Many churches aren’t just venues for worship services. They are wedding chapels, funeral parlors, graduation arenas, concert venues, banquet halls, meeting rooms, and more.
For churches, there’s a fine line between being welcoming and inviting to the community, and just becoming a doormat in a free-for-all for those wanting a nice space in which to host their event.
When the number of events increase, the number of conversations surrounding those decisions should increase as well.
Set Boundaries
It’s important to set boundaries and clarify expectations regarding these non-service events, whether they originate from within or outside the church itself, ranging from how they’re approved to how they’re supported.
The first step ideally is for a ministry’s leadership to determine if and what kind of midweek events they might even be willing to support.
“We have a strict stance on outside events and how we proceed with those events,” says Justin Crisp, the Media Director at Huntsville, Ala.’s Whitesburg Baptist Church. “Does this event further the kingdom? How does this event tie into our church’s current [growth] strategy?”
“Taking part in events with our local community is one way we can share the gospel,” he adds. “It is also a way to build relationships with those around our neighborhoods. Those relationships that you will build with the local community gain trust and understanding between your church and your surrounding community.”
Faith Assembly implements “blackout dates” around busy seasons on the church calendar.
Jonathan Perez, the Media Director at central Florida’s Faith Assembly, agrees “I think people associating the local church with the community is super crucial to building trust. If our mission is to help people encounter Jesus, but statistically people are not likely to enter your building for a church service, then we need to be accessible to the community even if it’s for them to come to a graduation for local school, an HOA meeting or some other event,” he says.
Faith Assembly implements “blackout dates” around busy seasons on the church calendar where outside groups are not permitted to use the facility during that window, which helps ensure teams aren’t getting overloaded with distractions during things like Easter prep.
Put Special Event Policies in Place
It also benefits Perez’ team that his church has a policy allowing the production/media team to speak into requests prior to their approval to ensure that those requests are actually feasible.
At Vineyard Columbus, a multi-site ministry based on Ohio’s capital city, they take the pre-approval process a step further. “I’m a part of an Event Planning Team that weighs in on the feasibility of events before passing them on to our senior leadership,” explains Madison Macklin, the church’s Live Event Manager. “The team is made up of a representative from our Production, Facilities, Operations, Missions, and Security teams. Every outside event fills out a form, and if any of those teams say it’s not feasible, we decline the event. When it does pass, however, we assign a ministry to own the event and it moves on to our senior leadership team for approval.”
Getting as much info as possible during the event request/approval process is critical…
The pre-event form is essentially a 30-question survey that not only gathers information about the person or organization requesting to hold the event, but also about other pertinent generic logistical details, including expected attendance, setup and cleanup time needed, whether anything will be sold during the event, and if the organizers possess liability insurance.
From there, it dives into technical specifics: will content need to be displayed on a screen (and if that will be done by a presenter), what microphones will be used for if they’re requested (announcements/speaking, vocal performance, etc.), will house music be needed for walk-in and -out, will a recording of the event be requested, etc.
A form like this could also be used to find out if an event will need to be live streamed, whether accommodations need to be made for persons with disabilities (sign language or captioning, for instance), and if they can provide their own personnel to provide technical support and operation during the event.
Getting as much info as possible during the event request/approval process is critical because it allows for margin to set expectations and prepare accordingly, especially since the church’s technical teams must continue supporting the regular flow of church ministry events.
One thing that can make event support easier is to create documents, whether they’re called “how-to” guides, handbooks, or checklists, that allow some measure of autonomy for events to function on their own without the constant need for support from production staff or volunteers.
“Handbooks should be user-friendly, accessible, and standardized across all your spaces,” says Vineyard’s Macklin. “Make sure your expectations are clear. If you always need something turned off after an event or need the stage to look a certain way, put it in writing and go over it in training. Highlight it (literally) and ensure your expectations are spoken and understood, so both your team and the people using the space are on the same page.”
Guides not only include step-by-step instructions on performing simple tasks like changing room lighting levels or turning on microphones but can also provide basic troubleshooting coaching by explaining what to do in common “uh-oh” scenarios. It can even be helpful to include pictures, like what the video switcher should look like (with buttons illuminated) when sending a computer presentation to projectors, or even the default setup of tables and chairs that the room should be returned to when the event is over.
“We have classrooms that are set up as ‘Do It Yourself’ rooms,” explains Mary Meier, the Production Operations Director at the West Des Moines (Iowa) campus of Lutheran Church of Hope. “The equipment is simple and there are ‘how-to’ instructions. We also provide training for facilitators on how to use the equipment, so they feel confident doing it themselves.”
In one instance, where the instructions proved helpful, Meier recalls that a “facilitator was willing to learn how to support the class herself, so we taught her the basics. She is now comfortable setting up her own ProPresenter presentations, hitting a button on the switcher to get content on the screens, and turning the mic for the speaker up and down. Because of her willingness to learn, we no longer need to have a production person there during her weekly classes,” she adds.
A scenario like this may be the difference between where internal repeating events, like Bible studies, small groups, or other ministry gatherings, may be treated differently than an external event, even a wedding or funeral, that’s requested from outside.
Having a recurring event with the same point person each week may make it easier for a production team to be “hands-off” for event support because of the ability to train a ministry leader how to utilize the technology in a particular room and then simply just be on-call if something critical arises.
“We have several large TV carts that can be wheeled around the building that you can connect to via HDMI so you can show slides or a video, and we have portable audio system kits for smaller events that are in rooms without an audio system,” says Vineyard’s Macklin. “In the rooms with a built-in audio system, we have written instructions for turning on and off the system and we encourage people to run their small events themselves.
“One event in particular, a class run by our semi-retired senior pastor, chose Mondays, our day off, for their recurring event. Despite the importance of the class, we couldn’t support it and still have a rest day, so we trained a pastor who was attending how to turn on and off the audio system. After a few phone calls the first two weeks (which were very easy to solve) it’s been running for months now with no input from anyone on our team. Everybody wins!”
For Whitesburg’s Crisp, this thought process has become part of a proactive initiative to improve the “self-serve” technology aspects across his church’s campus. “As we build and renovate across our campus, we are installing Q-Sys systems integrated into rooms for leaders to have everything they need for a class at the push of a button,” he explains. “This will help save our staff many hours with setups and teardowns as well as hours it takes to run the classes and events.”
Having a recurring event with the same point person each week may make it easier for a production team to be “hands-off” …
Designate Special Event Spaces
Having spaces that can essentially “run themselves” is critical in helping a church’s technology teams avoid overwork and additional late nights and long hours from non-weekend events. Of course, finding willing and able volunteers to help support those events is also an option, one that Crisp pursues when he can. “Each event is staffed on availability purposes, and we try to contract those events to our volunteers to help build their knowledge,” he notes.
Perhaps this is a role that could be filled by a recent retiree who has time on their hands, or maybe a volunteer who’s unable to serve during regular weekend services due to their work schedule. Maybe there’s a teenager who’s looking to get more experience with technology, or even someone whose spouse regularly attends one of those midweek events and is just looking for something to do to keep themselves busy also.
Conversely, there will always be events that require a skill set or time commitment beyond what a volunteer may be able to provide, and when needed, a ministry shouldn’t feel uncomfortable assigning a contractor or even (part-time or full-time) staff members to event support.
In those cases, it’s common practice for the compensation of a tech person or team to be included with event rental fees associated with outside groups using the facility. “If an outside event requires anything above just gathering in a space (for example, if they bring in food and the space needs cleaned, or if they require audio/video support), we will charge them a fee for the affected teams’ time. The fee is small, but it helps to make up for either the extra hours, or the hours we’re being pulled away from our regular duties. [For tech support] the more services they need (audio, slides, camera, livestreaming), the more it costs,” Macklin adds.
“We recently renovated our church’s chapel on our South Campus and there is a fee to use that space for weddings and funerals,” says Crisp. “Those fees cover the costs of media support. Outside events that use our church’s facilities that are not recognized as ministry events all have fees that pay media support personnel. Fee structure is charged at $250 for the first four hours and $50 for each hour after, and that charge is for each person staffing any event on our campus.”
There are many churches nationwide that regularly have events filling up their support calendars between Sundays, and that can make for long weeks and exhausted teams. For churches that choose to go this route, it can be critical in their desire to not only be a beacon for their broader community, but to also be a resource for their church family.
However, when the number of events increase, the number of conversations surrounding those decisions should increase as well.
“Have open and honest conversations with your team leader and pastor,” advises Lutheran Church of Hope’s Meier. “If the time commitment for outside events is conflicting with the time needed to support your church’s own events, where do they really want you to focus your time and best efforts? Help your leadership understand that even if a venue is available for an outside group to use, that doesn’t necessarily mean you have the capacity in your production team to support an event.”
And whether it’s in supporting a recovery small group or hosting a graduation service for a local school, it should never be forgotten that it’s all an act of ministry.
“Just like your weekend worship service, this is an opportunity God is giving you to share His love with the world around us,” Meier remarks. “Once you have that mindset firmly in place, then figuring out the details of how to partner with outside people to make the event a success - without overtaxing you teams - is much easier.”
