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T e c h n i c a l D i r e c t o r P r o f i l e : Roger Nichols CHURCH OF THE SHEPHERD, ST. PETERS, MISSOURI |
Growing with the Church
Technical director Jason Nichols enjoys a variety of responsibilities at Church of the Shepherd
Technical director Jason Nichols loves nearly every aspect of his job as technical director for Church of the Shepherd in St. Peters, Missouri. Not only does he enjoy a high level of creative freedom, he gets to work with up-to-date A/V equipment at the church’s newly constructed “94” Campus.
The campus opened in September 2003, and is phase one of a three-phase expansion project. The main campus on McClay Road holds 200 people, while the new sanctuary has a seating capacity of 500. By 2006, the church will build a third worship center with room for at least 1,000 attendees. “Our services are building so fast right now, we can hardly keep track of seating at our two main services on Sunday mornings,” says Nichols.
The church holds four services weekly – two contemporary services on Saturday evening at 5:00 p.m. and Sunday morning at 11:15, a traditional service at 8:30 Sunday morning, and a blended service on Sunday morning at 9:45. All but the traditional service is held at the new campus. “This is just the tip of the iceberg for the overall grand scheme of things,” Nichols promises.
Nichols, a graduate of Lindenwood University, came onboard as a part-timer with Church of the Shepherd in March 2003, and was promoted to full-time technical director last July. He has a staff of 25 volunteers, and the church is looking into finding an intern at a local college to lighten Nichols’ ever-growing workload.
Nichols spoke to Church Production Magazine (CPM) from the couch in the office that he shares with the church’s youth pastor. “It’s great,” he says of his casual work environment. “When I get into a creative block, I get to shoot pool for a while.”
CPM: Let’s start with your job description. What’s an average week like for you?
Nichols: Monday is my day off. On Tuesday, I do a personal de-briefing of how the service flowed. I look at the tapes, listen to the audio, and make sure it was a good, crisp service.
Wednesday, I meet with the pastor – that way, I can get a jump on the weekend with what he expects video-wise. For instance, right now we’re doing a series called “Reel to Real.” We’re looking at how film reflects real life, with movies like Bruce Almighty, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and the Matrix. At 5:30, we meet with the worship staff. We sit down for two hours and plan out the service. After that, we have praise band practice.
On Thursday, we have a staff meeting and staff chapel time. After that, I go to KFAV, the radio station that airs our sermons on Sunday mornings. Thursday afternoon, I do production work, and make sure the equipment is working properly.
Friday means catching up on e-mails and paperwork.
Saturday, I get there at 10 in the morning and start setting up for the weekend. I do all the sound mixing myself on the weekends, with the help of volunteers.
CPM: What’s your favorite part of the job?
Nichols: My favorite part is working with a variety of people. You have everybody there for the same purpose, in general, but you have such a mix of crowd. You go to any venue – when you’re working at a concert, for instance — and everybody’s there to see the concert. Here at a church, everybody’s out to find hope in their lives. You get to see so many different people. It’s amazing to me, that no matter what your social standing, everybody in the same building is like one person.
Then, of course, working with our pastors. Pastor Bob Farr would probably rival any mega-church pastor any day of the week. He’s that passionate about what he’s preaching. It’s real interesting to get to work with him and be able to expand the area of media into the traditional background.
CPM: What’s your least favorite aspect of the job?
Nichols: If you were to go up to any person that works at the church and ask the exact same question, everybody would say, “the hours.” Every person that works for a church does twice as much as most people think they do.
CPM: What are some of the challenges you face in this job and how do you overcome them?
Nichols: Our biggest challenge was when we were doing the build at the new site – bidding out the contract of the system that was to be installed. It actually came down to the wire. Our service was at 5:00 p.m. and the scaffolding was coming down at 3:00. We didn’t get to test the system very much. That was one of the most stressful times.
I don’t really get stressed. If I do have a problem, I just find the quickest and best way to solve it that I know how. If something does fail, and I honestly can’t prevent it, then why worry about it? If I can do anything to help the situation, I’ll do my best in the quickest way that I know to take care of it.
CPM: What are some of the products or technology that you feel have impacted your job?
Nichols: When I started, the church had a very, very small system — a couple of projectors and screens. When I came onboard, I said, “We need to start expanding more in the video production area, rather than going to Blockbuster every single weekend, renting a movie and using a clip from it.” People can relate to people more than they can to Hollywood.
At least once a month, I try to do one of our original productions. Back in early September, we did one called “God Knows,” about care-giving. It was the personal testimony of a congregation member who found out his wife had Alzheimer’s. When somebody can relate to somebody else that they personally know, it’s going to impact the service twice as much. We do a lot of personal testimony now.
CPM: What do you see as the role of technical ministry in the big picture for the church?
Nichols: Technology is an advanced field in a lot of churches, but I don’t see it as technology leading the worship. I think of it as a complement to the worship. You can have a fantastic media display for your service, but if you don’t have the message from the pastor to carry it, you don’t have anything. I think there are several churches around that have a fantastic media display, but their pastors are very weak. It became such a trend so quickly to look at who’s got the best media equipment.
CPM: Do you think that trend is going to reverse, or get worse as technology gets more sophisticated?
Nichols: I think the churches that want to do it are doing it already. There are a lot of rural churches that have put together multimedia presentations. They might upgrade. With all the high-definition coming onboard, people are going to have to upgrade if they want to keep current. I think your church needs to reflect your community. If your community is changing their type of television systems, and you’ve got to get the same level of technology they have. Otherwise, people say, “I can watch this at home. Why do I need to come here?” You have to change with the times and change with your social surroundings.
CPM: What does it take to be a good technical director?
Nichols: That’s so hard to say. I just like to have fun. So many people are creative in so many different ways. Some people are more visual, and some people are more auditory. I think a good, clear mind and the ability to see your end result, not so much tomorrow, but a year down the road, is important. Finding your own signature piece, and being able to apply that to an everyday work environment makes your work more enjoyable. For me, my signature piece would be in a lot of the video I do, and in the way I do graphic work. People that know me can look at something and say, “I know that you did this.”
