In my role as a church leader over the years, I have hired quite a few people. Usually creatives – worship, production, video, graphic artists, etc…I’ve also led interns and residents, and the savvy ones among them have asked me what I look for when I’m hiring…
Let’s take production. A solid walk with God comes first, of course. What I look for in a production leader on the skillset side is someone who has good general skills and significant expertise and experience in at least one of the key production areas. They need to be at functional in audio, lighting and live video [with video editing skills as a big plus], and exceptional in at least one of those areas.
Skill set is just one piece of the pie – I use the acronym A.V.I.S. [like the car rental place] to break it down. A is for ATTITUDE – do they want to be there and are they “can-do?” Many techies have an engineering mindset, constantly looking for problems, which is a necessity in their job. However, that can bleed over and turn into general negativity. V is for VOLUNTEERS – can they recruit, train, organize and support volunteers [including spiritually]? I is for INTERACTIONS. Most production staff I know are [quite intelligent] introverts, but they need to be able to interact with others – particularly other staff and their volunteer teams – without sarcasm or a condescending attitude. And S is for SKILLS [described above]. More on this in days to come…
Hire for Attitude, Volunteer Leadership, Interactions, Skills
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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