Leadership
Student Ministry
Environment Matters
6:22 PM
I love Creating environments. It is without a doubt one of
my most favorite things to do. Im not picky! If it involves being creative and
setting up a new or dynamic look I am going to love it.
Something that strikes me as odd though is how unimportant
it seems to be to some people. When it comes to creating an engaging and comfortable
environment sometimes people just don't care.
There are so many elements at our disposal even if you don’t
have a lot of money! A lot of times people sacrifice excellence because of “money”
or lack of “resources” rather than doing the best we can with what we have.
Excellence is not the presence of money but the presence of creativity and
effort.
Everything plays in
Lighting
Staging
Room Setup
Screens
Creative Elements
Staging
Room Setup
Screens
Creative Elements
It should all work together to create a comfortable and
engaging environment that is free of distractions. You don’t have to spend a
lot of money but you may have to give some time. The key is not to do
everything at once, but rather to develop a plan of what you want and begin to
build upon it. A few years ago we started building our student environment. We
have made a ton of changes along the way and they have built upon each other
perfectly. It has been 3 years of work and time. And I am still not where I want
to be. But I am miles from where I started. I dedicated a little money each
year and a lot of time each year to make progress over the long haul.
Here are some questions to ask about your environment!
Are there any obvious
distractions? – Is there anything in the venue that you use that is an
obvious distraction or an eyesore to guests? Do you have anything that is
terrible looking but you have gotten so use to looking at it but other people
would notice it.
Are you maximizing
what you have? – So often it isn’t an issue of not having any thing, as it
is not leveraging the resources you do have available. You may not have much.
But the more you flex your creative muscles the stronger they will become. Take
what you have and use it to the Max.
What would you do if
you had unlimited resources – I love creative people. And I have found that
when you dream big expensive dreams and you surround yourself with creative
people you can often find a cheaper way to do more expensive things. It’s
always healthy to dream big anyway. And it will help you get a plan of action
and a direction to go as you start down this path.
Who is smarter than
me? – If you are like me than most everyone is. In my life there are
several really intelligent and creative people that help me process big ideas
that I want to put in place! I am not always good at details. Or at taking big
ideas and fleshing them out. This happens best for me in community. So surround
yourself with smart people and let them help you and invest in the process.
What would you add to my list?
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