Northpointe Community Church

Northpointe Community Church sits on Webb Drive in DeWitt, Michigan. Pastor Rick Ruble led the church and ran point on sermon series concepts. Associate Minister Jake Howard handled ministry events like Fall Fest. Worship Director Jamie Bohrer handled service-day asks for Christmas and holiday graphics. The engagement ran from summer 2024 through the end of November 2024.

How we started

The first big build was the Fall Fest blade banners. Jake sent specs for double-sided blade banners in Northpointe's green, with the white Northpointe logo and a few sign words across the set. I built a Welcome banner first to confirm I had the word facing the correct direction on each side of the banner, since the orientation conventions for double-sided blade banners can flip depending on the printer. Jake confirmed, we sized to the BannerBuzz template, and I produced the rest of the set.

From there the rhythm settled in. Rick would email a sermon series title with a paragraph of vision and ask for three or four image directions. I would send options the next business day, he would pick a number, and I would produce the chosen design plus a coordinating scripture background slide. The two-round cadence held across every series we worked on together.

The work

Across the engagement I produced sermon series art for The Greatest Command (a one-week Matthew 22 message), Famous Last Words (2 Timothy: Paul's Final Letter), the Battleground State series tied to the 2024 election cycle with a Michigan map and armor imagery, and With for Christmas. I also handled the Fall Fest blade banners, a magazine ad for the More To Your Door magazine in DeWitt that Bill Stephan ran, and a handful of last-minute service-day asks from Jamie when the worship team needed a blank scripture background that matched the Christmas series.

The Battleground State series was the most involved. Rick wanted armor imagery layered with a Michigan congressional district map. He sent a reference photo from a Michigan public radio piece and I built it in two passes, asking him to weigh in on which districts should read red versus blue before I committed the shading.

A specific moment

The Saturday before Advent, Jamie emailed me at 3:45 in the afternoon asking for a blank Christmas slide for Sunday's sermon. She needed a scripture background that matched the With series art without the "With" text or any series elements baked in. I built two options the same evening and sent them over. She came back at 9:18 PM the same night to say thank you. That is the kind of weekend ask subscription clients should be able to make, and it is the kind of ask I want to be able to say yes to.

In their words

"Thanks for all you've done to help us." — Rick Ruble, Lead Pastor, November 2024

Where things stand

Northpointe wrapped at the end of November 2024. Rick wrote in to say the team had decided to bring graphic design in-house as part of a broader review of staff responsibilities. The note CC'd the whole staff: Jake, Jamie, Sue McKay, the bookkeeper Katie Tish. It was a clean exit. I had already started the With Christmas series art before that decision came in, so I finished it out and sent it over. Rick paid through the end of November in full. Northpointe is filed as a completed engagement that ended because the church grew enough to staff the work internally.