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Church Video Ideas: Beginning and Developing Your Church’s Media Ministry - Pt. 1

Orginally published on Thursday, June 21, 2007 at 6:25 AM
by Greg Atkinson

In this three part series we are going to look at the beginning and development of a church's media ministry. When I say "media ministry" I'm referring to whatever your church calls the sound, video and lights area of your church. For some it may be the AV Team or Tech Team, etc. Let's dive in. If this is new for your church, here are a few things to consider:

Permission: Assuming you have already discussed beginning a media team with your pastor and have his full support, along with a leading from the Holy Spirit, ask God to lead and guide you as you begin to develop and form your Media Ministry Team.

Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain. Psalm 127:1

Time: How much time to you have? Don’t even bother to lead your church through transition if you’re not planning on being there long. It is wrong to change things up and then leave your church bitter and broken.

Timing: The difference in a foul ball and a home run is timing. Pace yourself. “Inch by inch, it’ll be a cinch. Yard by yard, it’ll be hard.” Go SLOW!

Focus: We can do our best, striving for excellence, keeping up with current trends and cultural happenings, and have the “best show in town”, but is God in it? Christ should be at the center of all we do. He should be our motivation, the reason we sing, and the One to Whom all our pictures, graphics, and videos point.

Decide on a name: Whether it’s the Media, Multimedia, Audio-visual, or Technical Arts Ministry. Whatever you pick, stick with it. Be consistent! Never forget it is a ministry.

Have a purpose: The vision drives the technology – not vice versa. The Media Ministry supports the vision. (By the way- your vision and your need determines your budget) Don’t use media for the sake of using media. There should be a definite purpose behind it. Know why you are “sticking your neck out”. Take the time to develop a mission statement for your media ministry.

Here is a sample Media Ministry Statement of Purpose: The Media Ministry Team exists for one purpose: to invest ourselves in a ministry that will directly support and reinforce anything and everything that goes forth from this church that requires the support of lighting, audio, video, graphics, or any other form of technical or stage support, in a manner that is pleasing to God, and will provide for a better reception and understanding by all those who are touched by our efforts.

Here are some examples from other churches:
Willow Creek Community Church Programming and Production Ministry - A community of artists who, together, unleash the arts to create transformational moments.
North Point Community Church Production Ministry - Our Mission is to lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ by creatively and effectively enhancing communication through quality technical support while encouraging and challenging one another along the way.

Have a plan: Determine how your church will use media. Will it be only for announcements? Just for the pastor’s message? For singing, but nothing else?
Determine which colors and backgrounds work best in your situation. Take in consideration your worship center’s size and lighting. Test your presentation under various lighting conditions. Color combinations that work well together under dim lighting may wash out under brighter light. Light text on a dark background works best in video presentations. Dark text on light backgrounds work best for printed presentations.

Be yourself: Every church has its own fingerprint – its own style. Don’t try to copy another church, create your own. There is no formula. It’s what works best for your church and your situation. Determine the look of your presentation based on your church’s own style, personality, and mission. Will you stick with plain backgrounds? Colorful backgrounds? Edgy/wild backgrounds? What age range are most of the people in your church?

Less is more: Slides with fewer words on them are typically better than slides with lots of words. Give the viewer less to remember and you’ll find they retain more.

Be intentional: Video and catalog all events at your church. “It’s a great way to cast vision. If people can see the vision, they are more likely to embrace it.” – Todd Carter.

*FREE Idea: 1. Use video footage from a church event within 2 weeks as a short highlight clip. 2. Use the footage next year for promo and watch your attendance grow!

Stay tuned for part 2 next week…

Greg Atkinson lives in Dallas with his wife and their three small children. Greg served previously as the Director of WorshipHouse Media, after having served as a worship pastor for 11 years. Greg is now the Technical Arts Director at Bent Tree Bible Fellowship and continues to consult, teach and write about worship, media and creative communication. You can connect with him through his daily blog, Church Video Ideas, his podcast, Creative Synergy, or his email: .

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Hi... I'm Todd Rhoades. I'm a Christ-follower, husband, father and I love to connect leaders with other leaders. Hopefully you'll find something here at MMI you like and will return often. If you want, you can find out more about me or follow my every step on Twitter.