Planning for the new year can be an exciting exercise for your church production team. Dreaming of new and exciting changes to equipment and infrastructure can be encouraging for those who work for churches that are investing in technology. But it can also be a frustrating time for many, who may have high-dollar dreams but a low-budget reality.
Sometimes the best investments revolve around taking what we already have and using it more efficiently.
Fortunately, there are ways that churches of any size can make a huge impact in the upcoming year, even without requiring expensive investments. Here are three key areas where church techs can make a tremendous impact on their areas without breaking the bank:
Working Smarter, Not Harder
Would it be great to have thousands of dollars to spend on new, high-end gear? Absolutely! But sometimes the best investments revolve around taking what we already have and using it more efficiently.
This is even more critical in situations where there’s a small team in place that carries a lot of responsibilities. Streamlining what the team has to do is a way to remove stress and eliminate potential points of failure.
The Elgato Stream Deck (starting at $149) has the ability to revolutionize how a church tech booth functions on the weekends.
Arguably one of the best things a team could purchase is an Elgato Stream Deck, a small touchpad that, along with its free Companion software partner, have the ability to revolutionize how a tech booth functions on the weekends.
A Stream Deck can send commands to a variety of devices in the production ecosystem like computers, switchers, lighting consoles, and more, and with one push of a button can trigger simultaneous commands for multiple devices (like lowering house lights, unshuttering a projector, and playing a video). This can be a critical benefit if a team is smaller; a couple hours of midweek programming (by utilizing the library of prebuilt templates) can result in an immeasurable alleviation of weekend anxiety.
If there’s more budget room to work with, then investing in QSC’s Qsys platform is definitely worth considering. By using the same concepts as a Stream Deck, but with more options and functionality, a Qsys controller can replace small switchers, audio consoles, or lighting desks in smaller or distributed spaces throughout a church facility.
This can be of huge benefit in a kids room, for instance, where volunteers may feel intimidated by consoles and switchers that they don’t really know how to use; replacing those devices with a small tablet capable of replicating the same functions can greatly reduce the amount of time and energy a stretched production team has to spend fixing equipment and training other ministry teams in those spaces.
But even if a team’s equipment needs are all met, there are still ways to work smarter, and maybe none is better than the idea of improving how supplies are organized. Buying a pegboard and a label maker can pay huge dividends.
Professional Development
Few things make as big of a difference as simply just learning how to better use the tools we already have at our disposal. It can help us learn how to function more efficiently, can help us save money, and can prepare us to implement future vision from our ministry leaders.
If there’s no available budget to travel, most events offer online options.
And the good news is that much of what’s available online can be found for free or for relatively low cost.
Dante, the network-based audio distribution protocol now commonly integrated with nearly all audio hardware, offers three levels of certifications for free. A similar technology in the video world, NDI, doesn’t yet have its own certifications, but a plethora of information is available online so users can simply learn more about the technology and how to implement it in their space.
Many equipment manufacturers, ranging from Shure to Ross to MA lighting, also now have their own YouTube channels where training and educational materials are available for free.
For the specific church tech market, groups like MxU and FILO offer their own podcasts with training tips and industry interviews that can help deepen one’s personal knowledge.
This says nothing of the numerous conferences and events available each year, like FILO, SALT Nashville, CFX, Capture, and the MxU Tour, among others. And even if there’s no available budget to travel to those events, most of them offer online attendance, whether as a live experience or as a way to access on-demand recordings after the event has concluded.
Regardless, it’s now almost impossible to not be able to access material that can help a church tech and his or her team grow in their knowledge and abilities.
Volunteer Appreciation
Volunteers are the lifeblood of any healthy church tech team. They are often the first church volunteers to arrive before service and may often be the last to leave. They serve in the shadows and are often forgotten or under-recognized.
Free food is a great way to express gratitude to team members! But so is free gear! Could you provide t-shirts for the whole team?
With nominal financial investments, a church tech leader can make a huge difference for his team. This could include budgeting a couple of times a month when he or she can take a volunteer to lunch to express gratitude. It could include money for a dozen donuts on Sunday mornings, or even a voucher to provide volunteers with free coffee at the church café.
If there’s more financial wiggle room, then it would be great to plan on organizing a team outing on a quarterly basis where the church is able to foot the bill (like doing a meal for team members and their families). Or perhaps you can cater lunch to the church one Sunday so the worship and production teams can do a “mixer” and deepen relationships.
Clearly, free food is a great way to express gratitude to team members! But so is free gear! Could you provide t-shirts for the whole team? Or do you have a relationship with a vendor or manufacturer who would be willing to send your team some free swag?
Regardless of what the end product looks like, it’s critical to expend effort into showing volunteers how much they’re appreciated and valued. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy or expensive; it just needs to be intentional.
So even for the smallest budget, where there may be very limited opportunities to expend resources, there are still plenty of ways to make a huge difference and improve performance and efficiency on a church tech team. That impact will definitely be felt even beyond 2022.
