It’s all about Change!

Dr. Dwayne Hooper

Involvement in tech ministries in church is all about change. Regardless of whether we are talking about lyric projection or CG, lighting, audio, video, recording, tech director, etc... it’s all about change. How we respond to changes on stage, how we respond to changes in the order of service, how we respond to new gear, new software, new ideas, etc... The better we get at handling change the better we will become in our respective tech roles.

For some of us, the social isolation of COVID-19 has meant we have stepped back from our involvement in tech ministry as churches have been closed. For some of us, myself included it has resulted in a crash course in video capture, editing, and streaming to get our church service online. Tech ministry has always been about responding to change, the COVID situation has not altered that. However, the COVID situation has highlighted that change requires a rapid response.

That rapid response is needed when a vocalist grabs the wrong mic and you have to switch to a different channel on the fly and start tweaking EQ, compression, and FX’s. Likewise, a rapid response is needed when the government shuts down corporate worship and we have to quickly move to an online platform for our church services.

This COVID situation has also highlighted for me the need for leadership within the tech department of our churches, be that volunteer leadership or paid leadership. I know for some people in the church it is incomprehensible to think a church would require a full time paid tech person. I’ve heard this even said in regards to large churches that are highly technologically advanced. But the reality is there is a lot that goes on behind the scenes to make church services happen. This is true of both of online services and regularly attended services.

As our church moved from no video to an entire worship service online, the first few weeks required over 30 hours of work a week from just myself to get the services functioning. That does not include the many hours and many other people involved as well. Now I’m not saying I should have been paid, nor am I saying every church should pay every tech person. But I certainly see why large and or technically complex churches have paid tech people on staff. I also recognize that those individuals work hard at those roles and require a unique knowledge base from which to fulfill their responsibilities.

For myself and some of our other tech people we quickly had to learn things like: framing shots, directing and editing video, post-production audio editing, syncing multiple audio and or video tracks, rendering video, uploading video, hosting video content, hosting live services, etc... This involved a lot of research and experimentation with different online applications and computer software.

Now I’m not here to say I got it all right the first time around. Nor am I saying our online service is one to boast about. We’ve made our mistakes and we will make more, but we are learning from them. What I am suggesting is our church and our team responded quickly to sudden change.

I believe those churches that responded quickly to change and those that had strong leadership in tech are the churches that will have faired well through this trial we call COVID-19. So for those involved in tech I challenge you to embrace change and respond to it quickly; ask questions, do the research, experiment, and don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Just reflect on those mistakes and learn from them. To churches, I challenge you to invest in your tech teams; for some of you when social rules lax this may mean seeking out opportunities to get formal training for you tech team. For other churches, it may even mean it’s time to think about hiring a tech leader/director. But for all churches, be grateful for the tech support you already have and express your appreciation for them. Many of the tech people in your churches have worked a lot harder than you may have realized.