The Case for Volunteers
The other side of this coin is to use all volunteers—that’s been my experience for most of my church life.
In fact, I’ve been a volunteer TD far longer than I’ve been a paid one.
I made my living working in the professional production world and gave my time at church.
The way I saw it, I’m not good with kids, I don’t like to greet people and I can’t sing.
But I am a good tech, so that’s where I served.
I’m sure I’ve given thousands of hours to the churches I’ve been a part of over the years, and loved (almost) every minute of it.
We talk a lot about putting ministry back in the hands of the people at my church. When I use that phrase, I mean trying to find people who are gifted in various areas (in my case, tech) and empowering them to serve.
For me, it’s not about saving the church money (though that is a nice side benefit) it’s about giving people the opportunity to serve. It’s like giving of our finances; when we give, we benefit more than the church does.
There is no better way to grow in our walk with Christ than to serve, and a big part of me thinks that when we bring in paid people from the outside, we deprive those in our midst of growing in their walk with Christ.
So where do I land on all this? Honestly, I don’t know yet.
I see the case for paying musicians, especially the ones in our midst. I love those guys and I know how hard it is to make a living as a musician; I want to support them.
I also know that the positions we’re talking about (musicians & FOH engineers) take highly specialized skill sets. You can’t just cut a budget and say, “The band and FOH have to be volunteers from now on.”
I figure it takes a solid year to train someone to mix FOH at the level we expect at our church (unless the volunteer is committed to doing it every week, then it goes faster). And truthfully, few are cut out for it.
At the same time, some of my greatest experiences in life happened when I was volunteering at church.
I want to open as many doors for that to happen as possible. On the other hand (I told you this was a complex issue…), everyone—and I do mean everyone—have to be willing to accept the compromises that come with non-professional talent on stage and behind the board.
It’s not going to be perfect. Notes will be missed, mics will be muted when they should be on. We all have to be willing to live with that.
What is your take on all of this? Are musicians and techs paid at your church? If so (or not) how do you feel about that? Feel free to let me know in the comments below!
Mike Sessler is the Technical Director at Coast Hills Community Church in Aliso Viejo, CA. He has been involved in live production for over 20 years and is the author of the blog, Church Tech Arts . He also hosts a weekly podcast called Church Tech Weekly on the TechArtsNetwork.