Church Video Ideas: Beginning and Developing Your Church’s Media Ministry - Pt. 2

Orginally published on Tuesday, June 26, 2007 at 9:44 PM
by Greg Atkinson

Constantly recruit: Have help - don’t try to do it all on your own (you can’t). Not only is it unwise, it is unBiblical (Body of Christ). If your training and talents are in music, seek out the “techies”, dreamers, artists, and “film buffs” in your church and involve them. Start somewhere. Involve more people. Constantly recruit!

“Producing multimedia worship is a team sport that involves the contribution of many hands and minds. Leaders planning to use multimedia in worship will want to identify and enlist people who have varieties of interests and gifts.” – Michael Bausch, Silver Screen, Sacred Story

FREE Idea: Do a church-wide survey (I call it a “Talent Survey”) to poll your people’s gifts, talents, and areas of interest and possible involvement.

Bill Easum says the way to find people is to share the vision of what you want to do, and then “watch whose eyes light up.”

Every church reaches a stage where it can no longer have someone show up on Sunday morning and run sound. Eventually, you must “branch out” and form a whole new ministry, the Media Ministry, that encompasses all sound, lighting, video, PowerPoint, and graphic arts. You have people in your church who use PowerPoint everyday at work and know it much better than you or I ever will (you’ll find that out when you do a survey).

Notable quote: “Once you have identified your leader, you should consider hiring her or him as part of your church staff….any church serious about media should hire at least one person to head up this area. This may be a full- or part-time hourly position or salaried. The media minister leads both the vision and action teams. Media ministers coordinate and train the volunteers, make creative decisions, and manage the equipment involved. They are also heavily involved in supporting or driving every aspect of a worship service, from the music to the sermon.” – Tim Eason, “Media Ministry Made Easy”.

What does a media team look like? In your designated media or AV area (often known as the “sound room” or “sound booth”) you should have one or two sound techs, at least one or two media techs (those running PowerPoint, video clips, etc.), and a lighting tech if you’re doing any special lighting. Len Wilson suggests developing three teams: video, sound/lighting, and tape duplication.

For further study on developing your team, you can check out the following books: “Media Ministry Made Easy” by Tim Eason, “The Wired Church” by Len Wilson, “Silver Screen, Sacred Story” by Michael Bausch, and “Church Video Projection Textbook” by Chip Loop. Also check out various articles on AnthonyCoppedge.com and read my daily blog.

Specialists: All who know me know that I strongly believe in the “specialist” approach. Those who run sound at my church are only on sound. Those who run media, only run media. Once God brings us those who are gifted and skilled with lighting, they will be the only one’s doing lights.

Because I see this is as a ministry, I do have several people on either the “sound” or “media” side that have “interest” in that area and serve as an “Assistant” Sound or Media Tech”. Those that say, “Hey, I’ve always wanted to learn how to do sound” would fall under this category. Those that say, “Hey, I used to run sound for Passion” would fall under the “Main Sound Tech” category. I don’t have people running sound one month and media the next. I want the “techies” on the media side and those with a great “ear” on the sound side. I’ve had 4 “Main Sound Techs” that rotate and serve one Sunday a month (same for the “Main Media Techs”) or 2 that serve twice a month. Those with “Main” in their title must be at the rehearsal the week of their Sunday, and must serve all Sunday (we have 4 services). Those who teach Sunday School, can only serve one service, or can’t make rehearsal are automatically ruled out as a “Main” tech and moved to one of the assistant roles (regardless of their gifting).

Stay tuned for part 3 next week…

©2007 – Greg Atkinson (www.churchvideoideas.com)

Used by permission from author. All rights reserved by author.

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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