Church Alive in Lyndhurst, NJ has a healthy production team including 85 volunteers, 27 of which are children under 18. Learn more about how Church Alive recruits and trains volunteers here.
There is nothing more satisfying for a worship pastor or tech director than when they find a person who loves to serve on their production teams. When the person that is serving is constantly asking questions, reading internet articles about what they do, or listening to podcasts, it feels like a huge win for the team. Everyone wants volunteers who serve with passion instead of serving out of responsibility, yet for many finding these types of people can seem challenging. The question is, how do we find people who are passionate about production instead of just filling a role on Sunday morning? This article gives 3 tips on how to find people who love production.
1. Get to know people before asking them to serve: Most of the time, recruitment for production happens when the team is low and there is pressure to recruit people to make church happen on Sunday mornings. When the pressure is on, quantity can matter more than quality. For this to be counteracted, recruitment needs to happen all the time so the right people can be found.
Most production people have a creative desire. Once they have been trained, they need the space to have some fun.
Getting to know what people’s interests are is important to production. Do they enjoy music, are they particularly techy, do they enjoy serving in a role that is a little more behind the scenes, and do they enjoy learning new skills? If the answer to two or more of these is yes, then they may fit on the team.
2. Before signing them up, let them shadow: Let’s say a church is attempting to recruit sound engineers. Before asking them to serve or be trained, just ask them to come hang out in the booth and simply watch can help. While the current sound person is mixing, he/she can explain a little about what is going on, and then watch how the person reacts. If they seem engaged, they are worth training and placing on the team. If they are uninterested it may be time to see if there is something else they can do to serve, or pass them off to another team. Taking time to make sure people will be a good fit is important. Quality production requires people who care about what they are doing and the overall experience of the service.
If there isn’t a passionate attention to detail, then even at that person’s best, their heart will not be in it and the quality will suffer.
The contrasting argument to this is often, beggars can’t be choosers. The problem with that is if a person who really isn’t interested is recruited and trained, but there isn’t a passionate attention to detail, then even at that person’s best, their heart will not be in it and the quality will suffer. Overall it will not be a good experience.
3. Give them what they need to be passionate: Often those who would love production work don’t have the two things needed to be passionate: training and freedom. Someone may desire to learn the ins and outs of lighting, but if they only have been taught the bare minimum, then they will never get excited about lighting. They need slow and consistent training. Slow, so they can handle the amount of information, and consistent so they can regularly grow. Training feeds a passion for what people do.
They also need the freedom to experiment a little. Once they have been trained, they need the space to have some fun. Whether it’s adjusting the way the reverb is a little on a vocal or making the lights a different color, they need space to be creative. Most production people have a creative desire. Those people underneath the tech director need similar freedom. This doesn’t mean that they should be allowed to do whatever without parameters, but it does mean they need parameters so they can play. The more freedom, often the more passionate they become.
Churches don’t simply need volunteers; they need people who are passionate about serving God in the area of production. While it can seem easier to just fill a “seat” it’s important to find the right people for the right job. They are in your church; you just have to find them.
