The Church is a unique organization in that it has one priority:

To Proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord

All other considerations are secondary to this. That doesn’t mean that the Church doesn’t need other priorities, only that they have to be secondary to this one.

The Technical Ministry of the Church needs to keep this one priority in mind. All activities, especially worship, should be about this proclamation. The Goal of Technical Ministry is to enhance that proclamation, not detract from it. All of the equipment, technical services, program licenses, software should be evaluated by a simple rule:

Does this enhance the Proclamation of the Gospel?

If the answer is Yes, then by all means continue to use the technology. When the answer comes up No, then it is time to reflect and reconsider. The technology might be the latest, newest or hot in the market; but if it doesn’t enhance the proclamation, then it is useless in the Church.

The question about priorities is often confused with the issue of what comes first, technology or ministry. It is ministry that is the most important to the Church staff. The technology is there to facilitate that, not to supplant it. But that doesn’t mean that there need to be no technical priorities. The Tech Team can come up with a wish list, or a set of enhancements that they would like to see. Often times these are practical changes involving better equipment, consolidation of effort, or making it easier to do the work. There is a place for this; but where is it in the Church budget?