I heard from a good friend of mine the other day. He was rather frustrated (that may be an understatement…) because he perceived some of the criticism he was subject of was coming from a desire for perfection in worship. Now, I don’t know all the details, but I ventured a guess that perfection was in fact not the goal, but rather progress toward excellence. While I have been around some people for whom anything less than perfection is unacceptable, most church leaders don’t fall into that category. Rather, most church leaders I know are more interested in excellence. Yet when technical problems that seem easily solvable keep happening, they get frustrated. That frustration can spill out as sharp criticism, which can look like a desire for perfection, especially if the tech leader in question higher value on relationships than technical execution.

In an effort to help my friend, I jotted down some thoughts that I’ve learned over the years. One area that I felt needed to be addressed was setting the proper level of expectation for volunteers. I know very few people who are better at caring for people than my friend. But sometimes, like a parent who tries too hard to be their child’s friend, we as tech leaders commit a disservice to our volunteers by failing to lead. Just as a child needs a parent, not another friend, our volunteers need us to lead first, and be friends second. This is not to say the two are mutually exclusive–I’m friends with all my volunteers–but rather, as a technical arts director, I need to direct. Here’s how I see this playing out. Read More »