Greg Davis - Technically Speaking

Yesterday, Anthony Coppedge blogged about the importance of networking among those working or volunteering in the worship, creative, and technical arts areas.  This is something that is on my heart to do for 2008 and was first encouraged to do so by Greg Atkinson, back in December when he posted about “Who’s in Your Network”?

Going to MinistryTECH at the begging of April was a great step for me in getting to meet many folks from all over the country.  However, a goal I have for 2008 is to begin a network here in the Delaware Valley. So, today I have launched a Facebook group, “Technical & Creative Arts in the Delaware Valley”. I don’t know all that God might do with this, but I’m hoping to at least provide a place for those folks that are located in the greater Philadelphia/Wilmington area that have a passion in the “technical arts” to join together for support, fellowship, and networking. If that fits you, I hope you’ll join and invite others as well!

I do believe we all serve on the same team for the sake of the Kingdom and not in competition with each other. I hope this group will be just one small way to help foster that spirit here in this little corner of the the globe.

I was trying to keep track of the many different church conferences that I am interested in this year.  To help organize the information and get a better handle on it I created this spreadsheet.  Feel free to use it yourself or if there is another good conference out there for 2008 that I don’t have on the list, leave me a comment and let me know.

• Creative Church Conference
• Unlease 2008
• Awaken 2008
• ministryTECH
• The BIG IDEA Practicum
• Buzz Conference
• National Worship Leader Conference
• Echo
• ministryCOM
• Innovate 2008
• Catalyst *
  

James Higginbotham, author of Agile Ministry, has started a new site to assist church and lay leaders in their volunteer leadership and managment skills.  Be sure to check out What You Do Is What Their Hear where you can subscribe (via email or RSS) to receive focused articles and materials to help you grow you volunteer ministry.  This looks to be great resource and a topic that churches cannot afford to ignore if they want to grow and do the work of the Gospel.

Also available is the free e-book, Handle with Care.

While this may not touch on technology per se, our technology teams (sound, media, video) would not exist without volunteers. This goes for any of our church ministries. Voluteers are the life blood of probably every ministy team we have. So it is important to remember our volunteer teams and to say “Thank You” whenever we can.

One of the important things about a viable ministry team is that it will change and grow over time. To help understand that, James Higginbotham has a great set of articles on the subject of volunteer recruiting.   For anyone in a leadership or even Team Lead role in a church it is could to remind ourselfves of some of these prinicipals.

Thanks James for sharing your wisdon and insight with us!  

James Higginbotham gave a great reminder about why we need volunteers to do ministry.  While the work of keeping track of potential / interested volunteers, training them and working with them can be time consuming and difficult it is really what true ministry is about! This point is even made by Paul in Ephesians 4:12 when he talks about “equipping the saints for the work of the ministry”.  While the work may change somewhat over the years as technology and cultures change, it is a good reminder that the “task” is really not what the focus should be.  People and relationships is what Christ cared about and is what we involved in church ministries need to remember.

I know I often forget this and can fall into the trap of focusing on equipment or tasks instead of the individuals and the relationships. I pray that in the coming year, and especially with all of the Phase III (Pillar of Fire) activity that will be going on, that I can keep the focus where it should be.

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This post from Agile Ministry was offers good perspective on how we go about selecting volunteers for our ministry teams. Like always, prayer is usually the best first step, but often overlooked!

We may fail to realize it, but we do “interview” people for positions whether it be formal or informal.  It is good to be aware of the 2 most common forms of an interview as described in this article, and to strive to move into the third, less common method (the “prayerful interview”).