I announced on this website last October that I was jumping back into church tech. I’ll be honest, I don’t know if this is a strength of mine or a character flaw, but I go into everything I do as a brand new adventure. But volunteering is not necessarily glamorous.
I dive into a project thinking of all of the “what if’s” that would be fun to explore. As I shared before, I tempered myself with volunteering to know that I will only dedicate myself once a month at most and will not look to join for higher level positions.
So when a position opened to run the team, I deleted the email. When they said they needed someone to do video editing, social media, and photography, I resisted hard. I’d love to do all of that stuff, but I held back.
It’s Not All Flashy
I don’t think anyone joins church tech ministries because it’s flashy, but working in the position as a volunteer as opposed to the previous team lead or youth pastor running several parts of the project definitely gives a new perspective.
When I ran my team, I knew exactly what was going on Sunday morning. I knew the pastor’s sermon ahead of time, I knew what the visual cues were for Sunday, I knew the order of the service, and I knew who was serving, where the shortcomings were, and how the team dynamics flowed.
As a volunteer, I’m completely in the dark. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t need to know. As I said before, I don’t want to, I don’t need the responsibility. But it definitely is unique where I show up on Saturday evening completely oblivious to how the service will be run in a couple of hours.
Team Leaders, Know What You Want Others To Know
I’m going to encourage the team leaders to know what they want their team to know and think about how the service is experienced not only through the eyes of the congregation, but also the eyes of the volunteers. I was hyper-aware of this when I was team lead because I saw them as a non-renewable resource that always felt in short supply.
I would over communicate with my team. They would get a copy of the order of service a week in advance, knowing who their team was that joined with them. I made sure they knew if computer graphics would be running sermon slides or if they got 30 minutes off when the pastor preached.
I don’t think I did this in error. I think it helped the volunteers get into that mindset before they went in.
In this position now, I’m not volunteering 28 days a month. In some ways, I dread Saturday and Sunday when I serve because I don’t know the drama that could be coming. At the same time, I’m not stressing and obsessing.
They don’t lead their team like I would lead mine, and that might be for the best. But I want to encourage team leaders and team members, intentional communication is important.
What do you think about the flashiness of church tech and the communication that happens between leadership and the team?
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