So many hats--so little time...

In my role as the resident media guy at my church, a new role for me, I'm finding that I have to wear a lot of different hats, figuratively speaking (although my ball-cap collection is pretty impressive, I must say). Maybe you can relate to this. I'm responsible for:

• Sanctuary projection--the stuff that appears on-screen during worship services
• The church newsletter
• Supporting the IT needs of the church staff and ministry leaders
• The church Web site
• Media and technology planning, purchasing, equipment maintenance, etc.
• Our church management system--we're switching to a new one soon
• The church pictorial directory
• Video production
• The CD/tape ministry
• and a lot of other stuff I haven't figured out yet

Hats--photo by Lin Pernille Photography

In addition to this, I am a contemporary worship leader, so I'm planning worship services, leading our worship team, and directing rehearsals. My lovely wife and I also lead a small-group Bible study with young adults. In other words, practically all of my time is spent in church-related work of one sort or another. I'm not complaining about this, by the way--I chose this life, and I love serving the church. But I'm supposed to be fitting all of this into about 25 hours a week (except for the Bible study, which is a volunteer thing).

The only thing that makes this remotely possible is that there are teams of volunteers who help me with most of these responsibilities. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my predecessor, who recruited, organized and trained our sanctuary projection team, our CD/tape ministry team, the pictorial directory team, and the media teams for the children and youth ministries in our church. And the secret to ongoing success, I think, is going to be in continuing to keep these teams engaged and motivated.

One part-time person simply can't do it all--even a full-time person would be hard-pressed to manage the work load that I've described above. Most churches don't have the resources to hire enough people to do this stuff well, nor are they able to offer a salary that is commensurate with the kind of experience and expertise that is necessary to do the job, so you have to find people who are energized and willing to give freely of their time and skill to serve the Lord and his church. I am so thankful for the people who do just that, week in and week out, year after year.

Volunteers make the church work--no doubt about it. My hats--all of them--are off to all of you who give so generously of your time and skills to serve.