Church Sound: Who Will Train The Tech Crew?

I find it astounding that a church has no problem investing $250,000 sometimes over $500,000 on A/V systems (sound, theatrical lighting and video) and does not even consider hiring someone to run and maintain it.

Every church that I have had the opportunity to work with has had a least one paid music person on staff. And often there was a whole department that included worship leaders, orchestra director, choir directors and producers.

Yet these same churches who pride themselves on the quality of the music and production can’t even find in their bloated budget enough money to hire a quality person that will be the conduit to reproducing and pulling together the quality music and production.

How Can It B Solved?
It can be easy to sit back and point out a problem, but it gets a bit more difficult when you have to put together a solution to the problem.

Before stating a solution a plethora of questions can be asked;

•—Why are the Christian colleges and music schools not offering degrees in technical ministry?

—Why are there not more vocational schools that offer training?

—Why does the A/V industry not offer end-user training?
—Why is the not a training school like the recording industry has?


Why? Or Why ask Why?

The technical knowledge deficit that exists today is a result of many factors that include the rapidity that the church has adopted technology.

One is the ignorance or misunderstanding of what it requires to operate and maintain technical systems.

Another is integrators selling systems they claim are easy to operate, and then providing minimal or no training.

Yet another is that volunteers at a church turn over often; an operator who was trained is no longer involved and does not pass the knowledge on to others (or passes on incorrect or confusing information).

Also, the church is filled with “experts”—for example, the guy who works for the cable TV company as an installer so therefore is an authority on church sound and is too arrogant to seek training or input for qualified individuals.

I’ve come to the cynical conclusion that most churches are controlled by the church secretary, custodian, and/or sound operator. For some reason, a majority of churches seem to let this select group of individuals dictate church policy and decision making.

What is needed to fill the gap? First of all, churches must take responsibility and be willing to fund training resources. This could include hosting seminars, paying experts to come on site to do training, paying for technicians to go to seminars, and purchasing books and materials that are relevant.

This is common sense stuff; would you buy a car if you did not know how to drive? So why do so many churches purchase technical systems with no clue how to operate them?