If you’ve been in church work for very long, you’ve come across some innocent soul who had the nerve to ask you this question. So…what do you guys do all day?
I’ve been asked that a few times recently by random folks and also by some ministry friends in the creative realm who had honest questions about how to structure their time. And so I sent them this little concise breakdown of how our creative process works each week. And I thought I’d pass it on to you. Hope it helps…and I’d love to hear your weekly rhythm as well!
Friday – nine days out – band confirmed, music selected, distributed, rehearsals scheduled
Tuesday – six days out – Programming “Tactical” meeting
- This meeting is to debrief the previous service and to work on the quality and overall excellence of our services.
- We debrief the service based on these categories: process (how well we as a team worked together), execution (did we pull off the service with limited or no technical errors), Creativity (did we try anything new…how creative were we), Teaching (based on audience engagement, how engaging was the teaching time), Worship (same as prior), Overall (did people leave impacted on a spiritual/emotional level?)
- We believe that excellence honors God and inspires people so we have no hesitation in helping each other grow in our skills.
- We spend some time talking through the next couple weeks of services
Wednesday – five days out – Programming Meeting
- we’re looking a month out or more
- We’re laying out potential service orders
- We’re sifting through creative ideas that we’ve been accumulating
- We’re assigning tasks and putting names and deadlines next to those tasks
Wednesday (monthly) - Creative Meeting
- invite the whole staff and whoever wants to come
- Provide music, food, games, and a fun environment
- Present the next series or two and just start dreaming
- Capture everything on white board
- Take a picture
- tip: Download the “evernote” app and it will store all of your ideas by word search, including words that you’ve taken pictures of
Thursday – four days out – Production meeting
- take through entire program w/ production staff
- Talk through transitions
- Talk through graphics and lighting
- Look at stage plots
- Confirm that a full production team is ready
- What are we missing?
- Obtain message notes for Cgs from the teacher
Sunday – day of – lots of things
- 7am production talk through
- 745am band call
- 810a sound check/rehearsal
- 9a mic/drama/video checks
- 920a run through
- 1030a prayer w/ all teams
- 11:15a service
- 1230p post service production debrief
Do it all again!
