Does the church really need design/media?

It’s a question that I comes up from time to time, from people who don’t get it and sometimes even from myself. We designers can get a bit self-righteous, but sometimes I really step back and ask: is our job, as designers and media producers in the church, really all that necessary? In the grand scheme of things?

Here are some reasons why I think it is. 

1. It speaks to those who aren’t listening. Whether it’s right or not, many people will judge your (our) church without ever setting foot in it. A lot of those judgments, sadly, will be something along the lines of “there’s nothing for me there,” “those people are completely out of touch,” or “they can’t possibly have anything interesting to say.” A well-executed (notice I didn’t say “edgy” or “relevant”) design, though, can speak volumes to someone who won’t give you a chance to say anything else.

2. It’s way more than marketing. Yes, our job is to get people in the doors to hear the teaching, but it’s also more than that. Art can enhance the teaching by penetrating areas of consciousness and emotion that spoken word cannot, giving the message an even greater impact (and can even make that teaching resonate longer by providing a visual reminder of the feelings/thoughts experienced during the message).

3. It’s damage control. What we represent is important. Way more important than some product or company, and if those things warrant hours of energy devoted to protecting their image, why doesn’t the church? Frankly, there are plenty of people out there giving us bad PR. I consider it a personal goal to tear down misconceptions, and deliver an accurate representation of what it’s like to follow Christ. I can do that through design.

Those are just a few “off the top of my head” reasons. Do you have others?