Mistakes Small Churches Make: Confusing Good Stewardship with Being a Cheapskate

Cheaper is not always better, and practicing good stewardship involves knowledge, foresight, planning, and often getting outside help.

by Rob Connelly

Your mixer just kicked the bucket during this morning’s service. You are the chief tech volunteer in a small church that has a total annual budget of $100k or less, and now you have to find a solution: pronto. A quick internet search Sunday afternoon reveals that you can buy a similar mixer to your last one for a few hundred dollars with free shipping. What have you got to lose?

On the surface, stewardship in church technology seems like a straight-forward principle: get the most bang for your buck. This often translates into finding the cheapest way to accomplish a given goal. Many times this mentality is compounded in smaller churches by a genuine lack of funds. Stewardship, the caring for and best utilizing of resources, should be evaluated based on how well a given decision will support the mission of the church – which is not likely going to be the cheapest initial price-tag, or the quickest shopping option.

In smaller churches especially, there is in many cases a unique sort of pressure to be thrifty. Usually there is quite little money to be spent, and so every decision is under the microscope. Unfortunately, this often results in the cheapest solution being chosen, with little thought given to the long-term. However, if stewardship is defined as that decision which will most effectively facilitate the accomplishment of the mission of the church, then much thought must be given to the long-term implications of any purchase. Resources that will not be usable in two years – either because of growth or quality issues – will have to be purchased again making the total price: 1st purchase price + 2nd purchase price + time, heartache, downtime, etc. That initial price-tag may not accurately represent the total cost.

Sometimes smaller churches simply do not have the knowledge necessary to make these decisions well – they trust the very well-intentioned person who has been faithfully serving as “the tech person” to know enough to make a good decision. This is where smaller churches usually end up saving money by having a relationship with a qualified consultant, or by working with an integrator who actually cares about small churches. Most small church tech volunteers don’t have time to research what is out there, and don’t have the breadth of experience to know when the “price for the features” ratio is simply too good to be true.

In addition to the “actual cost” factor, the decisions you make need to be able to support the real needs of the application. A common example is in fact with the audio mixer. Many smaller church audio volunteers are unsure about the exact function of all of the features on their current mixer – so it is nearly impossible to make an informed decision on a replacement should the need arise.

In short, cheaper is not always better, and practicing good stewardship involves knowledge, foresight, planning, and often getting outside help. Are you a small church tech servant? We would love to hear about your “adventures in stewardship” – leave a comment below and join the conversation!

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Rob Connelly currently serves at North Wake Church in Wake Forest, NC as director of technology and communication. He is the owner of Connelly Audio, providing technology, ministry and systems consulting to churches. Rob is also a student at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He and his wife Ashley have two young sons.

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this so true that it is ridiculous. we have bought several cheaper versions of the real thing that dies a short while later. we blame everybody but ourselves after the death of the newer equipment only to realize that that we just needed some help from the people who know. thanks for the reminder.

Posted by rev. w on 01/16/2012 report abuse

I agree Les. The only people who can tell the system is stereo in a small venue are seated in the sweet spot. The rest of the room suffers from a sound that feels incomplete or out of balance. I don’t think that a mono set-up is traditional necessarily, it really depends on each individual situation and room characteristics. As a worship pastor and a musician for over 40 years the one thing that keeps coming home is the uniqueness of every congregation and its call to ministry in its culture.

Posted by Gregg H on 01/11/2012 report abuse

J(eff?) Huff. You don’t give all the details, but your consultant was probably right. Stereo is Very hard to do properly, and is very expensive. Your consultant likely did the best he could within your budget. I bet he would have loved to do a big stereo install, what fun.
Anyway, most “stereo” installs suffer from poor inteligibility, comb filtering and are actually just split mono.

Posted by Les on 01/09/2012 report abuse

Gee whiz, and I tuhoght this would be hard to find out.

Posted by Jolyn on 01/08/2012 report abuse

Regarding “consultants”, most of what folks call consultants are actually salespeople or design-build stores that claim the design is free, and more often you get what you pay for. True consultants sell their knowledge only and design a system based on in-depth interviews with those using it to make sure it meets your needs, both present and future, and will be bid out to a qualified installer for implementation.

Posted by MixingForJesus on 01/07/2012 report abuse

Our church resembles that description almost to a T. After struggling with these limitations for years, and a certain amount of prayer and discussion, we finally decided to take matters into our own hands, and create our own budget. Over the last several years, we have slowly gained experience and bought equipment. We run an 8 hour music festival, and the lessons learned have been invaluable. Amazing things can happen when you use God’s gifts for His glory!

Posted by sycamoredave on 01/07/2012 report abuse

I am coming in to the church environment after 35 years in concert/touring sound. It has been quite an adjustment balancing visual aesthetics with performance needs. I am blessed to have found a church that recognizes my skills and trusts my judgement. Costs/benefits is a tough call. Bottom line is, “what best facilitates sharing GOD’S Word?” THAT is the qualifier in our church.

Posted by DLM house mix on 01/07/2012 report abuse

We can also have the opposite dilemma of having too many “well-intentioned persons who have been faithfully serving as “the tech person”. Small churches rarely have a single person on staff with adequate knowledge of facilities or technical management, and has relevant decision-making authority. Thus, how do priorities get set? Was it the camel that resulted from the horse built by committee? :-)

Posted by Just The Light Guy on 01/07/2012 report abuse

I have to caution about “qualified consultants.” The church I pastor was sold on a centered mono system for the sanctuary by a small church consultant. Only problem was that the church was already wired for stereo and, as a contemporary church, lost a huge amount of opportunities with a system really only meant for traditional situations. Otherwise, the article is dead on…do your homework, know what your church needs, and pray for God’s provision for what you honestly need.

Posted by J Huff on 01/07/2012 report abuse

The techs are not alone, most department leaders do the same and fears the same. Thank you and I will pass this on.

Posted by Debra Lewis Diaz on 01/06/2012 report abuse