Church size - when to pay

[RJSmith]

I want to take some suggestions to our music minister (who is over the media team) and am trying to do a little research to make sure what I'm suggesting is appropriate.

My main question is when to begin paying individuals who run and/or work in the sound booth. I'm making an assumption that church size and budget typically play a large part in when the church may begin to pay some of these positions. I guess I'm just looking for some generalities and guidelines, especially for churches in the 2000-5000 range for regular attendees.

A secondary question is how special services are generally handled in other churches. Our church typically does a "special" for most major holidays (including Christmas, Easter, Independence Day, etc.) which requires the entire media team to be at the church every week night and some time on the weekends for at least a week (usually 2-3 weeks or more at Christmas) in preparation of the presentation. I personally feel that this is asking a lot of unpaid volunteers, especially around the Christmas season, to forgo time with their families around every major holiday (there is no rotation for these as all media team members are needed for each presentation).

While there are those who want to serve, it is a large commitment to automatically be expected for weeks at time around holidays and my primary concern right now is for some people who have committed to help on a rotation but are finding the holiday schedule to be overwhelming. I'd like to know how others handle this in order to come up with some solutions to share with our music pastor.

[petereit]

In a past church I attended, it was the equipment that pretty much determined when we switched to a professional audio technician. We grew to about 1,000 members in a temporary facility with a pretty basic sound board. When we moved into our new 4-million-dollar with professionally-designed system, we hired a professional sound technician.

We moved to South Carolina to a new church. It's running around 1,000 members now, 48-channel Midas board. Volunteer sound tech is same guy who volunteered when the church was started with an 8-channel board. Pastor offered to begin paying him when we added a Tascam 48-channel digital recorder (he has an audio engineering degree) but he refused payment. He continues to serve as our lead audio technician on a volunteer basis.

There is certainly one HUGE advantage to a paid position though: they don't have the option of refusing to do something because they're "only a volunteer".

[bpalermini]

Over 2,000 people worship at my church every week and our entire tech crew, audio, video and projection are volunteers. Also, the worship team of musicians and singers are volunteers except for the staff worship leaders (there are 3)

We do have a full time av & computer tech and a part time (14 hours per week) leader of the tech team. He was a long-term volunteer who's job was expanded after a major upgrade and sanctuary remodel.

If nothing radically changes I can't ever imagine my church going to paid positions. We would like a little more consistency from week to week and we're working on that with our volunteers.

We have the same big weekends that you have and use more of our volunteers for those services than on a normal weekend but it's still just a small portion of our volunteers and if they can't do it we find someone else. We don't have all the rehearsals that you have though. I think the sort of schedule you mentioned would make it very difficult to staff.

I have no idea how complex your programs are but does the tech team really need to be there for all those rehearsals? I bet if they had to pay someone to be there every time that you would figure out how to get by with one or two tech supported rehearsals and then the program.

[tdangelo]

RJ,

Rather than look at the size of the congregation as the factor regarding paid position vs. volunteer, I think a more appropriate consideration may be how integral the tech arts are to a particular church’s worship services and what impact would occur if you were not in that position.

There are “large” churches which do not emphasize tech arts as there are also “smaller” churches which do emphasize tech arts.

Another consideration may be the benefit the church will reap in having you full time (or part time) if you were freed up from your other “tent making” subsidence responsibilities.

[waynehoskins]

There are large (ish) traditional churches that are entirely volunteer, and it works for them. There are small modern churches that have at least one person on paid staff, and it works for them. My church is one of the small ones, I'm the staff guy. It's not full-time, but I have a real job to take care of that part.

I agree it has much less to do with church size as it does how integral production is to the church and how much time and knowledge and responsibility it takes from you. Certainly the crazy busy every-night-a-week parts probably should be paid, at least to offset the cost of gas.

[RJSmith]

Thank you for the input. My reason for asking about pay was a hope that it would somehow relieve those who are overwhelmed with the work schedule. I know that there are several who have the knowledge and skill to run the board that, although they are not helping now, would likely jump at a paid position (those who no longer volunteer but are available to every wedding or funeral because there is pay involved). I also hoped that it might influence the perspective of leadership - as in "maybe we don't need so many people here all the time. . ." But given the fact that church growth does not seem to be an indicator for hiring help, church leadership may not see it as a reasonable solution.

So I suppose that brings my secondary question to the forefront. Can you give me some more ideas about how to approach them with some solutions for the holiday issues. We generally have four people to work a rotation in the booth (for sound only - lights and video have their own) with one person over everyone. I'm not sure how that translates to needing everyone there for rehearsals, although I know some of it is setup. But, perhaps that is where I need to focus my attentions. Any other input on this would be very helpful as well.

[tdangelo]

Originally Posted by RJSmith

My reason for asking about pay was a hope that it would somehow relieve those who are overwhelmed with the work schedule.

With all do respect I don’t think that paying a Tech Arts team will relieve those who are overwhelmed with a church work schedule. If anything, it will likely add to the pressure and possible dissatisfaction.

If your Tech Arts team is overwhelmed by their “day job,” then paying them may help release them to do more at church. But paying a Tech Arts team rarely relieves the pressure of church work and many times adds to the pressure.

Originally Posted by RJSmith

Can you give me some more ideas about how to approach them with some solutions for the holiday issues.

If there are enough technicians and managers to suffice I would suggest during holiday seasons dedicating certain techs to the rehearsals and services specifically for the holiday, and different technicians and managers to the normal weekend and mid-week services leading up to the holiday. That should help address the potential burn-out issue which can occur during holidays.

[petereit]

Here's an idea that I'm DESPERATELY trying to pitch to my pastor: give the volunteer staff a HUGE Christmas gift this year and hire a musical guest for the Christmas program. Jimmie Bratcher's Christmas tour is AWESOME!

[sempei13]

To answer your question for what we do at my church (3500 and cutting edge), we have a paid Technical Director who oversees everything except video. We have a Video Team Leader and Assistant (both paid). We have a communications person (also paid). That's four. You might say about .1% of our church is paid tech staff. So in a church of 1000, that would be 1 (which is about right from our history). Before that we were all volunteer.

When to pay is actually a HUGE question. I think churches are addicted to volunteers and maybe they shouldn't be. (Big generalization, but hang with me).

Both the Apostle Paul (1 Timothy 5:18 ) and Jesus (Luke 10:7) said that "the worker is worth his wages". Paul said that he could be paid, but chose not to be to better advance the kingdom and that he didn't have a choice to preach; he had to.

I've felt that for a long time, but recently I visited a large church which pays all it's tech people even paying freelancers when they need more help on a project. Volunteers are few. This bugged me a little. I realized why. In a culture where there are only a handful of paid staff, very few get those positions. I felt like I would be excluded if this were my church.

The truth is that I'm a video professional who would probably get one of those paid positions if they were all paid. This would make some things much easier for me--paying my bills for one. Serving at church is a given to me. If that paid my bills, I could do it more.

Finally, it bugs me a little that people won't serve on Sunday, but will for a wedding if there's money on the table. I don't think you should hire someone who doesn't get the vision enough to do it whatever it takes. If money is the motivator, they'll eventually get tired of that too.

Confused? I am too. I guess to sum up: I don't see non-paid staff in the early church except those who chose not to be paid. Paid or not, you have to be someone willing to serve the kingdom first and the paycheck second.

Paul

[bladeaudio]

Finally, it bugs me a little that people won't serve on Sunday, but will for a wedding if there's money on the table.

I have to agree with that. The way it works at our church is, if you are a volunteer who regularly serves, one way we can reward you is by paying you for things like weddings. This is a perk for those who volunteer, and rarely have I had someone do a payed gig who isn't a regular volunteer.

[tdangelo]

Another risk is that if payment is the only motivator, the reality is that most churches will never pay as much as secular gigs. And so, the reason for payment (further dedication and hard work) will be eroded as the church will now be competing against the secular world for technical talent.

At Willow Creek’s Leadership Summit last summer Bill Hybels interviewed Jack Welsh (former CEO of General Electric) and Mr. Welsh stated that he had all employees categorized into a 20-70-10 percentile.

The 20% represented the top workers in the company who if lost would have a devastating effect on the company. These 20% would receive the highest compensation, perks and incentives.

The 70% represented the average workers in the company who were the backbone of the company. Although vitally important, these 70% would receive the normal compensation, perks and incentives and were encouraged to work toward getting into the 20%.

The 10% represented under-achieving workers in the company. These 10% are typically released or moved into other responsibilities.

Bill Hybels response to this was that most churches do not have the financial means to compete with the business world regarding the 70% (or 20% percentile). It was agreed between Bill Hybels and Jack Welsh that churches, non-profits, etc., needed to find a different type of currency.

[Esoteric]

I think the answer is:

Depends.

For me it depends on the size of the production, not the congregation.

My church has a LOT of production and two different campuses, and they are making a huge mistake imho by not having at least one paid staff member.

For me the rules I always hold fast to on recommendations is if you have ANY of the following: live video, multiple campuses, a large lighting rig, or a combination of a number of other, smaller areas, then imho you MUST have a technical staff member.

As far as "currency" churches have several advantages over gigs in the secular world. Money is not one of them. But they can offer more steady employment, often better working conditions, not having to go on the road, benefits (health insurance, paid time off, etc), extra days off, there are tons of ways that churches can compete.

Mike