We could make recommendations on how to leverage these references well
Could leadership have looked at the images and discovered these things? Sure.
Was it helpful that we did the work of connecting the dots for them? Absolutely.
The final map was revealed as the series concluded, and the whole year was a big win for Alderwood.
Because leadership and creative were able to get (and stay) on the same page throughout the year, the congregation looked forward to each week and engaged with God's Word.
When leadership and creative ministry partner well together, great things can happen.
Let's chat through what it would look like to partner on a project for your church.
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