7.22.2008
Balance in ministry is a beast. Hands down. There are dozens of books on how to combat it and keep things straight and prioritized, but we all get caught in the trap from time to time. When this happens in a multi-staff environment, what once was a project in the distance can become an emergency for you and everyone around you (in your mind).
This can be very difficult for people involved in arts ministry. With videos, service planning, worship bands, graphics, website maintenance/ updates, fliers, set-design, and the list goes on... planning ahead is the key. Most of these projects take time to pull off in an effective and relevant way. Here are some way I try to keep this together and stay a little ahead.
1. Keep a planning schedule of series, volunteers, bands, and songs (example)
This will help you stay on track and with the accountability of multiple volunteers checking this online, it's a great way to keep everyone informed.
2. Sit down and plan your series (IN ADVANCE) with your creative team (our planning flow)
This has helped us in HUGE ways. As we sit down and plan for a series (mix of staff and volunteers), we already have the flow in our minds, throw out any ideas, nothing is too crazy, narrow it down, and once we have the ideas we know we can pull it off because it's far enough out to do almost anything.
3. Set boundaries with your other staff members (graphic request form)
When I came on staff at Forefront I knew immediately what I wanted... plenty of time and creative direction to do what I love. But the problem lies in the fact that not everyone can plan like you do (this assumes you are planning ahead) and they are now in an emergency because they need it TODAY! I have a hard time with making their poor planning into my emergency project. So set boundaries on your creative requests. I included our graphic request form (which looks almost identical to our video request form). This gives me a two week buffer for graphics and a 1 month buffer for videos. If you do this it will make life SOOOOOO much easier.
How do you stay organized in the realm of Arts and Planning at your church. One tool I've looked at is planningcenteronline.com, but haven't taken the plunge yet. Anyone using this with some feedback?