Sermon Central
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The Portfolio For Nobody
Contributed by Austin W. Duncan on Apr 17, 2026 (message contributor)
It was 2017. I had just left a software development company. Cassy was working as a pharmacy technician at Walgreens, and we were living in Lubbock, Texas. I started doing freelance graphic design, photography, videography, motion graphics, all of that. But the whole time I felt like I needed to be in the church. So while my wife worked every day, I stayed home and started building a portfolio. Project after project. Bumper videos, branding, series graphics, video and photo projects. All for no real client. Each one bringing in a grand total of exactly $0.
I didn't knock it out overnight. It took some time. I didn't even have a specific goal in mind, just this thought I couldn't get out of my head: "I need to make a portfolio I can show to churches."
Were there any churches hiring graphic designers at the time? No idea.
Yet my wife worked, and I kept making graphics for nobody.
When I tell you she has the patience of a saint, I mean it.
But then the day came when I just felt like it was time to look around and see if any churches were hiring. So there I was on ChurchStaffing.com for the very first time. I searched "Graphic Designer." Nothing. But I saw a listing for a "Communications Director." I thought "Director" sounded like something I'd like in my title, so I clicked on it. It was basically a listing for a church looking for exactly what I had been building toward. I sent my resume, had an interview, had a second interview, flew out, and that was that.
Would I have chosen to do a ton of work for free just because? Nope. But God's ways are higher than our ways. He sees the whole picture when we can only see the next step. When God told Joshua that Jericho was already in his hand, Joshua didn't have a military strategy that made sense. He had a word from God and a decision to obey it. That's usually how it works.
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