DukeDeJong

In the church world you hear a lot about doing things with excellence.  Excellence is one of those buzz words that everyone likes to use, but what does that actually mean?  Does it mean every service has to look like a Cirque du Soleil show or U2 concert?  Of course not, but depending on the client I’m being employed by (a church, event organizer, band, etc), excellence means different things and the trick to maintaining your sanity is to discover what the target of excellence is for that situation.  In a highly programmed environment, the excellence bar is set very high because every element has been planned out, considered, walked through and often time rehearsed multiple times.  If you have a high bar of excellence, mistakes or miscues should be very rare.  In a highly fluid and non-planned environment (I would say this is the norm for smaller events and charismatic churches) excellence is still achievable, it just looks different.  In an environment where the worship set isn’t known or communicated, excellence may be defined as having lyrics up before the first verse is done.  If who will be on stage is not communicated in advance, excellence may mean being a little more generic in order to make sure everyone is lit.  These may seem like shortcomings to an experienced tech but I view excellence as producing the best results possible with the level of planning, gear, volunteers and staff that you have..  I would submit it this way:  Excellence = Perfection – (gear limitations + personnel limitations + lack of production values).  In other words, in order to be excellent you should produce the best results possible with the gear and people you have along with the level of planning and information that exists, or to put it simply the best you can do under the circumstances.  Often times part of my job is to get those details and make a plan out of it, but if the boss won’t give the details or doesn’t even know them, I have to do the best I can with what I have and the excellence bar is shifted.

I’ve been in highly fluid, less planned situations as well as in highly programmed situations and both require a lot of work and forethought.  Highly programmed situations have a super high bar set and lots of work and planning go in to make big and often more complicated things to happen.  This can be a fun atmosphere for a tech guy to be a part of because you get to do big, crazy things.  In more fluid situations, lots of work and planning go into making our systems and processes as flexible as possible so that changes can be made as quickly and as seamlessly as possible.  I may not be able to pull off the same looks or effects, but I can still reach excellence.  The bar for the final result is in a different place in this situation, the trick is to find it, communicate that bar with your team, build some flexibility into your systems and processes in order to accommodate it, and leave at the end of the day knowing you did the best you can under the circumstances.  It’s all you can do, and many churches and events have a huge impact on people reaching their level of excellence.

Are you frustrated with where your level of excellence is?  Do you feel like you’re ineffective in ministry because your level of excellence is lower than others?  I have always been one to strive towards raising the bar of excellence in my ministry by installing new and improved systems, recruiting skilled people, or possibly just training the people you already have.  I want to work with people who want to grow and raise their level of excellence, but we must remember that people have come to know Jesus without any technology for many years and they will continue to meet Him regardless of how good a job we do.  We can certainly help our churches be much more effective in ministry, but their salvation is not on us.  Simply put, we are not responsible to save people, God is.  As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:6, “I planted the seed, and Apollos watered it.  But God is the One who made it grow.”  While working our way towards this thing called excellence our primary job as tech leaders and operators is to water the seeds the best we can but excellence or not remember that God is the One who makes it grow.  The best news I can think of is that regardless of our level of excellence, God can make that seed grow.

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve had a number of opportunities to talk with people about what Technical Ministry and it’s leaders can, and in my opinion and vision, should be.  Some of these discussions have been with people who lead other tech ministries and agree but didn’t exactly have a clear vision of what I presented and a few were Pastors who had a great vision for ministry in general but didn’t realize that same vision should and could apply to their Technical Ministry too.  I’m sure that there are some out there who will disagree as well, and that doesn’t bother me at all.  I know the vision that has been imparted to me and I believe that I’ve been called to operate in, and I feel as if I am to share this vision with those searching for their own vision.  If anything I do or have learned can help you in your ministry in anyway than I am happy to help.

I believe that the church exists for three key purposes, to help people connect in relationship with God, to help us connect in relationship with other believers, and to train and release people with the gifting that God has given them into their own ministry.  If you are reading this then you likely understand and agree with the first point.  The church’s number one calling is to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them (Mat. 28:19-20 paraphrased).  For me this relationship includes learning His word, worshiping Him, and following the commands He has given.  The second one is not something necessarily that every church actively pursues, and that is to connect believers together in life to encourage, challenge, support, and teach each other as we wade through life.  Essentially we all need help, love, and encouragement as we live this life the best that we can, and I believe this is a critical part of the church.  The third is then to take this love for God and love for others and then release that into ministry using the gifts, talents, and passions that God has placed within us.  For some this is joining the worship team, for others it is handing out food and clothes to those in need, and for others yet it is to go to other locations to build things, treat those who are sick, and directly share the story of Jesus with those people.  For a growing number of us God has been giving us gifting in the world of sound, lighting, video, staging and other creative artistic areas.

Technical Ministry is still pretty new and most churches I believe are still trying to figure out what church ministry should be and look like.  Most churches start out with tasks that need to be done regularly so they hire someone to be tech staff.   Makes sense right?  It’s just like the facilities or maintenance guys.  There is a job that needs to be done regularly so we hire someone to do it.  Here’s where I feel most churches misunderstand what tech ministry is and why they end up hiring the wrong people for the job.  Most churches large enough to have tech staff have multiple Pastors to cover a variety of needs.  For example one pastor might be responsible for creating and leading a team of people to carry out a vision for the church’s youth and/or children ministries.  Another might create and lead a team through a vision for leading the church in worship, and yet another lead Pastoral Care, recovery programs, small groups, education and Sunday School, or something else altogether.  In other words, the role of every Pastor or church staff leader is to train, equip, care for, and release a team of people in ministry to and for the church and it’s sphere of influence.  These leaders will frequently lead the charge themselves, often times being hands on in leading the team in ministry.  The larger the church gets, the less hands on the leader may be but the more critical it is that the leader be investing if some key people to lead the teams themselves.  This role in the secular world would closely resemble that of a coach, constantly caring for, teaching, and equipping the team so that they can be the best team they can be and achieve the desired results.

Can you see where I am going with this?  Even though I am not a credentialed Pastor, my role in leading a Technical Ministry is exactly the same role in concept as the Senior Pastor of my church, except my role applies to my specific team of people and the specific ministry the God has given to us.  Each person on the team has different abilities, strengths, weaknesses, and baggage and my role is to learn those things for each person, help them find the role they are uniquely gifted to fill and help them maneuver the obstacles that come their way in order for our team to meet it’s goals while helping them to grow in their relationship with God and each other.   Like it or not, credentialed or not, I am their direct pastor.  I am the one that directly knows them, directly cares for them, serves with them weekly and provides guidance and direction for the ministry they serve in.  I am also the one who generally finds out when their life is falling apart, the first one to pray with them or possibly speak into their life and situation. I am frequently their first line of spiritual covering and that makes me their direct Pastor.

For those who are freaking out and/or disagreeing right now let me bring this home by asking a few questions.  Do any of your Pastor’s really know each person on your team?  Do they know the names of their family, know what is going on in their lives, the struggles they face or the degree to which they serve in the church?  Do any of your Pastors regularly serve side by side with your team, pray with them, read the Bible with them, personally speak God’s truth and direction into their lives, visit them in the hospital or show up to help when there is a need?  For nearly every church that I know of that has a leader over their Technical Ministry the answer is generally no.  Once a church gets bigger they simply can not.  They have to hand over direct leadership of those people, and not just technical leadership, to you.  Now let me ask one more question.  Read the questions above and then answer me this.  Do YOU do all of those things for your team?

I think it’s time all of us as technical leaders realize that we pastor the people who are on our teams.  In all my years of doing this, I have very seldom had people involved in our ministry also be active in other areas of the church, meaning we are the ministry and the leaders that they connect to.  The day that churches begin to realize that the Technical Ministry exists similarly to every other ministry in the church, and we as technical leaders lead our teams with the heart of a pastor and not just as a task completer, is the day that we will see people saved, lives changed and amazing ministry coming from our teams.   I don’t know about you, but that’s why I got into this role in the first place.