Running church tech is much like being a member of an olympic-level relay race—it takes commitment, teamwork and plenty of stamina.
Imagine the scene:
It’s the finals of the 2024 Production Olympics, staged by the tech team at First Eastern Healing Life Church of the United Holiness Temple Place.
With their family members cheering them on, Team Introvert will take on The Black Shirts in the final event for all the marbles: a relay race.
When the pre-service countdown timer hits zero, the first racer will have to untangle a 100’ XLR cable then properly (over-under!) coil and wrap it. Then, a teammate will race to a camera position, properly plug in an intercom headset and get a pass-phrase delivered from the video director before repeating it to a judge. If done correctly, the next team member will take cut-out portions of the PCO service flow and assemble them in the order in which they happened at last year’s Christmas service. Then, a proofreading test to find and fix the grammatical errors in the “sermon notes” loaded in ProPresenter. Next, a challenge to replace batteries in all of the IEM packs and get them to power up. Then, the final leg: gobbling up a plate of donuts.
After the hoopla subsides and a winner is crowned, the teams and their families cap off the fun with food and laughter, door prizes are handed out (Starbucks gift cards, maybe?), and everyone goes home with hearts and bellies full.
“Any opportunity to build relationship outside of serving on the weekend is only going to help the time on the weekend be better.”
—Tyler Kaneshiro, the Production Director at Denver megachurch Flatirons Church
Something like this will probably happen at multiple churches this year, and the result will likely be similar at all of them. The techies, who are so normally accustomed to being overworked and underappreciated, will relish the fact that they’re part of a group of people who know their names and genuinely care about them as people, beyond just the role they play during weekend services.
Feeling that depth of relational connection will help them feel even more deeply embedded in their team, and their sense of loyalty to their teammates, leaders, and ministry will continue to grow.
On the flip side, there are multiple churches where this scene won’t actually unfold this year. Maybe it’s because of a lack of budget, or the feeling that they “don’t have time to plan anything”, or because they claim they’re all just a bunch of introverts and don’t really need to hang out with other people. Or maybe because its leaders don’t really prioritize anything beyond high-level performance on the weekends.
It’s possible, then, that team ultimately may lose members during challenging and adverse seasons, or that they are fraught with bickering and tension in high-stress moments and eventually whittle down to just one or two incredibly overworked individuals that continue to hang on for dear life.
“Community is what drives productivity. It is also crucial so that your team knows each other and knows the areas they can shore up each other, support each other, and not have a co-worker mindset, but a community mindset so that they desire to see each other succeed.”
—James Harding, the Director of Ministry Coordination at First Baptist Church in Rogers, Ark.
Having a fun event with barbecue and free coffee doesn’t guarantee freedom from difficult seasons in tech ministry. But what it does do is reinforce the idea that when difficult seasons come, teammates are all in it together and are part of a community that has each other’s backs.
Creating opportunities for team connections beyond just serving together on weekends may be a critical component in developing a team that is capable of performing at a high level during those weekends.
“Community is what drives productivity,” says James Harding, the Director of Ministry Coordination at First Baptist Church in Rogers, Ark. “It is also crucial so that your team knows each other and knows the areas they can shore up each other, support each other, and not have a co-worker mindset, but a community mindset so that they desire to see each other succeed.”
“People want to connect with people,” he continues. “Now, that might sound counterintuitive to the nerdy introverts that usually sign up for production ministry areas to volunteer or even be staff in our areas. But the truth is, we are human, designed and woven together by God for relationships.
Sierra Harrison was hired as the Central Experience Director at Elevate Life Church, a multisite ministry based in Jacksonville, Fla., in the summer of 2023. She immediately realized that the main issue to focus on wasn’t running the services but was actually strengthening the team responsible for it.
“When I first started, the teams were getting along okay doing the task of services,” she explains. “Every problem that was brought to my attention from volunteers, leaders, and staff really came down to the fact that there was no real community within the teams or across our locations. At the basic level, our people just want to be needed and known.
I’d say it is the most important thing for my team, especially right now.”
The idea of creating community on a tech team isn’t necessarily a grandiose one. It can begin small, like taking prayer requests before or between services, or using ice-breaker topics to spur conversation so members can get to know each other better.
Building a foundation that says “we care about you as a person” can be done without a cost. But it does require prioritizing that effort from the top down.
Leaders can hand-write thank you cards for volunteers to show appreciation and value and can make it a point to honor or recognize birthdays, anniversaries, and milestones for those who have served for multiple years.
Building a foundation that says “we care about you as a person” can be done without a cost. But it does require prioritizing that effort from the top down.
“Anyone can learn a task, but it takes intentionality and knowing its importance to bring community,” says Harrison. “Everything starts with you as a leader. You need to not only say it is important but act like it and do your best to create opportunities.”
The idea of building community, whether on an individual basis or through larger team gatherings, is one that truly must be prioritized by team leaders. Unfortunately, it can be easy for some to minimize these types of things if their natural personality may not be inclined towards hospitality, encouragement, our any sort of outgoing or pastoral leaning.
In those cases, it may be an option to “recruit” spouses of team members or even volunteers on other teams who may be more adept at thinking about and planning these types of things. Not having an inclination towards them isn’t necessarily an excuse to avoid team-building activities, especially when it’s incredibly likely that our teams desire to be connected with each other relationally.
“I think the majority of people want to belong to a community,” posits Tyler Kaneshiro, the Production Director at Denver megachurch Flatirons Church. “Any opportunity to build relationship outside of serving on the weekend is only going to help the time on the weekend be better,” he adds. “I liken it to different small groups or Bible studies I’ve been a part of in the past. The best ones were ones that spent time together outside of the hour we intentionally met to study or talk about life together.”
Finding time to gather outside of services doesn’t always just have to be a social, fun-and-lollipops time, though. It is still possible to “be productive” and socialize at the same time, and midweek training sessions are a perfect way to hit both avenues simultaneously.
Perhaps training happens for an hour, whether for new recruits or existing teammates who want to learn a new role (or improve at a current one), and then there’s a hangout time afterwards (with or without food) where other existing team members are invited to come and hang out with those at the training. Two birds, one stone.
Want to get a third bird with that same stone? Turn the training session hangout into an opportunity to also mingle with the worship team.
“I heard one time that ‘you should know the guitar player’s kids name before you go ask them to turn the volume down’,” says Kaneshiro. “In other words, your worship team needs to know that you actually do care about them as people beyond just the instrument they play. And it’s much easier to care about someone when you know more than the name that’s listed on Planning Center. Having a chance to engage with each other in a lower pressure environment is key to actually growing in relationship with one another.”
After all, regardless of whether people are on stage or in the tech booth, they’re all charged with working together to create an environment in which people can experience the presence of God. That collaboration happens much more smoothly when there’s a semblance of relational connection between the teams, because it becomes so much easier to work together and address any possible issues or alleviate tension. It also reinforces the idea that Worship and Production really are part of the same team pulling in the same direction towards the same goals and aren’t antagonists towards each other.
Tension seems to always exist between different service teams simply due to the perceptions and prejudices that pop up between them. Without creating intentional time to build relationships and community, these tensions will continue to flare up and cause issues rooted in self-defense, ego, and isolation.
“DO NOT SILO. I’ll say it louder for those in the back, DO NOT SILO,” FBC Rogers’ Harding proclaims. “All you are going to do is create an us-versus-them mentality when you do that even if it’s not your intention. Being able to say no comes a lot easier when you have a relationship with the person you have to say no to.”
“Having the relationship with the student guy, the worship guy, the whoever guy is going to help them receive your no with much more grace and understanding than if you are an isolated hermit that doesn’t do anything but hermit around with all your hermit friends,” Harding cautions. “Connect, engage in those other ministries when you can. Help find ways to help them. Build those connections so that you’re truly on the same team.”
To help avoid that issue, “one thing we do is hold a quarterly Team Night for all of our staff, contractors, and volunteers across all of our campuses to come together,” explains Flatirons’ Kaneshiro. “This includes our Worship, Production, and Creative teams. We provide a meal, have a chance to worship together, and either hear an encouraging message/devotional or sometimes we will have a ‘Masterclass’ type person come and share their gift with us. Having a chance to be together that doesn’t revolve around weekend services has been a huge gift to our team.”
The common thread with all of these concepts is intentionality. Team-building and community don’t happen by accident. It’s something that must be thought out and embedded into the way a team functions. There can’t just be talk of community; the actions and lifestyle of the team and its leaders must reinforce the ideas as well.
“Ministry staff and ministry volunteers’ spouses are often jokingly (but seriously) called ministry widows. The sad reality is that it is often true.” -
—James Harding, the Director of Ministry Coordination at First Baptist Church in Rogers, Ark.
Furthermore, many teams often refer to themselves as a “family”. But if they aren’t really spending time together and strengthening relationships with each other, are they really a family?
Also, what better way to say you’re a family than to invite team members’ actual families to be part of community events as well?
“Ministry staff and ministry volunteers’ spouses are often jokingly (but seriously) called ministry widows,” Harding observes. “The sad reality is that it is often true. We need to make sure those families aren’t stuck out there on their own wondering where their spouse/dad/mom is. It’s important that they either feel welcome in the same ministry, or they are connected to the church somewhere so that they are surrounded, cared for, and shown appreciation. Also, we always THANK the spouses and families for letting us take so much of their family time,” he adds.
It's one thing to say something is important, but it’s something else entirely for one’s actions to show that it’s important.
If community is important, then it must be prioritized. It doesn’t always require budgets, but it does require planning, leadership, and vision.
To become part of a team’s culture and identity, community must go beyond just a concept and become something that organically exists week-to-week, regardless of the season or the level of a church’s busyness. It’s not just something that happens or exists because of a one-off event. It must become embedded in the team’s DNA.
As Elevate Life’s Harrison notes, “Consistency is key.”
