We spend all week making awesome videos and graphics and we invest tons of time and energy into our creative abilities. But when it comes time to present these elements to the congregation during the weekend services, volunteers oftentimes make it happen.
You see, unless you are blessed to have paid staff at each position on your tech team, we call upon volunteers to cue elements, operate equipment, and keep the service moving. They run cameras, lights, computers, etc. They are just as much a part of the creative process that goes into a weekend service as anyone else.
I’ve been blessed to be the technical director at Fellowship Church for over a year now and I’ve realized that if it wasn’t for volunteers there is no way we could pull off our services week in and week out.
When you work with volunteers in any capacity, here are four things to that you must keep in mind.
1. Communication
Communication is the key to success in any organization. You must clearly and effectively communicate what it is you need your volunteers to do. They can’t read your mind, even if you want them to.
After you have explained something to them, make sure they understand exactly what you are trying to say. I would much rather over communicate an important cue in the service than assume they understand and realize, after they miss the important cue, that I didn’t communicate clearly.
Effective communication eliminates stress for both you and your volunteers.
Another big issue in communication is scheduling. We have just starting using Planning Center to schedule all of our band, vocal team, and tech team. It has made life so much easier. We send out a reminder email at the beginning of each week to one of our three tech teams to remind them that it’s their week to serve.
Then the Friday before services we send out a text message to each team member as another reminder. People have busy lives and sometimes people forget. Better to be safe than sorry.
2. Training
Depending on your background, you either learned all about tech on your own, or went to school for it. Most volunteers have done neither, so it is up to you to make sure they are adequately trained to do their job. Nothing is more frustrating than being asked to perform a certain job or task without the proper training.
Volunteers will get frustrated quickly and may quit the team not because they aren’t capable but because they just never got the right training.
One of the best ways to train is to have veteran volunteers train new recruits. Since I spend most of my time running sound I would rather have someone who runs the video board train a new volunteer than myself. Not only would they probably do a much better job than I could, but it also gives them a sense of ownership of their position, since they are in charge of teaching it to new people.
It is a win-win situation. A new person gets adequately trained and the veteran volunteer increases their sense of ownership.
3. Challenge
Along with gaining a sense of ownership, the trainer also experiences the challenge of training someone new. Challenges are great ways to motivate people to do better.
If a tech volunteer doesn’t feel challenged in their position, over time they will become bored and lose interest. You have to keep it fresh and interesting for them. Challenge each volunteer to come up with ways to improve the service. Help them move beyond the basics of their position and train them to use advanced techniques and skills. Let them program some of the equipment, such as lighting scenes.
If you need to be reminded how important challenge is, just watch this video.
4. Appreciation
Finally, show appreciation to your volunteers every single week. Remember that they volunteer their time to help you accomplish your job. Yes, it is all for the glory of God, but everyone likes to be appreciated for the work that they do. Tell them thank you each week and be specific in your praise.
Point out concrete details that they did well during the service. To quote Dale Carnegie:
Be hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise.
If it weren’t for volunteers, churches around the world would not be able to make the impact that they do. From the bottom of my heart, thank you!
Marcus Williamson says
Appreciation is huge! That is something that I really want to improve more this year.
greenhornet79 says
It takes work but is well worth it. And specifics are huge.
Steve Manatt says
I am the technical Director on Sunday morning for one of our video venues and a volunteer. I think the best part of this position is that it has a ton of responsibility and I’m trusted with it each week.
One of the struggles our church is turning over big things to high-capacity volunteers. I get to do that on Sunday morning and it is so rewarding! Each position has a ton of responsibiltiy and one of my jobs is to help them realize their role in creating the environment where God can do amazing things. Whether it is song slides or lighting or audio, each is critically important.
Finally, one aspect not listed above is teamwork. Each position must be in tune with the others to help bring it all together, which requires time outside of Sunday morning to foster those relationships and cast the proper vision.
Great post – I think we all need to be better at this!
greenhornet79 says
You’re right. Teamwork is very important, as well as chemistry. Getting the right people on the right team can make a big difference.
Steve Murphy says
Great post.
We could never do all that we do without our amazing volunteers!
Marie says
Great advice! My church is looking into getting some church video equipment to help enhance our services. We know it would be a great addition and that we’d get a lot of use out of it. If we do get it we’ll definitely be using volunteers to help operate everything, we’ve found a system we really like and it’s user friendly- Vista Spyder. If we form a group of volunteers your advice we’ll come in hand as we don’t want anyone to be unhappy because the role of running the video equipment during services is very important. Thanks for sharing!