"We can't get anyone else to join."
"The same sound guy has been there for years."
"Our church is too small to have a tech team."
"I can't get anyone to take it seriously."

I've heard all of those and more from pastors, music ministers and techies alike. It seems that in most churches, only a couple of people are serving regularly in the technical arts. I've got news for you: it doesn't have to be like that!

As I travel the country working with churches, I'm called upon to help not only train their staff and volunteers, but also to help them recruit, train and retain people for their team. I've been doing this for years and to be completely honest with you, it's one of my favorite consulting jobs. Watching as pastors, worship leaders and techies have the "lightbulb" come on as I teach and train is invigorating to me! If your church needs a tech team tune-up,

So I'm sharing the six steps I teach to building strong tech teams in an effort to help churches get started on this path. Of course, there's quite a bit more to this than I have room to share here, but I thought it beneficial to at least help churches get the ball rolling.

Wearables.

Part of getting recruits is building the right environment for volunteers to feel comfortable and prepared. Name your ministry. Create custom lanyards for each tech team. Create T-shirts, polo shirts or turtlenecks (black is preferred by this techie!) that have the logo and name of the ministry embroidered onto each one. These shirts are earned (See Recruit section below.) and are only worn when the volunteer is on-duty. (Check out this shirt from my friends at

Ownership.

Invite suggestions for the look and feel of the media suite/area. Get people to buy in to the vision by taking ownership of the space, the equipment and--most importantly--each other (volunteer team leaders leading other volunteers). Photos of techies in action, shots of various stage setups and other photos should adorn the walls and rotate out regularly. When visitors and recruits visit your tech area, they'll stop to look at these pictures, I guarantee it! We all want to be a part of something fun and exciting. People should always leave the tech area with a smile on their face!

Take the hit.

Share the successes with everyone but shoulder the failures yourself. Volunteers only make big mistakes when we don't do enough training, create volunteer-proof systems and fail to provide enough rehearsal/setup time. Never totally blame a volunteer; instead, accept responsibility for all misses and create a way to learn from them. (Review tapes are good coaching tools.) Remember, volunteers won't stay volunteers too long if they're in the "hot seat" and feel the pressure week in and week out. Yes, we do have some pressure in performing well, but that pressure needs to be minimized by a leader who lets his team know that the leader will take the hit for them.

Organize.

From startup/shutdown checklists, to consistent training and evaluation, to setting up a hierarchy of leaders, it's usually the little mistakes that cause distractions, not the big blow-ups. Just as a pilot uses a pre-flight checklist, so must our tech teams. Assign a neat-freak volunteer to help your ministry run smoothly. Remember, some of your best volunteers will be ad execs, sales people, managers, project managers and accountants who never touch a fader, spin a knob or push a button.

Recruit.

Find people with servant attitudes, not technical accolades. Every new tech recruit starts with wrapping cables and setting up/tearing down. I don't care how much experience they have, they always start out with the small jobs. Remember, you need their availability more than their ability. Once they've proven they can wrap "over and under", wipe down equipment and vacuum up the tech area after services, then find out what tech areas they're interested in. Earning a spot on the team will provide better volunteers than begging people to join the team.

Enjoy.

Set your volunteers up for success (see above) and have fun working through the unique gifting of these invaluable people. I teach that we should be having the most fun come service time. It should be a blast to serve while trying our best to achieve a glitch-free service. We are at the top of our game when no one even knows we are there!

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