Church Video Ideas:  Do You Have ‘Saturday Night Panic’?

Orginally published on Wednesday, November 01, 2006 at 3:16 PM
by Todd Rhoades

It came this past Saturday. I got a call from a worship pastor at a local church. He said that "the man" who runs EasyWorship on Sundays just called and won't be there on Sunday. HELP! He wanted to know if I could come run EasyWorship for their worship services. Unfortunately, I could not because I was running EasyWorship at my home church. I told him, "You know your problem is not that the man can't come, your problem is that you only have the one man. You've got no depth".

I once did a workshop and weekend retreat with the worship team from the church I grew up in (my mom still goes to this church). The worship pastor there is one of my mentors and a true man of God. I love and respect him dearly. I was humbled that he, my mentor, would bring me in to do a retreat with his worship team.

He was facing the same issue at his church. He had THE sound guy and THE media guy - that’s it - two people. No team. No rotation. I respectfully and humbly tried urging him to put together a tech team with sound and media techs that rotate. I suggested getting 2 more techs and having each serve 2 Sundays a month or recruit 6 more people and have each person serve one Sunday a month. He agreed that what I had suggested should be done, but was too afraid that the 2 current techs would get their feelings hurt and quit. Sadly, I told him it was his call and that I hoped nothing ever happened to his 2 techs.

Fast forward 3 years: I just heard that “the sound guy” has serious health issues and is in the hospital. “The media guy” got disgruntled and left the church. They are back to square one and scrambling around each week to cover those positions. This wasn’t a “I told you so” moment. This broke my heart for my mentor and my mom’s church. I am sad and frustrated because I know that this could have been avoided. Not the sound guy’s health and the media guy getting upset. Life happens, but the issue of depth could have been addressed and a team could have been in place that would have better handled the loss of these two “main guys”.

What’s your church situation like? What would you do if your “sound guy” called on Saturday night and said he was sick? Would you panic or would you pick up the phone and call one of your other techs on your already established team? Please know that I’m not talking about mega-churches here. The team concept isn’t just for medium to large churches. This concept and philosophy is for every size church. I work with church plants meeting in schools and theaters, just like I work with larger churches. The principles are the same regardless of church size. You can find at least 2 people for each tech position. Of course, you will need to train and educate them, but it CAN be done.

If you’re able to, bring someone like myself in to work with your team. I don’t write this for selfish reasons - it’s simply a reality that there are people like me that can come to your church and work with your existing team. My friend and podcast co-host, Anthony Coppedge works with churches, too. This action item is for churches wanting to go to another level. Even when I was full-time on a church staff, I would bring in outside consultants and workshop leaders to reinforce what I was already teaching my teams. Consultants can touch on areas like teamwork, servant-hood, vision/why we do what we do, how to disappear and how to be more effective as a team and team member. Regardless, you should strive to bring depth to your team. Here are some practical steps you can and should take:

•Constantly recruit. Let me write that again: Constantly recruit. You will always have turn over on your volunteer team, for a number of reasons. You must constantly recruit just to maintain your current numbers, not to mention if you desire to grow and expand your team.

•Don’t allow hurt feelings to be an issue. If needed, talk to people one-on-one. If needed, take them out to eat. Explain to them why you’re recruiting help. Tell them your heart and reasons for a team philosophy, which have nothing to do with their abilities. Let them know that you are concerned for their well being and that you believe strongly that they need some weeks “off”. Tell them that whether they realize it or not, they are in danger of burn out.

•Grow and stretch. Every church, in every city, at any size, has a next level. I don’t care who you are or where you’re located, you have room for improvement. You can do something better. Something more. Something less. You can stretch your team and expand their vision of why and what they do.

•Get outside perspective at least annually. Someone like me and others are good to bring in to observe your church and your team in action, and then make suggestions on how you can do what you do better.

•Get outside training at least annually. By “get training”, I mean to bring in professionals to work hands-on with your tech team. I’m not an audio expert. I’m not a lighting expert, etc. At my church, I would bring in a local audio or a local lighting company to work with my team and increase their knowledge and skill set. You have to know your weaknesses and limitations. Realize that you may not be the best one to train your team on how to run the lighting board or how to operate a camera. Just because you have a title and a position of leadership, don’t assume that you have the burden of having to train your techs on every piece of equipment. I do, however, suggest attending the training sessions so you’ll have an appreciation of each area.

•Shepherd your team. I think you’ll find a difference in attitudes, quality of production and lower turnover rate when you make an intentional effort to pastor and care for team members.

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©2006 – Greg Atkinson (www.churchvideoideas.com)

Used by permission from author. All rights reserved by author.

Greg Atkinson lives in Dallas with his wife and their three small children. Greg served previously as the Director of WorshipHouse Media, after having served as a worship pastor for 11 years. He is the Founder of Multisensoryworship.com and Co-Founder of Wasteland Creative, where he continues to consult, teach and write about worship, media and creative communication. You can connect with him through his daily blog, Church Video Ideas, his podcast, Creative Synergy, or his email: .

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Hi... I'm Todd Rhoades. I'm a Christ-follower, husband, father and I love to connect leaders with other leaders. Hopefully you'll find something here at MMI you like and will return often. If you want, you can find out more about me or follow my every step on Twitter.

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