Director of Production, Austin Rowe says, "We do strive for excellence here, but at the same time we want to make sure that people are loved and cared for, because that’s always number one.”
When Maddie Matthews was in college, she worked for a media production service, but never dreamed of working in church tech. But while attending Northwest Christian Church, a multi-site church in the Portland, Oregon, area, she decided to volunteer her talents. She had a friend who volunteered doing lighting design, and Matthews says she just showed up one day and asked how she could help. Her friend introduced her to Northwest’s director of production, Austin Rowe. After volunteering for seven or eight months, Rowe asked if Matthews would come on staff. She had no reservations.
"Church Production Hero of the Month” is a collaboration between Church Production Magazine and Ross Video. We’re looking to highlight the men and women who consistently exceed expectations for your local church. So tell us—who looks like a church production hero to you? Nominate your hero here.
Tech Team "Soul Care"
“I just learned so much and I’ve moved a lot throughout my life, so this is the most connected I’ve gotten to a church in such a short period of time. It really does feel like a family with all of the volunteers and staff,” Matthews says. And she credits Rowe’s leadership for the environment she says has a special name: “Soul Care.” “That’s so important," she adds. “No matter where I've worked, whether it's in the media industry or for a nonprofit like NCC, there's always a risk of losing sight of what’s important or why we're doing what we’re doing—why we want lights this color, why we want this amount of people helping with this service. He never loses sight of that, and I really appreciate and admire that he’s constantly checking in on people making sure they’re OK, and also keeping them accountable.”
Rowe remembers his home church having faith in him and giving him great responsibility at a young age.
These are the reasons she nominated Austin Rowe for the Church Production Hero of the Month. Rowe says his leadership style is rooted in the “Worship First/Capture Second” philosophy taught by Transformation Church Video Production Director Chad Vegas online, and at events like FILO and MXU. “We do strive for excellence here, but at the same time we want to make sure that people are loved and cared for, because that’s always number one,” Rowe says. “I’ve had people come in and say, ‘What do I need to do?’ and I say ‘Whoa! How are you doing?’ Connecting with people; I’ve tried to create that culture.”
Northwest Christian Church has locations in Tigard, McMinville and Newberg, Oregon.
Rowe also credits his personal friend and mentor, John Harrel, the tech director at Rolling Hills Community Church in Tualatin, Oregon, where he grew up. He says Harrel taught him everything he wanted to learn about technology and more importantly about people. “John, he’s an extrovert,” Rowe says. “Everyone wanted to see him after service. I always remember when he was mixing FOH there was always a pile of people around him just saying ‘Hi.’ I thought, ‘I want to care for people like he cares for people,’ so that’s kind of what I did.”
Rowe has been on staff at the fast-growing Northwest Christian Church since 2018. He says average weekly attendance across the four campuses and online was around 2,000 (pre-Covid). It’s a non-denominational church with a very contemporary worship style that weaves in some traditional hymns as well.
The New Normal: Hybrid Church
Since Covid lockdowns, the online presence has grown exponentially, as has the pre-production work for the church’s three tech staff of Rowe, Matthews, and Kyle Dorshimer, the church’s worship production support staff, camera and lighting director Tom Stram, and their team of 25 to 30 volunteers.
“On Wednesday we do all of our message filming, our announcement filming, we do communion filming, we film closing comments, and then on Thursday night everything is live. We film the worship live, message live, and announcements—but then between Thursday night and Sunday morning, we multi-track all of our music, mix it down and polish it, and then we take everything from Wednesday and worship from Thursday and put it together for a final product for Sunday,” Rowe explains.
With such tight schedules, it might be difficult to take the time to train people who want to volunteer but don’t have the skills yet. But Rowe remembers his home church having faith in him and giving him great responsibility at a young age. “I started mixing monitors for a fairly large band, mixing in-ears and wedges. I shadowed the first week and they were like, ‘OK, you’re doing this yourself,’ and I was barely a freshman,” Rowe says. “Over the time I started doing that, mixing monitors and gradually mixed front-of-house, and I was basically mixing FOH for 2,500-seat room every weekend.”
Getting New Recruits Involved
Matthews says recently a volunteer who is still in high school expressed an interest in video directing. He had done cameras and lighting but just didn’t have that spark of interest, but was excited about video directing. She says Rowe was also excited to take the volunteer under his wing. Matthews gushes, “When you see that humility, that I’m willing to step into any role no matter what it is, no matter how much experience or how much I may or may not want to do it, you just have that willingness to serve, that absolutely transfers on to the rest of your team.”
Not surprisingly, a very humble Rowe emotionally reflects on his selection as Church Production Hero of the Month. “I’m just really honored. My team has been amazing. When Maddie told me she nominated me and I got selected, I was emotional. What my team doesn’t see is when I do cry and I get really emotional. Usually, I can hide that really well. I was filled with so much emotion and happiness and like, wow, I am super blessed to work with such an amazing team—staff and volunteers in all of the ministries. I’m just super blessed to be here; to be able to work with everybody.”
