One thing out of the way right from the start: Yes, this is another special House of Worship issue. Yes, the desire to do these is driven by the business folks who feel they can sell more advertising because — unlike a lot of other venues — churches are still spending money on audio gear. But, if I did not truly believe that we were bringing something of value to the table for the READERS of FOH, I would stomp my feet and hold my breath and scream and yell (quite a feat to do all at once) and likely end up fired for refusing to be a "team player." But let's get the dollars out of the equation and look at what this church thing really means. There are myriad reasons for it — ranging from a return to values held when we were growing up, and as yet unjaded and not yet tainted by the road, to having kids and feeling a need for some kind of structured moral program for them — but a growing number of former road dogs are finding their way into the pews of various churches and temples. More than a third of FOH readers identify church as a place where they are involved in audio production.
Many of this group are being asked to lead an audio team that consists of volunteers who are well-intentioned but often know little about audio beyond how to hook up a home stereo system or maybe a mic and a couple of speakers on sticks. As churches move into the world of digital consoles, line arrays, surround mixes and broadcast integration, the need for some real-world expertise is becoming ever more crucial. Which is where, I hope, an issue like this comes in.
As long as we are talking about churches, let's get another uncomfortable fact out of the way. Too many houses of worship either don't budget for good audio or think it is something that just magically happens. One of the biggest complaints I hear from production audio people who work with churches is the fact that many of them are a huge pain when it comes time to get paid. A couple of years ago, I lost a church festival gig that I had done for half a dozen years when the organizers decided that — because it was for the church — all services should be donated. Now, I was already cutting these guys a deal that verged on stupid cheap, but they went with someone from the parish with a small system and bands that would play for free and… Well, I wasn't there, but I hear it sucked. And I got the gig back the following year (and, yes, I raised my rate a little bit).
The split seems very much to be between "traditional" churches and more modern — generally evangelical — congregations with the traditionalists giving audio (and other production elements) the short end of the stick and charismatic evangelical congregations understanding the value of entertainment technology in getting out their message. It is also, no big surprise — and this may be just my experience talking — the traditionalists who don't see why they should have to pay for audio and the evangelicals who are willing to fork over what it takes to make their production values able to hold the attention of a flock raised on MTV and action flicks.
A few years ago, the church I was attending was going through a pretty tough time as the leader of the congregation lay dying of a rare and aggressive form of cancer while only in his mid-40s. He specifically asked if he could get services recorded and brought to his hospital room, and I had to really do some hoop-jumping to make it happen and sound at least coherent enough to understand. And, because audio production was seen by this church as an intrusion, I had to do it so no one knew I was doing it. I found myself coveting the broadcast integration capabilities of the mega-church up the street.
Like so many things it came down to balance. Some churches want it all production wise, and others want nothing at all if they can get away with it. We need to find the balance point between selling and installing the right system (i.e., big enough to do the job but not overkill, except to allow for reasonable growth) and dealing with the inherent "thriftiness" of the HOW market. Good luck with that…
