I stood in the sound booth and was awe-struck by how this church used lighting during the service. I was impressed because this small church didn't have a large tech budget. By secular and mega-church standards, they should not be achieving this level of engagement. How did they do it? This question intrigued me, and I set out to discover the answer. Here is what I found:
1. BASICS OF LIFE
To do more with less, you must have good communication. But you can only have good communication if your people have the will to get along and a desire to understand what the worship team is trying to accomplish. This reminded me of an old song by 4 Him called "The Basics of Life." In that song, it talks about a heart that is pure, a love that is blind and a hope that endures for all times. What was different about this church was the people. When I observed their interactions, I saw a pure heart, blind love that saw the best in everyone, and hope or should I say trust, in their leaders and fellow man. They didn't just trust. They CHOSE to trust. They were intentional about trusting one another, which created effective communication.
A high level of technical excellence…establishes an atmosphere that can break down emotional barriers allowing people to feel the Lord enter your worship service.
It was also evident that they did the little things right. They understood that before somebody could trust them with big things, they had to get the small things right (Luke 16:10). I like to say the "boring" things must be done correctly before you can move on to more incredible things. "Boring" items include things like showing up on time, changing out the batteries, checking off the checklist, honoring our weekly commitments, engaging in the meetings, and not just going through the motions. There is more, but you get the point. The simple life lesson achievements are what lead to good communication, and that leads to more extraordinary things.
This church also had an excellent training program. The things we are talking about here do not just happen by accident. They are learned and trained. Their training programs ensured everyone on the team was equipped with the tools to operate in their environment effectively. They were trained not only how to run and operate the gear, but also how to hit the "Basics of Life." What’s interesting about this church is that they also had a correction program. Suppose someone drifted from their tech or life principles—they brought them back into the training program to help them re-align with how they wanted everyone to act and perform. Giving them a strong foundation that helped them create an atmosphere of worship.
2. KNOW YOUR CANVAS
Before you start using your tech tools, you need to understand the church's vision. But not only do you need to know the vision, you need to understand the “why” behind what you are trying to accomplish. Many times churches do cool things because they can. I often hear the statement, "We paid for all this gear; we must use it all the time!" That's a statement that will hurt you. To bring a larger-than-life tech feeling to your church, you must know the “why” behind the vision for that weekend, service or special event. Then use dynamics to paint that vision on your canvas. Your worship team doesn't lead the congregation with all upbeat songs. They take them on a journey by having upbeat, slow and building songs. Your canvas, or let's say, the auditorium, should be used in a way that moves people's thoughts and emotions and thinking toward the goal. This means you don't use every piece of tech gear all the time. Save some looks, feel, videos, and sound levels for your chosen moment. It’s very similar to how the worship team leads through music.
What can help with this is understanding what your church's tech and creative team does well by assessing strengths and weaknesses. Use your strengths to accomplish those special moments. In one particular service that I attended, they were singing “Whom Shall I Fear” by Chris Tomlin. At a peak moment, they turned on finger lights shooting straight into the ceiling. These were located on each side of the stage, and it was the only time they used them. It created an emotion that had not been experienced in the service, and it played to this church's strength, which was lighting. But your church's strength may be audio, video or even spoken word. Utilize those strengths in a way that leads and moves the audience.
You also want to be aware of your weaknesses. Knowing what you don't do well will help steer your service away from those vulnerabilities. That said, we want to continuously work on these and do our best to turn them our weaknesses into strengths. You accomplish this by asking for budget money for areas where you are weak. If you do lighting well but need an audio console, don't expand your lighting. I have seen many churches focus so much money on video when their weakness is audio. Leadership must be made aware of your tech weaknesses and given time to help correct them. Weaknesses are only sometimes a result of a lack of money. It could be talent level, staffing, volunteer training, or even some of the basics of life we discussed earlier. Identify your weaknesses, list them, show them to leadership, and work on them.
Ideas, collaboration and execution are people skills, not technical skills.
3. IT'S ALL ABOUT PEOPLE
I would argue that most churches struggle with doing more with less because they have not realized that it's all about people. Your church's technical excellence depends on your people and not your gear. Guitar players are not great because they bought an expensive or name-brand guitar. Sure, it may make them sound better, but they are great because of the player— essentially the person. It’s about the practice, effort, training, and talent they put in—that is what helps them do more with less. I have seen churches with ancient video or audio systems outperforming churches with brand-new systems. This is because of their people. Less gear or tech means you need to work more with your people. Ideas, collaboration, and execution are people skills, not gear technical skills. Suppose you have less gear or gear that is not easy to work with, it would be best if you worked on those people skillsets.
The Sistine Chapel was a fantastic example for the church. They didn't have lights, cameras or powerful PA’s, but they did know their people, the vision and the “why” behind it. They worked together as a team. Just as it required teamwork between the architects, builders and the artist Michelangelo to complete a work of art that moved the congregation closer to the Lord.
Resulting in an academy for young painters, again pointing back to people. In summary, doing more with less is all about focusing on the basics of life, the “why” behind the vision, and your people. Doing that will put you in a place where you can execute tech at a high level of excellence while taking your congregation on a journey that creates moments and establishes an atmosphere that can break down emotional barriers and that allows people to feel the Lord enter your worship service. This experience can create a draw that will bring your attendees back week after week.
