Creative Chaos
Right now my creative chaos is not much creativity and more like chaos. Not really in the sense that we are running like crazy to catch up, but more like we are kind of lost as to what to do next. Easter came and went, and all went great. We worked together, we planned ahead, and God did an amazing work. But now what?
The major obstacle that I’ve had to face as a creative at a church is not getting the chance to plan ahead. It isn’t that I don’t want to, and definitely not that I haven’t tried. We have attempted to create a teaching calendar, but it never happened. I’ve pushed to get the musicians on planning center, but the order or worship still doesn’t usually show up any earlier than Monday. I have made so many attempts to work on planning services ahead of time, but it really feels like beating my head against a wall. I’m being brutally honest here. I really respect my pastor and the musicians at my church, but the structure is set up just like things have been in a lot of churches over the years (including all the ones I grew up in). It goes something like this:
- Song
- Song
- Welcome/Announcements
- Song
- Song
- Message
- Goodbye
Music gets their part of the service. Message gets its part of the service. Order of worship gets sent out the Monday before the following weekend. Sermon ideas show up about Wednesday, a couple of more come in on Thursday, and final notes come in about 2 pm or so on Saturday before the 5 pm service. Sometimes we have a 4 week series with a well defined purpose and message, other times we don’t. All of this works out to some pretty powerful and amazing services during which lives are changed.
I know there can be so much more than this. As the guy in charge of all video I could do some amazing song support videos, calls to worship, and sermon support videos. Sometimes we get a chance to and things work great. Most times we just get by. I also am one of the only ones who really desires to do any sort of stage design, and I’m halfway in charge of the lighting. Nothing has really happened in either of these venues other than adding some LED lights the the back walls last year to add a little color to the stage. I want to be able to be a part of creating moments of transformation and wonder, but most of the time I feel like the things I do are just getting us by. Half of me feels I shouldn’t vent my frustrations on my blog, but the other tells that I have nothing to be ashamed of. I don’t hate, disagree with, dislike, disrespect, or discount those in authority over me. I hope that once I’m in a position of authority that I am willing to listen to those who might not agree with how I’m doing things. Doesn’t mean I will do what they want, but hopefully I’ll listen.
Has anyone else had these frustrations or do they have them now? How do you deal with them?
I COMPLETELY feel your pain. And I don’t have any advice because I am still trying to figure out how to make this happen with our church/staff. Seems like our #1 offender is the #1 leader – which is a little disheartening, but I just keep remembering that God has a plan. I have got our music director and arts director at least planning teams out a few weeks in advance on planning center – but that’s as far out as we can plan…
The vision for the type of planning you need has to come from the top. If the top levels of leadership aren’t 110% on board, it won’t happen. I’ve seen it a million times before. The flow of a ministry really does come from the top.
The other thing to consider, though, is that the leadership has a million things on their plate completely unrelated to planning ahead for creative stuff.
But, planning ahead would make life easier for everyone and probably lead to better worship experiences. Make some noise. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. And so long as the grease isn’t a punch in the nose, you’ll do some good.
I also feel your pain. My husband is one of the band leaders at our church and so I hear his frustrations with the same sorts of issues. It has gotten a bit better because we now have a creative arts director that is trying to get the pastor to be more proactive in planning ahead so that the band and others can be more proactive in their planning. Hopefully it will get better in the near future.
To play devil’s advocate (not that I’m not completely on board with you), why would they change? What they’re doing is working for them. The church has grown from a movie theater to, what was it, the 40th fastest growing church in the country? We pulled in 20,000+ for Easter. And with him being a numbers guy, that’s all the proof he needs to not change a thing. Frustrating as heck – no doubt – but they are who they are.
That said, I’m all for being the ‘squeaky wheel’ but it feels like we’re running with an anchor sometimes.
Because I know what we can do with videos.
And if a picture is worth a thousand words, a video must be worth….
I agree with you on that argument to some extent Steve. The church has grown so much and God has done amazing things at CBC. To me there is no argument that what has been done has worked, but is it how we should continue to do things? Maybe it is and I’m the one who is wrong here, that’s very possible. You are right, Robert is a numbers guy, and he sees the growth and sees success. I’m not so much a numbers guy…. I am always wondering how much life change is occurs and if people are being challenged to do what God is calling them to do.
This is also really my problem… I’m a little selfish in the fact that I want to be a part of more amazing services. I should really be asking whether or not that is what the church needs.
I’m not saying I disagree with you at all – I’m just trying to see things from Robert’s POV. You can see it with his illustrations – if it’s not a hard-hitting statistic, it doesn’t really grab him. And he assumes it doesn’t grab anyone else in the congregation. Which is completely wrong, because you saw the feedback we got from our Easter videos. And on a lesser scale, the feedback we got from the Dollars and Sense intro. But, how much did we have to sell him on letting us do that one? He just wanted debt stats, and gift card numbers, and things that “would grab people’s attention.”
I don’t think we (as a church, not the video department) give the congregation enough credit for being able to figure out videos. We tend to dumb it down for everyone, assuming they can’t figure it out for themselves. And, what better way to do that than with statistics? They’re definite, they’re obvious, and they’re 24×16 on the wall.
If you can figure out a way to get Robert to let us do that, let me know. But, in the meantime, we’re just going to have to slowly edge our way into the service, like with the 10B4 (Ten B-Fo), and subtly take it over. It also doesn’t help that there are a bunch of ‘yes men’ surrounding him that tell him how good his ideas are, regardless of how boring and redundant they are.
But, like I said, if you figure out a way – put it on your blog. Or just turn six feet to your right, where I’m typing this from.