Most tech directors, including myself, are paid for the services we provide our respective churches. Yet, when asked what ministry we serve in, we quickly respond, “the tech ministry.” Indeed, we can work and be compensated in the same place we serve; the task is the same regardless of whether we are paid for it or not. I argue, however, that it is not a ministry if you are not actually ministering. Otherwise, it is simply a department. There is a difference. Every ministry is a department, but not every department is a ministry. As technical directors serving the church as opposed to the secular world, we have a duty to those who both serve alongside us, as well as to the general congregation, to minister through the department. We must be proactive in developing not only the technical skills of our fellow co-workers and volunteers, but also their spiritual maturity. Below are five habits that will ensure your “department” is also a “ministry.”
Pray with your team.
Do not just pray for your team—which indeed you should—but pray with your team. John 17:6-19 shows Jesus praying for his disciples, petitioning the Father to “protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one” (v.11b). When we pray with our team, we unify them as well as protect them through the power of Jesus’ name. The tech booth is one of Satan’s favorite places to engage in spiritual warfare. Yet, James 4:7 declares, “submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Could it be that Satan loves to attack the tech booth because those serving in it spend more time fighting and preparing for the mic feedback battles than the spiritual ones?
Break bread with your team.
Besides being one of the last activities Christ did before his capture, all throughout the NT, when Jesus gathers his people, he eats with them. In his third appearance after the resurrection, he prepares the disciple’s breakfast on the shore, saying: “[He] took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish…[then] Jesus said to Simon Peter…‘Do you love me…? Feed my lambs’” (John 21:13-15). Through breaking bread, we not only offer our team sustenance for life, but we show that we are providers and tenders of their needs. Physical food promotes spiritual care. When your team sees you provide for them physically, they will confide in and seek you in their times of emotional and spiritual need.
Read and study the Word with your team.
Second Timothy 3:16-17 declares: “All Scripture is breathed out and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” Even though this verse is commonplace, it should not be taken lightly, especially for those who serve in the tech ministry. When we read the Word, we become equipped to face the tasks at hand. Even if the church leadership is more concerned with whether or not the sound and light cues are nailed perfectly, Christ is concerned with your heart. When we study the Word we come to our jobs in a way that aligns our spirit and demeanor with the heart of God. With over 25 years in live production, I have a saying that tech people are some of the most negative people on earth; and that stereotype is well-deserved. But it should not be the case for those who serve in the church. Even though our threshold for a job-well-done is “perfection or bust,” that is our concern and not of those to whom our job is serving. Our stress is not their issue, but how we face our tasks, and treat the team and congregation, is Christ’s concern for us. Equipping our team with the Word in unity aims our roles at the things important to God. Technical skill will follow.
Serve your team. Serve with your team.
The act of running tech is not serving. The act of ministering the Word and love of God through tech is serving. In his warning against hypocrisy, Jesus proclaims: “The greatest among you will be your servant. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted” (Matthew 23:11-12). I often see that the “keep out” sign that guards the tech booth all too often also becomes a gate around the hearts of those who “live” in the booth. The booth becomes a personal domain for which only the privileged can enter. True service has no walls, it has no barriers between the hearts of the leaders and those whom they lead. We serve our teams by ministering to their needs, by knowing their families, by standing alongside them to teach and uplift, and not to tear down. When your lighting guy misses three cues every service and you begin to not want to schedule him, have you considered that maybe he is going through financial or familial health problems, and the tech ministry is the only place all week he feels worthy? When you serve with your team, you not only improve their technical abilities, but you connect to them as people, not human resources.
Your team is growing.
This last point is the one tell-tale sign of whether or not you are running a department or a ministry. Healthy teams grow. Teams aligned with the Great Commission grow. It is not only your church’s job to grow in numbers, but your job to grow your teams, both in number and spiritual maturity. Those who find that they are spiritually fed are drawn to the ministry and stay in the ministry. Burnout happens when growth stops, when the tasks become repetitive, mundane, and unappreciated. Teams stop growing when leaders stop investing in them. I, like many TDs, sometimes find myself complaining that the church needs to get me more volunteers. However, a healthy ministry will develop members who promote the ministry themselves. Like every young Christian who is on fire for Jesus, so too ought to be your team members. If they are not bringing you new volunteers and telling their friends and fellow congregates about your ministry, then possibly they view it as more of a job than a ministry.
All of the points above work together to create a healthy, growing ministry. In conclusion, Luke sums this up: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer…All the believers were together and had everything in common…Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2:42-47). I argue, therefore, that when we follow these steps, the tech “department” is able to be one of the strongest “ministries” in the church.
