Hurdles of Media Ministry Part 1

I’m learning that in media ministry their can be many hurdles to overcome.  I’m going to list several and expound on them.  Some of them I have experienced first hand and some I have not had to deal with but I know that some of you have.

1.EDUCATION
Educating your congregation on the relevance of technology in today’s churches can be very difficult if you have an older member base or even younger members that have grown up in rigid, legalistic churches.  Many times you hear “we’ve never done it that way before” instead of thinking “you know, Jesus used everything at his disposal to teach life lessons.  I wonder how God can use media and those technically gifted for His glory and to further His kingdom.”  So many people get hung up on things that don’t affect the meaning of the Word of God or the truth that lies therein.  Let’s face it; we are in a technology advanced society that has come to expect excellence in audio, video and everything else technical.  As a wise friend once said, “The young people of our church demand excellence and the older members deserve excellence.”  I ask that people not resist the change of using of media.  Media is not bad.  What people do with media is sometimes bad but why can’t we use the same thing to counteract all the filth, hatred and violence with goodness, love and peace.

2.EQUIPMENT
Many times I wish I could have been in on the planning and purchasing of audiovisual equipment so many, many years ago.  Of course when your church is lacking in point #1 then you have a very difficult task of convincing anyone that you need to purchase quality equipment and systems.  Many times you are just getting by and the high dollar equipment of 20 years ago is on its last legs.  You have to keep patching and repairing until the piece decides to go onto glory.  
Usually the minimal investment that is allowed on equipment is just that; minimal.  Unfortunately what you do purchase does not live up to the expectation of your church and you end up looking like a fool.  The old adage many times applies, “you get what you pay for”.  
Be careful though because of the booming market of audio, video and lighting equipment to churches there are those companies that are looking for the fast buck.  They don’t understand the church, don’t understand God and certainly don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ but they do understand money and greed.  Churches are many times an easy target because of point #1.  Do your homework!  Research all of your equipment.  Find out what is working for some other churches.  Compare prices.  Get multiple opinions.  Learn from others successes and mistakes.  Remember though that what may work in one church may not work in another.  That is when it comes to having someone design systems in your church.  Check references.  You want to find companies that are reputable (preferably Christian based) and have the necessary people, tools and resources to get the job done.  Also make sure you get several companies to submit designs and quotes.  Don’t hesitate to tell them that there is competition.

3.ENGINEERING
I recently posted about power distribution and what a mess I find and I continue to find.  It never ceases to amaze me what a predicament churches get into with regards to electrical.  When it comes to buying equipment or designing systems do not forget electrical.  
Even more consideration is needed when it comes to lighting systems.  Those lights are power hogs.  An excellent formula to use is nick-named after my home state of West Virginia.  Watts = Volts x Amps or W=VxA.  For example if you want to know how much wattage you have available you can solve for W.  We will take 120 volts (US average) x 20 ampere rated dimmer circuit = 2400 watts.  Then you would add the ratings of all your lighting fixtures to see how many you can place on the one dimmer circuit.
Audio and video equipment need clean power and common potential grounding.  Grounding needs to be common at your service entry and all equipment needs to be tied to that ground to keep the same potential throughout your system.  Otherwise you are asking for serious problems.  There is the potential of electrical shock and much damage to equipment.  Now if your building is very old then you may have some degradation in your circuits that can lead to noise and other problems.  That is why you need to think of effective AC power regulation and distribution.  Get rid of the $5.00 so call surge protectors you bought at Wal-Mart.
After power comes how everything else is wired.  Keep your wiring neat and off your feet.  Invest a few bucks on cable ties, wire loom and raceways.  If possible keep your AC power, audio and video cables separate.  It is possible to have noise on your system by induction of AC power on speaker cables and other audio cables.

I have a few more points that I would like to make but I will continue on this thread in another post.  Stay Tuned…