“We didn’t know what to expect!” This is what Jerry Nevarez had to say about walking into the T3 Technical Training seminar in Long Beach, California on February 19th, 2004. A volunteer leader at Victor Valley Christian Church in Hesperia, California (a non-denominational church), Nevarez commented that for the church’s growing technical ministry, training would be key to building a successful team. Because of his church’s familiarity with the work of Anthony D. Coppedge (a church media consultant and one of the three presenters at the seminar), they picked T3 (presented by Church Production Magazine) as their training vehicle, sending four members of the technical team to the Long Beach seminar. Nevarez adds: “We wanted to benefit from people who are nationally known and have been doing this for quite a while.”
Victor Valley Christian Church has an average weekly attendance of 600-800 worshippers. With families moving further away from the cities, the church’s demographics are shifting from retirement- aged to the 20 to 40 year-old age bracket. This shift has prompted the church to become increasingly contemporary in its worship style. Victor Valley’s 14-member technical ministry is made up entirely of volunteers.
One of the benefits of attending the T3 seminar, according to Nevarez, was the broader approach to teaching technical production. Not only were technical theory and skills developed, but team building and people were emphasized as well. “It was very interesting to hear what Armando [Fullwood – audio presenter] had to say about team-building. Armando’s church runs the team like a sports team, and we’re thinking of adopting that type of style. It really lends to developing people and bringing them through the process in a less threatening way. The session with Anthony, Armando, and Greg [Persinger – lighting presenter] discussing the differences between their churches in their approach to team-building showed us there really is no one right way to do it. Use whatever works in your particular situation. You can take bits and pieces from different methods to make your team work.”
The seminar also helped highlight that the first service should not be used as a dress rehearsal. “We want to move to having the key technical team members come to the Thursday night worship team rehearsal so we know what the worship team is going to do,” Nevarez says. “This will help us to better anticipate what’s coming up during the service. We’ve been trying to work things out first thing Sunday morning, but it’s really too late by then. We need to do it earlier.”
The biggest technical take-away for Nevarez came from Coppedge’s discussions on the use of image magnification (IMAG). “The sessions by Anthony on when to use IMAG, why [to] use IMAG, that was very helpful to us. We realized we moved too far, too quickly,” he admits. “Because of the training, we don’t do IMAG anymore for the message. It’s not necessary in our room, and it created distractions.” Victor Valley’s congregation noticed improvements in the service. One member of the church commented to Nevarez: “I used to find myself looking at the [movement on the] screen, but now I pay more attention to the pastor.”
Coppedge stressed the need to think not just about what you want to do, but why you want to do it. There can be advantages in not doing all the things the megachurches are doing. Remarks Coppedge: “It’s much easier for a smaller church to do compelling, better quality media than a large church. In a large church they have to use IMAG in order for everyone to see the service. That now means you have to work around the live video image. The screen is no longer an open canvas. So, a smaller church that doesn’t need to do IMAG has a greater opportunity to do compelling media than a large church.”
Coppedge’s passion for the T3 training seminars comes clearly through in any conversation with him. It’s not just a passion for media and video systems, however; his primary passion is for the people who serve in the church. “I’m all about people! I’ve been in ministry. I’ve worked with volunteers. And what I’ve learned by far is the gear helps you accomplish the work, but it doesn’t help you accomplish the ministry,” he says. “The ministry is about people. What juices me up is when a church has got a great technical team: a group that’s highly focused on helping each other succeed.”
T3 helps churches to achieve this. Says Nevarez: “I would absolutely recommend [the T3 seminar] to other people. If it comes around near us again, we want to send more of our team to it.”
Jim Kumorek is managing editor of Church Production Magazine. He can be reached at jkumorek@churchproduction.com.
