November 26th, 2007
Tech Arts Leadership Team
Posted by Church Video Ideas under Church Media, Church video, Companies, Greg's Favorites, Holidays, Ideas, Intros and Announcements, Media ministryLast night after our last service I held the first gathering of our just formed “Technical Arts Leadership Team”. This is something I’ve been wanting to do for a while, but was busy settling in and focused on the new building. Now as we get closer to the transition into the new worship center, I see that forming this team and multiplying myself is essential.
The majority of staff and ministries at my church won’t be affected much by the move. My world (the Tech Arts Ministry) will be in store for a HUGE change. We have to train a large team of volunteers on all new, professional equipment. There will be learning curves across the board - new sound board, new lighting board, new video switcher, new cameras, new Video Suite/environment, new computers with new presentation software (we’re switching campus-wide to EasyWorship). New, new, new….my head is swimming with the newness of everything and the learning curves that lie ahead as I will attend each training session and need to be able to explain each new piece of equipment to a volunteer that misses the training (you know someone’s going to miss it).
I’ve attempted to share the burden and responsibility with my newly formed Tech Arts Leadership Team. The meeting went great. I gave them an update on what’s been going on lately, when we’re expected to move-in (it looks like Jan. 27 will be our first Sunday in the new worship center) and what the training and commissioning schedule looks like. I’ve asked each team member to step up, take ownership and leadership in their given area and be pro-active in seeing that their teams are trained.
Besides myself, as the leader, the Tech Arts Team is made up of one person overseeing the following:
- Audio
- Lighting
- Video Production
- Live Video
- Graphics/Social Events
- Volunteer Scheduling/Assimilation
- Stage Managers
- Systems/Equipment Maintenance
So, how do you do it at your church? Do you haves some sort of team like this in place in your tech or media ministry? If so, how does it work? How often do you meet? If not, maybe this is something worth considering. I’m excited about it!
EXTRA:
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ON A PERSONAL NOTE:
Lest I forget: Yes, the Cowboys are 10-1. Just thought I’d mention that.
November 27th, 2007 at 8:33 am
I don’t envy the task ahead of you, but I know you’re excited about the prospects of new tools!!
As for our “Tech Arts Team”, well….considering we’re a small church, we are a team of two. We’ve done everything from installing new equipment (where no cabling existed - video feeds), to website management, to video production, to the basic worship needs every week.
I like your idea about meeting or at least emailing on a regular basis. I need to take that lead.
There is one good part though, we meet with the pastor, music pastor, drama leader, etc on a regular basis to focus the weekly messages and ministry messages.
November 27th, 2007 at 9:34 am
We’ve been in our new facility almost a year and a half and this is one area I wish I had planned for better. I have a great team of volunteers with one staff person (me) and during installation and commissioning we had a lot of training time but it took a year of using it to feel really comfortable running the services. We have many other events that usually I cover, but at the expense of my time off. So I’m going to share the opportunities with other team members and have been showing them how to setup a PA in the gym and do other things around the place.
I’m planning regular training sessions for next year so we can dig deeper & expand our capabilities, plus the Worship Leader & I are moving to a new team structure next year with Mentors (overseeing relationship and spiritual needs) and Equippers (overseeing training and performance issues).
January will be busy for you but very worth all the extra time and effort. The payoff in the quality & impact of the services will be very fulfilling.
November 27th, 2007 at 11:21 am
Crossroads Church (www.mycrossroads.org) runs about 2300 in weekly attendance, although roughly 3500 people consider it their home church. My position is that of Media Director, and unlike a lot of my colleagues out there, I report directly to the Lead Pastor, not the Worship Pastor.
Our Media Department consists of myself, plus I have three full-time employees: Editor, Graphic Artist, and Admin. Asst./Production Manager. We also have three contracted PA engineers, and about seven or so camera operators who rotate. My editor directs on the weekends. We use three cameras (but we’re about to go to five), and I have a videotape operator, plus a TV audio guy. We shoot live to tape, but multitrack our special music for TV/web. I do all of the post-audio production.
For weekend services, we produce countdowns, video announcments, newcomers welcome videos, sermon openers, and sermon support pieces.
We also produce “Crossroads,” which is our weekly TV broadcast, and it features our special songs and the pastor’s messages. About 15% of all of our newcomers have seen the broadcast (we track it via our newcomer’s sign-in card in our bulletin).
I am also in charge of the Presentation Ministry, which has about ten or so people who rotate in. We use ProPresenter, feeding dual projector screens.
We also operate Crossroads Creative (www.crossroads-creative.com), which produces pieces for sale to congregations ala Beamer, BlueFish TV, etc. I write/direct about 95% of our content (I’ve even been in a few things). We’re actually starting to list them on WorshipHouseMedia.com and SermonSpice.com. Every piece we sell has been used in our own congregation first. You could say that we’re our own test market!
November 27th, 2007 at 5:23 pm
I think either I wasn’t clear or some of you are misinterpreting my post. I’m not talking about my tech or media team - that is MUCH larger. I’m talking about a hand-picked group of 9 people that make up our Tech Arts Leadership Team.
This isn’t my week to week team of volunteers, this is a special group of key leaders over each area. Does that make sense?
FYI - these are all volunteers (except my Video Intern and my Audio Coordinator), so it doesn’t matter what size church you are. Any size church could hand-pick a team of volunteer leaders. I’d like to hear about those of you that are doing this.
November 27th, 2007 at 7:54 pm
Basically, my leadership team is my staff. We do all of the creative planning for our videos (story lines, scripting, etc.). They all know how I would do something, and I feel that they represent me well in my absence. I do have a few other guys I bounce ideas off of. They’re both on my camera crew, but they’re both 21 years old. I’m always looking to harness THAT energy!
Greg, you seem to have a more hierarchical system than we do. I’m going to try to find ways to implement a system like yours, to be able to replicate myself.
December 3rd, 2007 at 1:00 am
I’d like to develop a regular leadership team meeting.. Right now we don’t meet regularly.
What does your meeting consist of? Can you give us a run down.
Thanks for sharing!
December 3rd, 2007 at 6:04 pm
I’m too small or too young, teamwise, for a leadership team, I am barely getting my actual team together. But you have prompted me to think beyond this and be planning for the future.
At the moment, I am training long time members and longtime tech volunteers in a new way of doing things. I’m breaking the free for all mentality and building a team to actually focus on ministry and using tech effectively.
Thanks for once again pushing me to think big!