A lot of small to medium-sized churches have tech crews made up volunteers that are often given the additional responsibility of coming up with upgrade plans, either by being asked to do so by leadership or recognizing that their current systems are not meeting their needs.
When it comes time to present their findings, they probably struggle with:
- finding the right equipment for what they need
- finding equipment that fits into the arbitrary budget number they’ve been given
- don’t know how to present what they need in a way that makes sense to leadership or conveys the benefits of the equipment.
Below, I outline some simple steps on how to prepare documentation for leaders to understand and to make the presentation go a little more smoothly.
The first thing to understand is that you will face an uphill battle. Those within the church lose their objectivity in the eyes of leadership, meaning that just because you say they need a particular piece of equipment does not mean they take you at your word. This doesn’t mean you don’t know what you’re talking about; only that they want to be sure and you are not necessarily an “expert” in their eyes, so don’t take insult. A similar situation occurs in marriage when one spouse tells the other they need to change some aspect of their life and the other doesn’t take them seriously. It comes across as nagging or control, even if what they say is true.
Ok, here we go.
Step 1: Determine the Need
I like to start with what’s NOT working with the equipment because that is by default a need rather than a want. With any upgrade, the benefits should outweigh the detriments, even cost. If they don’t, then it’s time to go back and look at what is really needed. I like to talk to everyone involved with that particular system, from the people up front to the techs in back and to a selection of audience members-this gives me a pretty broad range of perspectives and helps me formulate exactly what is needed vs. what are just opinions and wants. Determining this difference is critical to not wasting money; after all, good stewardship is not about how much money you save, but about how much money you don’t waste.
For example, if leadership wants to live stream and wants high quality but you have poor lighting, then the lighting will need to be upgraded to provide as high-quality an image as possible. This is a far cry from a want for a digital mixer when you just upgraded the analog mixer a year ago. See the difference between want and need?
Step 2: Talk to Leadership
Not involving leadership from the outset just about sets you up to fail because it blindsides them with a proposal to spend money when often times they didn’t even realize there was a problem and you were researching a solution. Talking to them up front accomplishes two important things: 1) it lets them know that you are involved and engaged in the church and you are actively looking for ways to improve the service, which is never a bad thing for them to see, and 2) gets them on board early on in the process so they can then cast the vision for the church body as a whole and get much broader support from the outset.
Let me take an aside here and say that it’s leadership’s job to cast the vision for everything in the church and to lead the church to realizing that vision. The initial idea and concepts can come from ministry leaders and volunteers like us techs, but the senior leadership should be able to take those ideas and concepts and cast them in a way that brings support to you.
A tip I’ve found useful in my dealings is to create a “image this” scenario for leadership. For example, in a Youth room where we had to rely on a hand-me-down equipment that was way more than what was needed (24-channel sound board to feed two channels of DVD player/CD player audio, 10’x12′ screen, etc.), I said the following to several influential leaders, “Imagine if you could push one button and the sound system powered up, a smaller electric screen rolled down, the projector turned on and turned itself to the correct input and all you had to do was put the DVD in the tray?” This created excitement because these leaders were people who used the room weekly and were already frustrated with how complicated the system was to operate. I was frustrated because I would get calls at all hours of the day from these leaders who called me to walk them through how to operate it. So paint the picture of what it could be like and target who you talk to and let them talk to leadership is also a successful way of addressing the need and the solution. I should warn you, though, that if you take this approach, you need to paint a picture that is feasible and to do that, you’ll need to do your research. You can contact systems integrators and consultants like myself, to handle those questions, so don’t be afraid to reach out!
Step 3: Research, research, research!
There are two ways to go about this: 1) you can figure out what your need is and then teach yourself through trial and error and by talking to others (online, in your area, etc.) to find what kind of equipment you need and then narrow down exactly what piece of equipment has the features and price point you are looking for, or 2) you can bring in a consultant to evaluate your situation and provide a proposal for you. As a consultant you might expect me to point you to option 2 every time, but I have found that often times techs already possess enough knowledge to at least know where they would like to end up and if they are willing to put in the time and the work in educating themselves, they are fully capable of doing this step themselves.
I encourage you to go with option 1 because at the end of the process you will be much more knowledgeable and capable of operating the equipment you are looking to upgrade to. You may not be trained fully, but you will know how everything goes together rather than relying on someone else to tell you. And I will always choose to have people like that responsible for high-quality tech rather than untrained volunteers who struggle through a service because they lack the resources and support they need to provide quality tech.
Another important step in this process is to choose your supplier. Are you going to source everything online, is there a local dealer than will provide all the benefits of local service and repair? If you find a supplier online who is offering an item for far less than most others, ask yourself why that may be. Use a service like www.resellerratings.com to determine whether they are legit or not. I generally stay with the well-known suppliers like B&H Photo/Video, Full Compass, Sweetwater, or CCI Solutions. I will say that one advantage of going through a systems integrator or a consultant is that we can usually beat retail pricing through special relationships we have established with many of these suppliers.
Step 4: Document Preparation
Ok, so you know what you need and now it’s time to start preparing your documents. I use a simple format, shown below, for what’s called the “Bill of Materials.” This includes the name and description of the piece of equipment, how much it costs, how many I need, and the total cost for that piece. If I’m going to be upgrading multiple systems, I will split the equipment by system (e.g. Audio/Video/Lighting/Projection) and then total that at the bottom of each section.
Another piece I will include is a “Guide” document with a picture of the item, the name of the item, and a brief description of how the item will add value and benefit to the worship service. I try to write this description from the point of view of the decision makers and address points of concern they may have.
Step 5: Presentation
It’s very important to be prepared and ready to answer questions. When I make a presentation, I try to focus on the benefits rather than the total cost. If all the leadership are concerned about is the total cost, then that becomes a fundraising issue and that is there job, remember? Casting the vision and providing the support you need. Your job is to show them the needs you have, your solution for those needs in a well thought-out and carefully laid out plan and let them decide.
I must be frank, not every presentation is going to go smoothly and not every proposal will be accepted; just know that going in. However, following these steps can help reduce much of the anxiety and pressure in having to come up with a presentation and allow you to focus on finding those solid solutions for your ministry to take you to the next level.
And don’t worry if they don’t approve your proposal outright; remember, they have many priorities to balance and only so much money to go around. At least you have a plan on paper should something fail you have something in writing on how to replace it and what you will need financially to make that happen. At the very least, try to get an idea of how long they may sit on the proposal because within 6 months, the equipment you found will likely be replaced with newer models and you’ll have to start all over. Again, this is why it’s important to get leadership on-board from the beginning so you know you have their support and can keep them updated and they can keep you updated on how the financial side is holding up.
Finally, I would like to indicate that at no point should leadership be dictating how much you have to spend; it’s more important to find the right solution to the problem then trying to find a cheap workaround to fall within an arbitrary budget. And the church should be willing to put in some financial backing rather than relying solely on individual givers-it needs to be a church system and not just the system that so and so gave money for.
Kevin Rutledge says
Thanks for this. Our church has a second floor sanctuary and a year before I arrived as pastor, they put a system in place with a camera to both record a service and send it to the downstairs viewing location for accessibility. There is currently not a permanent solution in the sanctuary. However, there is a VGA cable run up to the front for a screen and projector.
The downside is that the camera feeds into hard switch that switches between computer SongSelect(i think) and the camera. When we want to run the projector in the sanctuary it shows whatever the downstairs people see. Unfortunately, that means that people will see me and a video of me at the same time.
As I explore the use of image and video during the service this system will need to be rewired so the upstairs and downstairs will be independent. That will be a challenge and an expense.
Tim Adams says
Kevin, my apologies, I thought I had responded to your comment a few days ago! That definitely sounds like a challenge! It sounds like you need a matrix switcher to handle the two inputs and then you can choose which input goes to which output. Just a thought. Would love to connect with you and talk more about your project. Are you on Google+?