Fresh Out of Ideas for Church Media? Here's How to Kickstart Your Creativity Again

If you work for a church, then you know that media is more important than ever. 

Your church media helps engage your church members, builds a sense of belonging and identity, and “fills their feeds” with God-centered content (which we could all use more of!)

Not only that, but your media can help draw in new visitors and even reach non-churchgoers with your church’s core message, vision, and Biblical truth. 

Creating church media–including inspirational posts, photos, sermon series graphics, and video content–however, can be a challenge. When you first kicked off your social media accounts, website, and online presence, you may have had plenty of great ideas. But how do you keep generating those awesome ideas after the 1,000th post? 

Or maybe you didn’t have a ton of ideas upfront for church media. Thinking of something fresh and creative that also reflects your church identity represented more of a challenge than you anticipated when you created your Instagram handle or chose a website template. 

Coming up with ideas can be difficult, especially when you’re feeling uninspired or overwhelmed. But it’s not impossible. 

In the following guide, we’ll talk about how to kickstart your creativity for generating fresh new church media. 

The Truth About Creativity 

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1)

He has filled them with skill to do all kinds of work as engravers, designers, embroiderers in blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen, and weavers—all of them skilled workers and designers. (Exodus 35:35)

The God of the universe is the ultimate Creator–and we are made in His image. 

If that’s the case, then all of us are creative, whether we see evidence of that or not. Creativity is not just for the painters, dancers, and musicians among us. It’s also for the entrepreneurs, engineers, teachers, cashiers, receptionists, and church staff. 

Here are some unexpected forms of creativity: 

• Creating a system for internal management and communication in an organization
• Coming up with a new business concept
• Telling a story to a coworker or friend
• Rearranging a space to look more inviting and friendly
• Writing an email
• Planning an event
  

Creativity can be visual, kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, mathematical, and more. 

Everyone has their own form of creativity. And everyone can learn ways to inspire and harness that creativity. 

In the following section, we’ll take a look at how to encourage creativity when you’re in a rut...and how to generate more amazing ideas for your church media, social accounts, and communication pieces. 

7 Ways to Kickstart Your Creativity 

Here’s the good news about creativity: It’s not hard work! Getting inspired should be fun and freeing. You won’t have to grit your teeth to come up with new ideas. You’re actually more likely to feel inspired when you’re relaxed and at ease. 

Here are seven ways to help you get into the right headspace for coming up with brand new ideas for your church media. 

Take a walk 

If you’re bored, frustrated, or simply “hitting a wall” while trying to think of new ideas, try taking a walk. Get out of your seat, leave the four walls, and get some fresh air. 

Here’s why taking a walk can help get the creative juices flowing:

• Walking requires you to engage different parts of your brain and as a result, nurtures cognitive thinking. 
• Walking exposes you to a different kind of environment, giving you literal “fresh eyes” to look at a challenge or problem. 
• Walking can help release tension or stress that prevent you from thinking creatively. 
  

One study published by Stanford found that walking can actually increase “creative output” by 60%. 

Taking a 10-minute walk is a simple, healthy way to start generating new ideas. Weather and health permitted, it can also be done anywhere at anytime!

Free up your time

The bad news is that people are getting less and less creative. The good news? We may be able to reverse the trend. 

A researcher at the University of William and Mary found that creativity took a sharp downturn in the 1990’s, resulting in a so-called “creativity crisis.” 

Scientists attribute this to several factors, one of which is the fact that we are “overscheduled” and “overstimulated.” When our brains are constantly engaged in a new task, distraction, conversation, or event, we don’t let our minds rest enough to generate new ideas. 

To combat the downsides of busyness and distraction, you may need to do the simple but difficult task of freeing up your daily routine.

When you feel like you’re hitting a creative wall, try giving yourself a break for a few days from social activities, busy work, and errands. As your schedule opens up, you may feel freshly inspired.

Try a cup of tea 

Here’s a fun and easy tip for generating new ideas for your church media: Try a cup of tea (or coffee) to get yourself into a more creative headspace. 

A study done at Peking University's School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences divided a group of 50 students into two groups. One group was given a glass of water, and the other was given a cup of black tea. The groups were tasked with two creative challenges: Creating a cool shape out of building blocks, and coming up with a name for a noodle restaurant. 

The tea drinkers outscored the water drinkers in both challenges, coming up with better, more creative ideas. The verdict? Tea boosts creativity–potentially because of caffeine and other chemical compounds, but also because of the instant ambience and mood boost that it provides. 

Think outside the box

The Church has a mixed history of leading the way in creativity. Some of the most beautiful, revered art from Western history was commissioned by the church and has religious themes (e.g., The Last Supper). On the other hand, the Church is also known for producing sub-par art and music–or simply copying secular art. 

Too often, followers of Jesus are reluctant to think outside of the box and create. Remember that God’s entire Creation has His fingerprints on it. Your ideas don’t need to have explicitly Christian themes to glorify Your Creator!

Thinking outside of the box to come up with new ideas for church media can involve:

• Drawing on inspiration from your favorite movies, musicians, and social media accounts (Christian or secular). 
• Paying attention to dreams, daydreams, random thoughts, and conversations with friends–these can be the seeds of inspiration!
• Doodling or freewriting can help create new pathways of creativity, and open your mind to new possibilities for media creation. 
  

Finally, try an “idea challenge.” Challenge yourself to come up with 10 new ideas for church media every day for a week. Some of your ideas may be just okay; others will rock. The goal is simply to come up with ideas, and get your juices flowing. 

Host a brainstorming session 

While it’s true that our brains generate their best ideas when we’re at rest, we can also reboot creativity by getting in a group. 

If you work for a church, then you may already be accustomed to sharing ideas and dialoguing with your coworkers. When you’re running into a creative block, try hosting a quick brainstorming session with your coworkers. 

Here’s how: 

1. Gather a few coworkers with different backgrounds, ways of thinking, and skill sets.
2. Present the creative challenge. Are you trying to come up with new verbiage, graphics, or themes? Or do you want to come up with entirely new ideas for your media, such as video content, infographics, and more? 
3. Give your participants tools–pens, markers, paper, and other items to help them brainstorm. 
4. Set the clock and give them the green light!
5. Check in after 10-15 minutes and bounce around ideas. What’s sticking, and why?
   

Hosting a simple session like the one described above can help you kickstart your creativity and generate great new ideas for media. Not only that, but it can be a fun, bonding activity for your team that helps them feel more involved in the creative side of your church. 

Don’t reinvent the wheel 

Your church media can be creative, fresh, and original, and still rely on existing graphics or content to look amazing. 

In other words, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel to be creative (Remember that Ecclesiastes 1:9 says, there is nothing new under the sun). 

Tithe.ly Media offers a ton of amazing, free media for churches in need of a little creative inspiration (and content). Think of it as an in-house creative designer that never runs out of ideas, and is absolutely free to hire. 

Do a social media fast 

Ironically, doing a social media fast can actually help you come up with better ideas for your social media. 

When you’re not inundated by other accounts, visuals, and ideas, you clear your mind and free yourself to come up with your own original ideas. You also give your brain much needed “downtime” to let new seeds of inspiration grow. 

Applying Your Ideas

If you’ve followed the steps above, you should have a ton of amazing ideas. 

Now, you’ll want to think through applying your ideas, executing on finished content, and planning content release across all of your digital channels. 

First, execute on your ideas. This may involve selecting color palettes, designing graphics, choosing fonts, writing copy, and filming content that will fulfill your vision for new church media. It can also mean selecting pre-made content and altering it to fit your church’s unique message and branding (as mentioned above, Tithe.ly Media offers an incredible selection of social media graphics, motion graphics, print graphic templates, stock photos, and sermon series kits built around specific books of the Bible and topics to make this step easy). 

Next, think through how and when you’ll want to apply your ideas across different channels and outlets. If you created media for a sermon series, for example, you’ll want to release this content ahead of time on your website, Instagram account, and more to get church members excited about what’s coming next. But the timing has to be right. Release it too early, and your audience may get confused when the series doesn’t start right away. 

Finally, create a system for releasing your media–in particular, your social media. 

As any social media manager knows, one of the most time-consuming aspects of creating awesome social media accounts is posting. Tithe.ly Media’s social media scheduler can help you save time, labor, and energy on this tedious step by allowing you to schedule posts in advance. And, just like the content library, it’s absolutely free to use. 

One final step: Get feedback on your ideas! Once you’ve posted, ask church staff and members what they think. Receive their feedback, jot down new ideas, and keep staying open to creative inspiration that can fuel your media–and ultimately, inspire your church. 

Ideate & Create with Tithe.ly Media

If you’re just getting started on creating church media...or you’ve been doing this for a while and need a reboot….Tithe.ly Media can give you an extra hand with design and content generation and offer some fresh inspiration. 

Tithe.ly’s helpful, free resource for content, social media scheduling, and more is a no-brainer for church staff. 

Tithe.ly Media:

• Offers free, unlimited access to a wide library of church media you can use for your sermon series, event marketing, Sunday services, and more. The library is continually updated so that you’ll never run out of fresh ideas. 
• Typically provides editable files so that you can customize downloads to your liking (editable files not provided for every media download). 
• Is offered for free to any church–not just Tithe.ly customers. 
• Is accessible on mobile devices, so that you can use Tithe.ly media on the go. 

To learn more about how to use Tithe.ly Media and their free social media scheduler to generate new ideas, save time, and create an awesome online presence, click here.