Church Media Toolkit

Practical tools, systems, and workflows you can plug into your church media team the moment you get home.

The Media Leaders Retreat is not a one time experience. It is designed to send you back to your church with tangible resources, repeatable systems, and clear next steps for your media team. Everything you practice at this retreat is built so it can work on a normal Sunday, with a normal church budget, and a real congregation in the room.

A course booklet built for church media

Every participant leaves the retreat with a printed course booklet and a digital copy you can share with your team. The booklet is not just inspirational notes. It is a working field manual for church media.

  • •Exposure reference charts you can use on any camera, including guidance based on the Panasonic GH4, Sony FS100, Sony FS7, and Panasonic AF100 setups we use at the retreat
  • •Simple lighting diagrams for testimonies, interviews, and teaching so you can set up repeatable looks in your sanctuary or small rooms
  • •Audio checklists and basic mic placement guides for voice, worship, and teaching
  • •Space to add your own notes, diagrams, and presets as you learn what works in your specific room

DIT and naming conventions that keep you organized

You will also bring home a clear DIT and naming convention guide so your footage, projects, and exports stay organized long after the retreat is over. This is built for real church environments where time is tight and volunteers are involved.

  • •A simple folder structure you can copy and paste for every Sunday, event, or special project
  • •File naming templates for cameras, cards, and audio that make it obvious what each clip is without having to watch it
  • •A DIT workflow that covers card offload, backup, and handoff so nothing gets lost between the booth, the office, and volunteer editors
  • •Practical examples that show how to apply the same structure to testimonies, interviews, multi camera services, and street stories

Plug and play systems for Sundays and beyond

Throughout the Media Leaders Retreat you will build simple systems you can plug straight into your church. The goal is not to give you theory, but working rhythms and checklists you can hand to your pastor or volunteers.

  • •A repeatable process for capturing and editing testimonies that feels safe for the person sharing and doable for your team
  • •A basic multi camera worship and teaching plan you can scale up or down based on how many volunteers and cameras you have
  • •A framework for planning "street stories" and community pieces so you can tell what God is doing outside the walls of your building
  • •Sunday service media checklists that cover pre service checks, live moments, and post service exports

Material you can teach to your own team

All of the core teaching from the Media Leaders Retreat is designed so you can take it home and teach it again. You will not just leave with inspiration. You will leave with language, outlines, and examples you can share with your media team, youth, or volunteers.

  • •Session outlines on interviews, testimonies, multi camera worship coverage, and downtown storytelling
  • •Simple principles for framing, movement, and audio you can pass on to new volunteers without overwhelming them
  • •A step by step walkthrough of the live edit process used at the retreat to build a one minute piece from real footage
  • •Prompts and questions you can use in your own training nights and small groups for media team discipleship

Spiritual and leadership rhythms for media leaders

Alongside the technical tools, you will bring home spiritual and leadership rhythms meant to keep you grounded as you serve week after week.

  • •Prayer and Scripture rhythms you can integrate into your pre service run throughs and weekly prep
  • •A language for talking with your pastor about media as ministry, not just tech
  • •Questions to ask your team that help them process calling, burnout, and obedience
  • •A simple framework for evaluating new projects and ideas through both a creative and Kingdom lens

How to put this to work in the first 30 days

The Media Leaders Retreat is a launch pad, not a finish line. This page and the resources you receive are designed to guide your first month back home.

  • •Suggested first week actions, such as organizing your existing drive structure and renaming a recent project using the new DIT conventions
  • •A simple plan for one training night where you walk your media team through testimonies, interviews, and the new naming system
  • •A one to three month sketch of the first stories you want to tell in and around your church using the tools you practiced at the retreat