Category: Design

  • I, a Church Communicator, Survived Christmas

    I, a Church Communicator, Survived Christmas

    In fact, not only did I survive, it was quite wonderful. Sure, it was filled with looming deadlines, printers not guaranteeing on-time delivery, and coworkers not providing me with the copy I need until the very last moment, but it was still wonderful. Let me explain.

    I find that my closest relationships are also the most complicated, and it makes sense. If, say, a casual acquaintance voted for someone I fundamentally disagree with, it’s rather effortless to simply avoid the person (avoidance is both an important vice and coping mechanism for me.) If that same person is someone really close to me, then the avoidance tactics can only work temporarily, because they are too important to me to let it divide us. It’s the setbacks, disagreements, and trials in a relationship that make it stronger, and well, complicated. Believe it or not, complicated is good. It’s proof that the relationship is real.

    That was a convoluted way of describing my relationship with Christmas. It’s like hosting a big family gathering, where you are looking forward to seeing each other, but are equally happy once it is done, because the whole thing is exhausting. That’s how I feel about Christmas (and Easter, but that’s another story.)

    As if on cue, there are dreadful moments leading up to Christmas, usually the closer the day comes. While the Advent season winds down, the big day becomes more real. Christmas is delegated to a deadline. Like clockwork, there’s IT problems, broken copiers, deaths with funerals to plan, and deadlines missed. On top of all that, you have coworkers all also stressed and overworked, each with their own unique way of dealing with it. It feels like a ancient, scripted reality show, played out at churches across the world every December.

    But throughout this time, there are important moments; a song during a service, a thank you from a parishioner, a hug from a coworker and a friend.

    If you were nice enough to read all the way through, here comes the good stuff. My unsolicited advice to other communicators (and church employees in general) is to make space for quite moments. For me, it was the same day that I had to move my leaflet production schedule a week ahead to get it printed in time for Christmas. I had no idea how I was going to make it happen. I couldn’t even get the correct text for the leaflets from other people in the office.

    It was that predictable, mini-meltdown moment for me.

    So I stopped what I was doing, closed my office door, and spent a few hours redesigning the covers for all four leaflets. I didn’t have time for it, but I did it anyways. Headphones on, deadlines pushed out of my head, I designed recklessly. I remembered why I love my job and the significance of what we do as designers in the church. Being lost in Photoshop and inDesign was my centering practice. It was a recipe of solitude and creativity that served as the elixir to my ailments. I encourage you to find yours, particularly when it seems hardest to do. Be creative in your practice. Sure, it could be a prayer, a church service, some sort of meditation; but, it could also be getting lost in artwork on your computer screen, singing your heart out in your car, or some other action that could only possibly be calming to you alone.

    Do it or don’t, but be rest assured, Christmas will always be wonderful, as long as you want it to be.

    PS. Despite (or maybe because) of that design time, I still managed to get everything in on time.

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  • Storytelling as Stewardship

    Storytelling as Stewardship

    “It’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.”
    -Mother Theresa

    One of the most challenging projects any church will face is creating an effective stewardship campaign. A successful stewardship season can help set a progressive tone for the church year, and equally, a lackluster campaign can dictate a staff to reduce programming for the year and even into subsequent years.

    While there are many ways to craft a successful campaign, this article focuses specifically on the theme of storytelling as stewardship.

     

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    We live in a time where division is easier than connection. We often define ourselves in divisive ways; “I am a Democrat, you are a Republican. I am black, you are white, she is asian. I am a male, you are a female. I am husky, you are skinny. We are gay, you are straight.” Wether your church body wants to believe it or not, we are constantly looking at people as “the other.”

    That is why storytelling is such a successful method of stewardship. To quote one of my all time favorite books of the old testament:

    “It’s better to have a partner than go it alone.
    Share the work, share the wealth.
    And if one falls down, the other helps,
    But if there’s no one to help, tough!”
    -Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 (The Message, a paraphrased bible translation)

    For the specific project that I worked on, the first step was identifying stories. There are many ways to do this, but from experience, the most successful way is to find a key volunteer to curate stories from your community. The resulting stories are a treasure trove of resources. They are clay for many different sculptures that can define a stewardship season. A collection of your church’s stories can become ad campaigns, videos campaigns, jumping points for dinner series, and most importantly, a device to encourage your parishioners to feel invested in their Christian home.

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    Once you have curated stories, visuals become the focal point. For the ASBH campaign, we focused on high quality, editorial style images reminiscent of Humans of New York. There are many techniques that can be implemented that even amateur church photographers can utilize. Creating a strong photographic style is an important part of the process. Always look to your Communications Director and other creative consultants to achieve the strongest visual styles. They truly will succeed where others have not.

    Finally, once you have a body of stories and images, it is time for the designers to do the work. Always know your audience. What are the demographics of your church? What regional factors affect design? What are emerging trends on a national level? These specifics can define the success and failure of your campaign.

    Ultimately, while all of us find it easy to see how we are different, the church can be a powerful, life-changing way to show where we are the same. Those commonalities help us to fulfill the greatest commandment, for when we know how we are the same, we can find pathways to truly love each other. That is not just powerful as a stewardship campaign, it can change the hearts of your congregation in unparalleled ways.

    All the images in this post are copyrighted and are not allowed to be reused without permission in any way. Photography courtesy of Chris James Media.

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