I had been thinking out loud about the possibility of large churches with a lot of resources (staff, equipment and money) creating a partnership with church plants in sponsoring part-time techs for work and training.
As I explained this concept to my wife, she reminded me that Harvest Church in Watauga, Texas, used to hire Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary grad students to work on staff with the full understanding that they'd only be there for 12-18 months and then would leave to go start their own churches. Whereas the hiring of Seminary students was more-or-less full time at Harvest, the idea was a catalyst for a modification of that practice for equipping tech arts people.
It could look something like this:
A small church plant wants to add a technical arts ministry, but doesn't have the money to hire a full-time tech arts staff position. A large church wants to add more projects and provide more help to their current tech arts staff, but only needs part-time help.
The large church would create an inter-church staffing resource and offer positions to help fulfill the needs of their tech arts ministry. The small church plant would then submit their candidate for an interview process to see if there was a potential fit. The tech person would be hired part-time by the large church to work on projects for the large church (and be trained by experienced ministry staff) and hired part-time by the small church plant to work on their projects.
My thinking is that the staff member would spend Thursday-Sunday at their own church plant and Monday-Wednesday at the large church. In this way, the day-to-day training in production techniques, troubleshooting, pre-production, creative planning, research and the like could help the large church with projects and the trainee with valuable experience.
In order to implement these new lessons, the tech would apply the skills to the church plant and ensure the weekend services were handled well in the tech arts ministry.
I also think that at least once a quarter, the staff trainee would spend a weekend at the large church to work in the live part of the production process under leaders who continue to train and increase the practical skills of this person.
If a contract is set in place, expectations, time commitments and the like are worked out so that everyone understands their role in the partnership.
After a 12-18 month stint learning and working at the large church, the tech person would be much better equipped to help the church plant and, hopefully, the small church plant would have the resources to bring this person on full-time.
In this way, large churches could hire additional part-time help on contractual basis (no benefits package) from someone they know will be reproducing themselves for the Kingdom while helping out with their own projects. The small church plant would benefit from being able to afford a part-time tech person and from the excellent training that person receives from the large church.
In the end, I see this as an excellent way of church leaders living out Luke 12:48 "...From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked."
Where some see churches as being in competition with each other, I see the better way as being in cooperation with each other.
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Anthony Coppedge
provides consulting to churches for developing and growing a Media Ministry, building teams, casting vision and even choosing the right equipment. He lives in Bedford, Texas, with his wife and two daughters and can be reached at anthony@anthonycoppedge.com.Reprinted with permission. ©
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