Andy Bussey, a sound engineer, technology design consultant, and personal friend, has been working in church technology and with tech teams for many years. I met Andy while we both were teaching at conferences around the world with various worship companies. Andy has been on staff at major churches across the US, and knows the daily frustrations, triumphs and challenges of a growing church.
Being a musician myself, I find that there can be a barrier between the worlds of music and tech. Sometimes we can never get on the same page in order to communicate effectively. But when we do, the results can be astounding! Andy Bussey is a talented engineer, but has a deep understanding of working with people and building teams.
Andy likes to joke about the differences between musicians and technical people: coming from two different worlds, sometimes we can drive each other crazy in the process of creating music. But by necessity, we must cooperate.
In a recent conversation I had with Andy, he said, "What we do as technicians is to bring together the art and the science and try to empower and support the musicians. Musicians tend to dwell in the "right-brain," artist area of what they enjoy doing. Technicians tend to lean into that "left-brain," logic area. And so crossing that divide, and being able to communicate and understand one another is sometimes a careful dance!"
Here is a portion of the conversation I had with Andy about the marriage of worship, music, people and technology.
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Jamie: "How can technicians and musicians better communicate?"
Andy: "You have to find a language that the two understand. With all the people I've worked with in the past, I've had to [find a common language].The most successful relationships I've had with artists are the ones I've been able to create a common vocabulary and an understanding with. The more you communicate, the more you understand and can help each other."
Jamie: "What's the most important job of a church tech person?"
Andy: "The first and foremost is heart. I've always told people that I prefer somebody who maybe doesn't have a strong technical background, but has a heart for what they want to do, rather than somebody who has all the skill-sets but is lacking the heart or understanding of a servant. In the context of what we do in church, first and foremost, I look for people with heart and a desire for excellence, the desire to serve one another and to come together to accomplish great things the Lord has given us. And then, with that, we can begin to teach, train and equip on the technical side of things."
Jamie: "You've got to have people on the tech and music teams who cooperate with each other."
Andy: "You've got to enjoy [working together] because it's not always easy. You may have a service where the musicians can't hear and the technician is having a hard time, and you get into the trenches of trying to pull stuff off…You need to live together in the trenches, and to be able to enjoy it with one another, and to enjoy the ministry and the fruits of your efforts, and build a team."
Jamie: "At what point in its life does does a church need to think about using technology in a serious manner…employing in-ear monitoring, making use of stage lighting and video, for instance?"
Andy: "It's never too late! I often tell small churches they have obstacles that large churches don't have: the proximity of microphones to the main speakers because you're in a small room…the acoustics, and all of the other things they have going against them. I really feel for the small churches. They have a lower budget; they don't have as many resources available to them to buy all of the expensive gear; they have a smaller group of people.
Jamie: "How should small churches go about purchasing gear while looking at future growth?"
Andy: "They need to look at the music they're going to do--the formation of your band: Is it more of a small praise band or is it more of a [traditional] set-up with an acoustic piano and a choir? Looking at all of the ways you're going to use your facilities, and starting to look ahead as far as you can is always best. Look into the technology and have a plan, even though you can't buy everything right now; at least you'll see where you need to be…and all your resources--all your dollars--are in a common direction, toward a common goal, instead of just being scattered, buying things as you really need them."
Jamie: "Is it good to bring in a tech consultant, as opposed to using a local music store, to help your church with its tech needs?"
Andy: "Absolutely! You can't hurt from gaining knowledge. However, you ask a hundred audio engineers how to mic a piano and you'll get a hundred different answers. You will get a different preference of how to do things with different people. However, the technology--the board, the speakers, and different things--you really can't hurt from experience outside of the music stores. Music store people know their gear and how to sell it--a lot of them just don't understand the application…The church's application is very unique, You need to get expertise from people who know that kind of genre of using the equipment."
Jamie: "Would it benefit a small church to think about using a digital console?"
Andy: Originally digital consoles were designed for use in a [recording] studio…The needs of a studio are different from those of live sound. They [eventually] designed digital consoles that allow the end user to get to things in a live situation. For instance, with EQ: if you have feedback, you need to get to that feedback as fast as possible. But in digital consoles previous to this, [the EQ function] was buried in layers of menus. So finding the right digital console is important, and it allows you to store Friday night's service, Sunday morning's service, or the youth group's, and to re-call all your settings. Gone are the days of having to take pictures [of the settings]. So, really leveraging a well-designed digital console for a live PA in church is a strong mechanism for empowering your volunteers [to help with] all the needs…in your situation."
Jamie: "Let's talk about the trend nowadays of creating video venues--either on-site or off-site--to help churches grow into new communities while continuing to use the main campus, or lead, teacher in all spaces, helping to create continuity and efficiency."
Andy: "There's a trend back to smaller groups where people can relate to one another. We want to meet the needs of different types of people in different types of venues. So instead of using resources to build one huge building, it was a great strategy for us to build small venues in different communities [Note: Andy is speaking of a church he once served in greater Pittsburgh, PA]. Some of those small venues are on the same campus; at our large campus we ended up with three venues. Then, we started to create little campuses around the city of Pittsburgh."
Jamie: "Through this multi-venue concept, a church of 10,000--while divided up between several campuses, venues and services--can still enjoy the benefits of a large church, while remaining a smaller congregation within their own community. I'm currently serving in an off-campus video venue and it seems, like the one I serve, most churches utilize a live worship team. The preaching is then provided from the "main campus" by video. I find that people are already accustomed to looking at video screens during live preaching, anyway. So it isn't a leap for people to adjust to the preaching from a video in another venue!"
Jamie: "Moving on to another subject, how do you recruit and train your tech team members?"
Andy: "We had [at the Pittsburgh church] a handful of volunteers who did all the work…our guys got burned out. So we changed the way we thought about our team. Traditionally you'd say, 'We'll look for technical people to recruit.' And we changed the way we thought about that. It's important with leadership in church, and leadership in general…to duplicate ourselves. Often, we get volunteers but we're afraid to let go of some stuff because we're not sure if the volunteer is qualified enough to do it as good [as us]. We had to look at loving people first. There [are] always things that need to get done that can be done by non-technical folks. So, instead of me being the "sound guy" for the church, my job in leadership is to be the guy that lifts up sound guys for the church…my ultimate goal is to get my hands off the board and raise up other people [for the job]…my role has to change in leadership from doing the sound to support others doing the sound--loving on others, and building a team that cares for each other…People want to start being a part of that team…I raise them from a personal level, then I sow into them for the technical, teaching them how to run sound, [and] how to run lighting. I think it's most important, again, to cultivate the heart, care about people, and then impart the knowledge."
Jamie: "How early should we start technical planning for an upcoming service?"
Andy: "Last week (laughs)! It's very important as a technical person to stay in communication with the musicians and knowing what their needs are. Right after service I ask them how things were, and I start putting a list together of what to work on this week. Being able to get in before the next rehearsal, fixing the things that need to be fixed, getting ready for the things that are on the list for rehearsal, and having your ducks in a row, allows you to be right on it. So when the musicians begin to practice and rehearse, you can address any new things that start to come up, rather than scurrying around, fixing things that should have been fixed the week before. Being prepared way in advance is so important, so that you don't have to feel rushed. At crunch time, if you're just starting to address issues you had last Sunday, you're behind the 8-ball--you're way behind. You're not going to have the ability to enjoy and support the worship on Sunday morning."
Jamie: "One last thing: what "golden nugget" can you share that has helped you as a technical person in ministry and worship?"
Andy: "If your accomplishment, or the personal value in what you do comes from people telling you you did a good job--that rarely happens for the technical people because the only time they really get noticed is when something goes wrong--it's very difficult when the value of your efforts come from your actions. We really need to be able to have a prayer life, and a relationship with the Lord in such a way that I can rejoice in the successes I've had…When I used to do things for the respect of others, I would get very frustrated. Now, my joy comes from serving the Lord. It allows me to trivialize the tough spots, and get a whole lot more joy out of worshiping God with my gifts."
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