A Church Communications Self-Assessment
What does your current church creative arts and communications ministry look like? To improve your situation, discover what’s going on.
By communications and creative arts, I am talking about your church’s efforts to communicate the gospel with clarity and beauty. This includes your worship and sermon series planning and development, your videos, your print material, your website, your social media – anything outside of the human voice that you use to share the story of Jesus.
In my conversations with church creatives, I find frustrated people, demoralized at a lack of appreciation for their work. But pastors are equally as frustrated. Dysfunction in the creative process is a top five complaint I hear from both church leaders and creatives. As one pastor wrote me, “My top priority right now is getting the right people in the room, with enough content and enough time to dream and accomplish the creative vision.”
MEDIOCRE OR POOR CHURCH CREATIVE ARTS AND COMMUNICATIONS IS A COMPLEX PROBLEM.
Some of the problem is tactical, like where or when to meet and who should be in the room. These decisions are important, but I think there’s something even more important. Creating an environment where creativity flourishes and creative people want to be requires more than just changing a few methods such as the day you meet or who’s in the room.
Some of the problem is strategic, like how far ahead to meet and what sorts of questions to ask in the planning process. But having a plan isn’t sufficient, either.
Some of the problem is systemic, such as the continued influence of models of knowing and being based on print culture, which has several qualities that are antithetical to creativity.
TO UNDERSTAND THE PROBLEM, TAKE THIS SELF-ASSESSMENT.
The first step to fixing your church creative arts and communications ministry is to understand what’s going on.
Take this brief survey to self-evaluate your situation.
Now, add up your total score. Give Big Problems you are having a “5”- Applies all of the time; for things that are Not an Issue give a “1” – Does not apply at all.
So the best you can get is a score of 8, and the worst is a score of 40. Are you over 15? 20? If so, you have some issues to resolve.
The answer to these problems is what would lead you to what I am calling a “church like Pixar” – a church whose creative and storytelling prowess made them appealing to people of all ages.
Tags: Communication Quiz, Len Wilson
