Ignite Church

Ignite Church in Pekin came in as a subscription client in the summer of 2024. Pastor Russ Shearer and his office manager, Laura Schussele, ran point on requests. Russ handled vision for sermon series art. Laura handled the steady drumbeat of event slides, flyers, and announcement graphics.

How we started

The first month set the tone. Russ would email a series concept, I would send back three or four directions, and we would land on something inside two rounds of feedback. Laura would line up the smaller weekly asks: men's breakfast slides, youth ministry graphics, newcomer event flyers. Sometimes the request was loose ("open to ideas, just see what you come up with"). Sometimes Russ had a specific reference photo from another church's livestream that he wanted built into a fall theme. Both modes worked. I leaned on whatever direction they gave me and filled in the rest.

The work

Across the engagement I shipped sermon series packages, fall-themed livestream slides, Newcomer's Lunch and Quick Connect templates designed to be re-used across the year, Flashpoint Youth Ministry graphics, holiday slides, and the Fall Kickoff banner. Most requests came in with multiple sizes attached: a 1920x1080 for projection, a 4.43" x 2.25" flyer cut, and sometimes a banner crop. The standing rule we landed on was that I would produce the design once, get approval, and then size it out so nothing got duplicated mid-revision.

Projector color was a real conversation early on. Russ pulled the fall slides up on the sanctuary projector and the yellow tones I had used were reading completely off compared to my monitor. I sent revised palettes and we agreed to nail down a color set on the projector before I committed the rest of the fall designs. That kind of feedback loop is the part subscription work actually buys you. One-off projects do not give you that calibration.

A specific moment

The Newcomer's Lunch and Quick Connect slides were the longest-tail piece of work I did for Ignite. Russ asked for two related templates he could re-use across the upcoming ministry year by swapping only the dates. I sent direction options first, locked the look, then handed back both the print sizes and the working AI files so the team could update them in-house going forward. That is what good subscription work should leave behind. The client should be able to keep using the system after you are gone.

In their words

"We're so appreciative of the work that you've done for us (you've been great to work with)." — Russ Shearer, Pastor, October 2024

Where things stand

Ignite wrapped at the end of October 2024. Russ wrote in to let me know the church was not going to renew for November. The notice was tighter than I would have liked since I had been planning around that monthly income, and I told him so. He apologized, owned it, and wished me well. The work was good while it lasted and the team was kind to deal with. Ignite is filed as a completed engagement, not a soured one.