Monday I spoke with (2) Pastors who explained to me their challenges with their Media Ministry Volunteers. Though one was in Atlanta

and the other in Ft. Myers, Florida, both had similar concerns. They knew they needed help and at this moment, they realized until they invested in professional help and training for their volunteers, THE VISION would continue to tarry.

Do You Need Help, Developing your Media Support Team?
Of course you do!

Unfortunately, most Pastors I talk to recognize this fact too late down the road, once their media output has clearly suffered.

One of the MAIN reasons TV MINISTRIES fail, is because there is no one there to give clear direction and NO REAL SUPPORT for VOLUNTEERS who often times consider it A HOBBY, not necessarily a purpose.

In my eBook The ABC’s of BROADCAST TV: How To Begin A Quality TV Ministry Broadcast Without Bursting Your Budget I discuss much of this in detail. Considering all the calls I’ve been receiving lately about this, I wanted to share a portion of that eBook with you today.

Once you have your strategic media evangelism plan structured it’s time to now TAKE ACTION. The first thing you want to do now is develop your media support team.

These are the people who will assist you in achieving the media vision God has given you.
Thus it’s important to recruit those with a passion for media from within your congregation.
Remember, PASSION is the key word here. If they’re 16 and have a PASSION and just happen to be enrolled in media classes at high school, you never know how vital that 16 year old may be to your team.

Then too, there may be a retired broadcast engineer sitting in your congregation and you’ll never know, until you issue the CALL FOR MEDIA MINISTRY VOLUNTEERS. Once you issue the call, plan to meet within 15-20 days of making the announcement. I would suggest, having each prospective volunteer, email or fax to you a resume, including their media experience and potentially a cover letter explaining the depth of their media experience. While we do want to see how each volunteer could potentially function within this ministry, we don’t want to unintentionally isolate those with no experience. Because here again, a non-experienced person with PASSION for the ministry, 9 times out of 10 is better than an experienced professional with NO PASSION and a bad attitude.

Once you receive this information, I would then have my media consultant review the resumes and cover letters and then prepare to meet with each potential team member individually and collectively. Once this is done, you should have a better idea of who can function where and in what role and why.

Along the way, you will also be able to determine to what extent you may have to hire broadcast industry professionals to lead, nurture and supplement your volunteer ministry folks. If you truly plan to go on TV with a spirit of excellence and at a broadcast standard level, you want to keep your mind open to hiring professionals. You have to be realistic when you examine the experience and skill level of your ministry volunteers. Some of your volunteers may be ready to dive in, some may not be. That’s why it is so important to make sure you have a media consultant who can help guide you through the process if there is no one in your ministry who meets these criteria.

More than likely, you will exist as the Executive Producer of your broadcast, because only you know the exact scope of the Vision God has given to you for your broadcast. Your media consultant may then exist as Consultant or Supervising Producer if there is no one in your ministry to fill this role. Your inner-ministry media support team should consist of the following positions:

Director
Technical Director (TD)
Associate Producers (AP)
Camera Operators
Production Assistants (PA)
Video Editors
Motion Graphics Artist
Multimedia Specialists
Engineer

However, if you need to hire professionals I would encourage you to hire a professional Director/TD. One person can actually do both positions at the same time. I would also make sure to hire 1-2 professional camera people, if there isn’t a viable volunteer candidate.

Now this support team will vary considerably depending on who is available and how you plan to launch your media ministry. If you plan to have the ministry just shoot the broadcast and then you hand it off to a professional firm to post-produce, then you don’t necessarily need a video editor or motion graphics artist or even a multimedia specialist just yet.

No matter what, remember during this part of the process having a professional media consultant close by is VITAL. The great thing about having a true professional media consultant on your team is that he or she should be able to also give constructive criticism about your broadcast and even provide a detailed assessment of what your team is doing wrong, right and give clear solutions. If your video production ministry is already up and running, it is always best to hire a professional consultant first to make sure you are moving in the right direction.

NEED MORE MINISTRY AND MEDIA TIPS?
I hope this information has been beneficial to you. Feel free to pass it on and SHARE.
You can view some of the work I and my team have done for ministries via my youtube page at http://budurl.com/dhoyoutube or you can feel free to call me toll free at 877.595.9117 ext 3 to find out more about how I MAY be able to assist you, YOUR MEDIA MINISTRY and your VOLUNTEERS.

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