Whether you’re a weekly blogger or a church worker, you’re called to create something new every week. It can get exhausting. If you’re not careful it can drain you until you feel empty. But there are a few keys I’ve found from working at a church and blogging (17 blog posts weekly). Follow these and you’ll survive:
1. Put things in that you’re putting out. If you’re leading worship, be led into worship during the week. Go to worship conferences. Listen to live worship projects. Go to small groups where you aren’t leading.
If you’re designing graphics each week get inspired during the week. Consume amazing artwork to keep yourself going strong. Subscribe to graphic design magazines.
Every day I seek out indie bloggers with interesting thoughts. I fill myself with things I’m putting out.
2. Relate everything to your creativity. See everything through the eyes of your projects. When I watch a movie, I relate everything back to the creative process. When I walk along the beach, I look for parallels to creativity. Relate everything back to the things you’re working on.
Pastors are great at this. Every movie they see has over 20 clips they’d like to incorporate into their next sermon.
3. Schedule it. Don’t wait for inspiration to strike. Waiting makes it easy to procrastinate. It’s much better to create early and tweak, than to wait for that perfect spark of inspiration.
Set a time aside to create. Then do it.
4. Let other people carry the load occasionally. Give other people a chance to do your job. For me that means inviting guest bloggers to chime in. For you it might mean letting someone else lead worship. Or let someone else design that graphic/stage design. This gives yourself a break and lets other people rise to the occasion. You’ll be surprised at what others can do.
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Your turn! What are some of your keys to creating weekly?
I also find it helpful to develop a system to catalog inspirational elements when you find them. We use a lot of songs throughout our services and program our messages in and around those artistic moves. I keep a list of potential songs and watch tv with my iPad capturing moving moments. When we are programming a service, I will find songs/elements I had long since forgotten and be moved again in our meeting towards the right creative place.
I also find it helpful to develop a system to catalog inspirational elements when you find them. We use a lot of songs throughout our services and program our messages in and around those artistic moves. I keep a list of potential songs and watch tv with my iPad capturing moving moments. When we are programming a service, I will find songs/elements I had long since forgotten and be moved again in our meeting towards the right creative place.
agree with brad. i starred and ‘tagged’ songs in my itunes so i can quickly find or isolate certain songs for something i’d like to see, like progression or drum rhythm, etc.
and sometimes i create things outside my genre/usual things that i do. e.g., my music is rock. so on my spare time i mess around with loops and electronic dance music and create some mixtapes. afterwards i come back to rock music with refreshed feeling, and sometimes with new ideas as a bonus.
very cool!
agree with brad. i starred and ‘tagged’ songs in my itunes so i can quickly find or isolate certain songs for something i’d like to see, like progression or drum rhythm, etc.
and sometimes i create things outside my genre/usual things that i do. e.g., my music is rock. so on my spare time i mess around with loops and electronic dance music and create some mixtapes. afterwards i come back to rock music with refreshed feeling, and sometimes with new ideas as a bonus.
very cool!