Worship service production isn’t the first thing that comes to mind for many people when they think about church programs and ministries. And yet worship services are a significant factor in determining the level of connection that congregants and visitors feel to the experience of your service. The musical, technical, and spiritual aspects of worship leave a deep and meaningful impact on the people who come to your church – so let’s talk about hiring people who will help services go well.
The Background Players
Many people show up to church and never think twice about the level of effort, coordination, practice, and talent that the songs they’re singing require. But the reality that any church staff member knows is that worship services don’t happen out of thin air – there are often dozens of background players who make the services go off without a hitch week in and week out. These staff and volunteers are not “ministry leaders” in the traditional sense, and yet they are committed to their work for the good of the church and the glory of God.
What Does This Tell Us?
That service production is important, no matter if your church has 15 people or 15,000 in its pews.
Maybe you already have a great audio, video, and lighting team – or maybe you’re just starting out. We hope our advice for building a great Tech team will be helpful no matter where you are on the journey.
Developing a Team
Your Tech team could be in a variety of situations:
Maybe you have a volunteer team that’s doing fine, but it can be diffcult to produce consistent quality work, which can be distracting for your band and your congregation.
Or maybe you’re overwhelmed thinking about all of your options – do you hire an audio expert, a jack of all trades, or a lighting guy? What actually matters most?
Mission Hills’ Tech Director, Aaron Miller, has advice from his own personal journey in audio and tech.
Aaron got his start in audio work at churches, and soon found that expertise was needed in other tech/media areas at the church, like video and lighting. So rather than immediately bringing in additional staff to handle those audio-adjacent roles, Aaron was eager to learn as much as could and extend
his areas of expertise.
This approach allowed the churches he served to make a singular investment that they felt good about, rather than stretching their resources to pay three new staff members. Instead, they chose one person who was an expert in one area and who was willing to grow.
The benefit of starting with an audio expert and expanding into the other areas later on is that audio can make or break the way a service goes.
Why Audio is the Crux of the Worship Service
Audio is the crux of the worship service because it directly affects our ability to pay attention and engage without distraction. We want the audio experience in our services to go off without a hitch not to pat ourselves on the back, but to have as much success in helping others worship you as possible. We want your congregation to feel comfortable singing, to be able to hear the music they love, and to not be distracted by mics that keep cutting out, or a base guitar that’s so much louder than anything else in the room.
Good lighting and video is important for the atmosphere, streaming, and projector screens, but what people in a church are going to notice first is the way that the music sounds. Focusing on audio is also a great way to focus on showing the worship team that their skills are deeply valued. The better your musicians and congregation can hear themselves and one another, the better the entire worship service
will be.
Ministry Mindset
We previously mentioned that some people likely don’t think of media/tech jobs as traditional ministry roles. But we actually think the opposite.
Tech professionals can be more technically minded and therefore less relationally inclined than a pastor or worship leader. But that doesn’t change the fact that their work is directly impacting the kingdom, week in and week out.
Our hope is that every tech staff who walks into an MHA church knows how valued their work is, and how important it is for the good of the church’s ministry.
With that in mind, we encourage church leaders to hire tech directors and work with volunteers who not only will do their jobs well, but will serve with humility, unity, and an understanding that the worship itself is the most important part of any worship service.
We never know the impact that a handful of songs in a worship service is going to make on a person in that room. So whether you have a fully developed Tech team and are looking to shift your perspective or you’re trying to figure out who’s playing guitar at your small church this Sunday, we hope this advice is helpful as you embark on the next stage of your Tech church staff journey.
