Seems like everyone has a tablet computer – e.g. iPad, Surface, Pixel. They are very portable. They typically have more screen real estate than a mobile phone, and they are touch enabled by default. How do you make use of them in your Church?

Some Churches are using them as checkin stations for Children’s Ministry. Others are using them to automate song lyrics during Worship. Others are using them to project Church School media on a large video screen. The possibilities seem to be endless.

Large Churches have a need for Inventory Management. They may need to keep track of class room items, such as video monitors and DVD players. Or they may need to assign whiteboards. They may even just need a list of valuations for property insurance purposes. Whatever the use, the Inventory Management system should be kept on a computer, with off site copies printed and updated on a regular basis.

A Church Management system (ChMS) will help your Church with Inventory Management. If your Church already has a ChMS, then this is likely already provided. Or you may need to purchase it as an additional module. Or you could just use a spreadsheet file for this purpose. To get started, first decide how you want to organize the Church Inventory:

• By Ministry: Worship, Music, Children, Youth, Adult
• By Building: Sanctuary, Gym, Administrative
• By Category: Video, Audio, Lighting, Tables, Chairs

However you organize the Inventory Management system, you will need some help in getting the initial lists together. Ask for volunteers to help you, and assign them to specific areas. Give them clipboards and pencils to write down the items they find. If you have asset tags, then this needs to be recorded as well. If not, then identifiable names and descriptions will do. After the lists are generated, enter the data and generate a full list. Look for any duplications or errors and correct them.

Once the Inventory is complete, print out a complete list and send it offsite on a regular basis. That way, if there is a fire, you don’t lose the list in the event. Perhaps you have a board of trustees; send the list to the chairman. Or perhaps you have a safety deposit box at your bank; place the copy in there. (If it is a small box, then a flash drive will work.) Whatever the method, add a calendar item to update the list and send it offsite. That way, there is always an updated list available for a backup.

Inventory Management is an administrative function that Churches need to. It can be done on an informal basis, but it will help you keep track of equipment and furniture. Although these items tend to get moved around a lot, they should stay on the list while they are useful. When they are sold or break, you can drop them off the list. The important thing is to have a list, so that you can support any claims made to property insurance companies in the future. Otherwise, the property insurance is going to come up short when rebuilding after an event.

The fall is a time for planning for the new year. Budget requests should be submitted in a timely manner, to allow for adequate consideration of needs for Technical Ministry. Equipment does wear out, requiring troubleshooting and repair. The Church needs to have a budget that supports these types of issues:

• Critical equipment fails, requiring immediate repair
• Support equipment needs troubleshooting and repair
• Technical equipment needs replacement
• Security concerns need to be addressed

An adequate Church budget will include funds to cover these types of expenses. But be sure to be good stewards in the process.

How do you keep the Technical Ministry Team healthy from a Spiritual perspective? Having prayer time before each worship team is one part of this. Pause together and pray for the service. This has a way of calming anxieties, bringing focus, and helping the team members get into the spirit of worship. There may be technical glitches that remain unsolvable after rehearsal, but you don’t need to let those sidetrack the team. If the pastor is available, they can lead the prayer – or close it after a season of praying.

My experience is that most technical people get focused on troubleshooting. They want to solve every last problem, no matter how small. In a commercial event, problems affecting quality have to be resolved. The show must go on, but it can’t if the sound system isn’t working. Or if the video projection equipment is failing. Or if the musical equipment is broken. Actually, a lot of commercial event companies will have backup systems available for just such problems. You swap out the broken equipment with something that you know will work. Then the show goes on as planned. But worship is a different type of event. What counts is having the Holy Spirit present. If that is the case, then you can worship with people even in the dark with no sound system. The technology is there to enhance the experience, not replace it. So worship can still happen. And most of the time, people will understand.

Outside of worship events, you can keep your technical ministry team healthy by fellowshipping together on a regular basis. Plan a Christmas party. Meet together for a meal. Do a service project together. All of these will help the team develop their relationships to each other. The more they get to know each other, the more they will care about each other. And you will find that they will also help one another during times of trouble. This is the nature of the Church.

Many Churches are going to Multiple Sites rather than starting new Churches. All of the Church sites share a common worship service, which is streamed from the main site. Each site has a worship team, which handles announcements and music. The sermon is given by a pastor at the main site and shared with each site. All sites share physical and financial resources.

Multiple site Churches date back to 1942, when Highland Park Baptist Church in Chattanooga TN started additional campuses. Eventually, Highland Park grew to 57,000 members. Today, there are over 8,000 Multiple site Churches in the US. They reach out to people in various states.

To be effective, a Multiple Site Church needs an effective strategy. Here are some of the questions to consider:

• What is the primary purpose for having Multiple Sites?
• Who are the leaders of the overall Church?
• Who will launch the various sites?
• Where will each site meet?
• What will be the worship model?
• Who will manage the local site worship teams?

To be successful, a Multiple Site Church needs a strategy that answers these questions. There may be a senior pastor who develops the vision and gets the Church started, but others are needed for consistent leadership. Technology can support having Multiple Sites, but you need to plan for various contingencies. Overall, the Multiple Site Church can combine its strengths and support new ministries.

People like to get outside during the summer, and Churches sponsor summer programs. It could be an outdoor concert by the Praise Band, or fun and games for the youth. There may be a need for sound equipment outside to support the event. Do you have an outdoor PA (Public Address) system available? How hard would it be to pull equipment from the worship stage for use outdoors? You may need long extension cords to reach the area. The opportunities are there.

Weather is a factor to consider. If it rains – before or during the event – then how do you cope? Best practice is to ensure that all electrical connections are water resistant. Acoustical instruments should be protected from the rain if possible. Electrical instruments need water resistant connections to power. Fortunately, most portable microphones will work fine in the rain.

Summer outside events can be great opportunities to reach the community around the Church. People will wander up and join in the fun. In the process, they will find out more about the Church. Be sure they feel invited to come to Church in the future.

With summer coming up, it is time to finish your Church’s summer plans. This will likely include lots of children and youth events. What are the technical needs for all of these events? It could involve your volunteers in any of the following activities and tasks:

• Sound for VBS program events during the day
• Setup for Youth events
• Producing video clips from Youth trips
• Producing video clips from Children’s events

Your Church may have plenty of volunteers, so the load will not be too great on any one person. But be sure to allow for these types of events. Some may even be popup events – i.e. not really planned in advance, just an opportunity. You want to avoid burnout over the summer.

The time after Easter is known as Eastertide. Easter Sunday is such a special day, that it is hard to believe that it really lasts longer. But we have Holy Week, which is the week before Easter.

What are some things that your Church does during Eastertide? Are there any outdoor events planned? What kind of youth activities are planned? These are some of the questions to address as you plan out the need for technical ministry services at this time of year.

A lot of the congregation will dress up for Easter. One way to celebrate that day is to provide a picture spot. This can be outside on a sunny day. Or it could be in the narthex. All you need is a backdrop that says “Today is Easter Sunday.” People will take pictures of their family.

You could also provide someone with a camera, but then you have to distribute the pictures. This should be a free service for the congregation (there are plenty of commercial opportunities available.)

As we celebrate Easter, we make memories and praise to the living Christ. May it be a source of joy for all who come.

Church Staff tend to be a varied group of people who are commited to serving the Church and Community. Some will be well trained, such as clergy and lay paid staff. Others will just be volunteers who give generously of their time and energy to the Church.

How does your Church communicate effectively with one another? The Church web site will typically provide email addresses, so you can use email. But there are also groupware tools that businesses use to communicate in teams. And video conferencing is also available online so even when people are spread out, they can still have a conversation together about the business of the Church. Take advantage of these tools, so you never have the situation of the “left hand does not tell the right hand” about what is going on.

Does your Church have a lot of IT talent on the Technical Ministry Team? Some Churches are blessed by this, where the volunteers just take care of IT support issues on their own. Other Churches hire one or two IT staff to handle issues at the Church, such as:

• Networking, hardware and software
• Computer support issues by staff
• Worship support issues
• Other services in need of computer support

Whether you have great staff or great volunteers, if you have the expertise, then look for ways to share it with other Churches and related ministries. You could have any of the following opportunities:

• IT equipment swap; make sure any computers have been erased and the OS reinstalled, to avoid sharing malware
• Meetings where you discuss IT issues and solutions with other Churches
• Training on various software; some older adults struggle with it
• Cyber Security issues; how to avoid getting hacked

The needs are there. People need more IT support than they can usually afford. By sharing your expertise, you are providing a ministry to your congregation and community.

In a technical sense, Advent starts the Christian Year. It begins with the arrival of Christ as a Babe in a Manger. His coming was foretold by the prophet Isaiah, which gets read to remind us that we expect Him to come again. While we wait, we celebrate with special events and services. One of my favorites is Christmas Eve with Silent Night and live candles.

Advent by it’s nature upsets the regular scheduling of volunteers. There are special services which need volunteers to help. So the regular monthly schedule goes out the window during December. Maybe that’s a good thing. We sometimes get in a rut by doing the same thing over and over and over. Advent has a marvelous way of shaking things up, as we remember that Christ came to make all things new!

This season is also a great time to thank all of your volunteers in Technical Ministry. It can be simple, like sending a Christmas Card with words of appreciation for all they have done this year. Or it can be complex like hosting a dinner party for the volunteers and their families at a local restaurant. Whatever you do, be sure to express your thanks and appreciation. It will go a long way towards making up for the demanding, often hectic, schedule of special events that need to be covered.

Merry Christmas, and may the arrival of the Babe in the Manger inspire all of us to serve the Church in new ways in the new year!

A network firewall helps prevent intrusion by hackers. It is maintained by the IT support person, either paid or volunteer. This helps the computer systems that are on the network, or attached to the network – e.g. laptops – to be secure.

Churches meet regularly all year, but what happens in an emergency? Does your Church have an Emergency Messaging system to let the congregation know that the worship service has been cancelled or moved? This could be as simple as a mailing list that the pastors can use to get the word out. Or it could be a mobile phone alerting system that blasts a text message to the cell phone of every member.

There are lots of events that can impact the worship service. October is the final stretch of the Hurricane season. Storms come and will damage the Church building or community. Fires can sweep through the area, affecting property. Floods can make roads impassible. Earthquakes can damage buildings to the point where they cannot be used safely. Ice storms will make the roads and sidewalks dangerous.

By setting up an Emergency Messaging system, the Church can alert members to the hazard. If the service has been cancelled, then people can stay home and avoid the danger. If the service has been delayed, then people will know of the new time, after the danger has passed. In one situation, the service was streamed from the pastor’s home, so the message was to stay home and watch online! Keeping people safe is the responsible and prudent thing to do, but you have to let them know in advance. Otherwise, some brave souls will show up at the Church for worship and be disappointed!

Every Church should have a plan for protecting Information Technology (IT) resources. This may simply be making backup copies that one of the Trustees takes home with them every week. Or it can be an automated system that backs up computers to the Cloud (Internet). The point is to protect these resources against various hazards. This helps make these systems more reliable for worship and operations.

There was a time when computers in the Church were a new thing. Everyone took care of them like they were their own; and many times they were donated by members not too long ago! Nobody thought of stealing or harming them, for they respected the Church. But times have changed. Church staff can be duped by phishing attacks into giving up passwords, allowing malfactors to get into Church networks. Volunteers can unintentionally download malware onto Church computer systems. And hardware does go down occasionally. The Church needs to plan how to mitigate these issues, just as businesses do.

What happens on Sunday morning if the computer that runs the lyrics for the service goes down? Ideally, you would have another system that could be hot swapped in to run the service that day. Or what happens if the Internet connection goes down? Can you still stream the worship service via a hotspot on a cell phone or another device? Or what if the lighting system goes down, so the sanctuary stays dark? Is there an emergency setting that will at least provide some light to see by? This author has seen all of these circumstances, and scrambled to find workarounds.

Worship can and should go on in spite of these technical problems. The Holy Spirit will still be present if we are singing a cappella by the light of candles. And most preachers know how to project their voice to the last pew so the congregation can hear them without a PA system. But with some wise planning, we can have systems that are reliable to work around these problems and have regular worship. A lot of times, the congregation won’t even notice; and that’s the way it should be with worship. We focus on glorifying God!

Many Churches follow the Christian Year in their programming, which runs from Advent to Kingdomtide. This implies that new budgets should be set in the Fall, rather than December. The end of the year is time for execution, not decision making. Christmas has a lot of activity centered around the birth of Jesus in Nazareth. Why add to the busyness of the season by having budget meetings?

A better time for setting the budget is September. Start after school is back in session, and schedules have settled down. Follow your budget review, planning process then to completion. The goal would be to have a new Church Budget settled and ready to go by Advent. This should include technical ministry needs for the Christmas season as well. By doing this, the new equipment will be available for the Christmas productions, rather than having to wait until next year.

Many worship services use technology to augment the service. This might just be wind instruments. Or it might be electrical instruments, with their associated PA systems. Or it might include screens and lighting. One use would be to link a video that celebrate a national holiday with movements by volunteers in the congregation. The results can make worship more dynamic and engaging for the whole congregation.

In general, the equipment is run by staff or volunteers. But volunteers can be hard to recruit and train and schedule. One alternative is to include automation. For example, you can automate the lyrics for a worship song by using a click track with queues for the projection software. This ensures that the correct lyrics show up on the screen as the congregation sings together. My rule of thumb is as follows:

Lyrics should advance when the congregation sings the last word of the current slide.

Bradley Roberts

The automation can also apply to lighting cues. The lighting scene can thus change from song to song, or even within songs. This allows a spot to appear on the soloist, to emphasize that they are singing the current verse. Or the lights can shine in front of the altar, where a reader is reading the scripture for the day. Or the lights can be dimmed, but not totally out, during the sermon so people can focus on the message.

Overall, automation can help the worship service run smoother, with less likelihood of glitches due to human error. It can also reduce the demand on volunteer scheduling, so that worship is completely staffed and high quality.

Church Staff serve the congregation, so they are accountable to them. This means that in administrative matters, the staff will be held accountable. Of course, this can be taken to the extreme, where the staff are criticized for everything they do, right or wrong. Hopefully, in the Church, people have some appreciation for Grace! And staff are human beings, fallible and prone to mistakes.

Should staff have performance reviews like you find in companies? Those reviews are designed to be objective, measuring performance and how well the employee met their stated goals for the year. By setting those with a manager in advance, there is less room for emotional responses to some issue that popped up during the year. And the employee knows what is expected, besides showing up for work every workday. However, having been in numerous performance reviews over the years, they often seem rather sterile and perfunctory.

In the Church, reviews should be more of a reassessment of goals and objectives. Last year’s goals should be discussed honestly between staff and senior leadership. This could be the senior pastor, or an executive in charge of all programs. The goals should be evaluated to see how well they were met, and what could have been done better. This should be documented. And then new goals and objectives should be created for the new year. By taking this approach, the review becomes less about personalities and more about accomplishments. And the results can be summarized to the congregation so they know what was accomplished in the past year.

For most Church staff, online storage – i.e. Storage Area Networks – is a way to collaborate on planning. You can have a locally shared copy of planning documents, tentative copies of newsletters and bulletins, etc. But is it worth it these days?

With more and more resources found on the Internet, you can have virtually unlimited storage for Church documents. You only need to decide who has access and how is the storage organized. Here are some ideas:

• Organize the documents by Area of Ministry – e.g. Adults, Youth, Children
• Allow staff to access the documents in their Area of Ministry only
• Create a shared Church Administrative calendar, so everyone on staff can see what’s coming up and avoid conflicts

Since the files are on the Internet, they will be accessible online no matter where staff members go.

Of course, you want to make sure that anything that needs to be confidential has added access control. Ideally, you would log who accessed these confidential materials.

Many Churches provide volunteers to help with Disaster Recovery. When a nearby city suffers damage from a natural disaster, the needs are great and immediate. The 1st responders will perform search and rescue operations. After that, there may be a need for volunteers in a shelter, or home repair, or delivering food and water.

The Church can help these efforts. One Church bought a trailer and outfitted it with emergency tools and supplies. They organized a team of people to be immediately available to go and help. They provided service to damaged communities in Christ’s name. This is the Faith Community in action.

Whenever a new team member comes on board, they should receive training. This should happen outside of the worship service. The team member should be trained on just one piece of equipment at a time, to let it sink in. They can ask questions to ensure that they understand the equipment, for example:

• How do you turn on the equipment?
• If needed, how do you sign in? (Most computers require this.)
• What are the features and functions that are typically used in worship?
• How do you troubleshoot problems?
• How do you turn off the equipment?

Some equipment is left on all the time, but not everything. There may also be a power up sequence for the technical booth. (Typically, there is a master switch on the racks; then other equipment gets initialized in order.)

Training time should always be outside of the worship service. This provides time to go into details, explain just what is going on, and answer questions thoroughly. If you must provide on the job training, then try to followup with a training meeting afterwards to explain details, answer questions, provide guidance.

By providing training, you ensure that the equipment is handled well and not abused. It also makes it easier for the new team member to get on board.

Growing Churches attract New Members. How you bring those New Members on board has a lot to say about the Church. You want them to come and grow spiritually. But how do you do that effectively?

You need to challenge new comers not only to join the Church but to also want to Grow Spiritually. There are many paths that this can take:

• Bible Study, both individually and in group settings
• Service to others, both in the neighborhood and across town
• Missions, both local and global

If you bring New Members on board and help them to grow, then the Church will be strong and well. While not every Church has opportunity to grow, every Church does have the opportunity to help its members grow spiritually. By focusing on that service, you help build up the Church.

In order to plan effectively, you need good Attendance Tracking Data. Whether it be worship, or small groups, you need to plan for space needs. To do that, you need a good idea of what Attendance looks like, and how it is changing over time. Without it, you’re planning in the dark.

How do you get good Attendance Tracking Data? There are apps available that allow people to self report their attendance at an event. However, not everyone will use those apps; so you have to add estimates of the number of additional people at the event. The leader of the event should be responsible for ensuring that the report is accurate; or you could have staff do it. Ideally, then, you look at the trends of the data to perform capacity planning. If attendance is on an upward arc, then you need to arrange for bigger and bigger spaces for the event. If attendance is on a downward arc, then you may want to consider arranging for a smaller space. However, be sure to inform the event planners of the trend that you see. They may be surprised, thinking all is well and attendance is growing. Or they may have some insight into where the attendance is going in the future that the trend line doesn’t reveal. Let that also factor into your space planning. The goal is to always provide space that is “just right” for the number of people that are coming. You don’t want to always be adding chairs at the last minute. Nor do you want to waste money on seats that won’t be filled. Attendance Tracking Data is the way to plan effectively, using the resources for God’s glory at all events.

Christmas Eve services are always memorable. I remember growing up that we would have individual candles to light. At the end of the service, we would all sing “Silent Night” and light the candles. Some Churches stopped doing that because it was a fire hazard. Other Churches have renewed the tradition, but with candle holders that were a little sturdier. Instead of the paper circles, I’ve seen clear plastic holders that would catch any wax and not catch fire. It is a wonderful tradition and a special moment.

How do you manage the lights in the worship service when you are lighting the candles? The best way would be a very slow fade from fully bright to about 20% light – i.e. just enough to see by if someone left their pew during the lighting. But this may need to be a manual process. Can you get your lighting board to run a slow fade taking several minutes to complete? Most of them are designed for quick transitions. You may need to string together a number of transitions in a row, each one taking the lights further down. The goal is to have the sanctuary dark enough that the candles stand out, but not too dark to walk. That way, the ministers, ushers can see where they are going. And the congregation gets to experience the full effect!

Thanksgiving is a national holiday. Churches don’t usually have a service on Thanksgiving day, since it is considered family time. However, there may be a special emphasis on Giving Thanks that week. How can the Tech Team support that?

One approach would be to produce a short video for worship that includes people giving thanks. This could be shot in various locations, then edited together into a short video. It could then be played before or during worship on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. This helps with the special emphasis. It could also be part of the sermon. The point is to show people giving thanks.