At our recent Google Hangout Instructors Conversation, the Certification Lab team talked things they wish they knew when they were first starting out as church communicators. Phil Bowdle is the creative arts director at West Ridge Church in Atlanta, and you can watch Phil talk about the importance of creating systems:
I walked into a situation where there were no systems or people or—there was no team or anything. It was really building a communications team from the ground up. It started with just me. For me the do-over moment was I didn’t take that break and that time early on once I started to know the culture and the needs to develop systems around me to help build clarity and how we go about what we do.
As a church communicator you need systems in place to help things run smoothly. Everything from what roles volunteers play to how you handle stage announcements to your weekly rhythm as a team.
Because I didn’t take the time to build healthy systems around me early on, I didn’t have a very healthy and sustainable pace at all in the beginning. It really took a timeout moment in to the job. If I don’t have systems and clarity around me, I can’t expect my team and volunteers to do the same. So I needed to set a healthy and sustainable pace through creating systems and boundaries around me. And it was like a light bulb went off once I took the time to do that.
You can learn more from Phil and the other instructors at the Certification Lab. Register now.
Also check out the entire Instructors Conversation with the Certification Lab team for more great insights.
More:
We do important work—sharing the gospel—but that doesn’t mean we can work ourselves to death. Learn more about how to fight church communicator burnout.
Eric Dye
May 16, 2014
This is a huge concept that’s often overlooked. If you don’t build good systems to start, when you go big, you’re setting yourself up to fail. Great stuff. Thanks for sharing, guys!