It’s time to get technical!

Tech can help you fulfil your vision for your church, but where do you start and how do you manage it? Experts NoiseBoys have some simple advice

What’s your vision for your church, and have you ever considered how tech can support you in it?

At a session at ELS, experts Phill Beynon and Matt Parry from tech company NoiseBoys encouraged church leaders to ponder this question.

Because tech, however simple or complicated, can help resource what God is leading you to do if handled well.

“How can you create an atmosphere for people to engage with God and with your church in the season you’re in?” asks Phill.

Will your AV be supporting a new, lively youth event? Will sensitive lighting welcome people into an intimate evening service? Will cameras and livestream equipment bring your sermons to a wider audience?

Church tech offers great opportunities, but with it comes questions of how to resource and manage it.

Here, we’ve boiled down Phill and Matt’s answers to some from the ELS audience to help you get to grips with some common tech issues.

Q: Do we need staff to look after equipment?

A: This actually comes back to your vision. If it’s being big on production, you’ll need to resource equipment maintenance, which might mean a part-time person.

If it’s a simpler set-up it could just mean regular checks. In our church, we have a “Faulty” box for anything people suspect is broken. Periodically one of us will test it, bin it, or put it back into circulation if it was just user error.

You need to maintain your equipment. You know from your own laptops and phones that they go wrong if you don’t look after them. It’s no different for cameras, lights or microphones.

Q: What equipment is best for livestreaming?

A: The most basic option is in your pocket, your phone. You can stream straight to YouTube from it.

Stepping up from that, you can buy cameras which will livestream straight to Facebook, YouTube etc.

Stepping up again, you’ll need streaming hardware, a switcher like an Atem, or software like OBS or vMix, which are basically different ways to plug a camera into a computer and press go to stream.

What you choose depends on your vision. We’re working with a church who want an online presence, so they’re recording their sermons on an SD card and putting bits on YouTube. But if you want a bigger online ministry you’ll need to think about what that would look like and how deep down the rabbit hole of streaming live worship you want to go.

Q: My techie’s vision is very different from mine. What do I do?

A: If you’re struggling to get people to do what you want them to do, that’s the time to get a trainer in.

People listen to an external person more readily. Invite them to a training day and then let them see the industry-correct way to do things, “this is how we frame a camera and why”, for example.

They’ll listen because you’ve invested in training for them.

Q: Tech is often treated differently from other ministries. Should it be?

A: I would advocate for it being treated the same. Literally everything can be funnelled through tech, so you want your tech team to be invested in your vision.

If that’s reaching youth, for example, the children’s and worship teams will figure that out in their contexts. The tech team will in theirs too: “If we’re starting a youth event, what does that mean for us technically? Do we need to turn up the subs or get some cool lights?”

If they’re invested in the vision, they’ll serve it, so involve them in your planning meetings.

Q: Is it OK to buy equipment on Amazon?

A: If you’re buying tech, please don’t go to Amazon.

We would always advocate going to a company who know what they’re talking about, who understand the church and the tech you’re buying and can talk you through it.

When it’s designed properly for a certain venue it will do the job a hundredfold better.

Firstly, spend your money well and future-proof what you’re doing.

Secondly, get someone on board, whether it’s internally or externally, who understands the design of the tech you’re buying: if you’ve got speakers and mics that feedback constantly or lights in your face for the whole service it’s because something’s wrong with the design of the system.

Thirdly, train people.

You can have the flashiest system, but if people don’t know how to use it it’ll be distracting and things will go wrong.

This article first appeared in Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.