The RAVYN Blog

As a designer, one of the many things I enjoy doing is creating. 

It may seem obvious, but there’s something that takes place in the shadows when it comes to creative work, especially in church media design. There’s a misunderstanding of its purpose and role in the broader sense of human progression. 

When Creativity Meets Ministry: A Designer’s Perspective

Many people see creative work as a hobby, something you do in your free time. However, creativity runs deeper than paper and some crayons. It’s at the heart of every engineer, architect, scientist, and mathematician. 

In every field I can think of, creativity was needed to get us from counting sticks to building a world with advanced medical technology, putting heavy airplanes in the skies, and boats larger than skyscrapers floating on water. 

Creativity in various forms is ingrained in the human DNA—it is us being made in the image of God. 

Art and design have shaped my path for many years. It’s why I studied design and why I built my career around it. I’m not trying to make something look good. My expertise, skills, and advice come from years of studying design principles and understanding the science and psychology behind visual identity. 

Every decision made is meant to guide how someone interprets the message before them. 

Over time, I developed a love for two overlapping areas: brand design and social media design. 

Brand design is about the bigger picture. It shapes the way an organization communicates through visuals. It adds emotion to messaging, feelings to color, and heart to text. It’s easily recognized and steps into what it represents. 

Social media design and content creation are message-driven, turning branding elements into something people can see, feel, and interact with. It’s simple in its structure, but it’s executed with precision and detail. 

While both disciplines rely on the same foundation, they’re intentional, and that takes years to learn. 

Creativity in the Church: When Ministry Meets Talent

There’s a line of thought in the church that goes something like this: 

“If this is the gift God has given you, you should give back to the church for free.” 

Many people genuinely want to see creatives serve the Lord with their gifts, but that sentiment often devolves into something ugly: the assumption that creative work should be free and readily available. 

Creative talent isn’t seen as a profession. It’s seen as a hobby someone pursues on the side, with no true meaning or relevance to ministry. Well … let’s draw the curtains back on that one layer-by-layer. 

Intuitively, designers want to serve in creative ministry. Someone with a passion for design in church ministry will naturally want to share it, but sometimes that can slip into people-pleasing, even when the word ‘no’ is the only acceptable answer to a request. 

The lines blur when creative passion becomes burnout. It’s even worse when church graphic designers realize that the skills they spent years honing are being undermined. 

Filled with the Spirit to Design

The gift to create isn’t something that *everyone* gets. It’s a gift that’s given via the Holy Spirit. In fact, the Bible records that the very first time someone was ‘filled with the Holy Spirit’, it was to devise artistic designs. 

God, the Grand Designer, gave His Spirit to someone to design something—the tabernacle. 

The Lord said to Moses, “See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft.”

Exodus 31:1-5 ESV

God didn’t fill Bezalel with His Spirit to prophecy or speak in tongues. He didn’t fill Bezalel with His Spirit to heal or to pray or intercede. He filled Bezalel with His Spirit to design because at the heart of all of it, this is who God is. 

The very first words in the Bible are: 

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1:1 ESV

God’s first act was to create: He created the heavens and the earth. He filled the heavens and earth with more of His creation. And His last act, according to Revelation, is to create a new heaven and a new earth. 

It’s not to say that those with the talent to create or design are better than anyone else. Instead, it is to highlight, not to undermine, those with this talent. 

Where Things Become Difficult

For many churches, hiring a church graphic designer isn’t in the budget, so when a talented individual is available, the church calls upon them to do the work. This often falls into two categories: 

• A young person (high schooler or college student) who has an eye for tech, but hasn’t mastered the foundational principles to be a good designer
• An actual designer by profession who wants to serve in the church

The young person who is a bit tech savvy might be eager, but they’re often unreliable and may not fully understand what they’re doing. The church providing an opportunity for them to learn is great, but they’re not being exploited because … well, they’re young (and not good at what they’re doing). 

But then there’s the problem of mistaking a designer’s dedication for constant availability. Of course, this is never done intentionally. 

Working as a graphic designer for a church, I’ve come to realize that sometimes designers are treated like their only calling in life is to ‘work for the church’. 

There are days when I have all the time in the world to dedicate to a project, but there are also days when I simply cannot. For many professional designers, the need to serve in ministry trumps the importance of setting boundaries. 

Many designers face the same problem both in the professional world and in ministry. The issue is that they’ll put up with this in their profession because it is what pays their bills. But in ministry, it seems like extra work with no benefit. 

Designers are called to sacrifice their time and effort for ‘God’s work’, but really, what’s happening is abuse, manipulation, and gaslighting. 

Jesus said that the laborer deserves his wages (Luke 10:7), and Paul echoes this to Timothy (1 Timothy 5:18). 

Paul quoted ‘do not muzzle the ox while he’s treading grain’, and it wasn’t the ox that Paul was concerned for. He asks:

“If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you?” 

1 Corinthians 9:11 ESV

In fact, Paul uses this part of his letter to the Church to address concerns of those who labor in the church, asking to be compensated for their labor.

“This is my defense to those who would examine me. Do we not have the right to eat and drink? Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas? Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living? Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit? Or who tends a flock without getting some of the milk?”

1 Corinthians 9:3-7 ESV

Understand that while some people take this verse and abuse it to squeeze as much as they can out of an already-struggling church, the other side of this isn’t to address every labor as work that one should do for free because they’re doing it for God. 

Designers are already not being compensated for their labor (and they should be), but the church shouldn’t also expect them to ‘drop what they’re doing and tend to free labor’. 

Realigning Creativity and Ministry

God’s Spirit is required to do any creative work, but God’s Spirit also requires order, obedience, and submission on both ends. 

Both the church and the designer are called to submit to each other, to respect order, and to ensure peace. 

A Road Paved with ‘Good Intentions’

Design has its own set of rules. There are ones that everyone knows, and then there are the underlying rules that only someone who’s studied it may be privy to. People want to be involved in the process, so it’s not the people that become the problem; it’s the confusion they create when their good intentions get in the way.

There is a saying that is supported by a Scripture in the Bible. “The road to hell is paved with good intentions”. 

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.

Proverbs 14:12 ESV

Christ taught me this: it’s not that we have bad intentions or that our reasons for doing things don’t come from a good heart. The problem, however, is exactly that. We perceive that what we do and how we do it are right. That becomes our stumbling block. 

Even me. I make a lot of decisions, believing they are right. I have good intentions, I truly do. However, it’s not my rightness and ‘good intentions’ that help. It’s the objective truth set before me. 

We should recognize that each of us has feelings, has good intentions, and wants to do the right thing. But we must also understand that in our ‘wanting to do the right thing’, there can be unintended consequences when the whole truth isn’t preserved. 

The Miscommunication Between the Church and the Designer

One of the challenges of church media ministry and design is balancing urgency with the time needed to create high-quality work. 

Sometimes the information needed to create something arrives too late, too slowly, or in pieces. A title is given, then it is changed. Or the date comes today, but the time comes tomorrow. 

Someone wants an additional line of text, whereas someone wants to remove a line of text. 

Feedback may take time to arrive, or it may be passed among several people before reaching the designer. Then, there’s the issue of some people offering feedback when the person who commissioned the design hasn’t even gotten a chance to see the draft. 

Other times, requests arrive with a very short turnaround, hoping the designer can perform a miracle. A flyer needed for an event in two days leaves very little time for thoughtful planning. 

Then there’s the issue of well-meaning people attempting to direct the designer, suggesting changes, layouts, fonts, and colors. 

The Lesson Each Creative Has to Learn

This isn’t a reprimand on the church, but also a mirror to reflect each creative as they serve in ministry. 

One key to avoiding burnout in church media ministry is setting intentional boundaries. However, many of us struggle with this very thing. 

We mistakenly believe that boundaries are rules that we set for others to follow. Boundaries, instead, are fences we put up to deter people from crossing. We have a right to protect our boundaries; we don’t have the right to tell someone what to do.

On the days when it’s easy to say ‘yes’, we gladly do so, forgetting that there will be days when we need to say ‘no’. 

Work flows effortlessly when we have a lot of energy to give, but then there’ll be times when life gets in the way, and that same openness now feels like a burden we no longer wish to carry. 

Without clear expectations, frustration and resentment pile up. I’m struggling to learn how to communicate my boundaries clearly. On off-days, when the boundaries should be set, I give too much of myself. Then, on days when I’m realizing I’m being exploited, resentment bubbles, and arguments and wars break out. 

The irony is not lost on me that the person the designer is most frustrated with ends up being themselves for never establishing that boundary in the first place. 

As people-pleasers, what are we to do? We don’t want to create a line that makes people feel unwelcome, but we also don’t want to constantly endure a cycle of energy-burnout-energy. 

Managing church design requests efficiently means creating a system that helps both the designer and the church avoid last-minute stress and confusion. Healthy collaboration requires clarity. 

Paul, in his letter to the church in Corinth, admonishes the catastrophic atmosphere that prophesying and tongue-speaking created when everyone wanted to do it at once. 

For the Holy Spirit works in order. If many desire to prophecy, do it one at a time, he writes. If someone is speaking in tongues to a congregation, there must be an interpreter, he advises. 

Why?

Because everything must be done in order. 

How We Can Build a Better System

If a church truly wants to address an overwhelming workflow, what should it do? Should they immediately find someone else who’s willing to be a donkey? Should they stop all requests?

The answer is in front of us: build a better system.

That’s what Paul did when he wrote the letter to Corinth. He didn’t silence the prophets or tell those who spoke in tongues that they spoke ‘nonsense’. He presented a system that worked. We can take his system and apply it to any area of ministry, any spiritual gift, and any talent. 

As a church, we’re called to be:

• Clear and concise. Let your yes’s be yes’s and your no’s be no’s. (Matthew 5:37)
• Reasonable in our timelines. There is a time and a season for everything in heaven. (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8)
• Knowledgeable in the full scope of what you’re planning to do. Even discipleship comes with a cost, which Jesus likened to a man understanding the full scope of building a tower before he begins (Luke 14:25-32)
• Organized in the feedback we give. Everything should be done in decency and in order. (1 Corinthians 14:40)
• Respectful of the skills and gifts of each person. We are one body with many members, and each of us has a role to play. (1 Corinthians 12; Romans 12:3-8)

What Designers Need From Ministry Teams

• Respect for the craft
• Trust in the designer’s expertise
• Complete information from the beginning
• Established communication hierarchy and channels
• Reasonable timelines

What Designers Should Offer Ministry Teams

• Clarity about their role
• A defined church media workflow
• Consistency in visual identity
• Professional stewardship of their skills
• Healthy boundaries around time and energy
• A collaborative spirit

Who Both the Ministry and the Designer Should Be Guided By

The Holy Spirit (as always)

Creativity thrives only when everyone understands their roles and is guided by the process.

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