Not too long ago, I embarked on my own journey, just as you are now going through, in starting or at least considering to start a media ministry at your own church. Through this journey I have somehow learnt some things that have proven helpful and also became the foundation of the ministry that is very close to my heart today. It certainly wasn’t and will never be an easy task as it requires a lot of hard work and perseverance but the fruit of your labour would definitely not be in vain, especially if you are really passionate about this ministry. Laying the foundation is important if you want to grow. Hence, my beginners guide to you would be:
Step 1: Penning Down Your Vision and Mission.
Think thoroughly about the purpose and objective of your ministry. While you are at it, ask yourself (and your team) what are your goals and where do you envision the ministry in the next one, two or five years down the road. Pen down your plans, goals and thoughts and share them with your pastor or elders of the church. Bear in mind that your ministry’s vision and mission statement should go hand in hand and most importantly support the vision and mission of your church.
Having a vision and mission for your ministry is vital as it will help you stay focused as well as be your guiding light during the good times and especially the bad times, or even when you feel that you are not equipped enough or don’t have enough resources or manpower to do what you need to do.
Step 2: Recruiting Your Teammies!
People are important and they can be your most valuable assets in this ministry. You would definitely need a crew as you can only go so far alone. Nothing beats a production crew who is passionate about the job and knows exactly what roles and responsibility they carry. No matter how skilful or capable you are in running the show alone, at the end of the day, if you really want the ministry to grow, you would definitely need other people to serve alongside you and build the ministry together. Think about it. You definitely cannot operate or run a three Multi-camera Production (MCP) for a live event single-handedly. It would take a well-equipped and trained crew to run the show and to run it well.
So, how do you get a crew? Easy. For starters, you could gather a few people that you would probably already know who share the same passion and vision with you to help you out at the initial stages. Once things are on the roll, you could start recruiting other individuals in your church who are also passionate or interested about media and production. Remember, getting them is easy. But keeping them is hard.
Step 3: Equipment
The next thing you would need to take note of is the equipment. It’s quite pointless to have a crew of 40 but only one camera. Ideally, if you can afford the big toys it would definitely make life much easier. Unfortunately, not everybody can afford a full set of equipment for a professional MCP set-up. Moreover, a professional set-up like that could cost a big sum of money. So the first thing you should do is to find a set-up that suits your needs and budget. There are so many different kinds of equipment out there which range from a few thousand to a few hundred thousand which practically does about the same thing. Do your research. Talk to different people. Refer back to your pastor and see what he wants.
Different churches and events require different set-ups of equipment. Know your needs and your role in the church as a media ministry and then plan your equipment and set-up based on what you have identified. Remember, you might not be able to realise all your plans at one go, so prioritise you needs and get what is really required first. Then you would be able to maximise your budget.
Step 4: Getting Trained
Now, you’ve got your crew and you’ve bought your equipment. What you need next is training. As a leader you would need to create an environment in which they can learn and grow. It will take commitment, many training sessions and time initially but once your crew is top notch, the sacrifices and effort put into training will be worth it. Realistically, not all of your crew will be people who are from the production line neither would they have a lot of time to spend on a ministry that requires a lot of technical knowledge and, for some, creativity. You would need to somehow find an avenue where you can train them; be it conducting workshops, sending them websites and books to read up on production and camera, or even going for exhibitions to expose them to the latest equipment or system that the industry is using.
The best way to learn most of the time is through trial and error, especially if you and/or your crew are new at this or fresh in the production world. Having an experienced mentor would certainly be an advantage but even if there is no one available, it’ll be good if you can get guidebooks as reference to help you and your crew out. You must always remember that training is a long-term thing and it is an ongoing process. The more you train, the more your crew gets equipped, the more your ministry will thrive.
Step 5: Achieving Growth
The reason why I say growth is because a ministry that doesn’t grow is practically dead. As a leader, you would need to constantly push and set the pace of where you are going as a team. You would need to occasionally do ‘vision casting’ with your team, meaning you remind them about the vision of your ministry and what you want to achieve or where you guys are heading as a team. One thing that would help you keep the fire burning is by constantly setting short-term goals and always letting your crew know what’s next. If they can look forward to something, it’s less likely that they would get burnt-out or discouraged along the way. As I mentioned earlier, getting them in is easy but keeping them is hard. A leader that has a vision ahead of him will be easier to follow rather than one who doesn’t know where he is going.
Keeping the excitement also helps encourage growth. Constantly keeping track of what’s happening out there, updating and exciting your team with the latest gadgets available in the market and having projects to look forward to as a team such as a Christmas or Easter Production and/or your own video projects which contribute to your church would certainly help keep the hype going and avoid any boredom or redundancy in serving weekly. It is also important to build a good relationship with your crew, training them constantly and take on more challenging projects in future which will keep your ministry on a constant road to growth.
Media is a very powerful tool and if every church realises the power and influence of media over our society today we would be able to make a really big difference as Christians and use this tool to spread the love of Jesus more effectively and more powerfully. As the saying goes, “he who controls the media, controls the minds of the people.” |
