Asking Again
So question again, where is your sound (technical) guy (person)? Does this person share your vision for the church and where you are going? Do you know? Are they trained and qualified to be in a leadership role in your church? Have you made it a point to make sure they understand their role on the ministry team? Have you included them as a ministry team member?
I’ve asked a lot of questions here that are meant to make you think and I only pray we hear. Statistically, in America, less than 10 percent of the churches with over 1,000 in attendance have a paid technical person on staff and even more disturbing, less than 20 percent of those churches feel they have a qualified person to operate sound in their church.
This problem has two glaring aspects that we need to look at. One, what will it take to get church leadership to commit to finding and hiring qualified God honoring technical staff? Two, where will that staff come from and who will train them?
Question one is something that pastors and leaders in the church will need to come to grips with soon to continue growth in their church. Question two will depend somewhat on the commitment of the Pastors and Leaders to make training available for their technical teams. It will be incumbent upon us in this industry to help provide proper training.
Both Positions
I’ve been working in technical ministry in some capacity for over 35 years. I have held both paid and volunteer positions. In both, what was most life-giving was the ministry aspect. Being part of a team that is bringing life change, either in a local church or in an international television ministry, is extremely rewarding. The important part is being on the team and knowing it.
Part of being on the team was the knowledge that we were working together and were all given equal opportunities to grow within our ministry areas. I once worked in a large ministry, where we needed so many techies to do ministry right that the leader of the ministry started a technical school for training.
We trained people for what we were doing and others who went back to their own churches to apply the skills that they learned. I know that every ministry of size can’t be expected to have a training school. However, there are training seminars and events that churches, no matter the size, could afford to send their techies to. As to prolonged and more in-depth training, that is a topic for another discussion.
One last time, where’s your sound guy? Is he or she a part of your team, part of your ministry, or is he just someone we put up with and cringe when feedback, missed mics and other technical shortcomings show up?
Worst of all, is this person the one being burned out and looking elsewhere for a place to worship where he/she can truly be part of a ministry team?
Joe Wisler has worked in professional audio for more than 35 years and has also been heavily involved with church sound and technical ministry throughout that period.