Let me tell you what I love about serving in communications:

• I love that I see the back end numbers of who we are reaching. Church is more than Sunday morning in a building. I love that our content social media is reaching both our followers (our congregation and friends) and non-followers.
• I love to track which type of content reaches the most people. Seriously – if I tell you that your content isn’t right for a particular platform, it’s only because I want your content to reach the most people.
• I love that I get to provide a connection for someone who can’t— or maybe even won’t— come to a physical building.
• I love that I get opportunities to pray for those people online during the service.
• I love that I get to listen and watch the service sometimes several times over as I create shareable clips to post during the week.
• I love that I get to care for a team. It’s a small team, but they are dedicated, talented, and it’s growing.
• I love that God had given me a vision for growth in this ministry and that He gave me the heart to see it as a ministry rather than a task.
• I love that I get advance notice of what’s to come. I get to pray for how people will receive the words and sometimes get to promote what’s to come.
• I love connecting with my counterparts at other churches both globally and locally to strategically reach our communities and our world for Jesus through digital platforms.
• I love creating series art and sermon quote art — its not slapping words on an image— it’s the word of God coming to life visually.
• There are more things I love — too many to list.

Now let me tell you what I miss (because love does take sacrifice)

• I miss Sunday lunches and dinners with my family. Video editing can take a lot of time
• I miss praying with people or even talking to people at church. Most people don’t know I’m even there. The livestream starts early, ends late, and there’s gear to pack up. There have been times I needed prayer, but I push through it to serve others. I’ve served through sadness, grief, tiredness, and loss that no one ever knew about.
• I miss certain activities and events. Communications is not only device-centric but time sensitive. I need to be serving when most people are “off.”
• I miss a dedicated lunch break every Thursday to send our church email.
• I miss being part of a team that huddles and prays together.
• I miss mornings, evenings, weekends, and sleep. I serve when I’m not working my full-time job.

But….

I will always always always start with what I love. What I’m grateful for.

Every ministry…. EVERY MINISTRY takes sacrifices.

Ask people in ANY ministry what they give up to serve. Their lists are undoubtedly long.

This is NOT an “I give up more than you” comparison.

If we’re going to compare, let’s compare our lists to Jesus’.

Because He wins.

He missed a lot when He gave up His life.