What’s your question about communications?

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

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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?

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.

1. Identify projects where planning ahead would be most helpful and initiate the first meeting

• Create an annual calendar with alerts that remind you when you should start the planning process. Then bring that up with your pastor. 

2. Manage reality 

• Recognize that everything won’t be perfect.
•  Unrealistic expectations will only lead to more frustration.

3. 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.
• Follow up with a conversation. Call out how planning ahead helps you and other support ministries

4. Call out “plan ahead” wins when they happen.

•  Non planners usually can’t see where planning helps.

5. Do as much of the planning work as you can. 

• • You can't expect non-planners to be planners. Look for ways to help drive organization and planning.

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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?

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?

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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'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

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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?

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/

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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?

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.

1. Do you want to leave or do you want to make where you are better?
2. Are doors opening for you? What are the pros and cons of those opportunities?
3. If you had to stay, what would you do to address the frustration you face?
   1. Identify the specific problems and work toward solving them.
      - Find help with the Four Creative Cores: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/four-creative-cores
4. What if you have people problems?
   1. Seek restoration - have the hard conversations for the purpose of seeking unity
   2. Bring issues to leadership
   3. Listen to their advice
5. Seek counsel outside your church
   1. Internal voices are often biased. Talk with your spouse or close friends
6. Pray about it
   1. Remember that your identity is found in Christ, not in your job
      
      

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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?

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 are
Always 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 team
Cast 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 participate
Bring 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

6. 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?

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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 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 guidance building a promotional plan that is compatible with your church, check out The Healthy Communications Ministry Blueprint available in the Healthy Creative Ministry group on Skool. 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 case study of the 3 + 1 Promotional Plan here: https://www.lunchtimeheroes.co/promotion-plan

The first step to building a promotional plan is identifying your church's communication channels. List all your channels (internal and external) and decide how to use each for big, medium, or small events. This helps clarify what you have to work with and when to leverage each channel.

From here, you can choose one of three approaches:

1. Relevance-Based Plan: Events that apply to 50%+ of the congregation get more promotion.
   • Challenge: Too many exceptions erode the strategy. For example, if 65% of your congregation is women, men’s events might not qualify. If the percentage drops too low, too many events qualify, overwhelming your channels.
2. Event-Size Plan: Larger events get more promotion.
   • Challenge: Ministry leaders often overestimate event attendance to qualify for promotion. New initiatives struggle because they lack attendance history, favoring existing events over innovation.
3. Mission-Driven Plan: Events that align with your church’s mission get prioritized. This is the most effective approach because it ensures focus on what truly matters.

To create a mission-driven plan, ask these questions:

• Does this support the mission?
• Does this prepare us for the mission?
• Does this display the mission?

This leads to clear, strategic tiers for promotion which helps you prioritize events that move your church’s mission forward—without vague decision-making or unnecessary hurdles.

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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?

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.

1. Learn about their concerns
2. Care about their past experiences
   1. Often resistance is born from a bad previous experience that they had or that they’ve heard about. 
3. Make it clear how this aligns with the mission of the ministry or the church
   1. Lead with “I think we can accomplish the mission by…” as opposed to “this new technology can really help us…”
4. 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.

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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?

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

1. Pray for the people you work with > move your heart in a good direction
2. Apologize for times you’ve made ministry harder
3. Listen before you speak
4. Be a conductor, not the world’s best oboe player
5. Invite others into creation
6. Be willing to experiment (and try someone else’s idea)
7. Be gracious when something doesn’t work
8. Find ways to encourage others (I’m excited about your next event, You are such a great fit for this ministry, etc).
9. Recognize that you don’t need to have all the answers
10. Ask for feedback
11. Participate in the ministry of your church
12. Be proactive about serving (don’t wait for ministry leaders to come to you, go to them)

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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.