Creating custom graphics is a necessary task for so many aspects of youth ministry. Whether it’s for your website, a visual presentation, print material or announcements, graphic design seems to creep up in so many areas. Here’s the two main problems with that:

1.   You probably suck at graphic design. Don’t worry! You didn’t get hired because you can fly around in photoshop. I’m not trying to be mean (and if you think your awesome than I believe you), but people spend thousands of dollars and years in school to learn the tools of graphic design, and even then some of them don’t get it. No one expects you to be great in this area (except you!).

2.  It takes a lot of time. You can spend hours on creating a single graphic and never get it the way you want.

Graceway Media (previously known as Powerpoint Sermons) specializes in creating graphics for the church, and they do an amazing job. They have a massive library of  incredible images for all seasons, events and occasions. The downloads come in widescreen (16:9) and standard (4:3) sizes. For those advanced users, they offer the photoshop files for download as well.

Graceway offers a limited amount of free graphics which you can check out here. But there full blown membership costs $399/year. That seems expensive right? Don’t tune out, here’s why I think you should still push for their service.

1. Save money over time. Let’s say your whole church spends approximately 1 hour/week creating graphics (it’s probably more than that). That’s 52 hours a year. How much is your church paying staff to create these graphics? Chances are it’s much more than $7.67/hour ($399/52). Getting a membership with Graceway Media you save hundreds over the year.

 2. Save man hours. With a membership your suddenly not spending hours creating graphics which frees you up to do the things you should be doing (pastoring!).

 3. Be a better promoter. Like it or not, event promotion is part of the job. Having great images can help your cause. Beautiful design runs rampant in our society (commercials, music videos, websites). The reason is because visual communication is a powerful medium. Don’t shy away!

 4. Get more than just graphics. With your membership you also get full access to a great collections of countdowns, splash screens and motions to enhance your worship experience.

 With the new year right around the corner that means new budgets as well. Why not lobby for a great service like Graceway? Asking for $399 is what I call a ‘big ask’. When coming with ‘big asks’ you need to have ‘big reasons’ for the ask. Be prepared!

What program/service do you use for graphic design?