Yesterday, I introduced you to Matt Drury, the Technical Director for Willow Creek Community Church’s North Shore campus.
He has been there for three years, having served Willow Creek as a whole—both as a staff member and intern—for five years.
I’ve known Matt since fourth grade and he is easily one of the smartest people I know.
If you haven’t read the first part of my interview with Matt, be sure to read it first!
As for the rest of you, here’s the rest of my interview with Matt Drury:
The Professional Church Tech [Part 2]
Have you ever implemented some new technology only to find that it did not actually improve your ministry’s effectiveness?
Yes and no. We’ve had plenty of things we’ve tried that ended up being failures, but they ultimately led to successes. For instance, we experimented with different camera locations in our auditorium. We found the new locations to be quite excellent and very effective, but the platform we built to cover seats and get them to that location was VERY obtrusive. After a few months of research, I found a way to get the cameras to that location using just a creative tripod solution. Another example is when we bought some LED-based moving head fixtures. As I said, the color options we get are fantastic. Then you add the capability of movement and you can get some great effects. However, we quickly learned that while these lights aren’t nearly as bright as conventional stage lights, the LED source is quite piercing to look at. We’ve received many complaints from congregation members about being blinded by them when they’re aimed out toward the seats. We didn’t have to abandon these fixtures altogether, we just had to figure out the best way to use them. Their effectiveness within their constraints is quite good, but outside of that, they can tank our overall effectiveness. I’ve heard of some other “great ideas” that turned out to be flops before I was hired, but we haven’t had too many since then. I think the key is just thinking through the whole idea and always checking the reasoning behind it. That kind of critical thinking happens to be one of my strengths, so that certainly helps our success rate.
What was your biggest success as a church tech?
That’s a tough one! I don’t really know. The interesting thing about tech is that nobody notices when you’re doing it right! So I guess the times I’ve received compliments on how beautiful the stage looks and nice the music was (because a band is only as good as their sound guy!) are my successes with the congregation. Leadership and volunteers that I work with all know a bit more of what we do, so when we pull off a very tricky technical element while making it look seamless is a success with leadership and anytime I can make my volunteers’ lives easier is a success with them. I’d have to say my biggest successes are probably the services when those all come together, which usually happens at our Christmas Eve services. Last year we were able to incorporate a lot of lighting techniques to make it just beautiful. And our band was awesome, so all we had to do is mix it well. Video was quite simple for that service too. So the congregation was pleased with the experience, leadership was pleased with the craziness we pulled off in a short time, and volunteers had a pretty simple serving experience.
In your experience, has technology negatively impacted the Church? Could it do so in the future?
I think it certainly has, but indirectly. I personally think it’s the technology that everyone experiences everywhere else in life that drives the demand in our churches. Company lobbies have an array of TVs that tell you their mission statement and what’s going on where, billboards on the side of the road are now digital displays playing back cool animations with visually stunning graphics, and when you get home, you turn on your giant flat screen and watch what should be the simplest of programs, the news, in all it’s stunning HD detail, motion graphics in the background and 3D weather maps while listening in surround sound! First of all, it’s making us all ADD. But that trickles over to our church services. I’m certainly guilty of sitting in a pew listening to an organ in a brightly lit room and squirming uncontrollably. So I think high production levels in the Church are mostly a response to the high production levels in culture as a whole. To stay relevant and meet people where they are daily, you need to offer a similar experience they had every day. At the same time, you have coffee shop churches that are basically just a bunch of small Bible studies meeting together and a warm environment. Completely opposite spectrum on the tech level, but equally culture-driven. I think that the dependance on tech in our churches is a huge disadvantage. I say that because I work with tech; I know how unreliable it can be! At the same time, the availability of tech in our churches is a huge advantage. Not many people would argue the benefit of a sound system when speaking to a room of 1000+ people. Tech helps us reach more people and meet them in a relevant way. The negative impact in the Church occurs when it gets in the way of the Message. As much as I want people to appreciate the tech in the room, I don’t ever want people to walk out of a service raving about the tech and clueless about what God was saying in the service. In the future, tech will get bigger and better, and the Church will likely adapt as much as they can use and afford. But tech is only a tool. The Message we teach has to remain clear and simple. We can use tech to provide different avenues to that message, but never to replace it.
I want to thank Matt for his time and his deep answers.
Next week, we’ll hear from two generations of volunteer techs.
Are you a pro or volunteer tech and want to weigh in?
Comment below!
[Image via mikael altemark]
April says
I am the church tech person at our church and I totally hear you when you say that most of the time we aren’t noticed until something goes wrong, but I’m honestly OK with that.
I am always looking for new ways to improve our church tech and this year was able to purchase a new camera and comptuer for our livestreaming and projectors. 🙂 It’s been a great investment as we have several homebound members and we’ve been able to do announcements a lot easier with the new computer.
Phil Schneider says
That’s awesome that you’ve be able to make some cool investments this year. But why do you like going unnoticed?
April says
Short answer? I’m an introvert. 🙂
Phil Schneider says
I understand! (That’s why my avatar is a cartoon.)