As Churchfront has grown over the years, Jake and the team have gained priceless insight about mistakes worship leaders make when they upgrade their technology.
So save yourself the trouble of learning these mistakes from experience and learn from us instead! Here are six mistakes we see churches make when upgrading their technology.
Mistake #1: Missing the Forest for the Trees
Remember when COVID threw most churches into a live stream frenzy, and every church started to upgrade their live stream system? Many churches dove headfirst into all things live streaming, pouring all their resources into it. But achieving quality doesn’t just mean dumping all attention on the little details. Many churches learned this the hard way as many weaknesses in their tech systems were exposed.
Don’t begin by focusing on all the details, or the trees. Take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Look at the forest. Don’t just jump into making a broadcast mix. Instead, work on your audio quality first. Realize that lighting may need to be a priority first, or maybe upgrade your church’s presentation software.
Any plan to accomplish anything will not go well if there is not an objective understanding of how all the pieces fit together to make the system work. So don’t get caught up in one niche of your tech ministry. Don’t miss the forest and only see the trees.
Mistake #2: Having Poor Knowledge of Inventory
Here’s something we’ve learned as we’ve worked with worship leaders: churches are scared to get rid of things. Because of this, oftentimes a church’s tech inventory builds up over time, and with staff and volunteer changes, having an accurate inventory of everything can be a nightmare.
Having a robust inventory list exemplifies good stewardship of what God has given your church, and it allows you to know exactly what should be upgraded and what should not. Our coaching calls start with asking about the vision of a church, but the next question is often, “What gear do you have to accomplish that vision?” It’s only after answering this question that the task of upgrading tech can be addressed.
Mistake #3: Not Having Financial Buffer Room
Trying to upgrade tech on a shoestring leads to trouble. This is because problems often come up that take more money, time, or both, than originally thought. The larger the project, the more buffer a church should give itself. It’s not unlike building a house or large building, or having an emergency fund put aside for your family. The more variables that exist, the more room for unplanned needs should also exist.
Mistake #4: Spending Too Much or Spending Too Little
Here’s a secret: There’s a zone churches can hit with their gear that produces really efficient results while keeping costs very reasonable. But here is the reality: many churches buy gear far beyond the top for their needs (or ability to operate), or they hold back financially when they could pay just a little more and greatly improve their tech setup.
In other words, don’t spend too much on tech gear that people won’t notice a difference, and be sure to prioritize buying the right gear.
Here’s an example. Does your church need a camera that is $10,000 or more? Unless you have more than 500 people at your church or something like that, the answer is no. Most people cannot notice any difference between a camera of that caliber and a nice $3k-5k camera setup. But if your church is still using your pastor’s ipad to stream on Facebook, it may benefit your church to consider spending more and providing your church body with a more robust camera solution.
Mistake #5: Future-proofing Your Church Too Much or Future-proofing Your Church Too Little
This is similar to the fourth mistake above. Like money, time is another factor that affects decisions. Obviously, it’s wise to plan for the future. However, it may not be the best option to plan too many years in advance. We are, after all, talking about technology upgrades.
Here’s an example of future-proofing a tech setup too much. It’s possible to upgrade to a 4k video switcher. At face value, it may seem like this is a good idea, as many devices and tech is moving the direction of 4k. However, churches like Life Church or Bethel aren’t even streaming in 4k. So why would your church need 4k streaming?
Technology value deflates. Buy an iPhone tomorrow, and next year it will be worth a fraction of its cost. So, consider all that money that will go down the drain while you wait for the future to catch up with your upgraded tech. Don’t jump too early.
But not considering the future at all is obviously dangerous as well. Keep up to date with worship tech companies like Churchfront. Listen to experts, prepare your church’s finance or budget teams, and plan ahead. Not future-proofing your church will leave you in the dust just as much as future-proofing too much.
Mistake #6: Investing In Gear Before Investing In Knowledge
We spend a lot of time with Worship Leaders and Tech Leaders within our Worship Ministry School, and here is what we see a lot of: churches buying a ton of equipment before they understand the best practices of how to use the equipment and implement them.
If you don’t have good knowledge of what a system offers, you won’t be able to improve or diagnose issues.
Think of it this way. Jack wants to build a house. He has helped with a few small building projects, but he has never built a house before. So he buys all the equipment and tools, spends thousands upon thousands, and he just starts trying to figure out how to build the house as he goes with maybe a few YouTube videos for help.
This is obviously a disaster waiting to happen.
Jack is like a lot of worship leaders out there who are trying to build a robust worship system without tried and tested training and guidance. But here’s the good news (shameless plug): this is exactly what we provide to churches through Worship Ministry School. In Worship Ministry School, we help churches miss all the pitfalls listed above. Not only that, we help churches’ worship ministries grow.
We also offer a course called The Worship Tech Blueprint, in which we help churches think big-picture, helping them to not miss the forest for the trees. In other words, check out this course if you read the mistakes above and see that your church has either made these or is on the verge of doing so.
Regardless, heed these warnings, and steward your church’s tech resources with wisdom for the glory of God!