Several years ago, Church On the Move (COTM, Tulsa, Okla.) started changing how we did just about everything. Virtually nothing was left untouched, how we did church, how we served our guests, how we worked as a team, and how we functioned technically. Since this involved spending some significant dollars on equipment and infrastructure, I had to get serious about how we handled our equipment planning and purchases.
Planning out the purchase of new gear is a serious topic—no matter the size of your church. It would be a safe bet that most church technical directors maintain a similar type of responsibility and financial stewardship associated with managing the resources that have been entrusted to them. That being said, I'm sure many of us have witnessed firsthand an instance where the technical staff may have loaded up on gear that wasn't really necessary to get the job done. I've honestly never understood this—nothing in my Technical Director's Handbook says I should use the church resources to create a personal gear playground. Rather we should be making the hard decisions to come up with what's best for the church and its vision, determining what's best for the congregation and the overall worship experience, and finding the best way to forecast the future needs of the church. And no, there really isn't a Technical Director's Handbook that I'm aware of—sorry.
Budgeting and acquiring gear can be a real challenge in most church situations. Being a technical director who's never been that much of a gear-head, I've found it interesting that I'm the one ultimately responsible for the equipment side of things; go figure. When I first made the transition from full-time touring to church life, the scope of this part of the job was honestly a bit overwhelming. All of a sudden I had the monumental task to immediately assess and deal with all of our equipment needs, both new and existing, not to mention dealing with their budgeting, acquisition, depreciation, and associated maintenance.
DEVELOP A REFERENCE POINT
Was each equipment item something that would actually make a difference in how we reach people for Christ? Hmmm. Yes, I dared ask the dreaded question.
I was in need of a grid or starting point for how to approach some of the more significant purchases. Not wanting to be the guy mentioning a major upgrade item every time we had a staff meeting, I started playing with an idea I call the “10 Year Rule.” This is exactly what it sounds like. For any major item, I would look for something that would last us for a minimum of 10 years. Yes, I'm very much aware this is a pretty tall order, but turn the tables and think about it. As in most churches and ministries, we have a Chief Financial Officer who is balancing everything the ministry needs financially day in and day out. This person has to have impeccable trust that the various staff leaders are primarily focused on the big picture for the church and not just one little aspect. Hitting the CFO with major equipment purchases every year or so can really start to become a big deal for the church. Conversely, proposing these items only once a decade ... now we're talking. Of course, I'm not saying you only purchase equipment every 10 years, I'm just suggesting that for some of the big ticket items like audio consoles, LED video products, video cameras, moving lights, projectors, video switchers, fiber optic infrastructure, and the like, you might begin to strategize ways to make these items last for 10 years. It can revolutionize your thinking on what equipment is practical and necessary. The 10-Year Rule may require a re-boot of sorts in your thinking, forcing yourself to consider gear with a long-term proactive mindset vs. a short-term reactionary mindset.
INTO PRACTICE
When I first arrived at COTM, every gear issue we were solving was reactionary: from everybody and their dog needing wireless microphones and video support—regardless of the size of a room or the scope of an event—to unpredictable gear failures campus-wide. All I could do was react and shoot from the hip to just get past the problem at hand. Operating for so long with no plan on what kind of gear was needed had put the church in a real quandary—where the very gear that was required to accomplish a service was the same gear that had become unreliable. Once I took a step back and analyzed this situation, I found that by establishing an equipment plan reflecting what was actually needed to keep up with our current growth and expansion, [I could], in essence, make us future-proof. Meaning if I was always looking down the road and purchasing what I thought we'd need in 12-18 eighteen months vs. what we needed tomorrow I would never be caught in this predicament and the ministry would be better served.
Strategize ways to make big ticket items last for 10 years. It can revolutionize your thinking.
As I continued to look at our different spaces, I started analyzing what exactly was needed in each area and if it truly accomplished the vision that was being advanced from our leadership. This grid helped me tremendously as it soon became quite simple to determine if a piece of gear was even needed. Not to put too fine a point on it, but was each item something that would actually make a difference in how we reach people for Christ? Hmmm. Yes, I dared ask the dreaded question. Sometimes it's no fun posing the question since the result means you may not get the latest and greatest piece of gear. Or it could be you won't get the fancy new upgrade every time a new platform is introduced at a trade show. But if this becomes your baseline, the stewardship principle it introduces to your church leadership and even to other staffers could make a huge difference in how you do church. For us, this started shifting our focus so our concentration was on the substance of the creative and message content, with a greater importance placed on our technical execution, rather than if we had acquired a piece of gear that happened to be the flavor of the month.
LEARNING THE HARD WAY
A perfect example for this occurred while we were in the beginning remodel phase of our main auditorium. Prior to this remodel, we had rented large LED video walls for some Easter services in the hope that it would be an improvement over our aging conventional projection system. The dramatic difference it made for our guests in the auditorium was undeniable. So much so, the decision was made to work on acquiring the same or similar product and incorporate it into the remodel. Since I had already locked in our budget numbers I had no choice but to revisit the entire plan—all without changing the bottom line. This was when the hard questions had to be asked. What would make a more lasting impression and connection with our guests, the Midas XL8 audio desk with a highly sophisticated digital patch bay setup OR an Image Magnification setup that provided a vivid connection point only available through high resolution LED? The answer was obvious, but it meant my dream of installing an XL8 complete with all the rather sophisticated extras became history. The vision for this room was the hinge-pin for most of the changes we were making as a church, and establishing such a dramatic video element was hugely important. Would anyone in the seats have noticed that I had one of the more amazing audio console options in place—or was it just something that would've been really cool? It was a hard question to answer since I was both the technical director and the audio engineer.
By following the 10-Year Rule and maintaining a healthy perspective regarding equipment, we've been able to establish a consistent relationship with our church leadership and financial department. This earned level of trust demonstrates what can happen when a technical staff pays attention to the church's best interest first and foremost. Paying this kind of attention to what equipment to budget, purchase, and implement can turn into a dynamic strategy that will easily adapt to the constantly changing church landscape.
