In my time as a service producer, I have never been a huge fan of live interviews. The primary reason is that I have found that many pastors and other church staff DRASTICALLY underestimate how long a live interview will take. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard a phrase similar to the following: “Let’s bring Bob up and have him talk about his missions trip to Uganda. We’ll show a few pictures, it’ll be great – 60 seconds, tops.” In my decades of ministry, I don’t remember an interview EVER going only 60 seconds, lol. Ten minutes+ is more of a realistic range. To help with both length and the nerves of the person being interviewed, here are a couple suggestions that may work for you:
Write it out. Choose your questions in advance (2-3 tops), and send them to the person being interviewed;
Rehearse it. You will get a much more realistic sense of how long it’s going by running it at least once. Don’t use your service as a dress rehearsal;
Use visual support. People are used to checking out during interviews because, in all honesty, they are usually either boring or a “pitch.” Using visuals helps to retain engagement – in the case of the attached photo, we created the visual ambiance of a talk around a campfire, rather than using video support.
Live Interviews Take More Time Than You Think – Make Them Interesting
Hmmm - well, let's see...
I'm a Christian, a husband, a dad, a son, a pastor, a consultant, a musician, a writer, and bits and pieces of a bunch of other things. My work life has followed three main phases - business to teaching to church. I was the Weekend Services Pastor for nine years at Northview Church, an awesome church in the Indianapolis suburbs. I used to work for Willow Creek, another awesome church in the Chicago area. Plus I've written for various magazines and websites, and other freelancy sorts of things... My life mission is to help the church be as excellent as it can be.
Oh yeah - the name's Greg. Greg Wallace. But not the race car driver or the major league pitcher or the British celebrity chef. Just the creative worship guy. Hi.
It's my hope that these ideas, musings, rants, raves, etc... will inspire you. They're just my opinions - but again, I hope that they'll help to inspire you. Because the church really, really needs inspired creative types. If you're a creative type (and most people are, deep-down), ask God for help. Then take any ideas that are useful to you - borrow them, nab them, use them, adapt them - and make them into something greater...
You can head over to my Instagram site for an abundance of shorter posts: creativeworshipideas. If you're looking for consulting - especially on weekend services, team leadership or multi-site strategies - I'd love to help. Just message me here, and I'll be in touch - Greg
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