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Church Tech Talk Series

Why Your Church Should Hire Techies

Some churches have the unfortunate tendency to underestimate how badly they need to hire techs to handle audio, video, lighting, and IT.  It seems even more difficult for churches to hire a director.  Maybe the pastor has thought about it.  Maybe the elders have even debated it.  Tight budgets no doubt weigh heavily in these decisions.  However, there are five things your church may not be considering when to hire or not to hire is the question:

1.  Technical work is harder than you think.

The work of a church tech is very complex.  Systems in the digital age are almost always in flux and the state of technology has never been advancing at such an accelerated pace.  Many millennials have actually gone to college to study in related fields and have the student loans to prove it.  Many baby-boomers boast decades of experience and are committed to staying up to date on leading edge technology.  The church presents a unique challenge to technical artists.  The delivery of the gospel in a clear way Lastly, demands on technology use to do things such as streaming, simulcast, and archiving require collaborative efforts among multi-disciplinary teams of technical artist to make “simple” concepts  a reality.  The value of a good technical artist in the for-profit market is to the tune of $45k-85k.  Great technical artist are well worth the investment.

2. More time is required than you think.

While church techs are indeed often the first to arrive and the last to leave, when additional tasks or special projects are added to the typical work load, it isn’t uncommon for some tech teams to spend hundreds of man hours a week to complete a project.  On top of that also they have to make Sundays happen.  Many of those hours is time each tech has to spend away from their family and other obligations.  It’s my hope that a more realistic view of time and energy techies commit to projects might prevent usury.

3.  Bad tech will hurt growth.

Developing a top notch technical program takes consistency.  Every church has a different set of values, objectives, and method.  In order to adhere technical systems to the mission of the church, significant thought and planning has go into design and processes that will support the mission and accommodate its growth.  When the technology in place does not work for the church, it often can work against the church.  When audiences are constantly distracted by constant “technical difficulties”, they will often question the integrity of the leadership.

4.  It’s more expensive not to hire.  

While volunteers are mostly concerned with making Sunday happen,  a paid technical director will partner with church officials to see that the church reaches its objectives.  If there is no one to fill this gap, churches will have to spend significant amounts of money hiring consultants to fix what’s not working.  They will not necessarily be around to evaluate the effectiveness of their solutions.  A good tech team will monitor systems, perform maintenance, and anticipate updates.  This often translates to significant savings for your church.

5.  If you don’t, someone else will.

Church techies are looking for opportunities.  Some are willing to travel or uproot for the right opportunity.  Many would LOVE to work for the church that they have been volunteering at.  If they receive an opportunity to work elsewhere, I imagine most would strongly consider it.  Church leaders, ask yourself.  What if your volunteer left your church right before your next service? Could your service go on without a hitch?  If not, I strongly suggest you considering hiring a techie.

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Church Tech Talk Series

Waiting, Praying, and Searching for a Church Tech Staff Position: Part II

Part II: Wait With Action

There is an ever growing pressure for churches to produce more and more culture leading content not to just remain relevant, but to become influencers of culture.  The vast majority of churches however are not providing adequate resources  to ensure that the content it produces is done well.  Confused?  This phenomenon can be explained in several ways.  For greater detail on that dilemma, see my last post that gives three reasons why churches aren’t hiring technical artists.  If you feel strongly that God wants you to build a career using your talents and skills in a church setting, you’ve probably also reached a point of frustration with lack of opportunities present.  The key here is to not get discouraged.  I’ve got great tips that will help you wait with action!

Here are five things you should do while waiting, praying, and searching for a staff position at a church.

1.  Don’t Wait To Get Experience:  Churches, like any other organization will want to see a resume anytime you apply or interview for a paid position.  Most are specifically looking for relevant experience.  If you haven’t had a paid staff position at a church before, the best way to show you have relevant experience is through industry work experience or volunteering.  Volunteering in your community or at a local church is a great way for you to get valuable experience.  Ask around to see if anyone you know could use your skill-set for a project or two.  This is also a great way to get references who can speak on your behalf to potential interviewers.  If you have been volunteering at a church for awhile already, don’t be afraid to put that experience on your resume.

2.  Continue Your Education:  If you are in college, there probably isn’t a church tech major at a seminary and divinity school (yet), but you can certainly attend an excellent institution that offers a degree in a relevant field of study.    If you already have the degree, working towards a certification, license or other credentials further legitimatizes you as a professional in that field.  This will separate you from the average hobbyist or weekend warrior.

3.  Conference and Network:  One of the keys to finding a position is to grow your network.  Attending conferences and meet-ups put you in the room with people who are doing exactly what you want to be doing for a living.  This is the place where you gain great industry insights, connections, and encouragement.

4.  Don’t Turn Down Opportunities:  Sometimes an unlikely opportunity may arise that may take you by surprise.  Maybe it doesn’t look like what you thought it would, pay like you thought it would, or be where you thought it would.  Unless you have strong conviction that this is not the opportunity for you, don’t let viable opportunities go by while waiting for the “perfect job” one to fall in your lap.  It might not be your final destination, but it might be a step in the right direction that leads to greater opportunities.

5.  Keep Praying:  A career in ministry isn’t usually something people magically fall into.  It certainly isn’t the most lucrative of industries.  If God has given you a vision to serve his people vocationally, it’s likely he hasn’t shared all of the steps you will have to take to see that vision become reality. Prayer is key.  Checking in with God is the single best thing you can do throughout the entire process.  During the ups and the downs.

One of my favorite examples of someone who served God’s people in a non-ministerial professional capacity is Nehemiah.  We’ll break down how this guy broke into full time ministry in the next post.  Until then, I’m praying you get a really awesome opportunity to serve the people of God in a professional capacity.

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Church Tech Talk Series

Waiting, Praying, and Searching for a Church Tech Staff Position: Part I

As technical artists we’ve observed an unprecedented expansion of technology use in churches.  Several large churches taking advantage of newly affordable technology have done some pretty cool things.  Christian ministries have sponsored high quality productions including live broadcasts, stage plays, films, music albums, festivals, tours, and more.

Large productions are never a one man show.  It takes a multitude of talented individuals.  Writers, composers, directors, singers, actors, talent managers, coaches, editors, music producers, riggers, graphic designers, marketers, printers, contractors, finishers, videographers, grips, technicians and more.  These are just some examples of all the different technical artist positions required to make huge productions happen.

Over the last decade, well respected leaders in the Christian community have been spreading the message of living a purposeful life.  Out of that craze, several spin off’s have gotten people excited about having a God-ordained career that they love.  Some logically conclude the following:

“Maybe God wants me to go into full-time ministry as a technical artist.”

Is this your dream?

It was certainly mine at one point in time.  What happened next was a harsh reality.  There were no job openings.  Especially not at my current church.  Not even when I looked just outside of my church network.  Nothing.  The church job market was just as rough as corporate America.  I couldn’t understand how everyone was talking about wanting to do great things in their church and in their community with technology, but no one could point me to a church who was expanding their staff.  Upon further investigation, I learned quickly why this was the case.

Here are three reasons why American churches are not necessarily  hiring techies:

1.  Pro-sumer mindset.  “Technically challenged” church leaders see something cool another church did and they sometimes assume that they could find all of the equipment to pull off a similar production at Best Buy or Guitar Center.  “How hard could it be?”  One reason why churches don’t even have certain skilled positions on their radar is because they simply don’t think the job requires a professional.  It may not have crossed a leaders’ mind that a degree or certification may be required to even operate certain equipment.

2.  Volunteerism:  A spin off of the pro-sumer mindset is the thought that a church should place volunteers in highly skilled areas.  Even deeper than that is the idea that professionals should “serve the church” by donating their time and talents.  While volunteerism is not inherently problematic, when the vision of a church requires the equivalent time and energy to that of a full time or seasonal position, one might think that they were being taken advantage of.  After all, you wouldn’t ask your pastor to preach 4 times a week for free.  That would be absurd.  Pastors usually have degrees (student loans), licenses, and the affirmation of the leadership to “serve the church” WITH appropriate compensation. Technically professions have degree (loans), certifications, and licenses as well to practice their profession and should be treated accordingly.

3.  Tight Budgets:  You might be tired of hearing about the economy at this point, but average churches have taken sustained financial hits as they rely on charitable giving to keep their doors open.  When their tithing base tightens up their belt, the church follows.  Sometimes this results in one highly skilled person operating in several capacities at once.  There may be one technical director on staff who is also acting as a program director, stage manager, etc. This director may love to hire you as his or her assistant however budget limitations may cause them to go longer periods without hiring the help they truly need.

Despite these three dismal reasons that churches aren’t hiring, DO NOT GIVE UP.  Now that you know what you’re up against, you can use this knowledge to set yourself up to be the exception.  The GOOD NEWS is that none of those three scenario’s are sustainable.  Usually when something goes awry with one of the above, an opportunity opens up.   Next time we’ll discuss what you need to do to be prepared for such an opportunity.

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Portable Church Tech

Portable Church Tech Tips: The Timely Setup (Part 1)

If you are a portable church, or an established church running a portable setup, you are probably familiar with the challenges that time constraints place on setup.  If you are regularly in the trenches, you probably have a six sense of the clock ticking away in your subconscious.  I recently volunteered at a portable church that struggled with consistency in setup.  As a result, this church experienced a variety of “technical difficulties” during services.  Occasionally delays in setup led to delaying the start of service all together.  Technical difficulties are often distracting to the audience, worship leaders, and speakers.  So how do you combat the tech diff plague?  Below are my five tips for getting consistent setups.
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