If you are a pastor or in charge of facilities at a smaller church, you might find yourself in a predicament when it comes to your Sunday service tech. Perhaps you’re planting a church and need to fill out your rental space with mobile audio and lighting equipment. Perhaps you’re revitalizing an older church, and the sound system is a hodgepodge of equipment from the 2000s, 1990s or—God forbid—earlier. Perhaps your church is growing, and you need to upgrade your gear to accommodate a bigger tech team, more services and streaming needs.
Whatever your situation, here are some basic principles to guide your decisions regarding tech purchases during this important process.
Audio
No matter what tech advice you choose to take, you need to remember that disciplined homiletics paired with good audio will always go further than cool tech gear. For two millennia, the church grew and thrived on little more than great preaching and reasonable acoustics. If you’re a church planter with a small budget or reviving a struggling congregation, shake off the pressure for “more.” Just preach the gospel and let the Spirit do the rest.
Fortunately, good audio has become significantly more affordable, even for the tightest of budgets. For help purchasing the right gear for your context, national vendors such as Sweetwater, Full Compass Systems or B&H are popular resources.
However, before you call large companies, consider taking a second to search for a music store in your area. These little shops often rent or sell audio equipment, and the owners usually are very knowledgeable. Having in-person help is better than talking to a sales rep over the phone, and building a relationship with a local music and production professional will come in handy down the road when something breaks and you need some help.
Lighting
After being heard, you should be seen. If you’re starting out with almost no budget and all you have is the raw overhead lighting in your temporary space, but the gospel is being heard and hearts are being fed, that’s good enough. However, just like audio, good lighting has become increasingly affordable, and a few thousand dollars can go a long way to properly lighting your stage.
Again, you can reach out to a large company or a local vendor to help you find the right fixture for your budget, but keep in mind that lighting can get expensive quickly. Those cool moving-head LED lights you see in megachurches cost as much per unit as a great audio console that will serve a church of up to 1,000 people for many years. Furthermore, a highly dynamic lighting arrangement will require a dedicated lighting director to run each week. Skilled lighting directors are harder to find than any other volunteer of a worship or tech team.
Remember, when it comes to lighting, simpler is better (and cheaper).
Visuals
You might be surprised, but visuals are actually the lowest priority. Worship lyrics are the only thing you absolutely need displayed during services because engaging people in singing is tough, with handouts and hymnals being the exception. Again, good homiletics and good audio are the essentials. Lyric display can happen with an old projector throwing lyrics on a sheet stretched over lumber that is nailed to the wall. It doesn’t take much.
LED walls are still wildly expensive, so simply find a projector that’s bright enough for your room (7,000 lumens or more). This usually can run you a few thousand dollars. If that’s still too much, ask a larger church in your area if they have a projector that they would like to get rid of or if they plan to upgrade anytime soon.
The Most Important Thing
Because you cannot do this alone, you are going to have to trust the right individuals who know more about tech than you do. Your calling is to shepherd. Do that.
That being said, even the smallest churches can burn out their tech volunteers. Respect and protect their time by saving their skills for Sunday services as opposed to various random church events. Tech staff and volunteers are not just a resource—they are people you are called to pastor.