Tech Team Vs. Media Ministry

[Pastor Ryan]

One thing I changed when I came on staff at my church I think most if not all churches should consider is getting rid of the "Tech Team" tag, I kind of felt bad for the team here when I cam in. All the other volunteers in the church were part of a ministry, and referred to as ministry volunteers and such, tech team were techies and such. I think it is important to give our ministry volunteers the frequent reminder that they are ministering in what they do.

So the very 1st, and I mean very 1st thing I changed was the name our ministry.

We became the Media Ministry.

My team became the "Media Ministry Volunteer Team".

Their badges changed from Technical Team to Media Ministry Team Member.

I stressed to them that they are serving in ministry and how big an honor it is and what a great service they provide to our church.

Thoughts.....

[Steven]

A lot of it depends on the structure of the organization.

At our church, we have a "Media Ministry" that handles website, powerpoint/mediashout, logos, graphics, mailers, printed items, banners etc.

We also have a "Technical Arts Ministry" that handles sound, video, and lighting for weekend worship services, maintains and manages equipment, sets up the stage, etc.

They're very distinct ministries, so "Media Volunteer" and "Tech Team" are not synonymous. "Tech Team" is only used as a colloquialism, in all printed materials/badges/etc, the full name of "Technical Arts Ministry" is written out.

[jksbc]

We have named ours the Creative Team! Sounds much better to me but the name Tech Team never really bothered me.

[tedanderson]

There is some merit in what you are suggesting. We have a "Technology Team" which happens to be separate from our Media Ministry. The Technology Team deals with the computers, network, etc. and I think that sometimes they tend to forget that what they are doing is ministry. Although they are a good group of people, I think that sometimes their decorum and practices are not very ministry-like. Even though having the word "ministry" associated with the name of department does not necessarily make it better, I think that it does serve a reminder that what we do is ministry and not just a task.

[Jwar]

I think your on target and what I mean is the word "Team"

Years ago after being saved, I got into Audio and found "Yes indeed he has work for us we never dreamed about, or considered doing. However latter I found that Church was not Bible versed and left in good standing

Loved the following Church and volunteered to be third operator. The Pastor was fantastic, and the audio team was not considered part of the praise and worship team in any way. We just ran the FOH volume and dealt with a multitude of problems as the PW director deemed. The Pastor moved back east and I moved south to another church in need of an operator.

The Church I now belong to is team oriented, works together and communicates in striving to be better. I love it and its again a joy to work with people that want to work together.

IMPO its not the "title" but the true loving compromise with all involved, promoting a true team spirit that is important in excelling to the best of our ability's without offending anyone.

Wishing you and your's a Very Merry Christmas,
take care John

[WORDpictures]

I prefer to call myself a media minister since video involves content creation, creative aesthetics, & interacting with people to get the stories... but tend to be labeled as Tech Team. I feel this latter phrase is not only a misnomer, but creates an impression of a lower class of service within the church. A class which "anyone" can work in without regard for expression of spiritual maturity or ability to interact with others in a Christ-like manner. "Ministry" seems a higher calling and should be more descriptive of our endeavors than joining a group for a sense of belonging to a "team."

"Media Ministry" and "Technical Arts Ministry" aren't just group titles, they're "Mission Statements." I've seen teams that fell far from ministering to the point of ostracizing others... but teamwork is implicit in a sincere ministry.

[shayward]

We specifically chose the name "Technical Arts" for our team, simply because we felt that it encompassed far more than Media. We look after telephones, photocopiers, computers, publishing, you name it.

But we have always stressed that this is a MINISTRY.

We are now considering going back to our days before titles and department names, where everyone just kind of works together and lives up to their responsibilities. It has worked VERY well for us in our small little rural church.

We only organized departments and titles for the "benefit" of a control-freak board member, in order to place the "department heads" "officially" on equal footing with him after he made a train wreck of both Worship/Music and Sound/Projection and refused to relinquish control. Thus the "Technical Arts Director" (me) became equal to a board member in terms of authority.

He is no longer on the board nor attending the church, so going back would be so much more comfortable and welcome.

[Pastor Ryan]

When I got here it just kind of aggravated me how they were called the Tech team.

Not so sure why, but Tech wasn't short for Technology, it was short for Technical team, so they were called the Technical team.

The definition of Technical really just means skilled. So they were the skilled team, which in and of itself is not degrading, but it isn't very specific....

Music ministry, Children's ministry, Youth Ministry, Helps Ministry....all those people are skilled in their areas...should we just call them part of the "Skilled" team...I think not.

I wanted to do it for a couple of reasons, to remind the people serving they are part of a ministry, and to those on the outside that want to complain or compliment, I wanted for them to know that these people on this team are serving in ministry, not the computer repair man you go see when your desktop gets a virus.

[liko81]

Originally Posted by Steven

A lot of it depends on the structure of the organization.

... And the level of formalization. Our "sound team" is one guy who spent his career in the business, another volunteer who knows the faders but no the theory, and myself who is up-and-coming with big dreams for a system that actually does what we need it to. We don't do multimedia in service (it's been proposed, but it's cost-prohibitive in our situation, and some object that it's too "megachurch"); the A/V we have is mostly installed, the rest is pretty easy to set up.

This motley crew falls under the general administration of the Worship & Music team, who is responsible for the form, planning and execution of worship services themselves, and includes the pastor. Some of their job is also considered Evangelism, namely the recording of services for delivery to home- or hospital-bound members and for publishing to our website. Should we get our "dream system" (which will replace the current installed system, a supplemental system for the band, and a LOT of bailing wire and chewing gum), we may recruit a more formal sound team of riggers, operators and general techie-type guys. For now, it's an informal bunch of guys who know what they're doing... kinda.

[cgerrish]

Ours is called the Media Design Team

[Paris MkVI]

We're using AVL Team. We have four teams under that umbrella - audio, video, lighting and graphics.

I do agree we should pay close attention to our words; they communicate more than we know. Personally, I work to stamp out the "v" word (volunteer) and replace it at all times with "servant". That is our method of bringing focus to why we are doing these things.

I am also thinking of changing the tags so that, instead of being a ". . . team "member", it will read "team co-owner". But before I do that, I want to take all the steps to make sure everyone has that sense of ownership first, so I am doing my homework with all my peeps now!

[ServantForLife]

Paris,

I'd love to hear more of your thoughts on the change to co-owner. I am working with our lead volunteers right now to have them take major ownership in their areas of expertise and then have that trickle down to the rest of our Media Volunteer force. What have you found that is effective?

SK