Trevor Paz started volunteering at GraceLive Church in 2018, but he had to take a break during the pandemic in late 2020 to help care for his son. Then, as a stay-at-home dad of three - one of which with special needs - he returned to volunteering in early 2021.
“Trevor is a godsend to us,” says Frank Scales. He has been a Church Production Magazine reader for years. And when the music director at GraceLife Church in Lincoln, California started seeing Hero of the Month promotions, Scales says he had to act. “I couldn't help but nominate him. He is a stay-at-home dad, with a special needs child who requires a lot of attention, a lot of medical time. And yet, he still finds the time to serve the local church,” Scales wrote in his nomination.
"Church Production Hero of the Month” is a collaboration between Church Production Magazine and Ross Video. We’re looking to highlight the men and women who consistently exceed expectations for your local church. So tell us—who looks like a church production hero to you? Nominate your hero here.
Trevor Paz is now officially GraceLife’s technical director. In 2017, Paz and his family moved to Lincoln and found the small church online and then visited in person. “I tell people this all the time, as soon as we walked through the door, you get a sense that the people are very genuine and it felt like just a very comfortable place to be,” Paz says.
Before moving to Northern California, Trevor Paz lived in Malibu, California, where he ran sound and played guitar at a church plant he helped start.
GraceLife church seats a maximum of 200 people and has a blended traditional service. When Paz met with the pastor, he explained how in college he served with his brother in youth ministry at a large church in Oklahoma. He helped his brother run sound, lighting, rigging, ethernet cables – a little bit of everything. Then after college he moved to Malibu, California to help start a church where he ran sound and played guitar.
“Trevor brought some great technologies, some amazing technologies to the church that really helped everyone,” Scales explains. “He keeps an eye on the ball as far as the budget, without having to be told to. I mean, all of this acumen is like, ‘God, here is my wish list’ were all already kind of built into him.”
Paz started volunteering in 2018 but he had to take a break during the pandemic in late 2020 to help care for his son. Then, as a stay-at-home dad of three - one of which with special needs - he returned to volunteering in early 2021. “We have three kids that are, eight, six and four and they just come with me to church to do stuff. So, it hasn't really been limiting. There are moments where we can't be here because they’re having issues or our or son might be sick, but what's been helpful has been them being in school. I'm able to do more,” Paz says.
Scales says the list of things Paz has helped the church with include finding proper placement for speakers that were installed in a less-than-ideal location. “When he made that switch, he revitalized the room with some EQ adjustments that made a huge difference. We utilized multi-track backings with the band quite a bit and it really opened up a lot of the tracks. They were getting buried before,” Scales says.
He’s also doing a lot of the RF frequency coordination to deal with the many TV channels and emergency frequencies nearby. He’s figured out where to place mics so they don’t have all the interference. And speaking of microphones, Trevor researched and learned to mic their Hammond B-3 organ through the Leslie speaker. And then the pastor bought a baby grand piano and that’s when Paz’s McGiver side showed up. “I really like the Earthworks mic, but it's like $3,000, so we made our own. We bought some parts and created one. I made a mic mount to go on the inside of the baby grand,” he explains. “I really enjoy learning and developing new skills and trying to problem solve and figure things out.”
Paz is also training the new volunteers. “I like to give people the opportunity to be hands on with everything. So, we have a couple of guys who have volunteered and we'll just put them on the board and I'll be next to them. And as they're learning to mix the different levels and hear the changes that it makes, I have an iPad in the background to fix things that need to be as we're doing it live. I think that's just been the best part is just allowing people to make mistakes.
And Paz isn’t just a sound guy. Lighting and stage design are also a part of his resume. “We were using a lot of lights, but not using them in the best way I would say. So, we transitioned to have a more balanced stage wash and some accent lights behind,” Paz explains. “One project that we have in mind that we're just trying to think through and develop currently is doing more stage design as far as a LED tape and some stage setups. That way we were able to paint the stage black versus it was kind of a gray color before. So, there's a black wall and not a lot going on so we're trying to bring some more dynamics to the back of the stage.”
Scales says Paz is doing so much volunteer work that the pastor has put him on the payroll. “Up until a couple months ago he was a volunteer,” Scales says. “But over the past several months he's done whatever it takes to learn, research, and help us 'up our game' in so many ways - too many to list here - and it was the insistence of our pastor that Trevor accept a stipend for his work.”
Paz says that was a difficult discussion because all he wants to do is serve. “I think I've struggled with that, in kind of trying to understand other people as well, because not everybody's that way. That's just in my nature, I guess. But we did have a meeting and they were talking about everything and they were like, well, we'd like to compensate you,” says Paz. “And what I told them is, I think part of the servant aspect of things was that there's the sacrifice of the time in volunteering. That kind of is the payoff for me.”
