To be the leader of the team is not to be the creative decision maker. While in some situations, creative direction is a necessary part of the role’s leadership, it is not the job of the producer to advance a personal creative agenda, but to lead implementation of what the team decided as a group.

Some larger churches have a staff person with the title of “Creative Director,” “Worship Arts Pastor,” or the like. The person with this title is organizationally an ideal choice for the producer role.

Writer

Themes, metaphors, and other techniques used to integrate the various elements of worship together don’t just emerge on their own. They must be intentionally cultivated prior to the live worship setting to make sure they are clear and understood to the congregation. This is where a writer comes in.

Writers pen specific language that helps to bridge metaphors to ideas and makes themes evident. These connections can occur in a call to worship time, within musical sets, during prayer, as a part of a sermon, in drama, and in a variety of other ways. During these times, have specific language prepared for the speaker to use.

Some churches avoid reading pre-written words. If you’re a part of such a congregation, having a writer doesn’t mean changing your style. Many churches use a writer to create “talking points,” then allow the speaker to improvise while at the same time hitting on the key words that keep a worship service cohesive.

As the writer of his current team, Len sends the volunteer worship host of the week a script for introducing the theme and metaphor of the week. What is a worship host you ask? A worship host is a primary upfront person besides the pastor. Their job is to offer spoken words during the service such as the call to worship, prayer, welcome and announcements. In some churches the bandleader performs this function but having a separate worship host is recommended. In more traditional settings, this person might be referred to as the liturgist. Every host at Len’s church knows that they can take the words as is, or modify them and personalize them as needed to help their delivery be more natural.

It is not necessary for the worship host to be part of the design team, as the writer will formulate scripts based on the design team’s creativity. The host may be considered a part of one of many extended teams to the creative team, just as there are musicians who are a part of worship but who don’t design worship.

Technical Director

The tech director is the team’s representative for all things media, including sound, lighting, projector and stage. Because of the technical challenges often associated with planning big ideas on short notice, this person is frequently under much job performance pressure. This can cause some grumpiness in the team meeting, and may also result in taking creative shortcuts. The disgruntled tech director might look for ways to not accomplish the big ideas that are generated if they are approaching burnout. Good communication and plenty of lead-time on major changes will ease the pressure and frustration felt by the tech director.

Additionally, the gatekeeper concern is often present for the person filling this role. The challenge is to stay upbeat and energized to accomplish what is both technically feasible, and sometimes, seemingly impossible.

Creative People

A good team also has a number of people with specific creative skills. These can range from video production to graphic arts, drama, and much more. Len’s current team has someone whose creative skill is an incredible knowledge of movies. For any topic this member can name two or three great movie clips. The specific creative talents on your team will be unique and a reflection of your church community. Learn to not worry about talents unavailable to your team and to focus on improving the skills that are available.

New Believer

A role that many teams never consider is that of a new believer. Even without knowing it, many worship planners and pastors infuse a churchy or “Christian-ese” language into the written, spoken and visual Word. This creates a problem for unchurched or slightly churched visitors who are not well versed in this strange tongue.

One visitor remarked that he thought church was going to end with a card game after hearing the pastor say that they would partake in Holy Eucharist later in the service. This of course means communion to those of us who know the language, but for someone new to faith, it can be a confusing concept.

New believers help worship designers put the message into layman’s terms. They can help flesh out hard to grasp concepts and they can bring new perspectives that make the message stronger. If there are terms used in the design meeting that don’t make sense to the outsider, the new believer can help identify them to be changed, or at the very least to be explained in a new way.

Other roles may either play an important part of the team or occur outside the planning session, including a scribe (someone gifted at writing down all of the team’s ideas and disseminating them to everyone later) and a display guru (someone who creates altar displays each week that reflect the day’s theme and metaphor). If you have additional roles that are vital to your team, write us at mail@midnightoilproductions.net and let us know.

Huddle up with your team, determine roles, and pretty soon you’ll find your playbook expanding in ways you never knew possible! Roles can make all the difference in the way your team functions and how many successes you achieve.

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