Loving People? Part 2

Today, I want to turn this focus on “loving” people towards the Technical Ministry. How those of us in tech ministry care for each other? Is it restricted to just the team on a service day, to the larger tech team within the church, or to a larger global community of tech servants?

My answer to the first question is simply to pay attention to those you regularly serve alongside. Do you know what is going on in their lives? Do they have a need you can particularly relate to? If they have such a need, can you do anything to help or even just listen and empathize?

I know, I know, much of this sounds platitudinous, but sometimes just stopping to listen is a huge help. Pay attention and don’t forget that the relationships do not end with the worship services.

My answer to the second question posed at the beginning of this post is all three. If the teams stay relatively the same by weekend in a month then you will definitely begin forming relationships with those you serve alongside. It is tough not to when you are in a smallish room with six other people for seven hours once a month, right?

Regarding the larger team within the church, I have never wanted to see teams become separate from the larger team as a whole. We all use the same equipment in pursuit of the same purpose and vision.

We have fought this occasionally at my church. There used to be a very separate group of people who served on Saturday night and who served on Sunday morning. Now because the services are so different there will always be different teams who specialize in the particulars of the services they most commonly produce. However, this does not mean that they are separate. We should learn from each other’s experiences and challenges and I think we do a pretty good job of this here at my church, but we certainly did not always do so.

Finally the larger global community of techs, I have been occasionally surprised at how common the challenges and experiences are for all techs. If you subscribe to Curt Taipale’s Church Soundcheck Discussion Group (www.churchsoundcheck.com) you will find people asking all kinds of questions about equipment, challenges of relating to church leadership and each other, and prayer requests. Subscribing to the discussion group will put you in touch with over three thousand techs who worship through service in different ways all over the world. If you have stayed cut off from the larger community, I would encourage you to engage and offer your insights. Another way is through reading blogs (yes, like mine), but also Anthony Coppedge (www.anthonycoppedge.com) and any others you can find that relate to the unique challenges in pursuing ministry through technology.

All I am really trying to say is that you are not alone in the world with the challenges and struggle that are faced. Techs tend to be too task focused and they forget to stop and listen to each other. That is what I am really trying to get across. Stop once in a while and listen and don’t forget that there are others who are pursuing the same purpose on other days and in other locations around the world.

Loving People? Part 1

Well, I am back from vacation; somewhat rested and definitely re-focused. I quickly come back to my original premise for this blog. Ministry, even technical, is about the people. It is about loving people.

How do we love people?

It seems to me that the word “love” has become somewhat hackneyed and overused; particularly in Christian circles. We throw the term around a lot in sermons and in conversations, but how often do we actually act?

Jesus lays out how important love is in Mark 12:28-31. He [Jesus] is asked by a teacher of the law "’Of all the commandments, which is the most important?’ ’The most important one,’ answered Jesus, ‘is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these.’” Very rarely do we talk in plain, practical terms on how to do this within a community.

After all, a team is a community of faith. It is similar to a small group with a key difference. Small groups gather to learn and grow together. A ministry team gathers to undertake a task.

How do we bridge the difference? How do we live out Hebrews 10:24 “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.”?

I don’t have all the answers, but this is the central question I am wrestling with as a ministry team leader. How do I do this from a leader standpoint and keep my life balanced? How do I help the teams encourage each other?

On thing I have learned is that “loving” is a verb. It is an action, it is not a feeling, but about a choice. Look through 1 Corinthians 13, love is not described as a feeling, but as an action that requires choice.

What do you think?

Vacation Time!

Hi everyone, I am going on vacation. I am going to take my own advice and completely shut down for the next two weeks. I need some time to rest, refocus, and revitalize.

Thank you for reading. You can expect new posts beginning August 7. I will see you in August.

Blogging Preferences, who knew?

My apologies, I somehow disabled the ability to comment on my posts. Sorry to anyone who tried and couldn't. I have since fixed that issue. If you have comments on my last two posts, please title your comments with the post title and comment under this post.

Again my apologies!

What Should the Future Hold?

Today, I find myself thinking about relationships; how important they really are.

I spent part of Friday night talking to a friend who also plays on stage at the church. We were able to have good conversation. I was a little surprised at how different our viewpoints are based on which side of the mixer we are usually on.

Through some honest conversation, I was able to hear about his frustrations and his hopes and expectations as a musical performer. In turn, I think he heard about some of the challenges that are faced both as a mixing engineer and some the challenges of being the leader of mixing engineers in a volunteer/church setting.

We even discussed the possibility of getting the mixing engineers and the musicians together at a casual event such as a cookout, hoping to stimulate the same kind of conversation between more than me and him. I truly think the idea has merit. We will have to organize it in the next six to eight weeks.

Thinking about Friday night and letting the future simmer in my mind brings me full circle. I have not done much in the last year beyond my job description. That said; I truly appreciate the time to heal and rehabilitate my knee. (For those who don’t know, I shattered a kneecap in December) The rehabilitation was more time consuming and required more resources that I expected, but enough is enough. I am done with rehab and ready to look forward.

Looking into the next year, I see relationships taking a much bigger part in the overall picture. Some of it will need to happen at fellowship events such as the cookout. The rest really needs to happen in training sessions.

What specifically to train? That requires more thought. What will be the schedule of training? Also, more thought.

I have a few ideas, but what are your thoughts?

How Do We Go Forward?

What drives technical ministry forward? Is it solid dependable equipment? A good vision for the ministry? Servant hearted team members?

I have been reflecting on this lately. With the economic recession budgeting has become more difficult than ever. I am challenged to bottom line my budget to maintain the status quo. That is not my usual approach to the ministry. I look to upgrade equipment before it breaks and use the older equipment in less demanding applications until it no longer works and it is no longer worth fixing. The bottom line approach also cuts down my training budget and I am forced to re-think how to increase the skill sets of my team members.

This church has also been somewhat a victim of the “purchase the best equipment without carefully considering what was truly needed and the maintenance requirements of the system.” So it is expensive to maintain and equipment breakdowns are not cheap to fix. Also, by now we are used to what we have so simplifying would not really provide the results to which the congregation is accustomed.

So I find myself trying to re-cast the vision to uphold quality without being able to upgrade and unable to spend money to invest in training. There are training ideas that do not cost money, but the time commitment to writing the materials is extensive. As I wrote in the “Pacing” post, I usually feel behind and like I am making this up as I go. The whole training model becomes more complex when I consider the diverse skill sets my teams require.

My team members are incredible and we would be seriously challenged to stay running if it wasn’t for them. I regularly find myself blessed by their willingness to put in time and energy working to maintain our aging technical systems. I feel like they deserve more support and feeding from the organization they work so hard to support.

Anyone who has ideas, please comment! I’m going to sign off here for the day and go think of some training ideas and hopefully vision.

Pacing

Learning to pace in life, in ministry, in anything is very difficult, yet crucial.

What is pacing? In its simplest form, pacing is learning to manage your energy and resources so you can finish well with some energy in reserve.

Think of riding a bicycle up a hill. If you attack too aggressively, too soon, you do not have enough energy left to finish the climb or best case you barely finish. If you pace correctly, you will climb steadily and smoothly and the best part is that you will be able to keep riding when you reach the top.

This often seems like an apt analogy for life in general. I find it especially helpful in technical ministry. Tech ministry tends to be feast or famine. Everything is working smoothly, deadlines are met, equipment is maintained, and projects are well planned OR everything is breaking, deadlines do not exist, your maintenance list is a mile long, and you are making projects up as they go along. Which scenario relates best to you?

Personally, I find myself in the latter category much too often. If you do not pace carefully, burnout is inevitable.

One part of pacing is realizing that there is a natural ebb and flow to life. In other words, there are periods of time when the pace is high and you work hard. At other times, things slow down a little and you can back off the pace and work steadily without a lot of pressure or stress. Look for those times to ease off and go a little easier. Really pay attention to your time commitments and make sure you do not fill your schedule up with other things.

Another part of pacing is just taking a break once in a while. I used to be a workaholic of sorts; I took vacations if I had time, which wasn’t often. Working full time in tech ministry has quickly taught me how necessary it is to have time off to refresh, refocus, and rest. I try to take my vacation time each year. I also have team members who take time off from serving. Sometimes they take off for the summer or for a month during another part of the year. I think it is good for them and I encourage it.

The recipe for pacing is extremely individual, but if you truly want to be the best servant of God you can be; you must take time to rest. God didn’t create the world in six days and then rush on to the next project. He took a day to rest.

I think we can learn a lot from his example. What do you think?

Conversation Anyone?

I went to a jazz concert with my wife Friday night. It was a fantastic show of quartet jazz put on by very experienced musicians who were in tune with each other. I began to reflect on my musical past and how it differed from what I was listening to.

I have an extensive classical music performance background. In classical music there is not any improvisation (at least not intentionally). Orchestral music is a large, complex tapestry of threads created by different instruments that is written or designed by the composer and carefully woven by the conductor. As one of those threads you know what you should play. You have to listen to understand your relationship to the other threads. You also have to read the composer’s marks to interpret your particular thread. This seems to be one end of the spectrum.

On the other end of the spectrum you find jazz; where the music is truly a musical conversation. The tune is the topic of conversation, but all of the players have their own thoughts and expressions of their thoughts. They openly share their thoughts and appreciate what the other musicians have to say. However, over time those thoughts change and so do the expressions.

Watching the players, I began to wonder what part the mixing engineer played in the conversation. How did he relate to what was going on stage?

I further began to ask where contemporary church music landed on that continuum between classical and great jazz.

How should we as technical ministers relate to what is happening in our worship services?

What do you think?

Head Cold in June?

I am suffering from a nasty summer head cold. Who gets sick in June? Apparently me, my oldest son brought it home on the last day of school. Anyway, expect a new post on Wednesday.

Learning Customer Service from Fast Food

I was recently out to dinner with my family. We stopped at a chain restaurant but at a store we do not usually patronize. Walking up to the counter to order we find ourselves facing the evening manger; the surprise is she used to manage at another store location that we frequently patronized, we will call her Jennifer.

Curious, we asked about the change; she replied “I got transferred over here as the GM.” I asked if it was a promotion, unfortunately, it was just a lateral move. My wife and I always found the stores this lady managed to be very responsive to customers and high in quality.

Correspondingly, we feel like the store we frequently patronize has recently declined in quality, but we did not know why. Now we do, I would expect the quality to rise dramatically at the new location.

OK, so what does this have to do with Technical Ministry?

I have been reflecting on what makes Jennifer’s management style so effective. I land on three things, the crew is well organized for the tasks at hand, customer service is really good, and the environment behind the counter is energized.

When you look at the crew, there is not anyone standing around doing nothing. Everyone has specific tasks assigned and that is where they put all of their energy and focus. The task division is well thought out and everything generally works really smoothly and effectively.

Customer service seems to live by the maxim of “the customer is always right”. That particular evening they got my sandwich order wrong. When I took it back, there was not any argument or difficulty. Instead, the manager had the grill crew make me a new sandwich that was correct. How often at restaurants do they have to go double check the receipt or the order monitor? The problem was fixed very quickly with minimum fuss.

The energetic environment can be attributed to Jennifer. She is a high energy, fast moving lady who is cheerful to boot. That outlook and attitude seems to spill over into the crew she is working with. I have seen her running any number of different crews and they are all similar in energy.

To be honest, Jennifer’s example challenges my own leadership style. I tend to be laid back and I do not always handle customer complaints very well. My crews are usually well organized and task specific, but we sometimes get too busy trying to help each other out instead of staying well focused on the task we are assigned.

I think I need to try and bring more of Jennifer’s style to my crews. At least the positive energy and being more task specific. I also need to be better at receiving congregation members when they have a complaint about the day’s services.

Two scripture verses come to mind to leave you with today:

“Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.”(James 1:19 NIV)

“Be gracious in your speech. The goal is to bring out the best in others in a conversation, not put them down, not cut them out.”(Colossians 4:6, msg).

Thankful and Busy

I am short on time today, too many projects going on. Have you ever noticed how Technical Ministry is either feast or famine? I also get caught too much in the tyranny of the urgent. Some last minute detail or issue invariably destroys my to-do list at least twice a week.

Anyway, I wrote about training and empowerment on Monday and those lessons have been strongly reinforced today. In the midst of all the projects I have going, this happens to be the week we are changing the stage design. My involvement with the stage design is minimal, but we have to program a new lighting design to go with the stage change.

I needed help with a project; it was a two man job so I called one of my team members. He was able to show up an hour later ready to help. He helped me quickly finish the one project and then took over the task of the new lighting design.

I did not have time to provide any details beyond “what you see is what you get”. I left to handle another project and trusted him to give me something suitable for the coming weekend. I saw his finished product just a little while ago and it looks great. In my current stressed state, I could not have even conceived of the design he programmed. My design would have been much, much simpler.

I will end my post today with thankfulness for the lessons learned and for great team members who are willing to put a lot of time and energy into the ministry here at the church.

The Path to Excellence: Training and Empowerment

Some of my team members and I were sitting and talking after church yesterday; we were discussing how to “tighten up” the production of our church services. The conversation came down to two main topics: training and empowerment.

Training team members is always an ongoing discussion. First of all, training is necessary. You have to teach new team members how to perform the functions of their position. That should be straight forward, right? Not really, there are two primary models of training that I have used in my life: centralized and de-centralized.

Centralized would be the model where I as the Tech Director train everyone. This creates great consistency, but is very difficult to do when some of the team members have been here longer than me and the team has grown to more than forty members.

The team members who have been here longer than me will learn from me, but they are already shaped by the habits and patterns they learned when they began in the position. Trying to change habits that have had several years to become ingrained is a lesson in patience and quite frankly banging one’s head into a wall repeatedly.

The team size also affects the dynamic of training. While the team is small, it is easier to stay centralized except that I will usually need to fill in an operational position. So I have to create non on the job opportunities for training. As the team grows I have less responsibility in operational positions, but we have so many positions that I cannot obviously train everyone.

De-centralized is the model of team members training new team members. This works well if you choose the trainer carefully. One caveat, there are usually bits of information lost when the Tech Director doesn’t train someone since every generation of trainer forgets something. However, training can be much more on the job with fewer demands on the team’s time outside of services.

I do not have the definitive word on which works best, but I tend to de-centralize at this point in my career; the team is too big and the positions too numerous. I do not feel like I need to train each and every member. Some of my team members have reached greater excellence through service in certain positions than me. They have picked up tips and tricks through practice that I would not necessarily know. There are pros and cons with either model. Regardless of which model you choose, we eventually reach the second topic of conversation, empowerment.

I hit on the idea of empowerment briefly in my post on cross-training. Simply put, if you are a leader and you train someone to perform in a position, you have to let go of controlling that position. In other words, you have to empower them.

Sometimes, empowerment can be implicit. You do not over direct or interfere in a person’s performance. However, sometimes empowerment has to be explicit. You look at someone and say “You know what you are doing, take it away!”

For people who are heavily cross-trained, empowerment can be really hard. You want everyone to perform the same way you would. That will never happen. Even if you trained that person, they will bring their own unique thought process or vision to what they are doing. They cannot do it the same as you would, nor should they. Settling on what is excellent but not perfect (in other words, just the same way as you) is vital.

You cannot build a team without a thought out training plan and/or if you do not empower people to strive for their own brand of excellence.

Tech Ministry Happens in Relationships

I take a look over this blog and I am thinking again about “why did I start this thing?” I find myself re-reading my first post and again realizing how important the relationships are to having success in Technical Ministry and continuing to grow more into Christ’s image.

Technical ministry is about people. We minister to the congregation through our skillful use of technology. We minister to the musicians, pastors, and other speakers through great customer service and steadily growing relationships. We also minister to each other through the relationships built around the use of technology.

When I started in tech ministry ten years ago, I thought it was all about the gear. God has spent the last ten years teaching me how wrong I am.

I do not usually think of myself as a people person. I like my isolation and I am quite happy being off in the back roads on a bicycle all by myself.

I am wise enough to know that without all the people who serve alongside me, church service would not go too well. I find myself thankful on a daily basis for the people who make up my teams. I also find that I truly enjoy those fellow servants and it is finally beginning to not surprise me that they are human with human frailties.

My journey has been from the happy face or church face to a place of authenticity, honesty, and integrity. I used to be part of a church where you did not show your hurts on Sunday. Instead you pasted on a smile and your answers were always positive. Let me tell you, it can be exhausting; especially when you do not feel like smiling.

Instead, I have found that if I am honest about being tired, hurting, or whatever else is going on, my teams end up ministering to me. Sometimes it is simply by taking some of my load on their shoulders. Sometimes it is just making sure the details go right when I am incapable of paying attention. At times church has gone well without me at the helm. Boy that can be humbling, I like to think I am indispensable. :-)

It also goes the other way I have been able to be there when something in their life goes sideways. Sometimes it has just been a willingness to listen or a pat on the back. It is always surprising to me when God goes to work and uses me.

Is it simple? No, it is honestly sometimes messy and difficult. I want to close this post with a quote from Kent Morris’ article “Tech Pastor: Leading the Geek Squad” from a recent issue of Worship Leader magazine.

He says “Gear is a safe house. If you understand how it works and what it is designed to do, you can rest in its logical outcome. Technology follows rules of behavior and, though prone to failure, is open to corrections when the proper steps are taken to fix a problem. People, on the other hand, are dangerous…Humans do not reward patience with performance; their demands outstrip capacity.”

I am thankful to God for putting an artistic gear head in a place to be involved so deeply with people. And for teaching me that relationships are where the real ministry happens not with the gear.

Why is Cross Training Important?

Cross Training is a term many know. For the purpose of this post, let us define it as “training team members to serve in more than one position on the Technical Ministry team.” Let us take a look at the reasons for cross-training from the standpoints of the team, the leader, and the church. I’ll finish up with some basic tips for cross training and a few final thoughts.

First of all, from the team standpoint, this keeps the job really interesting. They are continually challenged to become more skillful at their craft. This also really changes their awareness of the needs of the other positions. For example, a camera operator who learns to video direct is much better for the camera experience. They are much better at communicating their wishes to the camera operators they are directing. I have found that the more cross trained people there are on the team, the better the communication and the better the overall production.

From the leader’s standpoint, cross training provides unparalleled flexibility in adjusting to service demands, team members who missed their service date, and supporting team members who are having a really tough day. It saves the leader from performing three positions simultaneously and trying to keep track of all the details. Trying to do three positions at once is nothing but a recipe for technical service disasters and burn out for the Technical Director.

From the church’s standpoint, they have great technical consistency to the worship services. The church leadership and congregation never need to know about the challenges that occur when someone doesn’t show up or a service’s complexity pushes the boundaries of the normal service day. Cross-training mitigates the challenges to something only those of us behind the scenes know about.

Some tips for cross training, the first place to start is ask if other positions interest the person. Secondly, I tend to keep them in the area they started due to the aural/visual dynamic written about on Monday, June 8.

I also try to move them through progressions of complexity and/or responsibility. For instance, I move robotic camera operators to the manned camera, then to the stage camera, then to shading, and so on. This also means that you really get to know someone from a servant standpoint before they move into positions of greater responsibility such as Video Directing or Live Audio. This is also a great way to find the people who have the passion for Technical Ministry and might be good candidates to become a Technical Director.

Also, do not be afraid to make people move around. If someone is not clamoring to change positions, I will usually move them to a new spot at least once a year.

One warning to leaders of the teams, if you cross-train someone into a position of responsibility, you have to let go of the responsibility. It does no good to train someone to fill a position and then always second guess or over direct them. If a person is well trained, you can let go of that part of your job until they have a problem.

My final thought for this post is to say “Try to cross train yourself out of a job!” I consider my job to be properly done when I don’t have an operational position during a worship service.

Are You Visual or Aural?

I find two main groups of people who give their time to ministering through the technical arts; those who are visually creative and those who are aurally creative. This is, of course, a generalization. You will certainly find people who are both, but not very many.

Sorting people into one of these two categories really helps in guiding them on the journey to learning and building a solid team.

The visually creative people are fantastic at video and lighting positions. They can look into a camera viewfinder and see possibilities. Their abilities in lighting design are also fantastic. They instinctively understand how to use color, modeling, and effects for the best impact.

On the other hand, the aurally creative folks are the sound engineers. They can critically listen to anything, take it apart, and figure out how to fix what sounds displeasing to them.

Even among professionals, you will find sound engineers who can do video and lighting or video/lighting guys who can get signal through a sound board.

It will not do any good to push a visually creative person to mix sound well. They just will not get what you are trying to teach, they will get frustrated, and ultimately they will leave the team. The same scenario applies to the aurally creative people if they are not directed carefully.

You can train anyone to push the right buttons, turn the right knobs, and make a piece of equipment do its specific function. The artistic ability to take something from good to great is not always there and it seems to me that it cannot be taught. Artistry is either something you have or you don’t. A team leader who can appropriately direct his or her people into positions they will enjoy makes all the difference in building a team that functions in unity.

Managing Expectations

Poor communication, faulty assumptions, and unmet, unmanaged expectations create significant problems. See what you can learn from our recent experience.

Here is the situation: we are preparing to welcome a youth worship band to lead the musical portion of worship. The youth band has un-communicated expectations when they arrive at rehearsal.

They arrive at rehearsal with amplifiers and want to use their own drum kit.

However, we rarely use instrument amplifiers and the drums are in a full shield with roof and back wall to minimize stage noise. Twelve microphones are used to give the sound engineer maximum control over the drum sound.

We suddenly have multiple problems.

One, this band will not be the only performers this week. Prior to their performance, we have other rehearsals and a Saturday night worship service, all of which will need the normal set up.

Two, we already challenge our congregation’s limits for volume levels. With increased stage volume we will probably see a lot of folks leaving the service until the teaching. The congregation will perceive greater volume simply because there are amplifiers on stage, regardless of what the dB meter reads.

Now we are in a difficult place. How do we serve both the guest performers and the church congregation?

Our solution allowed the instrument amplifiers on stage if the cabinets pointed backstage and are kept at a reasonable volume, but the guests have to use our drums.

I think this all could have been prevented with better communication, less assumptions, and better management of expectations. What do I mean?

In this case, communication with the band has been inconsistent. Our worship pastor has been busy preparing for an international ministry trip. I was never brought into the discussion to assess the band’s technical needs. Communication began two days ago when the volunteer sound engineer contacted them to ask about their needs. This was obviously too late.

Assumptions have really reigned supreme in this situation.

Assumption: the youth band will lead worship on Sunday.
Problem: this is not our youth band but rather a band consisting of teens, not all from our church. They have a technical rider and certain expectations when they play in any venue.

Assumption: since, early conversations were between the worship pastor and the drummer, who plays regularly on Sundays, of course he would use the existing kit.
Problem: he wants his own drum kit.

Can you see how the assumptions and communication broke down and created a difficult situation? The band assumed their rider would be met. The worship staff assumed the band would use our set up as it exists. There were no conversations before booking; they were simply booked.

It is the day of rehearsal. We have two sets of unmatched expectations and no good way to manage them. My volunteer engineer knows the policies and will not overstep his authority. I cannot approve everything the band wants for quality purposes and to prevent congregational complaints. Now we are left with a Sunday where our musical worship team is not unified in pleasure at their service opportunity and we may be addressing volume complaints for weeks to come.

What are some ways to avoid this scenario?

The best way to manage expectations is to talk early, talk often, and make no assumptions. Ask lots of questions, make sure you know their expectations, and take time to explore possibilities. Carefully explain issues created by their requests that are specific to your particular congregation. This will not always prevent conflict, but it should lessen the conflicts and allow more time for conversations and compromises. Unmet expectations become ugly when left to the last minute. Learn from our experience, I sure did.

I recently got this question from a co-worker:

"How do you tell unqualified volunteers they don’t have what it takes? Or don’t you tell them and hope they burn out? Or do you find very menial jobs for them? This is the conundrum that prevents me from taking on team members. I usually invest a year into training someone but if they aren’t cut out for it…it seems like a painful waste of time. Any ideas?"

In reply, my first question is usually, what makes them unqualified? Is it unwillingness or an inability to learn the material? Is it not showing up to training times or service times? These are the two most common reasons I have found through my experience.

For the first question about learning the material, I examine my approach to training. For instance, I've had one person who wasn't catching on, I was ready to write him off, then I learned he retained information if I wrote it down. This required some extra work and a revising of my style of training. I tend to very hands on, very on the job. That volunteer needed the info written down for him to absorb slowly in between training times. My end result, he is still with me 3.5 years later and serving as a trainer for some of the new folks.

If it is a time issue, I usually get involved with them and ask about their life. What is going on that prevents their attendance at training or service time? I've asked people to either commit or step down. Honestly that approach has had mixed results, some have really stepped up, some have stepped down, and some have stayed the course continuing to miss training time. They usually, eventually realize they aren't progressing and then we are back to the same discussion. At that point, it usually results in them stepping down.

Finally, when all options are exhausted be sure to be honest with the person. Remember to speak truthfully, but gently.

Technical Ministry is not just about the gear

I've been researching blogs related to Technical Ministry. Many I have found deal with the equipment we use or other tools that aid the ministry. I have not found too many that deal with the challenges involved in relating to the people in the ministry or the relationships with those we serve as technical team members.

The people who are drawn to technical ministry are different from the general people who volunteer to serve in churches. Many of them serve in technical professions such as computer IT or other technical fields. Most of them are task focused and get excited about the equipment we use. They prefer to be behind the scenes and they are able to flourish without a lot of praise.

We know that if there are not any comments then we did our job right for the day. So often, the only comments we get are criticisms of things that did not go as planned.

I have also found tech volunteers to love challenges. Most conventional wisdom says do not give volunteers hard jobs or challenging things to learn. That might be true in some areas, but not in technical ministry. My team members thrive when the job is challenging or the services are really complex. It is our time to shine, we just hope no one will really notice.

I have found that the relationships among the team members create synergy, creative thinking, and a truly positive outlook towards spending a weekend serving God. I have also found the relationship with the people on the stage to be critical in creating a worshipful environment for the congregation. If the people on stage are worried about the details of how it sounds or looks on screen then they cannot focus on serving God. The details are what we in technical ministry focus on as we focus on God.

This blog is to share and discuss the challenges that arise from human interaction both with those on stage and with each other behind the scenes in technical ministry. I hope you will join me in this journey. You can look for new posts about three times a week.