A lot of tech directors and churches struggle with this question because the technology is changing so rapidly it’s hard to make the decision to purchase thousands of dollars of equipment. You want to be a good steward and purchase wisely, but you also want the most bang for you buck. Below, I offer some guidance and things to think about and discuss with leadership that will hopefully help you with this quandary.
First, if your equipment looks like the image above, there’s no question, it’s definitely time to get some new equipment! Ok, seriously, knowing when to dive in is a difficult decision at best because it not only means you are committing the church to the upgrade journey, but you are also committing yourself (I am making the crazy assumption that if you are reading this you will be involved in any upgrades). The journey can be a huge investment of time, particularly if you are doing all the research and/or install yourself. Even if you have a team to help you, a lot of time will be spent discussing which video camera, which audio mixer, which projector. My first tip is that you need to sit down as a team with leadership and pray. You will need guidance in the process and that guidance needs to come from God because His plans are always perfect and you need to submit to His leading.
Secondly, while you are together as a team with leadership, discuss what the current equipment is NOT doing that it needs to do, where you see the tech ministry 5 even 10 years down the road and what capabilities you will need to help meet those needs while still meeting current needs. Finally, discuss in brutal honesty whether the team has the knowledge and experience to handle the research, system design, equipment selection, and install of the equipment or if you will need to hire a professional system integrator or consultant to do that. This is a very critical step because you need to know your strengths and weaknesses. If you only know how to adjust pots and faders on a sound board through trial and error, chances are you are not going to be an expert at acoustical analysis, loudspeaker coverage patterns, or how to wire together an entire new sound system. Know what you don’t know, remember? This meeting is an opportunity to come together as a team and plan your ministry’s vision for the next decade. It’s then the job of leadership to start casting that vision to the church as a whole to increase support.
Third, visit other churches in the area to see what equipment they are using and how they are using it. Keep in mind that you should NEVER copy another church simply because it sounds or looks good in their space. Equipment is not universal; it’s highly customized in how it’s packaged together and installed to match your unique space and environment. You wouldn’t travel to Lakewood in Houston and get every piece of gear they have for your 150-person church in Oklahoma, would you? So keep in mind that while you can have high-quality audio, video, lighting, and/or projection, it needs to be customized for you. How do you do that? You can either start hanging out with consultants, online forums, online communities (Google+ Church Tech anyone?), and/or systems integrators if you want to teach yourself, but as you are using the church’s money, I would guide you to a professional. If you have a background in professional audio, video, lighting, or projection, then you are well on your way to guiding the process in your area of expertise. However, being a computer scientist, gamer, or just “someone who knows electronics” does not constitute an expert for these high-tech systems.
The final tip I can offer is even if your systems are working fine right now, start the conversation with your team and with leadership about the inevitability of upgrading equipment. Start putting a plan together now for what you would like a new system to do, using current technology as a starting point. There are still thousands of churches using analog audio systems and while they continue to work great for their purposes, at some point that mixer will fail and then what? I like to have a plan on paper, at the very least, that lays out current trends and equipment that will not only serve our needs but enhance our capabilities which aids in creating an atmosphere conducive to worshipping God which is the whole point, right? This tip does require you to understand technical systems a bit so you understand what makes a digital audio mixer different than an analog, what differentiates HD from SD, etc. It also takes time to keep the document updated, but when a system fails one week and needs to be working the next weekend, it’s helpful to have a roadmap of sorts to help navigate the tricky waters of equipment upgrades.
Steve Steiner says
Good article Tim. For smaller churches, or ministries that are less presentation oriented, one of the main pieces of technology in use is computers. In our ministry we update them every 3-4 years, and we don’t do it all at once, so that we are only purchasing for some of the staff every year. I think 3-5 years max is a good general rule to follow. Great advice to create a plan now for the future, ministry usually has a lot less headaches if we aren’t flying be the seat of our pants :), thanks for sharing your wisdom.
Tim Adams says
Thanks, Steve! I think a lot of churches actually waste more money by not having a plan in place than they should really feel comfortable about.
I know of one church in my area that has no plan to replace their antiquated lighting system and their dimmers are old enough that spare parts cannot be found. They are waiting for the cost of LED equivalent fixtures to come down and really living on borrowed time; if those dimmers start failing, they will be scrambling to keep the system running and will have to put in what they can afford at that time which will likely cost them the several thousand dollars they were planning on saving anyway.