Leading Healthy Creative Teams: Recent Episodes
Matt Curtis
Lunchtime Heroes is on a quest to help churches build healthy and effective creative teams. The Leading Healthy Creative Teams podcast will help you learn what it takes to lead creatives well, navigate toxicity and disagreement within your creative team, and build an environment where creatives can thrive. You can't have an effective creative team without having a healthy one first.
What’s your question about communications?
If you’ve ever felt stuck trying to grow as a Christian creative, this episode will give you some clarity.
In episode 100 (!), I share why I’m merging my two communities (church staff creatives and freelance creatives) into one: The Christian Creative. After expanding my coaching to include more than creative ministry, I’ve realized that Christian creatives are having the same conversations. The challenges we face aren’t just about our job titles... they’re about the tension between faith and creativity.
Here’s what you’ll take away:
- A new way to see your creativity as a vehicle for spiritual growth
- Why your frustrations might come from being a creative, not just your role
- How spiritual and creative development often get separated and what happens when they’re brought back together
- What I’m building next, and how you can be part of it
If you’re trying to grow in your craft and your faith but keep running into roadblocks, the Christian creative group is a great next step for you.
Lunchtime Heroes exists to help you build a healthy creative ministry. Here's how:
Join the Christian Creative group on Skool
Learn how to bridge the gap between creatives and leadership with the book, Watch Your Language!
Get in-the-trenches help for critical seasons with Interim Communications Leadership.
What’s your question about communications?
The Trend Your Church Can’t Ignore
Knowledge has never been more accessible. With AI, social media, and digital content everywhere, people can find answers in seconds. But despite this, loneliness is at an all-time high.
In this episode, I dive into the growing tension between knowledge and community—and why churches have an incredible opportunity if they communicate this well.
I also share why I dropped the price of the Healthy Communications Ministry Blueprint and why I’m investing in building a stronger Skool group—because information alone isn’t enough. True transformation happens in community.
If your church wants to cut through the noise and meet people where they are, this conversation is for you.
Get the Blueprint for $49 this week only: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/the-healthy-communications-ministry-blueprint
Join the Skool group: https://www.skool.com/healthy-creative-ministry/about
Lunchtime Heroes exists to help you build a healthy creative ministry. Here's how:
Join the Christian Creative group on Skool
Learn how to bridge the gap between creatives and leadership with the book, Watch Your Language!
Get in-the-trenches help for critical seasons with Interim Communications Leadership.
What’s your question about communications?
How do you adjust your work as ministry seasons shift?
This week, we’re diving into the three ministry paces every church creative navigates: deep seasons, fast seasons, and balanced seasons. I’ll share how understanding these rhythms can improve your skills, help you prioritize projects, and avoid frustration when expectations clash with reality.
We’ll also explore how to determine when to go deep, when to rely on templates, and how to balance creativity with speed. Tune in to learn how aligning your work with your church’s pace can lead to healthier, more effective creative ministry.
Lunchtime Heroes exists to help you build a healthy creative ministry. Here's how:
Join the Christian Creative group on Skool
Learn how to bridge the gap between creatives and leadership with the book, Watch Your Language!
Get in-the-trenches help for critical seasons with Interim Communications Leadership.
What’s your question about communications?
As 2024 comes to a close, I want to take a moment to say thank you!
If you or someone you know is thinking about making the jump to freelance in 2025, I’d love your help spreading the word about The Jump Moment Podcast (Apple Podcasts, Spotify), launching January 21.
As we head into 2025, I’d love to hear from you: what’s the biggest challenge you’re facing right now? Send me a message and let me know.
Lunchtime Heroes exists to help you build a healthy creative ministry. Here's how:
Join the Christian Creative group on Skool
Learn how to bridge the gap between creatives and leadership with the book, Watch Your Language!
Get in-the-trenches help for critical seasons with Interim Communications Leadership.
What’s your question about communications?
As a church creative, I’ve been through my share of Christmas chaos: long hours, last-minute changes, and the overwhelming pressure to get everything done perfectly. But what I’ve learned through seasons like this is that not all rest is created equal.
In this episode, I share what I’ve learned about the seven areas of rest and how they’ve helped me stay healthy and effective in ministry. This isn’t about a one-size-fits-all solution. It’s about recognizing the areas where you need rest the most. Whether it’s stepping back from sensory overload or finding ways to restore your creative well, understanding how to rest intelligently is one way you can maintain health through Christmas.
This conversation is part of what I teach in the Healthy Creative Ministry Cohort, designed to help church creatives like you find ways to love what you do and last in ministry. If you’re feeling overwhelmed this Christmas, this episode is for you.
7 types of rest—physical, creative, spiritual, emotional, sensory, social, and mental.
Lunchtime Heroes exists to help you build a healthy creative ministry. Here's how:
Join the Christian Creative group on Skool
Learn how to bridge the gap between creatives and leadership with the book, Watch Your Language!
Get in-the-trenches help for critical seasons with Interim Communications Leadership.
What’s your question about communications?
No System is good enough mechanically to overcome incompatibility with culture.
This week on the podcast we jump into the traits your systems need in order to be healthy. The four traits of healthy systems are:
- Transparent
- Proactive
- Human
- Culturally compatible
Lunchtime Heroes exists to help you build a healthy creative ministry. Here's how:
Join the Christian Creative group on Skool
Learn how to bridge the gap between creatives and leadership with the book, Watch Your Language!
Get in-the-trenches help for critical seasons with Interim Communications Leadership.
What’s your question about communications?
Systems are a critical piece of success in church communications. If you have too many, you'll make life difficult for the ministry leaders you work with. If you have too few, your life will be chaos.
This week on the podcast, we'll talk through the four areas your systems need to manage. These four systems provide the structure you need for success:
- Intake
- Clarity
- Delegation
- Output
Lunchtime Heroes exists to help you build a healthy creative ministry. Here's how:
Join the Christian Creative group on Skool
Learn how to bridge the gap between creatives and leadership with the book, Watch Your Language!
Get in-the-trenches help for critical seasons with Interim Communications Leadership.
What’s your question about communications?
Systems are the mechanics of getting things done in your organization. There are two indicators that your systems need work–you are consistently missing deadlines in your work or you have become the bottleneck in your organization.
In order to evaluate your systems effectively, you need to start by asking how you are contributing to the problems you are experiencing. Once you have clarity there, you can begin making smart adjustments to your Systems.
Lunchtime Heroes exists to help you build a healthy creative ministry. Here's how:
Join the Christian Creative group on Skool
Learn how to bridge the gap between creatives and leadership with the book, Watch Your Language!
Get in-the-trenches help for critical seasons with Interim Communications Leadership.
What’s your question about communications?
This week on the podcast we dig into the difference between imagination and innovation. Often confused, but very much not the same. If we get the balance wrong, we'll actually make our message much harder to hear.
Lunchtime Heroes exists to help you build a healthy creative ministry. Here's how:
Join the Christian Creative group on Skool
Learn how to bridge the gap between creatives and leadership with the book, Watch Your Language!
Get in-the-trenches help for critical seasons with Interim Communications Leadership.
What’s your question about communications?
Imagination, simply put, is the quality of ideas coming out of your communications ministry.
Clarity is CRITICAL for your creative ministry to perform well. Some questions to ask (or answer if you are a ministry leader) that clarify the problem that needs to be solved:
- Why are we doing this?
- What are we trying to accomplish?
- What are our goals?
- Is this the best way to accomplish it?
- Who will be impacted by this?
Lunchtime Heroes exists to help you build a healthy creative ministry. Here's how:
Join the Christian Creative group on Skool
Learn how to bridge the gap between creatives and leadership with the book, Watch Your Language!
Get in-the-trenches help for critical seasons with Interim Communications Leadership.
What’s your question about communications?
My trade convinced me that tactics were the mission. But tactics have never been the mission. And they never will be. The mission of the church should always inform our tactics.
Shifting the from leading with trade will transform how effective you are in your ministry.
Go from: "[trade] will help [mission]", to "I think I know a way we can accomplish [mission]. [trade] can help."
Don't do this alone! Grow in the new Group Creative Mentorship community on Skool.
Lunchtime Heroes exists to help you build a healthy creative ministry. Here's how:
Join the Christian Creative group on Skool
Learn how to bridge the gap between creatives and leadership with the book, Watch Your Language!
Get in-the-trenches help for critical seasons with Interim Communications Leadership.
What’s your question about communications?
This week we dive into the Four Creative Cores by unpacking Heart.
Heart looks at what’s going on inside the creative. It encompasses things like walk with God, interpersonal relationships, attitude, reputation (of the creatives and creative team), behavior, and your alignment with the mission of your church.
Connect with other creatives looking to build a healthy communications ministry in the Health Creative Ministry Facebook group.
Lunchtime Heroes exists to help you build a healthy creative ministry. Here's how:
Learn how to bridge the gap between creatives and leadership with the book, Watch Your Language!
Find out how your team is doing with the Creative Ministry Health Assessment.
Build a communications ministry that is on mission with the Healthy Communications Ministry Blueprint.
Pursue health in a small group with the Healthy Creative Ministry Cohort.
Get in-the-trenches help for critical seasons with Interim Communications Leadership.
What’s your question about communications?
Success as a creative in ministry comes from building trust, not from having the most skill. This truth feels uncomfortable for creatives that value their trade, but building trust doesn't mean you can't be good at your trade. It just means that your skills won't have a way to impact the ministry you serve if you haven't built trust, too.
Lunchtime Heroes exists to help you build a healthy creative ministry. Here's how:
Learn how to bridge the gap between creatives and leadership with the book, Watch Your Language!
Find out how your team is doing with the Creative Ministry Health Assessment.
Build a communications ministry that is on mission with the Healthy Communications Ministry Blueprint.
Pursue health in a small group with the Healthy Creative Ministry Cohort.
Get in-the-trenches help for critical seasons with Interim Communications Leadership.
What’s your question about communications?
Healthy conversations are the foundation of any meaningful relationship. But if you've been employed for more than a few days, there's a good chance you've had some conversations that didn't go well. For the conversation between creatives and non creatives serving in ministry, the communications gap can be particularly big.
This week on the podcast, Matt breaks down the formula that will help your conversations lead to healthy change.
Lunchtime Heroes exists to help you build a healthy creative ministry. Here's how:
Learn how to bridge the gap between creatives and leadership with the book, Watch Your Language!
Find out how your team is doing with the Creative Ministry Health Assessment.
Build a communications ministry that is on mission with the Healthy Communications Ministry Blueprint.
Pursue health in a small group with the Healthy Creative Ministry Cohort.
Get in-the-trenches help for critical seasons with Interim Communications Leadership.
What’s your question about communications?
This week on the podcast we take a high level look at theFour Creative Cores and learn about how they can change the way creatives and non-creatives communicate in your ministry.
Heart
Heart looks at what’s going on inside the creative. This core focuses on things like walk with God, interpersonal relationships, attitude, reputation, behavior, and alignment with the mission of your church.
Imagination
Imagination looks at the quality of ideas being created. This core focuses on things like idea generation, maintaining creative health, protecting rest, and training your eyes to find wonder.
Systems
Systems looks at the mechanics of getting work done. This core focuses on the culture-compatibility of systems, prioritizing human-centric processes, creating high-visibility systems, and consistently delivering results.
Skills
Skills looks at the ability of the creative to execute. This core focuses on self-driven development, developing other creatives, developing non-creatives, the long term benefit of craftsmanship, and the importance of growing in creative community.
Lunchtime Heroes exists to help you build a healthy creative ministry. Here's how:
Learn how to bridge the gap between creatives and leadership with the book, Watch Your Language!
Find out how your team is doing with the Creative Ministry Health Assessment.
Build a communications ministry that is on mission with the Healthy Communications Ministry Blueprint.
Pursue health in a small group with the Healthy Creative Ministry Cohort.
Get in-the-trenches help for critical seasons with Interim Communications Leadership.
What’s your question about communications?
This week on the podcast Matt talks about the importance of focusing on what you can control in your ministry. When you do this, you can make a simple shift in language to help your creative ideas become more understood by leadership.
Lunchtime Heroes exists to help you build a healthy creative ministry. Here's how:
Find out how your team is doing with the Creative Ministry Health Assessment.
Build a communications ministry that is on mission with the Healthy Communications Ministry Blueprint.
Pursue health in a small group with the Healthy Creative Ministry Cohort.
Get in-the-trenches help for critical seasons with Interim Communications Leadership.
What’s your question about communications?
This week on the podcast we look at the Church Communications Gap. Those of us serving in creative ministry are presented with a tension between our trade and the mission of our church. The more we fight for trade over ministry, the wider the gap becomes between creatives and ministry leaders. But how are we supposed to help our ministries be more effective if we aren't implementing best practices?
A simple shift of language can make all the difference.
Lunchtime Heroes exists to help you build a healthy creative ministry. Here's how:
Find out how your team is doing with the Creative Ministry Health Assessment.
Build a communications ministry that is on mission with the Healthy Communications Ministry Blueprint.
Pursue health in a small group with the Healthy Creative Ministry Cohort.
Get in-the-trenches help for critical seasons with Interim Communications Leadership.
What’s your question about communications?
Jargon can be good or bad depending on how you use it. If you are trying to lead change, you it's important to recognize that most ministry leaders you work alongside won't understand any of your industry's jargon.
This week on the podcast, I suggest one simple change you can make that will change the way ministry leaders hear your ideas.
Lunchtime Heroes exists to help you build a healthy creative ministry. Here's how:
Find out how your team is doing with the Creative Ministry Health Assessment.
Build a communications ministry that is on mission with the Healthy Communications Ministry Blueprint.
Pursue health in a small group with the Healthy Creative Ministry Cohort.
Get in-the-trenches help for critical seasons with Interim Communications Leadership.
What’s your question about communications?
The Four Creative cores is language that helps navigate the tension between creatives and non-creatives serving together in the context of ministry. It's a hyper specific framework that was developed to empower churches to leverage creative ministry well and help creatives partner well with the mission of the church.
As we launch into a deep dive of the Four Creative Cores this season, I wanted to set some context as to where this framework was developed. Throughout my career in creative ministry, I've felt the tension between creatives and non-creatives, but I didn't always know how to address it.
Lunchtime Heroes exists to help you build a healthy creative ministry. Here's how:
Find out how your team is doing with the Creative Ministry Health Assessment.
Build a communications ministry that is on mission with the Healthy Communications Ministry Blueprint.
Pursue health in a small group with the Healthy Creative Ministry Cohort.
Get in-the-trenches help for critical seasons with Interim Communications Leadership.
What’s your question about communications?
There are three great opportunities to build a healthy creative ministry coming in the next few months.
Cohort launches August 27
Sign up here: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/cohort
Church Communications Conference
September 19-20, 2024
Compass Church (Dallas, TX)
Sign up here: https://churchcommunications.com/church-communications-conference-2024/
I'll be sharing three sessions:
KEYNOTE | FOUR WORDS THAT WILL CHANGE YOUR COMMUNICATIONS MINISTRY
The key to solving a communications gap is developing common language. In this presentation, I will clarify what the gap is in most ministries between creative and non-creative leaders, share language I’ve developed to bridge that gap (The Four Creative Cores), unpack each core for understanding, reveal simple ways for the audience to take their next step of growth, and point them to opportunities to implement The Four Creative Cores in their ministry context. Once you understand the gap, you’ll be able to handle every communications conversation with confidence.
EXECUTIVE GROUP | UNDERSTANDING AND MANAGING CREATIVES
This conversation will be structured similar to a Q&A session and driven around the following talking points:
- Where should comm sit in your organization? (Ministry vs. Service)
- How comm can best be leveraged to drive your mission forward
- How the Four Creative Cores can help leaders understand creatives
- How the Four Creative Cores helps with performance management
- Ways to set comm up for success when they are asked to drive executive level projects
CREATIVE TEAM LEADERS BREAKOUT | BUILDING A CONFIDENT (AND HEALTHY) CREATIVE TEAM
As a creative team leader, your goal is to grow your team into balanced, confident creatives. Using The Four Creative Cores as our framework, I’ll walk through ways you can identify growth opportunities for your team, the benefits of a development plan for each member of your team, and how to hold your team accountable without shaking their confidence
New book launching September 19!The book covers:
- Four Creative cores
- Covers the role language plays in a healthy communications ministry
- Digs into the Four Creative Cores (Heart, Imagination, Systems, and Skills)
- Looks at how you you can apply them in you ministry context
- Looks at application for the practicing creative, the creative team leader, and the non creative that work with creatives.
- It includes implementation practices that I’ve found to work well
I'm building a book launch team!I’ll be sending out an invitation to my email list, so subscribe to the creative bites newsletter at https://www.luncht
Lunchtime Heroes exists to help you build a healthy creative ministry. Here's how:
Find out how your team is doing with the Creative Ministry Health Assessment.
Build a communications ministry that is on mission with the Healthy Communications Ministry Blueprint.
Pursue health in a small group with the Healthy Creative Ministry Cohort.
Get in-the-trenches help for critical seasons with Interim Communications Leadership.
What’s your question about communications?
In this episode of the Healthy Creative Ministry Podcast, Matt Curtis discusses how to prioritize unity over fear amid the polarizing context of the upcoming election (or a frustrating day at the office). He offers three critical questions to challenge fear-inducing lies and emphasizes the importance of adhering to God's word.
This episode underscores that political outcomes or personal ideas in ministry should not compromise Christian unity and love for one another. As the 2024 election approaches, let's not forget God call to love God and love others.
Preserving unity is an intentional decision on our part amidst a season where divisiveness is the opportunity. And the only way that I know how to pursue unity effectively is to actually remember the truth of God's word.
Lunchtime Heroes exists to help you build a healthy creative ministry. Here's how:
Find out how your team is doing with the Creative Ministry Health Assessment.
Build a communications ministry that is on mission with the Healthy Communications Ministry Blueprint.
Pursue health in a small group with the Healthy Creative Ministry Cohort.
Get in-the-trenches help for critical seasons with Interim Communications Leadership.
As AI continues to become more and more integrated into the tools we use daily to communicate, we need to be intentional about preserving our humanity. Throughout Scripture, we see God work through human relationships. If we offload too much of our ministry to automation or artificial intelligence in the name of efficiency, our ministry will suffer.
Don’t lose humanity. Three ways you can do that:
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Effective communication should point people to human relationship as quickly as possible
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don’t use communication tools as a way to avoid human interaction
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Most people aren’t all digital
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Digital is easy but shallow
Lunchtime Heroes exists to help you build a healthy creative ministry. Here's how:
Find out how your team is doing with the Creative Ministry Health Assessment.
Build a communications ministry that is on mission with the Healthy Communications Ministry Blueprint.
Pursue health in a small group with the Healthy Creative Ministry Cohort.
Get in-the-trenches help for critical seasons with Interim Communications Leadership.
If you don't have effective strategies in your communications ministry, there is a very high probability that you will always live a life of crisis management.
You’ll jump from one crisis to the next until you burnout. I’ve lived it myself, and I’ve seen it happen with multiple communication leaders over the years.
I don’t want that for you.
Building and implementing effective strategies will lay the groundwork for a healthy and long-lasting communications ministry in your church.
Want more than a how to? I'm now offering done for you strategy. Get all the details at https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/strategy
Five traits of effective strategies:
- An effective strategy sets clear expectations
- An effective strategy is human
- Effective strategies are flexible
- Effective strategies should make on-mission decisions easier
- An effective strategy accomplishes it’s goal
Lunchtime Heroes exists to help you build a healthy creative ministry. Here's how:
Find out how your team is doing with the Creative Ministry Health Assessment.
Build a communications ministry that is on mission with the Healthy Communications Ministry Blueprint.
Pursue health in a small group with the Healthy Creative Ministry Cohort.
Get in-the-trenches help for critical seasons with Interim Communications Leadership.
This week on the podcast, we are unpacking a concept that has the potential to dramatically increase engagement in your church: a rising tide lifts all boats. We'll look at how many WNBA fans are resisting this concept (to their detriment) and hear a story of how this worked in ministry.
When we communicate too specifically, we actually cause people to opt out of participation in our ministry because they don't see an opportunity for them.
"Come join our hunting group" is great if you are a hunter... but it's terrible for everyone who isn't a hunter.
The beauty of this shift is that it is scalable, too. When you communicate your values and mission, it doesn't matter if you have one small group or 1,000. The message remains the same: being in community is important, find a group.
Lunchtime Heroes exists to help you build a healthy creative ministry. Here's how:
Find out how your team is doing with the Creative Ministry Health Assessment.
Build a communications ministry that is on mission with the Healthy Communications Ministry Blueprint.
Pursue health in a small group with the Healthy Creative Ministry Cohort.
Get in-the-trenches help for critical seasons with Interim Communications Leadership.
Systems and ministry have a bit of a rocky relationship. Some are adamant that systems remove the human element of ministry while others see a dire need for more.
So which is it?
Believe it or not, having effective systems in your ministry can actually help guard you against mission drift.
Lunchtime Heroes exists to help you build a healthy creative ministry. Here's how:
Find out how your team is doing with the Creative Ministry Health Assessment.
Build a communications ministry that is on mission with the Healthy Communications Ministry Blueprint.
Pursue health in a small group with the Healthy Creative Ministry Cohort.
Get in-the-trenches help for critical seasons with Interim Communications Leadership.
Creatives shouldn't miss deadlines.
It's weird to me that this feels like a hot take, but it does. I've met many creatives that are either fine with it or blame everyone else and I've met many non-creatives who assume it's just part of the deal. You want creativity, you get uncertainty.
But that just isn't true. If missing deadlines is the only reliable part of working with creatives in your organization, it's time to solve the real problem.
Go deeper with the Four Creative Cores: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/four-creative-cores
Some unforeseen circumstances:
- Crisis situations
- Natural disasters
- Health problems
- Tragedies
You can build a plan for unforeseen circumstances: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/disaster-relief-plan
Systems
- You missed a deadline
- I forgot about the project
- You need better systems
Skills
- You missed a deadline
- I just can’t figure out how to accomplish this solution
- You need better systems
Heart
- You missed a deadline
- I have a reason as to why it’s your fault
- You need to change your attitude
Imagination
- You missed a deadline
- I can’t think of any ideas
- Find sources of inspiration or bring more people into the project
- Dribble
- Behance
If your creative ministry isn’t delivering on time results consistency, try adopting the Four Creative Cores to help you diagnose the problem
Take the free assessment at HealthyChurchCreatives.com to get a head start on what the problem is.
Lunchtime Heroes exists to help you build a healthy creative ministry. Here's how:
Find out how your team is doing with the Creative Ministry Health Assessment.
Build a communications ministry that is on mission with the Healthy Communications Ministry Blueprint.
Pursue health in a small group with the Healthy Creative Ministry Cohort.
Get in-the-trenches help for critical seasons with Interim Communications Leadership.
Micromanagement is a super challenging yet very common in creative ministry.
This week on the podcast we'll look at 6 different reasons micromanagement happens and practical next step to help address it.
1. Sometimes you and leadership aren’t speaking the same languageGo through the Four Creative Cores with leadership to learn how you can speak in a way that both of you understand.
- https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/four-creative-cores
2. Sometimes it’s personal preference
Watch the mini course with your pastor on how to align your graphic design with the mission
- https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/get-your-graphic-design-on-mission
3. Sometimes it’s not understanding the role of comm
Develop a clear project workflow to guide every project. This helps understanding happen.
- https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/the-healthy-communications-ministry-blueprint
- https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/how-projects-work
4. Sometimes it’s an inability to delegate (and typically too busy to step into the details) Guide the feedback process to be more focused on mission than opinion
- https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/mission-minded-critique-checklist
5. Sometimes it’s ministry insecurityConsider how your strategies and policies can address cultural or spiritual issues.
- https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/brand-strategy
6. Sometimes it is a control issueCheck out the free mini course on building an effective portfolio for creative ministry
- https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/how-to-set-yourself-up-for-success-when-applying-for-a-creative-church-job
Lunchtime Heroes exists to help you build a healthy creative ministry. Here's how:
Find out how your team is doing with the Creative Ministry Health Assessment.
Build a communications ministry that is on mission with the Healthy Communications Ministry Blueprint.
Pursue a health in a small group with the Healthy Creative Ministry Cohort.
Get in-the-trenches help for critical seasons with Interim Communications Leadership.
When you are overloaded with work, the last thing you want to entertain is a project that doesn't move the mission of the church forward. But how can you tell the difference between something being mission critical or personal preference?
Unfortunately, you can't. And to be honest, Comm shouldn't be the judge of that anyway.
But the problem still needs to be solved, so let's solve it.
5 steps to better supporting ministry:
1. Align with leadership
Where does leadership want you to invest your time–event promotion or event support?
- If comm isn’t communicating, no one is. If you aren’t supporting events, the ministry leaders, staff, or volunteers are.
2. Land on a plan
Provide event support as part of your promotional plan. Don't have one? Learn how to build one here: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/promotion-plan
3. Formalize the plan
Share the plan with department leaders and anyone else on the team who might be frustrated or stressed about the changes.
4. Support ministry leaders
Equip ministry leaders for success.
- Create a Canva plan for everyone on staff
- Offer regular trainings to help staff learn and grow - Here's one that might help get things started: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/3-design-secrets-that-will-save-ministry-leaders-hours-of-time
- Connect them with a list of approved vendors that will help make their creation easier
- Create a merch shop for your church that they can use to order items for their events: https://thechurch.shop/lunchtimeheroes/
Evaluate
Check in with ministry leaders every 3-6 months to see how things are working.
Lunchtime Heroes exists to help you build a healthy creative ministry. Here's how:
Find out how your team is doing with the Creative Ministry Health Assessment.
Build a communications ministry that is on mission with the Healthy Communications Ministry Blueprint.
Pursue a health in a small group with the Healthy Creative Ministry Cohort.
Get in-the-trenches help for critical seasons with Interim Communications Leadership.
What you can control:
- What you invest
- Where you invest–identify how where you have opportunities to improve at healthychurchcreatives.com
- How you invest–learn more about the Four Creative Cores (Systems, Skills, Imagination, and Heart) at https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/four-creative-cores
- Starting from scratch? Check out the Healthy Communications Ministry Blueprint at https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/the-healthy-communications-ministry-blueprint
What you can’t control:
- What God decides to do with your investment
Lunchtime Heroes exists to help you build a healthy creative ministry. Here's how:
Find out how your team is doing with the Creative Ministry Health Assessment.
Build a communications ministry that is on mission with the Healthy Communications Ministry Blueprint.
Pursue a health in a small group with the Healthy Creative Ministry Cohort.
Get in-the-trenches help for critical seasons with Interim Communications Leadership.
There is no silver bullet: ultimately your pastor will either embrace this or they won’t.
But, there are things you can do to make it easy and attractive to plan ahead.
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Identify projects where planning ahead would be most helpful and initiate the first meeting
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Create an annual calendar with alerts that remind you when you should start the planning process. Then bring that up with your pastor.
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Manage reality
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Recognize that everything won’t be perfect.
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Unrealistic expectations will only lead to more frustration.
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Find or develop tools that help make planning easier
The Sermon Series Development Plan: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/weekend-series-development-guide
- Download it and send it to your pastor. Frame it not as “the solution”, but a potential help for them.
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Follow up with a conversation. Call out how planning ahead helps you and other support ministries
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Call out “plan ahead” wins when they happen.
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Non planners usually can’t see where planning helps.
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Do as much of the planning work as you can.
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- You can't expect non-planners to be planners. Look for ways to help drive organization and planning.
Lunchtime Heroes exists to help you build a healthy creative ministry. Here's how:
Find out how your team is doing with the Creative Ministry Health Assessment.
Build a communications ministry that is on mission with the Healthy Communications Ministry Blueprint.
Pursue a health in a small group with the Healthy Creative Ministry Cohort.
Get in-the-trenches help for critical seasons with Interim Communications Leadership.
When someone asks "who should manage this – communications or the ministry leader", there's usually more to the story. This week on the podcast, I want to give you six questions I ask to get below the surface.
If you don't go deeper when this question is asked, you won't be able to equip your ministry team with the right tools to solve the real problem.
Where does this issue show up?
- Social Media
- Graphic Design (last minute project, but not always)
- Video projects
What are the real issues behind this question?
- Comm not delivering (take health assessment at healthychurchcreatives.com)
- Missing deadlines - systems
- Not producing quality work - skills
- Ministry leader has a different vision - heart or control
- Ministry wants more than the org is willing or able to allocate - Internal resources can’t support the ministry request
- Ministry wants to minister to the people of their ministry
Questions you can ask to discover the real problem
- What problem are you trying to solve by managing this?
- Is there a better way to accomplish your goal?
- Have you developed a strategy around this?
- How do you plan to sustain this long term?
- What is the downside of Comm managing this?
- What is the downside of Ministry managing this?
Lunchtime Heroes exists to help you build a healthy creative ministry. Here's how:
Find out how your team is doing with the Creative Ministry Health Assessment.
Build a communications ministry that is on mission with the Healthy Communications Ministry Blueprint.
Pursue a health in a small group with the Healthy Creative Ministry Cohort.
Get in-the-trenches help for critical seasons with Interim Communications Leadership.
This week on the podcast we'll look at some of the practical arguments as to why creative ministry matters for your church.
Our culture speaks a visual language
- Too much information requires organization (communications does that)
- Strategic communication helps information be heard
Effective communication helps us shepherd
Lunchtime Heroes exists to help you build a healthy creative ministry. Here's how:
Find out how your team is doing with the Creative Ministry Health Assessment.
Build a communications ministry that is on mission with the Healthy Communications Ministry Blueprint.
Pursue a health in a small group with the Healthy Creative Ministry Cohort.
Get in-the-trenches help for critical seasons with Interim Communications Leadership.
From a theological prospective, beauty is important!
God is a creative God.
- Look at the creation account in Genesis 1
- God created mankind in his own image.
We are creative
- As image bearers, we are creative.
- Ephesians 2:10 describes us a “his workmanship”.
- When we come to know Christ we are described as a “new creation” in 2 Corinthians 5:17.
- Genesis 35:30-35
- Then Moses said to the Israelites, “See, the Lord has chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, 31 and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills— 32 to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, 33 to cut and set stones, to work in wood and to engage in all kinds of artistic crafts. 34 And he has given both him and Oholiab son of Ahisamak, of the tribe of Dan, the ability to teach others. 35 He has filled them with skill to do all kinds of work as engravers, designers, embroiderers in blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen, and weavers—all of them skilled workers and designers.
Creativity is not just a part of who God is, it’s also a means through which He works.
We should care about beauty
If God is beautiful, we as Christians should care deeply about beauty.
“As God is infinitely the greatest being, so He is allowed to be infinitely the most beautiful and excellent. And all the beauty to be found throughout the whole creation is but the reflection of the diffused beams of that Being who hath an infinite fullness of brightness and glory.”
- Johnathan Edwards, The Nature of True Virtue
he war with culture
We live in a culture that values pragmatism and excess over beauty. Too many churches have aligned with this. They are either devoid of beauty in the name of pragmatism, or are consumed with self indulgent excess. Neither extreme reflects God.
Beauty and faith: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/christian-theology-beauty-demands-noticed/
Lunchtime Heroes exists to help you build a healthy creative ministry. Here's how:
Find out how your team is doing with the Creative Ministry Health Assessment.
Build a communications ministry that is on mission with the Healthy Communications Ministry Blueprint.
Pursue a health in a small group with the Healthy Creative Ministry Cohort.
Get in-the-trenches help for critical seasons with Interim Communications Leadership.
One of the most difficult questions to answer in ministry is "should I leave my job". I find that some are too quick to leave at the first sign of tension, while others stay in an unhealthy situation for much too long.
How do you know when to leave or when to go?
This week on the podcast I'll walk you through the conversation I typically have when someone is considering stepping out of their current role in creative ministry.
- Do you want to leave or do you want to make where you are better?
- Are doors opening for you? What are the pros and cons of those opportunities?
- If you had to stay, what would you do to address the frustration you face?
- Identify the specific problems and work toward solving them.
- Find help with the Four Creative Cores: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/four-creative-cores
- What if you have people problems?
- Seek restoration - have the hard conversations for the purpose of seeking unity
- Bring issues to leadership
- Listen to their advice
- Seek counsel outside your church
- Internal voices are often biased. Talk with your spouse or close friends
- Pray about it
- Remember that your identity is found in Christ, not in your job
Lunchtime Heroes exists to help you build a healthy creative ministry. Here's how:
Find out how your team is doing with the Creative Ministry Health Assessment.
Build a communications ministry that is on mission with the Healthy Communications Ministry Blueprint.
Pursue a health in a small group with the Healthy Creative Ministry Cohort.
Get in-the-trenches help for critical seasons with Interim Communications Leadership.
If you've served in a creative ministry where unhealthy tendencies haven't been address, you will find yourself at the point where everyone assumes every problem is because of your team.
It's not a logical conclusion, but it's a common conclusion. If you find yourself here, this week's episode is all about the steps you can take to restore your creative ministry.
1. Identify where you areAlways start with assessment.It's important to remove emotion from your assessment, so using an unbiased tool like the free creative ministry health assessment at HealthyChurchCreatives.com will help you an unbiased perspective.
Key questions to ask:
- Are you the problem?
- Are you hitting all of your deadlines?
- Are you communicating clearly?
- Do ministry leaders always have visibility into their projects?
- How are your systems - specifically project management?
2. Define the Future
Clearly define the future state that you are aspiring toward.
3. Plot your course
Once you have clarity about where you want to go, map the steps needed to achieve the desired transformation.
4. Rally your teamCast vision with your team
- Describe where things were
- Cast vision as to where you want them to be
- Unpack why this is important
- Talk through the tactical steps needed to get there
5. Invite others to participateBring ministry leaders into the process
- Apologize for the negative impact these things have had on their ministry
- Share your vision for the future
- Invite them to help you build it by extending grace as you rebuild
-
Ask if there are other ways you can help them
-
Evaluate along the way
Check in with your team regularly to evaluate -
How is this working from your perspective?
- Check in with leaders regularly to assess - how are we doing at taking steps toward where we want to be? Anything you are seeing that can make things more effective?
Lunchtime Heroes exists to help you build a healthy creative ministry. Here's how:
Find out how your team is doing with the Creative Ministry Health Assessment.
Build a communications ministry that is on mission with the Healthy Communications Ministry Blueprint.
Pursue a health in a small group with the Healthy Creative Ministry Cohort.
Get in-the-trenches help for critical seasons with Interim Communications Leadership.
This week on the podcast I'll be answering the question: How do you prioritize which announcements to give and in what venue?
The key to accomplishing this is building a promotional plan. If you want to go deeper with this idea and build a promotional plan that is compatible with your church, The Healthy Communications Ministry Blueprint covers this topic in depth. This course includes a 26 page workbook and 15 video sessions that walks you through building a Promotional Plan for your church.
Check out the course here: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/the-healthy-communications-ministry-blueprint
Check out the case study of the 3 + 1 Promotional Plan here: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/promotion-plan
The first step to building a promotional plan identifying the communication channels your church has to work with.
- Identify all your existing communication channels (internal and external) and identify if you would use those channels to promote a big event, a medium sized event, or a small event.
- This lets you know what channels you have to work with, and when you would leverage each.
From here, you can build your promotional plan. The three most common approaches I see churches use are:
- A relevance based plan (this event applies to 50% or more of the congregation)
- An event size based plan (big events get more promotion than small events)
- A mission driven plan (events that have a big mission impact get more promotion)
Important: Whatever you do, you want to avoid vague decisions making!
The problem with a relevance based promotional plan
-
- This approach requires too many exceptions which erodes the power of the strategy.
- Example: if your congregation is 65% women, no mens events can be promoted. If 50% of the congregation doesn’t have kids, no major kids events can be promoted.
- If the percentage drops low enough to account for these challenges, then too many events qualify for maximum promotion (overloading the communication channels).
-
The problem with an event size promotional plan
- Ministry leaders become overly optimistic about their events. An event that will likely draw 25 people is positioned as if it will draw 200 in order to qualify for more promotion.
- This strategy doesn’t let you drive new initiatives without ignoring the plan. Any new event or ministry won’t have an attendance track record to justify a major promotion, but how will any new ministry gain momentum without promotion? This favors existing events, not new ones.
- Popularity shouldn’t drive your ministry. Sometimes the small, low attendance events are the ones that the congregation should be attending. Leadership needs the flexibility to made decisions about where they lead the church, and a promotional plan shouldn’t be a hurdle for them to have to overcome.
- The approach I recommend, and I
Lunchtime Heroes exists to help you build a healthy creative ministry. Here's how:
Find out how your team is doing with the Creative Ministry Health Assessment.
Build a communications ministry that is on mission with the Healthy Communications Ministry Blueprint.
Pursue a health in a small group with the Healthy Creative Ministry Cohort.
Get in-the-trenches help for critical seasons with Interim Communications Leadership.
Leading change can be exhausting. Especially when you are up against change resistant leaders. This week on the podcast, I talk through four things you can do to navigate this situation well.
- Learn about their concerns
- Care about their past experiences
- Often resistance is born from a bad previous experience that they had or that they’ve heard about.
- Make it clear how this aligns with the mission of the ministry or the church
- Lead with “I think we can accomplish the mission by…” as opposed to “this new technology can really help us…”
- Accept that you might be wrong
- There are many things that we are zealous about today that might not matter tomorrow. Those who have been in ministry longer than you likely know that because they’ve seen it happen. Seek wisdom.
Lunchtime Heroes exists to help you build a healthy creative ministry. Here's how:
Find out how your team is doing with the Creative Ministry Health Assessment.
Build a communications ministry that is on mission with the Healthy Communications Ministry Blueprint.
Pursue a health in a small group with the Healthy Creative Ministry Cohort.
Get in-the-trenches help for critical seasons with Interim Communications Leadership.
If you wake up one morning and realize your creative ministry doesn't have the best reputation, it's possible to turn things around. This week on the podcast I'm sharing 12 different adjustments I've made over the years that have helped lead teams from a bad reputation to a great one.
12 things you can do to improve the reputation of your creative ministry
- Pray for the people you work with > move your heart in a good direction
- Apologize for times you’ve made ministry harder
- Listen before you speak
- Be a conductor, not the world’s best oboe player
- Invite others into creation
- Be willing to experiment (and try someone else’s idea)
- Be gracious when something doesn’t work
- Find ways to encourage others (I’m excited about your next event, You are such a great fit for this ministry, etc).
- Recognize that you don’t need to have all the answers
- Ask for feedback
- Participate in the ministry of your church
- Be proactive about serving (don’t wait for ministry leaders to come to you, go to them)
Lunchtime Heroes exists to help you build a healthy creative ministry. Here's how:
Find out how your team is doing with the Creative Ministry Health Assessment.
Build a communications ministry that is on mission with the Healthy Communications Ministry Blueprint.
Pursue a health in a small group with the Healthy Creative Ministry Cohort.
Get in-the-trenches help for critical seasons with Interim Communications Leadership.
Welcome to Season 3 of The Healthy Creative Ministry Podcast!
This new season introduces a new format: one question, one answer. And I'm going as deep as the topic demands.
What are your questions about communications ministry? Let me know here: https://healthy-creative-ministry-questions.paperform.co/
Download the Mission Minded Critique Checklist:
https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/mission-minded-critique-checklist
This week's question: How can I give and receive criticism well?
- Remember who you are
- Genesis 1:26
- Matthew 10:29-31
- Romans 3:23
- Romans 5:8
- You are created in the image of God
- You were sought out
-
You are loved
-
Point to purpose, not preference
-
What is the main goal of this piece?
- Do these changes prevent that from happening?
- If no, you don’t need to fight for it.
- If yes, make your case.
-
Ultimately, fight for unity over preference
-
Is it true?
-
Truth delivered without love is still true.
- Have a conversation about it - explain how you felt (Steven story)
- Seek unity
-
Validate the claims from others you trust
-
Assume the best
-
They believe this is the best idea for ministry success
Lunchtime Heroes exists to help you build a healthy creative ministry. Here's how:
Find out how your team is doing with the Creative Ministry Health Assessment.
Build a communications ministry that is on mission with the Healthy Communications Ministry Blueprint.
Pursue a health in a small group with the Healthy Creative Ministry Cohort.
Get in-the-trenches help for critical seasons with Interim Communications Leadership.
When we invest a lot of energy into making plans, it's only natural for us to be disappointed when things don't go the way we expect. Our response to situations like this can help us identity issues with our hearts–specifically related to idolatry. This week on the podcast, we'll look at a few passages that help us get to know some of the characteristics of idolatry and how it can creep into our lives as church communicators if we aren't careful.
Lunchtime Heroes exists to help you build a healthy creative ministry. Here's how:
Find out how your team is doing with the Creative Ministry Health Assessment.
Build a communications ministry that is on mission with the Healthy Communications Ministry Blueprint.
Pursue a health in a small group with the Healthy Creative Ministry Cohort.
Get in-the-trenches help for critical seasons with Interim Communications Leadership.
As we enter 2024, we have the opportunity to be intentional with the decisions we make. Rather than coming up with resolutions that we won't be able to sustain, consider a shift in your mindset toward productivity.
Look at the proactivity of Jesus:
"For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
- Luke 19:10
How can we do this?
- Be proactive with a plan - Check out The Healthy Church Communications Blueprint
- Be proactive in our relationships - Initiate conversations with leadership and ministry leaders
- Be proactive in our grace to those outside our church - Give freely to those outside the church andmake participation in the church as simple as possible
Lunchtime Heroes exists to help you build a healthy creative ministry. Here's how:
Find out how your team is doing with the Creative Ministry Health Assessment.
Build a communications ministry that is on mission with the Healthy Communications Ministry Blueprint.
Pursue a health in a small group with the Healthy Creative Ministry Cohort.
Get in-the-trenches help for critical seasons with Interim Communications Leadership.
As we enter the final push toward Christmas, we'll quickly turn our eyes toward 2024. I want to encourage you to hold you plans loosely, and make them reasonable. Because:
Many plans are in a man’s heart, But the counsel of the LORD will stand.
- Proverbs 19:21
Lunchtime Heroes exists to help you build a healthy creative ministry. Here's how:
Find out how your team is doing with the Creative Ministry Health Assessment.
Build a communications ministry that is on mission with the Healthy Communications Ministry Blueprint.
Pursue a health in a small group with the Healthy Creative Ministry Cohort.
Get in-the-trenches help for critical seasons with Interim Communications Leadership.
Amidst busy season, those in creative ministry tend to live in the epicenter of stress. This week on the podcast, we'll look at 2 Corinthians 1 and be reminded of the opportunity we have to comfort others amidst challenging seasons.
Lunchtime Heroes exists to help you build a healthy creative ministry. Here's how:
Find out how your team is doing with the Creative Ministry Health Assessment.
Build a communications ministry that is on mission with the Healthy Communications Ministry Blueprint.
Pursue a health in a small group with the Healthy Creative Ministry Cohort.
Get in-the-trenches help for critical seasons with Interim Communications Leadership.
This week on the podcast we look at Psalm 95 and the connection between thankfulness and worship. As you navigate a seemingly unending todo list this Christmas season, don't neglect being thankful. And not just "thanks for your help", I mean deep and genuine thankfulness.
Lunchtime Heroes exists to help you build a healthy creative ministry. Here's how:
Find out how your team is doing with the Creative Ministry Health Assessment.
Build a communications ministry that is on mission with the Healthy Communications Ministry Blueprint.
Pursue a health in a small group with the Healthy Creative Ministry Cohort.
Get in-the-trenches help for critical seasons with Interim Communications Leadership.
In this episode of the podcast we're digging into what makes up a creative ministry. If you are starting the process of building a new creative ministry from scratch or you are wanting to make sure you know where to focus your efforts as you work to bring health to your existing creative ministry, this episode will help you know where to look.
Lunchtime Heroes exists to help you build a healthy creative ministry. Here's how:
Find out how your team is doing with the Creative Ministry Health Assessment.
Build a communications ministry that is on mission with the Healthy Communications Ministry Blueprint.
Pursue a health in a small group with the Healthy Creative Ministry Cohort.
Get in-the-trenches help for critical seasons with Interim Communications Leadership.
If you've ever felt like there isn't enough time to get everything done, it might be worth taking another look at how God works. Believe it or not, you have all the time you need. It might just be that you are trying to do too much too quickly.
Lunchtime Heroes exists to help you build a healthy creative ministry. Here's how:
Find out how your team is doing with the Creative Ministry Health Assessment.
Build a communications ministry that is on mission with the Healthy Communications Ministry Blueprint.
Pursue a health in a small group with the Healthy Creative Ministry Cohort.
Get in-the-trenches help for critical seasons with Interim Communications Leadership.
For the church communications leaders out there, decision fatigue is real. It seems like a new "must use" strategy emerges every week. It feels like it's impossible to make a good decision for our church.
This week on the podcast, we'll look at how some perspective can help us find peace amidst all the decisions and a practical way to make smart decisions.
Link to the Decision Making Workflow: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/past-resources
Lunchtime Heroes exists to help you build a healthy creative ministry. Here's how:
Find out how your team is doing with the Creative Ministry Health Assessment.
Build a communications ministry that is on mission with the Healthy Communications Ministry Blueprint.
Pursue a health in a small group with the Healthy Creative Ministry Cohort.
Get in-the-trenches help for critical seasons with Interim Communications Leadership.
If you've ever built a brand strategy for your church only to watch ministry leaders regularly ignore it, you aren't alone! But the solutions isn't to just be frustrated about it. The solution is to talk with them about it.
This week on the podcast, you'll learn four different ways to communicate the value of a brand strategy to your ministry leaders.
Parable video: https://youtu.be/_AUG6bj0TzY
Brand transition mentioned in this episode: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/case-studies/brand-strategy
Do you feel like you aren't being heard by leadership? Are you burning out?
The Creative Leadership Cohort will help you grow as a creative leader so you can get heard, avoid burnout, and start helping your church leverage the power of creativity for the Gospel.
To learn more or sign up, visit: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/
You don't have to look hard to find another "expert" telling you how to do your church as a church creative. With so many opinions out there, it's easy to miss the most important voice in making a decision: yours.
I don't mean that in some "believe in yourself and your dreams will come true" kind of way. I mean that your job is to be the expert for YOUR church.
Do you feel like you aren't being heard by leadership? Are you burning out?
The Creative Leadership Cohort will help you grow as a creative leader so you can get heard, avoid burnout, and start helping your church leverage the power of creativity for the Gospel.
To learn more or sign up, visit: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/
It may sound too simple to be true, but I've seen the Four Creative Cores transform how church creatives teams function. Sounds like something your church needs? Check out these additional resources to go deeper.
Creative Team Assessment: http://healthycreativeteams.com
Go deeper with the Four Creative Cores: http://lunchtimeheroes.co/four-creative-cores
Do you feel like you aren't being heard by leadership? Are you burning out?
The Creative Leadership Cohort will help you grow as a creative leader so you can get heard, avoid burnout, and start helping your church leverage the power of creativity for the Gospel.
To learn more or sign up, visit: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/
There comes a time when you need to change what you are doing in order to accomplish your mission. Sometimes it's because what you are currently doing isn't working, sometimes it's because the way people respond to content has changed. Either way, change can be difficult.
This week's episode marks the end of season 1 of the Leading Healthy Creative Teams podcast. Join me as I talk though what season 2 will look like, and a bit of the "why" behind the changes I'm making. My hope is that seeing the reasoning behind these changes will inspire you to evaluate what you are doing through a similar lens.
Do you feel like you aren't being heard by leadership? Are you burning out?
The Creative Leadership Cohort will help you grow as a creative leader so you can get heard, avoid burnout, and start helping your church leverage the power of creativity for the Gospel.
To learn more or sign up, visit: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/
The big news across the internet last week was all about Threads. And not just in the tech world, in the church world, too. In the chase to join and "figure out" Threads and how it can be leveraged for ministry, I want to offer a bit of a different perspective.
When we chase trends, we pull our focus away from the plan the we already decided was worth investing in. We also eliminate margin.
If you don't have a plan already, stop everything and make one now with this: https://youtu.be/043wtRRVZYQ
Do you feel like you aren't being heard by leadership? Are you burning out?
The Creative Leadership Cohort will help you grow as a creative leader so you can get heard, avoid burnout, and start helping your church leverage the power of creativity for the Gospel.
To learn more or sign up, visit: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/
The transition into a leadership position can be nerve-racking for creatives. The problems, goals, and tools are all different. Because of that, we base much of our early leadership-life on the assumptions we have about what it means to be an effective leadership.
The problem is that not all of these assumptions are right. This week on the Leading Health Creative Teams podcast, we'll lean into 5 common myths about effective leadership that many creatives hold.
Mentioned in this episode:
13 interview questions for interviewing creatives: https://youtu.be/p7sxdFwzPj0
Assess your creative team: http://healthychurchcreatives.com
Do you feel like you aren't being heard by leadership? Are you burning out?
The Creative Leadership Cohort will help you grow as a creative leader so you can get heard, avoid burnout, and start helping your church leverage the power of creativity for the Gospel.
To learn more or sign up, visit: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/
Have you ever wondered why the reputation of your creative team doesn't get better just because your work does? Often it's because the work we do isn't actually helping the relationships you have with the ministry leaders you work with.
This week's episode walks through a tool I've created to help identify the impact your projects have on the relationship between you and the ministry leaders you serve. And for those projects that tend to strain relationships, we talk through practical steps you can take to change that.
Download the Relationship Cost Matrix here: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/past-resources
Do you feel like you aren't being heard by leadership? Are you burning out?
The Creative Leadership Cohort will help you grow as a creative leader so you can get heard, avoid burnout, and start helping your church leverage the power of creativity for the Gospel.
To learn more or sign up, visit: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/
It feels impossible to make things better when you barely have time to survive. This week on the podcast I talk through how you can make a few decisions today that will give you time back.
These all start with you building a promotional plan. You can see more about that process, go in depth with previous podcast episodes, and download a template here.
Do you feel like you aren't being heard by leadership? Are you burning out?
The Creative Leadership Cohort will help you grow as a creative leader so you can get heard, avoid burnout, and start helping your church leverage the power of creativity for the Gospel.
To learn more or sign up, visit: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/
Serving in creative ministry can be lonely. If we aren't proactive about addressing that, we put ourselves in a problematic situation–one that can quickly impact our health, capacity, and longevity in ministry.
7 ways you can find community:- Someone inside your organization
- Someone outside your organization
- Connect with churches near you
- Find other churches in your denomination or association
- Find a Conferences or Cohort
A great conference to consider
More about the Creative Leadership Cohort
- Engage on Social Media
Check out the Accidental Church Communicator group
- Join the Church Creatives Network
Do you feel like you aren't being heard by leadership? Are you burning out?
The Creative Leadership Cohort will help you grow as a creative leader so you can get heard, avoid burnout, and start helping your church leverage the power of creativity for the Gospel.
To learn more or sign up, visit: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/
The longer you serve in creative ministry, the more probably it is that someone will leave the team. And with that departure comes a lot of concern. Who is going to pick up the pieces that are left?
If you've ever found yourself in a situation like this, you'll know overwhelming it can feel. The good news is that challenges like this can be navigated by asking a few questions. Now don't get me wrong, there is work involved, too. But stability can come quicker than you may think.
Here are the questions you need to ask:
1. What do we do? (Watch or listen to the episode, it's not what you think)
2. What needs to continue?
3. Who is going to do it?
4. Who can do this for the long term?
5. How do we get more people to do it?
Do you feel like you aren't being heard by leadership? Are you burning out?
The Creative Leadership Cohort will help you grow as a creative leader so you can get heard, avoid burnout, and start helping your church leverage the power of creativity for the Gospel.
To learn more or sign up, visit: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/
In this episode of the Leading Healthy Creative Teams podcast, I wanted to look back at what God has done over the last seven years since I faced burnout.
Do you feel like you aren't being heard by leadership? Are you burning out?
The Creative Leadership Cohort will help you grow as a creative leader so you can get heard, avoid burnout, and start helping your church leverage the power of creativity for the Gospel.
To learn more or sign up, visit: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/
What do you need:
- a relational baseline
- people who know you before you burned out
- people to walk with you through where you are
- a willingness to allow a perspective shift
- backup and gain some perspective
- our gut says “move closer to analyze this problem”. not helpful
- vacation in a dramatic way, visit a different church, learn something new, change the way you see.
- Change how you see - gain a new perspective
- clarify you values
- serve, or be served
- Is this role about you using your skills, or serving the church?
- get organized
- get help with prioritization
- get connected with scripture
- pray
- find things you are thankful for
- make a list of today’s thankful and write it down
- Every church will hurt you and heal you in different ways
- Do you believe that God can restore your situation?
- What small step can you make to show that you believe this?
- Can you let a project go? Can you identify a frustration to let go of? Can you identify what burdens you have not been hired to carry?
- Daily Quests
- Consider your company (people)
- Consider your company (job)
- Have you done everything you can to fix it?
- You need grace. So do others
- Focus on your focus (put down burdens that don’t belong to you)
- Manage reality
- Is it time to leave?
- If your values aren’t the organizations, it won’t work
Bottom line:
You can do this!
Do you feel like you aren't being heard by leadership? Are you burning out?
The Creative Leadership Cohort will help you grow as a creative leader so you can get heard, avoid burnout, and start helping your church leverage the power of creativity for the Gospel.
To learn more or sign up, visit: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/
**Three reasons I think the church is so prone to burnout.
- We carry burdens for problems that don’t belong to us.**
2. The mission of the church has nothing to do with what we are good at.
3. Our gifts aren’t needed in the body we are serving.
Symptoms of Burnout:
- you lose your ability to be self aware
- You say things like “I’m not capable of anything, let alone this job”.
- you try to lead people into what you feel, not what you think.
- You share stories that provoke others to feel frustrated. You struggle to think rationally.
- you try to let everyone else know how hopeless things are
- Your conversations are focused on finding all the problems, and dismissing the solutions.
- you try to get someone to help you
- You’ll talk to anyone that will listen, but you don’t know how to ask for help.
- you can’t hear help when others try to offer it
- Even when you receive advice that could be helpful, you aren’t able to see it as such.
- You can’t pace yourself.
- You are trying to solve every problem and finish every problem concurrently. You can’t allow some things to be finished later.
- You wonder why no one else is helping you.
- You feel like you’ve walked into a sandstorm. All your self awareness is gone. You can’t hear or see as well as you used to. God is quiet. Does anyone care?
Two tests that can help you identify if you are burning out:
Fire Drill Test: - Are things as bad as you feel?
Write down a specific problem you are dealing with, then rate your response to these questions 1-10. 1 is lowest importance, 10 is highest importance.
- How important do you think it is that this problem is solved?
- How important do you feel it is that this problem is solved?
- How important do others say it is that this problem is solved?
- How important is it to your job that this problem is solved?
Compare you answers.
- Are they far apart?
- Do you know why they are far apart?
If you keep coming up with large gaps between what you think, feel, and hear, it probably means you aren’t recognizing reality accurately.
Reality Check Test: - Are you wasting your time?
Recalibrate regularly on the tasks you have. We often try to accomplish all the change needed in a single project. That isn’t possible. Here are questions to ask yourself when you find yourself frustrated with a project.
- What have I been asked to accomplish?
- Why is this helpful to the client?
- What goals do I see that aren’t being met?
- Is this project an appropriate vehicle to accomplish those goals?
- What can I do outside of this project to help further those goals?
How big is the gap between what you are gifted to do and what you are being asked to do?
- Can you leverage your gifts in any way in your current role?
- If you can, why isn’t that good enough? Write it down. Define it.
Do you feel like you aren't being heard by leadership? Are you burning out?
The Creative Leadership Cohort will help you grow as a creative leader so you can get heard, avoid burnout, and start helping your church leverage the power of creativity for the Gospel.
To learn more or sign up, visit: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/
In 2017 I quit my job. I was burning out.
That's typically how the burnout story goes. "I'm burning out, so it's time to leave."
We leave, find a new perspective in a new environment, learn from our struggles, and hopefully get better.
That's not how my story goes.
I left, then came back.
Because of this, I was able to identify how I was unknowingly contributing to my own burnout. Coming back let me change those things. This episode is my story of burnout. I'm sharing my story so you can learn what helped me come back and last.
You can make simple changes in your perspective and attitude today that will help you bounce back. I hope this helps!
Do you feel like you aren't being heard by leadership? Are you burning out?
The Creative Leadership Cohort will help you grow as a creative leader so you can get heard, avoid burnout, and start helping your church leverage the power of creativity for the Gospel.
To learn more or sign up, visit: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/
If you work as a creative in the church, there’s a good chance that adding volunteers to the mix feels impossible. How can I ask someone to volunteer to step into the chaos of our last minute culture? How do I know what projects are appropriate to give to a volunteer anyway? What if they miss the mark and leave me with a lot more work to get done in a lot less time?
This week on the podcast we’ll talk through how you can know what projects to give to your volunteer team, how to assess them effectively, as well as some ideas of projects that are a good fit for creatives just joining your team.
Do you feel like you aren't being heard by leadership? Are you burning out?
The Creative Leadership Cohort will help you grow as a creative leader so you can get heard, avoid burnout, and start helping your church leverage the power of creativity for the Gospel.
To learn more or sign up, visit: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/
It doesn't matter if you are adding staff or volunteers to your creative team, these interview questions will help you learn what you need to know to make the right decision.
Do you feel like you aren't being heard by leadership? Are you burning out?
The Creative Leadership Cohort will help you grow as a creative leader so you can get heard, avoid burnout, and start helping your church leverage the power of creativity for the Gospel.
To learn more or sign up, visit: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/
It's easy for church creatives to get frustrated when the problems of other teams or leaders becomes their problem. This often looks like fast turnarounds on projects, little information to get started, or endless changes as the due date gets closer.
But what if I told you that you can help eliminate problems like this even if the problems aren't coming from your department? Good news. You can!
Do you feel like you aren't being heard by leadership? Are you burning out?
The Creative Leadership Cohort will help you grow as a creative leader so you can get heard, avoid burnout, and start helping your church leverage the power of creativity for the Gospel.
To learn more or sign up, visit: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/
Being successful on social media doesn't mean you have to burnout (though sometimes it feels that way). Join me this week on the podcast as I share five perspectives that will help you create impactful content while adopting a healthy mindset that will protect you from burning out.
Do you feel like you aren't being heard by leadership? Are you burning out?
The Creative Leadership Cohort will help you grow as a creative leader so you can get heard, avoid burnout, and start helping your church leverage the power of creativity for the Gospel.
To learn more or sign up, visit: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/
This week on the podcast we will be focusing on one of the four creative cores: Heart. Busy seasons are often times where our hearts are tested. The pressure of endless projects and far-too-short deadlines can convince us that our worth is tied to getting everything done. Join me as we remember where our worth actually comes from.
Do you feel like you aren't being heard by leadership? Are you burning out?
The Creative Leadership Cohort will help you grow as a creative leader so you can get heard, avoid burnout, and start helping your church leverage the power of creativity for the Gospel.
To learn more or sign up, visit: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/
This week on the podcast we look at the pages of Scripture and how the wisdom found there can help us navigate the nagging stresses that impact us as creatives.
Do you feel like you aren't being heard by leadership? Are you burning out?
The Creative Leadership Cohort will help you grow as a creative leader so you can get heard, avoid burnout, and start helping your church leverage the power of creativity for the Gospel.
To learn more or sign up, visit: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/
Because so much passes through church communication teams, the policies we create often impact far more than just our team. This week on the podcast, I want to talk through some of the ways we can think better about our policies, and how having a mindset of patience will help.
Do you feel like you aren't being heard by leadership? Are you burning out?
The Creative Leadership Cohort will help you grow as a creative leader so you can get heard, avoid burnout, and start helping your church leverage the power of creativity for the Gospel.
To learn more or sign up, visit: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/
In this week's podcast, Dennis and Micah from Real Life Church in Las Cruses New Mexico walk through their event priority matrix. The conversation covers the benefits of a tool like this for your communications team, but it also looks at how tools like this are often culture shaping tools.
To download the Priority Matrix, visit https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/past-resources
Do you feel like you aren't being heard by leadership? Are you burning out?
The Creative Leadership Cohort will help you grow as a creative leader so you can get heard, avoid burnout, and start helping your church leverage the power of creativity for the Gospel.
To learn more or sign up, visit: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/
When a communication strategy is built well, it removes one of the most challenging phases of any communications project: the negotiation phase.
You know the story. Ministry leaders want more and the communications team doesn't have time to build 19 custom strategies for all the events happening this month. Now no one is happy! But when you build an effective promotion strategy, you add clarity that prevents this problem from even happening.
Check out the promotional strategy case study on the website to follow along with this episode: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/case-studies/promotion-strategy
Do you feel like you aren't being heard by leadership? Are you burning out?
The Creative Leadership Cohort will help you grow as a creative leader so you can get heard, avoid burnout, and start helping your church leverage the power of creativity for the Gospel.
To learn more or sign up, visit: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/
I'm excited to announce the launch of the Creative Leadership Cohort. Believe it or not, this cohort is very closely connected to my story of burnout. Going back to the organization that burned me out helped me grow tremendously as a leader.
Do you feel like you aren't being heard by leadership? Are you burning out?
The Creative Leadership Cohort will help you grow as a creative leader so you can get heard, avoid burnout, and start helping your church leverage the power of creativity for the Gospel.
To learn more or sign up, visit: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/
Too many years of my life were spent trying to convince leadership of the WRONG things. I was arguing for creative values to a leadership team that cared about much bigger things. When I changed the way I saw my trade, it changed how much leadership heard me–for the better!
Do you feel like you aren't being heard by leadership? Are you burning out?
The Creative Leadership Cohort will help you grow as a creative leader so you can get heard, avoid burnout, and start helping your church leverage the power of creativity for the Gospel.
To learn more or sign up, visit: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/
When it comes to making the transition from a creative executor to a creative leader, the focus of who you are helping grow changes a lot. In the process of learning how to lead staff or invest in coworkers, it's easy to lose your own personal growth. If that happens, things don't go well pretty quickly. So let's talk about what it looks like to lead yourself well.
Do you feel like you aren't being heard by leadership? Are you burning out?
The Creative Leadership Cohort will help you grow as a creative leader so you can get heard, avoid burnout, and start helping your church leverage the power of creativity for the Gospel.
To learn more or sign up, visit: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/
This week on the Leading Healthy Creative Teams podcast, Justin Nava of Nava Marketing shares some marketing secrets to becoming the best known church in your community. You don't accomplish this by beating out every other church in your city or spending the most money–you do this by knowing who you are gifted and equipped to serve best. Once you know that, you can serve exactly who God has built you to serve.
Want to be the best known church in your community? Talk to Justin.
Learn more about Nava Church Marketing: www.navachurchmarketing.com
You can call him, too: (832) 861-7654
Subscribe and listen to Justin's podcast: www.thebestknownchurchshow.com
Do you feel like you aren't being heard by leadership? Are you burning out?
The Creative Leadership Cohort will help you grow as a creative leader so you can get heard, avoid burnout, and start helping your church leverage the power of creativity for the Gospel.
To learn more or sign up, visit: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/
Discover the benefits of having a structured onboarding document for new employees in your church. Learn how an onboarding document can improve your hiring process and increase retention rates. Get a free example of an onboarding document by signing up for the Creative Bites newsletter. Use this document as a starting point or as inspiration to build a custom onboarding document that better fits your church culture.
Don't miss out on the opportunity to improve your hiring process and increase retention rates, sign up for the Creative Bites newsletter today!
Sign up for Creative Bites here: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/past-resources
Do you feel like you aren't being heard by leadership? Are you burning out?
The Creative Leadership Cohort will help you grow as a creative leader so you can get heard, avoid burnout, and start helping your church leverage the power of creativity for the Gospel.
To learn more or sign up, visit: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/
Are you a church communications leader who is struggling to get your ideas heard? It can be frustrating to constantly face resistance in your projects, but the problem may not be with the leadership team - it could be with your own leadership skills. In this podcast episode, we will be diving into 7 essential principles for growing as a church communications leader.
I have personally learned these lessons through my own experience and have seen firsthand how successful creative leaders exhibit these principles in their work. And, unfortunately, I have also seen unsuccessful creative leaders make mistakes by avoiding these principles. By understanding and implementing these leadership strategies, you can overcome resistance and effectively communicate your ideas in the church. Not so your ideas can "win", but so your church can benefit.
Don't let resistance hold you back any longer. Listen to this episode of the podcast and start working on improving your leadership skills today. By implementing these 7 creative leadership principles you will be well on your way to being heard and making a difference in your church.
Do you feel like you aren't being heard by leadership? Are you burning out?
The Creative Leadership Cohort will help you grow as a creative leader so you can get heard, avoid burnout, and start helping your church leverage the power of creativity for the Gospel.
To learn more or sign up, visit: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/
Building a communication strategy for your church is an important part of being organized. But more than that, it gives you an opportunity to represent the gospel in the way you share information, tools, and resources.
When we look at the Gospel, we see an incredible example of practice grace. Christ was sent to us. We didn't initiate the plan of restoration, God did.
How can we model this in the way we communicate to those outside the church? The same way Jesus did.
Do you feel like you aren't being heard by leadership? Are you burning out?
The Creative Leadership Cohort will help you grow as a creative leader so you can get heard, avoid burnout, and start helping your church leverage the power of creativity for the Gospel.
To learn more or sign up, visit: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/
In today's digital age, social media is a powerful tool for churches to reach and connect with their communities. In this podcast, I'll be sharing 5 reasons why your church should be creating content specifically for social media. From increasing building trust to growing your congregation, I'll unpack the benefits of using social media as a way to share your church's message and connect with your congregation.
Hashtag Wisdom: https://amzn.to/3GP9klO
Do you feel like you aren't being heard by leadership? Are you burning out?
The Creative Leadership Cohort will help you grow as a creative leader so you can get heard, avoid burnout, and start helping your church leverage the power of creativity for the Gospel.
To learn more or sign up, visit: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/
While no system will prevent everything that could go wrong in a graphic design project, a good system will help you avoid most of them.
This graphic design workflow was built to formalize the lessons learned by experienced and successful graphic designers in the church so it can be shared with junior designers that don't have the same level of experience.
When a graphic designer follows these five steps, there is a significant increases in project reliability, client satisfaction, and overall results.
Sign up for the Creative Bites newsletter to get the workflow for free: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/creative-bites
Do you feel like you aren't being heard by leadership? Are you burning out?
The Creative Leadership Cohort will help you grow as a creative leader so you can get heard, avoid burnout, and start helping your church leverage the power of creativity for the Gospel.
To learn more or sign up, visit: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/
This week on the podcast we'll be talking through the two types of church communication teams: ministry team vs. support team.
Ministry team: missions approach, front line evangelism, focused on inviting those outside the church into the church.
Support team: tasked to do whatever ministry leaders ask, respond to submissions, and supporting the ministry in a responsive way.
Questions to ask to assess where your church Comm Team is.
- Can they make decisions without approval?
- Can they represent the organization on socials or?
- Can they create policies that other ministries are expected to adhere to?
- Can they drive the mission forward themselves?
- Can they decide what projects to support?
- Should their time be spent primarily on projects for your congregation or reaching those outside the church?
Do you feel like you aren't being heard by leadership? Are you burning out?
The Creative Leadership Cohort will help you grow as a creative leader so you can get heard, avoid burnout, and start helping your church leverage the power of creativity for the Gospel.
To learn more or sign up, visit: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/
This week on the podcast we'll look at ways you can add clarity to your feedback process.
If you don't provide structure for feedback, you'll end up getting opinion and preference driven changes. Things like "I don't like these colors" or "I really like this font better".
The problem is that none of these changes actually help increase effectiveness. When you provide structure to your requests for feedback, you guide the ministry leaders you are serving into a mission minded critique mindset. This means the conversation around changes is focused on how well the piece accomplishes the goal.
If you want the download mentioned in this episode, visit https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/past-resources. If you'd like future resources like this delivered to your inbox, sign up for the Creative Bites newsletter.
Do you feel like you aren't being heard by leadership? Are you burning out?
The Creative Leadership Cohort will help you grow as a creative leader so you can get heard, avoid burnout, and start helping your church leverage the power of creativity for the Gospel.
To learn more or sign up, visit: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/
Find the visuals for this episode here.
What does a strong church brand do?
- It delivers on the promise of growing people in their walk with Christ
- If you have an event, it moves people toward growth
- It helps clarify pathways for spiritual growth.
- It directs those with needs to biblical solutions
- It is an identifier of a specific gathering of the body of Christ
- It reveals the transformative power of a legitimate relationship with Christ to a doubting and lost world
- It is a testimony of the truth of God’s word, and of God’s promises through the body of Christ
- It reveals the transformative power of a legitimate relationship with Christ to a doubting and lost world
- It values the right things
- It can be a tool to articulate what is important
- Sometimes we lose sight of the larger mission because of our love for our own area of focus.
- Multisite usually focuses the conversation of house of brands vs branded house, but I think our values should.
Case Study
- Every ministry had a logo, and every ministry leader wanted their logo to be amazing. We were constantly rebranding ministries
- That isn’t a good branding practice, and it is an expensive use of time
- Multisite amplified the complexity. We were now tasked with overseeing, designing, revising, and maintaining hundreds of logos.
- We weren’t helping people find what they needed.
- Catchy names, witty abbreviations, and a completely internal language that visitors couldn’t engage.
- This is a house of brands - unique everything for everyone
- We moved to a branded house - one brand with minor, plain name customizations for each ministry.
Recommendations for a branding solution
You brand should establish a visual hierarchy based on importance
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Church first
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Campus second
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Ministry third
Everything your church does should function within this system.
- Affirms that a win for any team is a win every team.
- Affirms that a win for any campus is a win for every campus.
Your brand should have goals that move forward the mission:
Clarity: People who have never been to our church need to understand what we are saying without us explaining it.
Consistency: Consistent branding helps people understand what we are saying, and reinforces that we are one church with multiple ministry sites.
Scalability: This new branding philosophy can be implemented quickly which will allow us to move at the speed of ministry.
Flexibility: As each campus begins developing and investing in a local focus, this approach positions us to help support better.
Unity: As an organization, every ministry win is a win for our church.
Bottom line:
The strongest brand isn’t one that wins awards for looks, it’s one that points your congregation and your staff toward the mission.
Do you feel like you aren't being heard by leadership? Are you burning out?
The Creative Leadership Cohort will help you grow as a creative leader so you can get heard, avoid burnout, and start helping your church leverage the power of creativity for the Gospel.
To learn more or sign up, visit: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/
Church branding has become a more popular than ever. But what exactly is it?
What is a brand?
- it isn’t a logo
- It isn’t a product
- It isn’t your most successful ministry
- It isn’t the quality of your outreach
A brand is made up of those things, but at the end of the day, a brand is the entirety of someone’s perception of you from their perspective. This perception is what drives how someone decides to behave.
Who contributes to a church brand?
Congregation - the way that those in your church family live their lives outside the wall of the church has heavy influence on the perception of the church. Interestingly, it also informs the perception of the capital C church. And even Christ.
This is is why pursuing Biblical instruction when it comes to the function of the ministry of the church is so important
Church Staff - You are being looked at more closely on all these things
Every decision you make says something about what you value.
Church Leadership - Your decisions are modeling the behavior that the Christian in your church thinks they should model. You need to be making decisions that are biblical, and that move your congregation to recognize that scripture is what defines their direction, not just to you. But they will look heavily to you and the decisions you make!
How do you define the brand?
- Defining what your church is known for isn’t really up to your preference–it’s up to scripture
- While we aren’t in complete control of the brand, we can encourage people toward something.
- Scripture tells us where to point them!
Some keys:
The church is about Christ, not the senior pastor, worship team, local outreach, social impact, look and feel, design, student programs, kids programs or facilities.
It is about Christ. - 3 John
Making disciples, baptizing them - Matthew 28:16-20
Unity - Romans 14:19
Humility, peace filled - Romans 12:16
Restoration, Peace - 2 Corinthians 13:11
What you may notice in this is that any church’s brand will be defined by the believers that are a part of your body, not by things you control. And it should be. Your church should be pointing people to Christ.
Whenever I have conversations about branding, I can’t help but think of James 1:22 "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says."
No logo, mission statement, tagline or ad campaign can overcome the impact of a congregation that is not living in line with the biblical mandates that have been placed on their lives.
Do you feel like you aren't being heard by leadership? Are you burning out?
The Creative Leadership Cohort will help you grow as a creative leader so you can get heard, avoid burnout, and start helping your church leverage the power of creativity for the Gospel.
To learn more or sign up, visit: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/
How you spend your time as a church communicator will always be a tension. You know you are busy, but leadership doesn't seem to see it. How do you bridge the gap?
In this episode you'll hear the story of how the comm ship was sinking because of an unexpected conference, and how clarity around time made a huge difference.
This week we are stepping away from our clarity series to reflect on being thankful. The church communications space has a reputation for being pretty difficult. Both for those serving in the role, and for those interacting with comm. It seems like everyone has a different opinion on just about everything.
With that in mind, Matt will be talking through some things to be thankful for born out of time serving the church as a creative.
The values you organization creates should help the rest of the organization make effective decisions. If they don't, they need to be retooled.
Let's look at the values for Lunchtime Heroes and how they help guide day to day decisions.
- Leave a wake of restoration
- Help generously
- Navigate complexity lightheartedly
- Manage reality
- Make the unknown, known
Effective values create decisions, not forks in the road.
What's ahead in the Clarity Series- Why is clarity difficult for some organizations?- Who are we? Clarity that comes from knowing who you are.
- How can we make decisions? Clarity that comes from values.
- Why should we do this? - Clarity that comes from mission.
- What should we be doing? - Clarity that comes from purpose.
- What are the project details? - Clarity that comes from the project brief.
- How can I get to clarity
Why clarity matters:
-
It tells you where to go
-
It tells you where not to go
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It helps you identify wins
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It helps you identify who needs to grow
On achieving clarity
-
Focus on adding clarity in your area first.
-
Invite others into clarity
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Protect the clarity you do have.
PACSI helps you maintain clarity when managing massive projects. There are five areas this matrix clarifies: who will be Performing the task, who is Accountable for the task, who has Control (or final say) of the decisions made on the task, who can Suggest changes, and who needs to be Informed about the decisions being made.
Download the (FREE) Practical Tools Bundle to follow along with this episode. Then, start implementing these tools with your creative team and lead them toward health.
The SWOT analysis is a tool that reveals the health of your creative team so you can do something about it. This tool guides you through four quadrants: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
Download the (FREE) Practical Tools Bundle to follow along with this episode. Then, start implementing these tools with your creative team and lead them toward health.
The PEST analysis is an amazing tool for building strategic plans to make the most of opportunities coming your way. This tool guides you through four primary cultural areas: political, economic, social, and technological.
Download the (FREE) Practical Tools Bundle to follow along with this episode. Then, start implementing these tools with your creative team and lead them toward health.
When you or someone on your team feels like they don't have enough time get things done, it's time for the Eisenhower box. This is a tool that is often wielded in the midst of high stress, but it can be helpful well before that, too.
Download the (FREE) Practical Tools Bundle to follow along with this episode. Then, start implementing these tools with your creative team and lead them toward health.
The Four Creative Cores provides a framework that makes developing your creative team crystal clear.
If you haven't already, take the Creative Team Superpower Assessment.
Once you understand your team's health, you can begin building an effective development plan for your creative team.
The team is only as strong as the individual humans on it, however. The Four Creative Cores will help you assess and build meaningful development plans that are easy to understand and yield well rounded creatives.
This week I have the privilege of talking to Laura Howe, the founder of Hope Made Strong, and the force behind the Church Mental Health Summit. Laura and I talk through three keys to protecting our mental health as individuals.
Leaders: pay special attention to what you need to be healthy, because your team needs that too. Part of building a healthy creative team is building a team that supports mental health.
Helpful links:
Church Mental Health Summit | October 10, 2022
Sign up for for free here via my affiliate link: https://church-mental-health-summit-22.heysummit.com/?sc=diMDoc8R&ac=GNV6FPaM
Laura’s blog post and podcast on all 7 Keys: https://hopemadestrong.org/episode6/
Looking to develop a culture of care at your church? Check out Laura’s organization, Hope Made Strong: https://hopemadestrong.org/
UK article about the importance of breaking for lunch:
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/eating-lunch-at-your-desk-health
How do you deal with toxicity within your team? In this episode of the podcast, we'll talk though 6 practical step you can take to lead your team out of toxicity.
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Go past symptom management (get to the core)
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Address the broken systems that led to toxicity
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Equip them with what they need to find creative balance
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Invite them to help build a plan
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Build the plan for them
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Care for the human being more than the organization (sometimes quitting is the right answer, sometimes they can heal in place)
When a creative is strong in Systems, everything gets done. Actually, more than done. Ministry leaders have clear visibility into where there project is in the process, the mechanics of getting a project started well understood by most (there's always that one team, right?), and there is a high level of confidence that projects will be delivered according to the project brief, on budget, and on time. It's almost like the giant Krispy Kreme conveyer belt where you can watch your doughnuts get made...but with creative projects.
A Systems-strong creative team are wizards with project management tools, love intake forms, and are exceptional at building out project workflows. When everything is working right, the rest of the church benefits from their organizational prowess. Major projects, even ones that live outside of the creative team, benefit from a Systems-strong team.
When a creative is strong in Heart, the they care most about the needs of the ministry they are serving. Rather than walking in the door declaring that the creative talent has arrived, their goal is to deeply understand the needs of each ministry. Only then can they begin to build solutions based on their expertise. The goal isn't to flex how capable they are, it's to help ministry be successful.
This often looks like proactivity from the creative team. They aren't sitting around waiting for ministry leaders to approach them with changes. Rather, they are going to ministry leaders and asking how the creative horsepower of the creative team can be leveraged toward their ministry objectives.
One tell that a your creative team is Heart-strong shows up when mistakes are made. The primary goal is to identify what caused the mistake and build a structure to help prevent it from happening again. Placing blame isn't a priority at all. I like to describe it this way: the ministry leader and the creative team aren't battling each other, they are allies. When issues come up, allies team up and work to solve the problem together.
When a creative team excels in the area of Skills, every project is an opportunity to flex the muscle of the team. Ideas aren't limited by "can we pull this off", they are limited by "how far do we choose to go". When everything is running smoothly, projects fly through the team. While no team is perfect, mistakes are uncommon.
You can usually tell when a Skills-strong creative team is at work. The look and feel of everything in a church is cohesive across ministries and communication channels.
But the real power of a high Skills creative team only shows up when they are strong in Heart, too. a Creative team strong in Skills has the potential to bring others along with them. Natural development happens through this team and elevates the creative contributions of everyone around them. Sometimes this looks like a volunteer or junior creative being developed and grown by a senior creative, other times it looks like brainstorming sessions with ministry leaders thinking through how to execute something exciting. Development and growth is everywhere.
When a creative team excels in the area of imagination, new projects are exciting. You'll hear things like, "I wonder how much we can pull off". Not every idea is a good one and sometimes the ideas get a little crazy.
While every idea that comes from the Imagination-strong creative team won't get executed on, a team like this brings a lot of fun and excitement to every project they are involved in.
Beyond wild and exciting brainstorming sessions, the Imagination-strong creative team functions a lot like a creative conductor. While they do need to execute on the ideas (your Skills result sheds light on if that is a weak spot or not), they are gifted in elevating the creative ideas coming from all over the team.
Before you can build a healthy creative team, it's helpful to know what one looks like. In this episode, Matt Curtis will share five phrases that are often heard when a church creative team is healthy.
5 Things healthy creative teams say
- Ohh, what if we…
- “Let me try a few things”
- Hey, I have an update on the project
- Can we talk through that request?
- Sorry about that. I made a mistake.
An introduction episode to the Leading Healthy Creative Teams podcast with Matt Curtis. Join Lunchtime Heroes on the quest toward healthy church creative teams.