What would your church or ministry do if your media director was no longer able to perform their duties? Many seem to overlook the vital role that any media director provides.
It’s the little things that seem to get overlooked in their everyday ministry duties. Such things as social media posting, podcast editing, preparing visuals for your Sunday Morning worship, and a host of other unlisted item’s that are never known to the vast majority of a church or ministries members.
It becomes really easy for the leadership of a church or ministry to overlook the functions that are performed by any media director, as most of their interactions happen behind the scenes. Unless you have sat with your media director and spent the same amount of time with them as what they put into any aspect of delivering online content, it is very easy to not understand how many hours of planning and developing goes on behind the scenes preparing for the upcoming week.
That’s a great question. Allow me to provide you with a video from one of my favorite experts on this field, Brady Shearer.
Most churches and ministries in today’s times, traditionally only have a “solo” person who is responsible for ensuring that everything that needs to be prepared for “all things media” has them prepared, uploaded for easy access, a planned out for the upcoming sermon or Sunday Morning event.
All in all, I am going to use myself as the prime example, I spend nearly 20 hours per week working on things that happen across a variety of networking entities. Everything from preparing social media graphics, editing the church podcast, uploading content to the appropriate content delivery networks, website maintenance and design, and a host of other activities that ensure that all of our media bases are covered.
Many people just know that things happen and they get to see the end results. However, what happens when your media director goes down?
It’s certainly not something that most churches or ministries plan for, but let’s be realistic for a moment, if you have a “one-man-band” who is responsible to ensure that everything is tidied up, let’s all hope and pray that they do not become sick or worse yet may be facing a prolonged period of where they may be unable to perform their duties.
Who will cover the bases to pick up the slack of what they normally do?
Now you might be saying to yourself “just ask for volunteers.” While this may seem easy, you should know above anyone else that you can always get people to raise their hands in offering to help, however, getting them to commit for the long-haul is pretty much like pulling eye teeth without any anesthesia. It just doesn’t happen!
Then you have the whole “Training Factor” to put into the mix. Let’s face it, there is a plethora of things that anyone stepping onto the plate to assist will need to learn. Does your church or ministry have any kind of formatted outline or documentation to provide to any volunteer? Even if you do, what are the chances they are going to even know where to start?
Having a solid outline of expectations for anyone who is going to be stepping in to assist with the media operations for your ministry is essential. However, I’m going to forewarn you now that this will not be an easy task of putting together. It will require some true dedication as to the steps to each function they perform.
Having a well laid out “SOP” standard operating procedures along with visuals will make this somewhat easier. Furthermore, it will reduce the stress levels of the person(s) stepping up to the plate a bit less overwhelming.
It is always recommended that you begin having various people who can fill the gap, if you will, to sit in with your media director as they perform various tasks that is required to fulfill that portion of the media ministry. Also, be willing to let your fill-ins take control of the operation for one week every so ofter to keep them in the practical know-hows and make sure that they are keeping up to speed with any changing formats to various aspects of the media program.
The average everyday congregant doesn’t care about this position, that is until their favorite aspect of your ministry media isn’t there for their enjoyment. Whether that be an uploaded video, uploaded audio podcast, social media post or other item’s that are provided on a regular basis.
I mean let’s face it, who actually even takes time to thank their media director? Most people don’t even realize they exist.
While not trying to bring any light to myself, however, as someone who participates in a wide variety of groups that are dedicated to “Ministry Media Directors,” are filled with tens of thousands of individuals around the world who are always looking for new and creative ways to inspire those within any ministry.
I can assure you that is a full-time job in and of itself. Have you ever been to a buffet that has nearly everything on it that you could ever imagine and then hear that one person ask “Why don’t they have this or that?” Trust me, the same thing applies for your media directors whether a paid staff member or volunteer. This brings me to another sensitive subject to cover.
Just because a person, or even a team of people are volunteers, don’t discount their abilities in what they contribute to the everyday operation of your church or ministry.
In today’s world where more and more activities are being held online, there’s a pretty strong probability that they will actively be involved in making sure that everything happens exactly the way it should. Now by no means does this mean or even suggest that things will always go perfectly, but they will ensure that it goes as smooth as possible.
It’s very sad, but true, many churches never take the time to plan for this type of event. However, don’t be the one that finds yourself in this kind of predicament. Take time and pre-plan for the untimely even that your media director does go down. You’ll be glad that you did!
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