Doing church technology is definitely a skill-based, time consuming, and thankless job where you typically are only acknowledged when you do something wrong in Sunday morning service. It can become easy in these positions to feel sorry about yourself, make it us against them, and wish that leadership and the congregation could see all the good you are doing and how difficult it is from your vantage point.
But I want to nip this thought process in the butt and take perspective for a minute. I’ve been the church tech leader, but I have also been in several other positions in relationship to church technology and want to give you some other vantage points of your ministry.
- Pastors
Having been a youth pastor, in charge of Sunday morning sermons, and in control of a whole service, I can tell you that their list for Sunday worship is about 25 items long. Of that list, church technology they probably know least about. The pastor may only interact with you once, saying that they know you have it and trust you or ask you twenty different things because they don’t understand and are very insecure about it. This is the time to walk with them and ensure them they are going to be okay. The more you show your wisdom on this matter, the more they are going to be comfortable. Simply interacting with them well here can make all the difference for the worship experience, so don’t let them down. - Volunteers
As a volunteer with church technology, the church tech leader is the one who has my back. I may never tell them how much I trust them, but when I do not know what to do, because of inexperience or lack of creativity, I immediately go to them. Every time I ask you a question, it is a vote of confidence and I ask that you recognize my trust in you. Sometime I am just coming from a Sunday morning frustrating breakfast with my family, going to worship practice after a hard days work, or super unsure of myself in this roll. It is because of you that I am continuing to thrive and I just want you to keep investing in me. - Congregation
We don’t understand everything you do and we are hear at church to worship, rest, and learn. Every time you hit the next slide right, we worship fluidly. When you get the sound right, we are fully engaged with the group and possibly with God. So if we look back at you, it’s not because we are angry with you, but we have disconnected because of that distraction and we want to get back to where we were. Don’t take it personally. We are impressed with what you do, we just don’t have time between church, Sunday brunch, morning small groups, and needing to ask the pastor about something he said that I didn’t get. You guys rock and our worship experience would be completely different without you.
What feelings do you have from these people groups?
Steve Steiner says
For volunteers, MediaShout as of v5.1 now has a volunteer mode which keeps things simple for inexperienced users which could be huge. I love how some people can be ready to step in and help, even if they have to learn as they go, it takes guts to do something like that. Great post Jeremy.
seventy8Productions says
Agreed! Thanks
Lisa says
Just a tiny correction for up there ^ bud, not butt ———-good article though!
nip something in the bud
Fig. to put an end to something before it develops into something larger. (Alludes to destroying a flower bud before it blooms.) I wanted to nip that little romance in the bud. The whole idea was nipped in the bud.
seventy8Productions says
🙂 I knew I should have looked that up. I honestly thought I was right. :p
Charles says
Great post, Jeremy! Many a times I have to balance recording, live engineering, presentations, etc. all while battling feeling underappreciated. This article encourages me to continue working as though working for Christ- which I am!! I think I’ll share this with my pastor in the meantime…
seventy8Productions says
Definitely do and I’d love to hear what he thinks from his vantage point about church technology!