Yesterday, we talked about how churches have gone über-techy in their approach to worship and use of technology. Now, we want to tell you how to keep pace. What we’ve come up with is quite a list of skills needed in church media ministry. If this were a church media director job description, it would scare most applicants out of their mind. Thankfully, it’s not a job description. It is a list of the kind of tech skills needed for a whole variety of church media jobs—the media or IT team if you will. So, when we say these skills are needed by the “church media director,” we mean his or her team. And, another disclaimer: this list will vary based on the size of your church.
Top Tech Skills for the Church Media Director
- A church media director should be able to work a soundboard. To the uninitiated, the church sound system is as simple as talking into a microphone and shazam! Your voice is automatically broadcast through the loudspeakers. Those who sit and sweat behind the soundboard know differently. That expensive piece of hardware is also a complicated piece of hardware. Loud piercing noises blasting from the church sound system are unacceptable.
- A church media director should be able to wire sound equipment. Most people know how to insert an electrical plug into an outlet. The church media director needs to know how to do more, which involves connecting all the various speakers, microphones, etc., etc.
- A church media director should know basic graphic design and video editing. Can you open up Photoshop and drum up some designs? Can you perform a few actions in Final Cut?
- A church media director should have mad IT skills, including network administration, network setup, and network troubleshooting.
- A church media director should be cool enough to have his own blog, and Facebook and Twitter account.
- A church media director should know how to find good stuff on Sharefaith and download it. Which is very, very easy.
- A church media director should be a capable web administrator, including some knowledge of markup language, web design, and web editing. In addition, he should know all the specific interfaces, content management systems, hosting services, and A/V streaming programs used by the church.
- A church media director should be knowledgeable in the field of lighting, stage lighting, lighting design, and wiring.
- A church media director should be able to create designs and publications for print, which means that he will need to use Microsoft Word, Microsoft Publisher, or Microsoft Office, or similar software.
- A church media director should know how to work projection hardware…and fix it.
- A church media director should have a working knowledge of videography, including video cameras, video recording, video uploading, and video file storage.
- A church media director should know exactly how to fix someone’s computer problem when they ask him to.
- A church media director should know how to operate the worship software, whether it’s PowerPoint, Keynote, Easy Worship, Media Shout, SongShow Plus or some other software.
Those are just the technical specs…and those are just the tip of the iceberg. Are you beginning to see the daunting task of being a church media director? Thankfully, the role of a church media individual is a role that is supported and sustained by a whole team of people. Beyond the technical skills, there are a whole lot of other abilities that the church media director should have in his portfolio. Like knowing how to ask for help…and delegating. And asking the pastor for more money to upgrade the equipment. But those aren’t tech skills, so maybe we’ll talk about those in another post.
So, whether you call it a Technical Arts Minister, The Church Tech Guy, Creative Technical Arts Administrator, Technology Pastor, Chief Minister of Technology, Church Media Director, Church Technical Specialist, Church A/V Director, Church IT Geek, or The Computer Guy, it is an important job with a lot of responsibility. May God give us the wisdom, skill, and insight to fulfill this job to the best of our ability, for His glory.