Frequently Asked Questions
1. Who oversees the Service Programming Division (SPD)? Who are the staff?
2. In most churches, the music director oversees the services. How does this model differ from that?
3. Why do so many people come to your Sunday services?
4. How can you achieve excellence on a limited budget and with fewer resources?
5. How far out do you plan your services?
6. How do you measure success?
7. Why is Host Team considered part of the Service Programming Division?
1. Who oversees the Service Programming Division (SPD)? Who are the staff?
The Service Programming Director leads the division, which encompasses programming, production, music, media and host team.
Org Chart
2. In most churches, the music director oversees the services. How does this model differ from that?
We believe that the services are multi-dimensional experiences, encompassing so many diverse expressions of worship: music, art, drama, spoken word, etc…With this in mind, the SPD director should be someone who keeps the big picture in mind at all times and is in tune with what it takes to bring together all elements of the live environment.
3. Why do so many people come to your Sunday services?
We believe that people come to our services because we program around 3 key principles that make services attractive.
We always ask was the service…
Fun
Excellent
Helpful
4. How can you achieve excellence on a limited budget and with fewer resources?
When North Point first started, we didn’t have the resources we do now. Fun doesn’t have to cost money. And something doesn’t have to be expensive to be helpful. But it’s true that money can up the excellence factor. In the meantime, you do things as excellent as you possibly can.
Get creative! Sometimes the simplest thing is the most creative…and the cheapest.
Use volunteers! Tap into members of your congregation who want to get involved. Do any of them have technical talent? If so, leverage it to improve the quality of your services. If not, identify someone who can provide some basic training on how to operate the equipment you do have well.
Remove distractions. You’d be surprised how much just paying attention to details helps create excellence. Ex: Avoid knee-jerk transitions and typos.)
5. How far out do you plan your services?
Generally, we like to be about eight weeks out in service planning. There are several phases through which we go to develop and refine our series and services.
Click here for meeting cycle documents
6. How do you measure success?
We evaluate our Sunday services on Monday mornings. We are constantly viewing success through the lens of one question: Did we make them want to come back? That is an immediate, if somewhat subjective measure. Below are a few more objective measurements measured over time.
Life change and engagement demonstrated through baptism video testimonies
Growth through strategic service (volunteering), groups participation, and weekly attendance
Money. People give to things that impact them!
Is our median age increasing or staying the same?
7. Why is Host Team considered part of the Service Programming Division?
We believe that the service experience begins as soon as our attenders drive on the lot. We want them directed to their parks by friendly parking attendants and greeted warmly by the people on the doors. In addition, we often incorporate host team to help drive home the bottom line of our series. For example, in a construction-themed series, Host Team wore hard hats and tool belts. During our series entitled Mythbusters, they wore lab coats. Or they may just wear a t-shirt with the series logo on it.