If you’re at least somewhat interested in the current millennium, then you won’t need me to tell you that Apple CEO Steve Jobs has finally thrown in the towel. While Apple fans and hipsters worldwide cried doomsday, I’m here to tell you that innovation did not die with Steve’s unfortunate, but anticipated resignation.

1) Surround Yourself

Even the most talented people need support. You can’t be completely self-sufficient, and in the context of the church, you actually need a community around you. Surround yourself with individuals who will challenge, convict, and criticize you in meaningful ways. It’s the only way to raise the bar of excellence.

2) Pay Attention to Detail

It’s no surprise that Steve Jobs pays close attention to detail. While many leaders delegate seemingly ‘tedious’ duties, a great innovator still places strong emphasis on the little things. Please differentiate this from being nitpicky. A bean counter is caught up in the minutia, not the details. Innovators can be empowering, but still stay involved in the entire creative process.

3) Raise Up a Legacy

Apple is by no means in trouble. While Steve is phasing himself out, there is a whole team of leaders who will take the company to newer heights. Jesus even admitted that His disciples would do greater things after He was gone. Be conscientious of the generation behind you by not only leaving your legacy, but encouraging them to build a better one.

Be at peace, O mourning hipsters. Innovation is not dead.

Today I was rushing off to pick up some equipment for a shoot. As I waited in traffic…

BOOM.
Rear-ended.

From the vehicle emerged a young guy, very penant, and very worried about the pending insurance nightmare. I got out, looked at our cars, and everything was surprisingly unscathed. I made sure the young man was okay, grabbed his name (Chris) and a handshake for the sake of friendliness, and eagerly resumed my harried flight.

5 seconds later, the Holy Spirit laid into me. That accident was no accident. God brought me and Chris together at that moment for a reason: so Chris would know that Christ has a purpose for him and is eager to step into his life.

Heartbroken and torn, I confessed that my obedience – no – my ability to hear God speak – was hindered by looking too far ahead rather than what was directly in front of me.

It’s funny, isn’t it? We often consider ‘looking ahead’ to be a prized virtue. But sometimes, our frenzied nature causes us to miss encounters with God – a God who dwells in our accidents.

Describe a time when you missed an encounter with God because you were too concerned with the future.

I sat back and looked at my goals list. It was a large, lengthy list of goals that were all of a technical nature – new initiatives, maintenance, creative aspirations. But very few had to do with people.

Ouch!

Granted, working in a technical and creative ministry capacity, we understand, often in a distant sense, that what we’re doing affects people. But it’s so easy to be troglodytes in our little caves – to get caught up in the process and the models – that we lose sight of relationships. Sometimes we never see the fruits of our labor, and we deal behind-the-scenes so much that we’re often physically (and consciously) separated from the people we minister to. But I have to ask the question – if I’m not caring for people, what in the world am I doing in ministry?

Isn’t it a shame when we reduce ourselves to a mere technical (or a creative) support service, that we lose sight of the fact that we’re actually ministers, meant to build relationships?

It’s so easy for entire churches to get wrapped up in that. The business-like structure that defines church staffing often confines us to an environment that hinders, not builds, community. Unfortunately, volunteers often see the worst of this. That’s because a lot of departments see them as simply extra sets of hands. I’m trying to make it very clear from the start that my role is not as a leader, but as a servant. My job on a staff is not to manage them, but to empower them. Volunteers are the true ministers, and it’s my job to support them in that.

This year, with a new set of goals on the white board, I’m taking steps to live that out. I’ve committed to three priorities:

1. Empower my volunteers to take more ownership.
I’m beginning this long, arduous process by allowing my team members to ‘dream’ a little bit – to submit an idea or a change they would like to see happen in our ministry – and to act on as many of those ideas as I can (and positively acknowledge the ones are not possible). This empowerment will stem into several other priorities as well.

2. Pray for a different volunteer each day.
If prayer is the frontline of ministry, why am I not doing more of that? To live that out, I’ve started asking a different volunteer every day how I can prayer for them specifically.

3. Get to know more of the congregation individually.
How do I ‘know’ my audience if I don’t really know them? While I can sit here and acknowledge my ability to communicate visually, I’m a fool to believe I can do that effectively by gauging a mere demographic. So how do I get to know them if I’m busy during worship? Share meals, help someone with yard work, volunteer with a different group of folks. Anything I can do to counteract ‘business’ with community.

Discussion time: what are some of the ways that you are making it ‘all about the people’?

I’d like to encourage you with this: it shouldn’t be a battle. Such a divide shouldn’t be seen as a chasm of “old vs. new.” Rather, as I’m discovering, we need to treat these two distinct styles as two wholly equal forms of reaching two wholly different cultures.

If you’re tasked with providing creative content for such a congregation, I encourage you to see the blessings in this. While such a split may introduce a whole slew of disastrous disunity problems in your congregation, I promise you there are ways of approaching your church’s media needs without unhealthy compromise. In fact, it may be rewarding as you are challenged and stretched in new ways, as I have been.

Coming from a solely progressive church background, here’s how I’m approaching the divide:

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1) Consider the fundamentals of art.

The box we’ve packed ourselves into in the progressive scene is to rely solely on motion backgrounds and thematic short-plays to support the worship sets. Or worse, settling for static pictures that overtly represent the subject matter (nothing says worship like a sparkling Jesus, right?). For many of us, keying text over live video isn’t even an alternative, whether that’s because of technical or philosophical limitations.

We have to start looking at the fundamentals again: color, light, texture, depth, etc. A static image still needs purpose. Use light and texture to create a context for the song. Employ color to enhance the mood. Pay attention to transitions in the music and how you can support that visually. Subtlety can sometimes speak louder than any overt imagery ever could.

2) Evaluate the real issue.

The temptation is to shy away from using visuals just because they’re poorly received at first. But I’m confident the issue is not simply the use of creative content, but the manner in which they’re used.

A few months ago, a gentleman in the church gave a two-part presentation on our sanctuary’s stained-glass windows. His whole point was how these visuals weren’t there merely as eye candy, but to tell a story; to remind us; to engage us; to evoke some feeling in us we couldn’t get through the spoken word.

Chances are, if we’re using artwork just to fill empty space, we’re not really doing our jobs as visual communicators. Despite differences of tastes, the ‘lean-forward moments’ in the sermon and worship set still exist and must be supported.

3) Traditional doesn’t mean tasteless.

We tend to corner our creativity into either ‘trendy’ or ‘cheesy’ – generalizations I’m all too familiar with. I’ve come to realize that tastefulness does not have to sacrificed at the hands of ‘traditional.’ If I’m honest, I recognize that I’m only a narrow communicator when I appeal to one crowd. My job should be to engage all participants, not just the ones I naturally connect with.

Traditional does not equate with ‘out-dated.’ As such, it takes some guts to see that design embodying ‘Reverence’ does not have to die at the hands of ‘Modern’ – and as designers, we must learn how to translate that reverence without compromising our creative edge and tastefulness.

4) There is no happy medium.

I’d wager an initial response from most creatives would be to find a happy medium. Sure, managing two service types can possibly double our workload, but we need to weigh the benefit. If I look for the happy medium every time, everyone loses – the congregation, leadership, me. If I go to the extreme every time… well, I burn out and then everyone loses anyway.

So here’s my admonition #1: Be prepared to go the extra mile. Be careful trying to kill two birds with one stone, because you end up with generic and meaningless design. The music and environment speak to people differently for a reason – and the visuals are no different. Create two separate sets of splash screens, backgrounds, and bumpers if time allows.

Here’s admonition #2: Be prepared to compromise from time to time. If you’re in charge of video production, this means you can’t pick favorites. You might be sacrificing the Abrams-style handy-cam feel or the indie-filmmaker cutaways because – quite frankly, as I have discovered – it really confuses the older folks (spoken with tender love and care!). Two versions of a video just isn’t a possibility with most churches’ staffing scenarios and your deadlines.

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There are, of course, about twelve dozen other points to consider when it comes to producing content for two service styles. However, the four I touched on above were meant as encouragement from one troubled creative to another.

But, of course, every congregation is different. What are your considerations for designing for both traditional and contemporary?

And while I have been trudging my way through the tedious process of hammering out the details on target audience, story spine, call-to-action, and artistic direction, I remind myself that I’ve stumbled my way around enough productions to know that skimping here leads to wasted time later.

But it really goes beyond preparation. To put it plainly – it’s where the vision is refined. This should resound for all people involved in any sort of ministry-driven activity; your vision is paramount.

For many of us creative folks, we like to breeze past this stage. We can’t wait to get our hands dirty with lights, lenses, and the edit bay. But when we don’t have a clear idea of the ‘Why,’ the process of ‘How’ gets really, really messy. And sometimes, it’s flat-out disaster; we clamor our way around until we end up with a flashy – but hollow – message.

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Below are just a few key areas I identify and refine to keep my production’s vision clear, simple, and effective:

1) Identify your focus
What are you trying to get across? “Less is more” definitely applies here. You can create something extremely engaging (as you should), but the way you convey and present that message can make or break it. For example, “Extend opportunities for local missions,” or, “Promote the _______ campaign during June.” You’ll be surprised what simplicity can do.

2) Identify your target audience
Be very, very specific. Is your message intended for families with children? Twenty-somethings? Those with struggling marriages? Identifying this allows you to hone in on the folks who need to hear what you’ve got the most, rather than wasting something shallow and generic on everyone. Pick no more than two targets, and prioritize them.

3) Identify your strategy
How will you connect the focus and target? For instance, if my focus is on “promoting local service opportunities,” and I’m hoping to reach “families with small children,” I’ll probably list “awareness” and “accessibility” as my primary strategy. Based on this example, I now know that I want to emphasize that it’s extremely easy to get involved, that having kids shouldn’t scare busy families away from serving, and that there are a plethora of opportunities to get involved. Overly simple, but crucial.

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I believe these three things are key before even touching story and art direction. While overly simple, refusing this step will cause either a world of chaos or complete stagnation. What is your process of developing a clear vision for your project?

If you’re anything like me, you glance at others’ production blogs and immediately conjure up thoughts of egotistical showmen conducting a one-way conversation, or perhaps regurgitating certain online tutorial material as their own. I’m asking for pardon in such initial judgments.

My desire is not to inject my personal style and say, ‘Take it or leave it,” but to grow along side you as colleagues for Kingdom work. I post not to be seen, but to spark honest conversation about creativity, communication, Christianity, and our roles as visual story-tellers.

The desire to start a production journal was muddled with a question – will I be adding to the noise – or inspiring someone’s creativity? Will I encourage strong communication – or hinder it?

Here’s to not adding to the noise.