The lead pastor’s relationship with their tech director is a vital one in the church, whether that person is on staff or a volunteer. I have been in the audio, video and lighting (AVL) arena for the better part of 13 years, and have learned a lot along the way. I want to give you some tips to help keep that relationship in good shape.

Here are a few things your tech director might not be telling you, but wishes you understood. 

1. This Job Is Hard.

Of all the tech leaders I have talked to, just a handful went to a college or trade school to learn the AVL skills your church needs. The vast majority of them are self-taught, often because they love the work itself and want to be great at it. On top of that, if they have a team of paid or volunteer staffers under them, they also have had to learn leadership skills, usually on their own. 

None of these are easy abilities to develop, and it can take years of real-life failures and successes to get good at what we do. Even if we make the job look easy, we need you to understand it isn’t.

2. Mind the Workload.

Most tech team members are bivocational or volunteer, but even if they are full-time church team members, they need to be home with their families in the evening, and shouldn’t be working more than two nights a week. If church leaders keep adding more and more events and programs that happen to spill into after-work hours and require tech, that gets really hard, really quickly. 

Sure, busy seasons and calm seasons come and go at every church, but the normal trend is for the busy season to creep slowly into the calm season, sometimes over years, but it can happen in as little as six months. Pastors have to check for it regularly or it will choke the life out of a tech team. 

An ounce of prevention is to empower your everyday church people to have their events, classes or Bible studies, but to let tech leaders teach them how to turn on an audio console, a lighting cue and any video gear they might need.

3. Not Everything Is Doable.

While a lead pastor may have a lot of vision about a program or event, they might not have much knowledge from a technical standpoint about how to pull it off. Sometimes a dream for a conference, service or even a sermon illustration is too much, and the tech leader needs to say it isn’t possible to do. 

AVL gear is expensive, so much so that the production budgets at large churches often compete with the annual revenue of many average-size churches across the country. The simple truth is that most churches don’t have the resources to pull off what a megachurch can make it look easy to do.

Any tech leader worth their salt knows their church’s gear, budget and team resources inside and out. Furthermore, they have the same goal as you—to share the gospel. If they say something isn’t doable, give them the benefit of the doubt. 

4. Sometimes Things Break.

Some years ago, I went to an arena event headlined by Lauren Daigle. When she walked out on stage, her mic didn’t work. Then no one’s mic worked. I looked into the tech booth and saw the team frantically trying to solve the problem. 

AVL systems are complicated, and a small malfunction can cause big problems at the worst possible moment. A failure can happen right in the middle of a weekend service or an important conference, and there’s nothing your tech director can do about it. 

I loved what Daigle did at that event. She took a deep breath and shouted, “Let’s have a sing-along!” She then started into “Amazing Grace,” and the audience followed along without any words appearing on the massive LED screens behind on the stage. It turned into a holy moment that honored God. 

In fact, AVL mishaps actually can endear the team to the congregation. It makes them feel like they are in the company of peers who are simply doing their best, and it creates connection—if the pastor on stage handles it correctly.