The house lights are up. The brand new light board idly waits to make the worship service leap to life, and the newly installed projector hums from its ready position.
Now comes the big question: Who’s going to run them?
“Most churches can’t afford a full-time sound man,” said Michael Thompson, president of Thompson Sound Inc. “It’s important to have well-trained volunteers.”
Mike Evans, vice president and chief audio engineer of Alpha Sound in Mobile, said he prefers to have volunteers running the lighting and video systems in churches. “And I’d rather have a creative person behind the board than a technical person.”
That may seem to go against everything you’ve been told about seeking professionals, Evans said, but having creativity is half the battle.
“I’d rather train choir members to be sound people than someone else, because they know what sounds good. I’d rather train someone with creativity to be a light person than someone with straight technical skills,” Evans explained.
If the person has the creativity to see the result, he or she can be taught how to get there, he noted.
“The person would need to have enough technical common sense to troubleshoot a problem or notice when a light bulb’s burned out, but overall I’d rather have the creativity,” Evans said.
But take that technically-inclined person and put him or her on the team in the role that keeps everything running, he added.
“A good tech person might not be good behind the light board. A good sound person might not be good with a video camera,” Evans said. “Find your niche and stay there.”
Tommy Strickland, audiovisual director of Shocco Springs Baptist Conference Center, said it’s a good idea for a church to begin building its technical crew before the new lighting and video equipment is ever installed.
“Make sure they’re competent in relation to video and lighting,” Strickland said. “Look for people with an interest in it — they will be the ones who do a good job.”
Then — most importantly — invest time in teaching them, he said.
“It is crucial that with anything we install we have more than one person trained to run it,” Strickland said. And, he added, don’t forget to utilize your young resources.
“Don’t discount your teenagers. They’re eager to learn, and they grasp it well,” Strickland said.
Teenagers quickly acquire an understanding of electronic equipment, especially video cameras, and they enjoy doing it.
“That’s how I got my start. As a teenager, someone took an interest in teaching me,” Strickland said.
Joe Ziegler, music minister of First Baptist Church, Athens, said his sound and lighting committee trains people who have an interest, then slowly works them into the rotation by letting them work Wednesday night services, then Sundays.
“We want to make sure they are comfortable before they do it on their own,” Ziegler said.
Doug Rogers, communications coordinator for the Alabama State Board of Missions, said the number one thing to look for in a tech crew volunteer is a heart and vision for media ministry.
“Look for people who have caught the vision of what media can do for the church,” Rogers said. “That’s something that can’t be taught. Technical skills can be taught. People think lighting and video are ministries for just techies, but they’re not.”
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