Role of a Lighting Director: Create, Support Atmosphere for Worship

A lighting director and their series of responsibilities have become a new addition to many worship teams over the past decade. Churches across the country have expanded the art form of lighting into a much larger role in how we create atmospheres.  This growth has also resulted in some confusion as to the role, function, and direction a lighting director should have.

Let’s explore how we can serve the church best through lighting!

The definition of a lighting director in the church world is very broad. It typically includes:
• Constructing a visual design that enhances and does not distract from worship
• Devising the concept for the lighting design (placement of fixtures, use, and type of fixture)
• Creating unique designs for each song (vision for the feel, color, intensity, emotion of a song)
• Programming the lighting console
• Operating the lighting console
• Maintaining lighting gear
• Managing and engaging volunteers
• Setting up new plots (lighting layouts)
• Managing department needs including budgeting, purchasing, and scheduling
• Designing stage sets
• Building and setting up stage sets

In the professional lighting industry, there is a much more concise role for a lighting director. Their responsibilities are typically more limited to playback, updating, and overseeing a lighting setup. Others involved include lighting designers, lighting programmers, lighting techs, repair techs, and entire scenic departments.

In the church world, we do not typically have the luxury of such a large, highly skilled team. A lot of the responsibilities fall on the lighting director. This, however, can be one of the greatest things about being a lighting director in the church. The involvement you get to have from start to finish is not typical in the production world. This situation affords a great deal of creative flow and the ability to follow creative ideas to their best end.

Lighting directors at a church don’t typically have any other staff, which necessitates the need for us as directors to be good leaders. Many times there is a very large workload for the lighting director at a church. The only way we can be truly successful is to include others into our realm to help.

Involving others will help you grow relationships that will make what you accomplish even more special. Even for those of us who are introverts, the addition of a few people can give you an incredibly tight knit community that makes life even better than it already is!

More About Steven Hall

Steven Hall has served on staff at Journey Church in Norman, Okla., for more than three years. He has been involved in lighting design for 10 years. As the church's Technical Director, he oversees all aspects of production but is most involved with lighting and scenic design. Steven also recently started a church scenic company, www.modscenes.com. Steven is a graduate of Full Sail University. He lives in Norman, Okla. with his wife, Sara, and son, Dorian. You can reach Steven on Facebook at www.facebook.com/stevenhallav or by email at [email protected]

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