The difference may seem subtle to some people, but there's an important distinction. If you're on staff at a church, in some respects, your role in the technical arts is work. It is a job, after all.
If you're a volunteer at your church, your role in technical arts is an act of service, of sacrifice.
Does that mean that those paid church staff members don't consider what they do to be an act of service, or a sacrifice? Not at all. It's a demanding gig, and
most church staff members could be making a lot more money in another career, or another market segment.
On the other hand, do most volunteers passively sit by and just show up at church when the spirit leads? No, there's work to be done. There's pressure to deliver.
So the difference between working and serving is not determined by whether or not a paycheck is involved. The difference is in the mind-set, the attitude, the motivation.
Sure there's pressure and there are constraints and frustration. Many of us feel underpaid, overworked, and sometimes disrespected and misunderstood.
One church tech director took it upon himself to learn if he was the only one who struggled with this and other “issues” in the church technical arts community, and
he founded churchtecharts.org (CTA). What happened? “A community developed,” says Mike Sessler, founder of CTA. “Suddenly, instead of each of us being isolated
in our individual churches, we were part of a tribe.” Learn more about CTA in our Back Talk column on page 96.
