Behind every church’s beautiful sermon series designs, emotional worship experiences, and smooth sound and lighting, you’ll find a dedicated creative team. These teams design, produce, and lead worship experiences to engage their congregation.
Imagine attending church this weekend, but this time… there’s no worship music. There are no slides on the screen to enhance the sermon. There aren’t even mics or lights set up for the speakers on stage.
Without creative teams, churches would have a hard time creating a dynamic experience that engages their congregation.
But putting together a creative team is no easy feat. What type of people do you need? How can you maximize the media resources you already have? And what processes will help foster an energized and dynamic environment for this small group of creatives? We’ve put together some insights on building an effective team for your church, from the steps to building your church’s creative arts team to making the best use of church media resources.
Why Your Church Needs a Creative Team
Before we start talking about building a dynamic church creative team, it’s crucial to understand why having a team within the church setting is important. And it all boils down to this: A creative team enhances your church’s connection with its congregation, amplifies outreach for events and services, and strengthens your church’s community presence.
Having someone on staff to further your creative goals can be helpful because they truly know the ins and outs of your church and can use their creativity to bring your vision to pass.
The Impact of Creative Teams on Church Engagement
Churches are increasingly looking for ways to boost engagement to drive attendance, giving, and spiritual growth. The creative arts team can be instrumental in these efforts. They can design stunning visuals to promote events, come up with new ideas for worship, and create content that resonates.
This team infuses creativity into every aspect of the church’s life, from the design of the weekly bulletin to the intentionally selected music setlist, so that the church experience is more engaging and authentic. With their spiritual gifts, the creative team makes sure every sermon, song, or event hits home, encouraging more people to get involved. And their work extends beyond the church’s four walls—they’re also getting your message online to reach even more people. A creative team isn’t just an asset. It’s a necessity for an engaged church community.
Defining The Role of a Church Creative Team
Creative teams aren’t one-size-fits-all. There’s the lone jack-of-all-trades staff member who does it all to large creative teams of musicians, photographers, and designers. Let’s explore the roles of a creative team among fellow members, within the rest of the church staff, and the congregation at large.
Within The Team
Your church’s specific needs should be the baseline for your creative team. For instance, if you have a large number of musicians in your congregation eager to volunteer, your creative team may focus on worship service or praise events. Or, if your church is focusing more online, you may want to recruit team members with experience in web design, video, and social media.
Whatever unique set of skills your team is made up of, all your members will share a common goal: to enhance and communicate the church’s mission creatively.
Within Ministry Staff
Working hand-in-hand with other ministries, the creative team helps bring all parts of the church to life. They might curate a setlist and verses to read for Sunday’s worship that complements the pastor’s sermon or produce engaging videos and promotional material for upcoming events from other ministries.
While your church’s creative team plays a big role in brainstorming and developing creative ideas, they typically don’t have the final say. The ultimate decision might be made by the creative leader, the pastor, or even the senior pastor, depending on your church’s structure. It’s best to have a clear process for approvals and limit feedback to only those directly involved in the asset being created. Too many opinions can overwhelm or delay the review process.
Within The Congregation
Working hand-in-hand with other ministries, the creative team helps bring all parts of the church to life. They might curate a setlist and verses to read for Sunday’s worship that complements the pastor’s sermon or produce engaging videos and promotional material for upcoming events from other ministries.
While your church’s creative team plays a big role in brainstorming and developing creative ideas, they typically don’t have the final say. The ultimate decision might be made by the creative leader, the pastor, or even the senior pastor, depending on your church’s structure. It’s best to have a clear process for approvals and limit feedback to only those directly involved in the asset being created. Too many opinions can overwhelm or delay the review process.
4 Steps To Build Your Church Creative Team
1. Identify Potential Creative Team Members
Look for people who have an eye for design, can think outside the box, and are passionate about your mission. Every church is different, but in general, every creative team needs a worship leader, creative arts director, technical director, video editor, graphic designer, and social media manager. Ideally, you want to include a diverse mix of creative professionals and skills. It’s also important to have someone leading the team who understands how each skill works together to create a cohesive experience.
Ready to fill those roles? We’ve got 20 Ready-To-Use Job Descriptions to get you started.
2. Define Roles and Processes
Once you’ve identified potential members for your church creative team, the next essential step is to outline your creative process and define each individual’s role. This organization ensures the team operates cohesively and effectively. Clear roles cut confusion and promote efficiency, with everyone aware of their duties and expectations.
The creative process should be open and collaborative, involving brainstorming, content creation, revisions, and final approval. By establishing an organized, creative process and well-defined roles, your church creative team can better use the resources at hand and enhance the congregation’s spiritual experience.
3. Establish Open Communication Channels
A dynamic creative team needs more than talented individuals. It needs unification, connection, and transparency—communication is the key.
Tools like Slack, Asana, or Basecamp are popular for open, transparent project management and communication. These tools help organize tasks, provide timely feedback, and facilitate collaboration. But whatever tool(s) you use, an open communication approach will help keep the team aligned, boost efficiency, and ensure creative integrity.
4. Provide Necessary Training and Resources
The right people also need the right tools to do their best work—quality photography, video editing software, a custom church app, music libraries, worship planning software, graphic design templates, adequate storage space for digital files, and more.
Having a budget for these materials will help ensure that your creative team can produce high-quality content quickly without any restrictions. But it’s also important that they have the skills to do their jobs effectively. Invest in training and development for your creative team members to prepare them for any creative challenges.
Maximizing Your Church Media Resources
When creating dynamic church experiences, many churches feel limited by their budgets and media resources. The good news is that you don’t need an entire studio full of equipment. Some of the most powerful creative projects have been produced in the most simple of settings! All it takes is some creativity and a passion for making an impact.
How to Effectively Utilize Your Media Resources
Understanding and leveraging your media resources is a crucial first step. This could range from a DSLR camera to worship planning software or even just a smartphone. The potential to create high-quality content with these tools is immense as long as you understand their capabilities and use them creatively.
So, take a look around your church. What resources do you already have? Do you have access to video recording equipment or photo cameras? How about audio recording or editing tools? See what you can do with the equipment and resources already at your team’s fingertips.
Your resources don’t have to be things. It could be people. Do you have congregants who want to volunteer to take photos? Or a youth group with an interest in video editing? Think outside the box and tap into your church community to find talented people who can help. The right church management system can help make recruiting and scheduling volunteers a breeze.
If you’re considering investing in new equipment, look for versatile options or options that offer ROI or time-savings in the long run. A high-resolution camera isn’t just for photography; it can be used for videography, too. Similarly, a good quality microphone isn’t limited to recording sermons—it can be used for podcasts or live music. Most importantly, remember that it’s not about having the most expensive gear but about making the best use of what you have.
Keeping Your Media Resources Updated and Relevant
Once you’ve inventoried your resources, the next step is to keep them current. The tech world is fast-paced with new devices, software, and apps emerging daily that could benefit your church.
Pencil in software and equipment upgrades in the calendar and, more importantly, in the church budget. Make sure you also have regular check-ins with your church creative team. Since they’re the ones with industry expertise and using the tools daily, get their feedback on the existing tools and find out if there’s anything they feel is missing to do their job more effectively.
When it comes down to it, you don’t need a huge budget or an arsenal of expensive equipment to create powerful media for your church. The best way to ensure your resources are relevant is by assessing your current technology, checking the effectiveness of your current tools, and identifying areas for improvement.
Read the comprehensive guide on performing a church technology assessment.
Church Tech Check
This proprietary online assessment helps churches understand how they rank in regards to what tech they use and how they use it.
Tools to Help Your Team Unleash Their Creativity
Your creative team creates more than just content—they create connections within your church community. Curating such an innovative and vibrant team is no small feat. It requires careful planning, strategic decisions, and top-notch resources. But when it’s done, you’ll have a team that amplifies your church’s media presence and leaves a profound positive impact on your community.
Ready to maximize your church media resources and take your congregation engagement to the next level? Pushpay’s Church Management Software (ChMS) is designed to streamline processes and stay organized so church staff can better focus on connecting with your congregation.
Tour Pushpay’s ChMS software today and witness firsthand how it can revolutionize your church operations and help your creative team unleash their creativity.