Calling the shots

[Bubbab74]

This is my first post as a member, but I've often come here to read what you guys have to say on lots of different areas. Thanks and keep it up!

Before I get to the issue at hand, I'll lend a little background. I am the tech director for the larger of 2 campuses in a multi site church of about 5,000 members (collectively on both campuses). I am in charge of everything tech related for all services that happen in any of our 4 venues on this campus. I have 2 paid staff under me, one sound and one video/lighting/staging/etc. Without getting too deep into it, we're extremely short-handed and stretched beyond our abilities every day, so we're pretty tired. For this thread, however, I need some advice on how to handle our most common and recently worsening problem.

Both myself and our other soundman are highly experienced and trained professionals with a collective 25+ years behind us in all areas ranging from dramatic theater, pro studio recording, festival and rock tours, tour management, club gigging and of course HOW live sound. Both of us are completely capable of running a service without the slightest whisper of direction from anyone, yet we are constantly being directed on every detail of our mix, down to exactly which instruments need to be up more than others at all times, at certain times, etc. Now, neither of us have a problem taking direction, but we are taking it from several "bosses" all demanding different things and none of them have any experience or knowledge in sound at all. It has gotten to the point that we all feel stripped of our creative license to do what we love to do and have been reduced to puppets doing the bidding of everyone else, regardless of what we say or suggest and even at the expense of sound quality. We are constantly being told to "turn it down" based on the complaints of one or two people, even if we have 7 or 8 people complement us on the sound. We're told it's better to err on the side of caution. I'm not talking about blistering levels here, either. I'm talking about mid to low 90db's. Occasionally we'll even get the pastor or other leadership say to turn it down without any complaints just to make sure we don't get any! Historically speaking, I've personally seen 5 of my coworkers (2 of them my superiors) leave in the past 6 years, all citing at least one of the reasons for leaving being the treatment received by - and the unreasonable expectations of - the staff over them, and at times, the teams they work with.

I am desperate to resolve this continuing cycle of techs being chewed up and spit out for the sake of "ministry" once and for all, but am at my end in how to communicate this well and effectively without my team getting up and walking out just to drive the issue home of how valuable this area of ministry is. We all really feel like we are not listened to and our experience and expertise are not seen or respected. We're not button pushers, we're people with great talents and abilities that we'd love to share with our community for their benefit and enjoyment. Please help!

[Sysmom]

You know, I'd take the issue UP, and clear up several things:

1. Who IS in charge?
2. What ARE the rules?
3. Let's find a solution together that will not demoralize our volunteers or part time staffers.

Without those clear leadership decisions and direction, you're not going to be able to go to your team and say or do anything that will help.

Once you and your pastor and whomever else may be between you and him for technical matters prayerfully have these things ironed out and a solution - only THEN take it to your team.

Communication is everything. In ministry, it's especially important. Let your pastor know how many people it's cost in what amount of time. Point out to him whether they're still attending or not.

It is very likely that this 'view' of sound hasn't even occurred to them yet.

I take every hit for the team members - nobody on staff, church council or ... anyone ... gives them direction or criticism. When there are compliments, it all goes to the team members. We believe this policy insulates our volunteers from negative comments. But our Pastors and church staff are 100% behind this.

It takes a team to run a church - and everyone needs to be singing from the same song sheet.

deb

[[Director] Joseph B]

I'd print out the post and send it to everyone involved.
Maybe even point out the passage in the bible about working for two masters, a house divided against itself...etc.
Then point out you are in fact working for way more then two masters. Let them know you can deal with "A" boss but not several who give conflicting and oft' times unreasonable orders.

[tedanderson]

Originally Posted by Sysmom

You know, I'd take the issue UP, and clear up several things:

1. Who IS in charge?
2. What ARE the rules?

I couldn't have said that any better. I would start by putting it all on the pastor. He is the head guy who is in charge of the church who is spirtually accountable for anything that takes place there. If anyone else has a suggestion, opinion or problem, they can just take it to the pastor and if the pastor deems it necessary to make a change, require that all instructions come directly from him.

Not that you are attempting to manipulate him or disrespect his authority but you will have to dig in your heels and explain to the pastor that you need a direct supervisor who you will answer to directly. That way all of your orders will come through a chain of command. The pastor and supervisor will be the only two people you will answer to. Nobody else.

Secondly, as it relates to your creativity being restricted as a result of obeying orders, that does not last for ever. One thing that I learned is that once your leader(s) can trust you do be obedient, they will allow you to do whatever the heck you want to do. Once you establish that level of trust, the pastor will let you blast the system as loud as you want to because he will feel confident that if there is ever a time when he REALLY needs you to turn it down, he knows that you will do it without any conflict or opposition.

This reminds of a situation that took place when I was young in my career in live sound. We provided the equipment for a 500 seat banquet where the guy organizing the event told us that our system was too loud. The volume and bass level of our system wasn't any different from what anyone else would expect so my first inclination was to think that this guy was being a total idiot. I just knew that the guests would be unhappy with our system playing at a very low level. Seeing my level of anger rising, the head engineer pulled me aside and told me that there wasn't a problem with the volume at all. It's just that the event organizer wanted to assert that he is in charge. Once we "tapdance" and feed into his ego a little bit he will eventually tell us to go ahead and turn it back up again and he will leave us alone for the rest of the night. Sure enough, that's exactly what happened.

So to sum the solution, if there is no clear cut definition as to who is in charge, demand that the pastor and ONE other person under him is put in charge of directing you and/or making decisions. Secondly, the more you are willing to obey the person in charge, the more freedom you will have to be creative.

[kbob]

double what sysmom said-when I was in charge, before I became the advisor dude-I took every hit when things went wrong, to the point of taking the chair from one of our youth volunteers before the Pastor or Music Minister got to our booth, and I 'd let my ears get blasted...

It gave the team time to gel-we were in the process of going from a one member team to a 6-8 member team.

I think the best thing you can do for your ministry is to make sure your leaders know it's a ministry, not just a tech gig. First to get there, last to leave, and working frequently during the week-that's the tasking of even the volunteers, let alone the staff. All of you deserve to be taken seriously, at least as seriously as the staff and volunteers take it.

To be given direction isn't wrong-but there needs to be a specific measurable goal and measurable results. To me, it's about the congregation entering into worship-if they're engaged, then the complaints are spurious. If they're not, then evaluate them to see if they reflect the problems-sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.

Don't let yourself be driven to mix conservatively just because of fear of criticism. Our God is not one that gives us a spirit of fear-but rather, power, love, and sound mind.

On the other hand, we are all called to be under authority, and must strive to serve in our positions as though serving the Lord...I just don't happen to believe that He would belittle our ministry if we are striving our best.

The point being, don't allow bitterness/pride/self-righteousness begin to creep in, no matter what-it will infect your relationship with God, and that's more important than anything else. No ministry position is worth sacrificing that over, and you'd only end up negatively affecting those you think you're serving...

Clear lines of communication, regular non-event based communication, and a way to deal with corrections/problems after the event, so you can work on the lines of communication will all help, if everyone's willing to work on it...

[shayward]

. Who IS in charge?
2. What ARE the rules?
3. Let's find a solution together that will not demoralize our volunteers or part time staffers.

Fantastic advice!

Get one boss and also, I'm not sure that they should be giving you advice about adjusting individual channels. I could see the Music Director asking something like, "Is there a way to bring that organ out a little bit more without compromising the mix? It just sounds so nice!"

But that's in cooperation with you, not ordering you. Music Directors can be real turkeys sometimes. (Please note, I'm the Music Director at my church )

I would add this:

Add a few SPL monitors to your sanctuary that you can monitor back in the booth. Keep a log of the db reading at various times during service. If you can add frequency analysis to this too, you're golden. Then, if someone complains you at least have data to confirm that the person is right or confirm that they have no idea what they're talking about.

If the latter, don't be nasty. But you can say, "Well, this is 2db quieter than when you said it was perfect last week."

I work for a manufacturing organization and we keep a log of wind speed and direction. When neighbours complain that we're stinking up the neighbourhood, we can 9-times-out-of-10 pull out proof that we were not stinking up their particular neighbourhood. The city officials then start to look at the chronic complainers in a more realistic light.

Keep in mind, Pastors are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Often times, they don't want to have anyone in the congregation upset for any reason and that translates over to the ministry staff being asked to accommodate often-silly things.

Certainly, you don't want the sound level to drive people away, some people have more sensitive hearing than others, and some people just can't be pleased.

But if you are the Technical Director, talk to your pastor about the situation and the difficulties it's causing. And most of all, be solution-focused.

[waynehoskins]

Ah, that old problem again. It's a toughie.

A "Come To Jesus" meeting might be in order .. not that extreme, really, I guess. Lay the cards on the table with your pastor. You can't have multiple people calling the shots, especially conflicting shots. It's like a shared monitor mix, A saying "turn B down in my mix" and B saying "I can't hear myself, turn me back up". You need one, perhaps two, trusted people who trust your team who can make general decisions, which shouldn't include instructions about the mix. That would typically include your pastor and perhaps assistant pastor.

Perhaps those giving their opinions on the mix would be good candidates for trainees?

On the other hand, this sort of problem sometimes accompanies deeper problems that often happen with big churches. Not that they're necessarily there, but it's easy for them to creep in. If you're being chewed up and spit out, that certainly sounds like you're not being respected (or even given professional courtesy). If to them you're just a guy to turn the knob when and where they say, that may be a sign that either the lawn needs fertilizer and water, or it's time to go to a greener pasture.

All that to say, I don't envy your position there, and best of luck to you in resolving it. I sure hope you do and that it all turns out to be a wonderful happy thing for you and your team there, and the church as a whole. When everybody on staff works well together, and there's very little discord, that's usually a good sign.

[Bubbab74]

Thanks so much for the replies. It's all very good advice and I will consider all of it. It might help I suppose, to give a couple more details brought out by some of the responses, so here goes.

1. Who Is in charge... I am director over my 2 staff and the very few volunteers we have. I have a boss who is the service director and her boss is the pastor. To clarify, I am NOT the one mixing FOH for the main service. I have taken the TD role as a result of our old one leaving last november, but because of budget and staffing shortages, I kept my weekend role of FOH for the youth service, so our other engineer is running FOH for the main service. Although I'm technically responsible for what happens there, I can't ever be there. I know, makes no sense, but that's where we're at.

2. What ARE the rules... Your guess is as good as mine because they change from week to week. This past weekend was a prime example. Four weeks and three weeks ago, we got nothing but compliments on the sound. Same band both weeks. This week and last week, nothing but problems. Different band, same engineer and everything that was wrong was coming from the stage, yet my FOH was thrown under the bus for it, despite the fact he was only mixing to what he was told to do by the pastor and SD. His solution was disregarded and then later found to be right on. The moment he started mixing the way he knows how, the pastor AND SD said it sounded great (although they didn't know he was mixing his way and not theirs). I don't condone disregarding their authority and I told him that, but it's hard to not say something about the results of letting him mix it his way.

Shayward: We do have a db meter in the booth and have for years. It's almost become a crutch for the upper leadership. They'll tend to look at the meter before they listen and make a judgment on that. It's gotten a little better in that regard, but it's still not good. It's a useful tool, but it's been used improperly a lot and more so by non-sound engineers. For a long time, we were even given a db limit of 90db in a 2,000 seat sanctuary with a 13 piece band and no drum shield.

Wayne, you hit it on the nose. We do feel like we're not respected or given professional courtesy. I know very well that we deal with a majority of non-professional volunteers every day, but I always contest that just because you don't make your living at what you do here, doesn't mean you get to act unprofessionally.

Again, thanks for the help and keep it coming!

[jlhyde]

Welcome to the board Bubbab74. First understand that you are not alone. Many of us have faced this same problem. I have directed live broadcast that aired in 13 countries on network television but when I took over the IMAG/ Video services of our church I had a worship pastor who wanted to tell me everything I needed to do. He literally wanted to "call the shots" for camera angles. His excuse was that he was the one "in the fish bowl". and he had to answer to the congregation for anything that appeared on the screens or in the broadcast so he felt like he should have absolute control. Our senior pastor having a day in - day out working relationship for several years before I came along simply listened to who he knew best but mostly wanted to stay out of it. I, with a servants heart, kept quiet and tried to appease him for about six weeks but finally I had to do what was right. I could not allow the image of our church to continually deteriorate when I knew there was something that could be done better. It is the personality of our worship pastor to be assertive, strong willed and power hungry. He is also very smart, so I knew that I had a rough road ahead of me. As soon as I approached the subject, it instantly became about a power struggle to him instead of about ministry but I simply called him and the senior pastor and the administrative pastor together and laid it out. I laid my credentials on the line and asked them to compare theirs. Then I compared my credentials for preaching and for leading worship to theirs. It became very evident without much argument that we each had a job to do and each of us were very well qualified to do our job but not each others. How quick do you think your pastor is going to surrender his pulpit to you if you feel you can do a better job than him? What about the worship pastor? When I put it all on the line they began to see that if CNN, ABC, NBC, the NFL, Turner Broadcasting, The International Olympic Committee, TBN, and CMT were willing to put me in a truck and let me call the shots for millions of viewers, they looked pretty silly trying to tell me what to do for several thousand viewers. There were several years of tension that followed because of the perception of the worship pastor that I "challenged his authority" but I continued to treat him with love and respect. I continued to show respect for his area of expertise and include him whenever possible. Eventually, everything evened out and we fostered a good working relationship with mutual respect for each other. Since that dreadful day though, we have grown by leaps and bounds in our production quality, volunteer training and participation, and viewership. God is good and He is in control and just because we are involved in ministry doesn't mean we are void of our own personalities and idiosyncrasies. Therefore we must deal with them,... even in the church.

[hubbytait]

Way to goo>!