I need your help!
See, I am the Director of Worship at our church and I am trying to come up with our next sermon series. I have been told some ideas of what the Pastor would like to accomplish…but I need help finding the images and ultimately the thing or main focus that the series will be about.
I am tasked with scouring the web to find that perfect graphic or perfect idea of a graphic to copy and then make that fit into the subject we are talking about.
I need your help finding these images or ideas.
Currently there are quite a few places with free resources and free graphics, I don’t need them to be free I just need the idea. It seems that what a lot of churches lack is not great sermons but great avenues to those sermons. We all can publish them on Vimeo and podcasts and hope that thousands visit our website and watch the sermons, but unless there is some eye catching, soul searching image or theme to our sermons…nobody will be looking for them.
So I need your help…
Where do you go for ideas?
What places on the web do you turn to?
Where do you find inspiration?
Here is a list of places I visit frequently for creative juice and ideas, but I would love to know what you and your team does!
- creationswap.com
- dribbble.com
- behance.net
- lifechurch.tv
- stufficanuse.com
- churchmediadesign.tv
- engageworship.org
- dpchallenge.com
- sxc.hu
- seeds conference blog
- flickr group “church marketing lab”
Then I go through sermons by some of the big name preachers.
What do you do?
What are some other resources out there that I am missing?
If you’d like to help me brainstorm, the sermon topic we are doing is a 9 week journey through the Old Testament.
How does one make that not sound boring…?
[Image via rishibando via Compfight cc]
Rich says
Man, the best thing I ever did was form a Creative Development Team of about six folks (besides myself), and our focus is on developing content for sermon series, set design, and planning our “big” services like Christmas and Easter.
One of the things that has been so beneficial is that it has created a sense of ownership within our church community, and it helps keep our ideas fresh, rather than copying what someone else is doing.
Also, you should check out stephenbrewster.me. He’s the Creative Director at Cross Point in Nashville, and he’s got a ton of excellent insight into the creative process AND execution for the local church.
Best wishes.
sethrowoldt says
Rick,
Teams are a GREAT way to get things done! I love Stephen Brewster, but hadn’t thought of looking there for resources…thanks man!
Danny De los Reyes says
Check this by elevation church. http://elevationchurch.org/sermons/in-fin-8
and also this northplace http://northplacechurch.com/resources/watch
sethrowoldt says
some great links there to note! Thanks!
Eric Dye says
Mmm. Love the links stacking up in here. I’ll have to bookmark it for later–great stuff!
Drew Palko says
For a 9 week journey through the Old Testament I’m seeing like… an “evolution of man”-type image, except with old testament heros as the individual stages… with some really sharp-looking custom stained glass effects… It might take a while to nail down what I’m seeing in my head… but the end result could be steller!
Does this make sense?
I’m also loving the shots posted by Danny… If you could nail down a specific image that would represent the main idea that the pastor is trying to communicate, then simplify, Simplify, SIMPLIFY… you’d be off to a good start!
Also, I’m not to fond of this statement: “I am tasked with scouring the web to find that perfect graphic or perfect idea of a graphic to copy and then make that fit into the subject we are talking about.” Just take some time, go for a run, Climb something… Do Something to take your mind off of it for a while and then, after you’re rested, come back, brainstorm, figure out what you want to do, and DO IT! No questions, no hesitations… You have more than enough links for “inspiration”… no need to copy anything… The best idea is already in your head… just gotta pull it out!
sethrowoldt says
I like your evolution of man idea!
And your comment hit me hard about copying others ideas! Thanks! I did need that, was totally unexpected but thanks for the push!
I’ll let you know what the team comes up with!
Daniel says
I belong to a group on flickr called the church marketing lab. You can find inspiration there, post designs for critique and ask questions for inspiration.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/cfcc/
sethrowoldt says
I love church marketing lab…but you have to have graphics to show off in there in order to get a response. I wish there were a place/forum where I could ask questions about a new sermon series and we all could creatively collaborate with each other!