MixFix Painkillers Podcast: Tackling Church Production Pains
In 2015, born from a deep-seated desire to empower, guide, and mentor members of church production and tech teams, MixFix was originally conceived as a tailored training resource for congregations. As the pandemic thrust us into a new reality, the MixFix Painkillers Podcast emerged as a beacon of solutions, responding to the surge of inquiries from churches across the United States. Alongside a cadre of experts, Bryan Ramsey delved into the multifaceted challenges posed by the "new normal" of virtual church services. Helping many launch streaming in their church that never had a camera before was a huge focus of those earlier episodes.
Now, as we step into 2023, while the grip of COVID has begun to loosen, a new crisis looms large – the well-being and mental health of our church staff and teams. Alarming statistics paint a grim picture, with individuals departing ministry roles in every U.S. state and burnout rates reaching unprecedented heights. As staff members grapple with these challenges, volunteers are left to pick up the pieces and fill in the gaps. It seems like nearly every staff team is searching to hire and fill positions.
In the face of these trials, MixFix remains resolute in its commitment to explore technology and gear. However, our approach is more deliberate than ever before. We are not just focused on overcoming team-related hurdles but are dedicated to fostering personal growth, addressing concerns related to mental health, and navigating the ever-evolving landscape of church leadership. We are determined to confront burnout head-on and encourage conversations that balance family life and maintaining a fruitful ministry.
As we relaunch the MixFix Painkillers podcast, come along with us as we embark on this transformative journey, where we focus not only on enhancing your technical abilities but also on nurturing your personal growth and spiritual development. Throughout this experience, we promise moments of enjoyment to lighten the load of these substantial endeavors.
MixFix Painkillers Podcast: Tackling Church Production Pains
Maintaining Zeal without Burnout: A Guide for Ministry Leaders
Are you battling burnout in your ministry or leadership role? We've been there, and we're here to lend a guiding hand. Join us as we embark on an honest exploration of this all-too-common phenomenon, specifically focused on technical artists in ministry. We share first-hand experiences, warning signs to look out for, and practical steps to avoid heading down this exhausting path. We're not here just to talk about the problem; we're here to offer solutions. One such solution is Christopher Ash's insightful book, 'Zeal Without Burnout'. We also turn to Scripture, using the wisdom of Luke 6:45 and Psalm 100 to provide a spiritual perspective on managing burnout.
As leaders in the tech arts ministry, we know how the day-to-day can be taxing, and how the pandemic has increased the pressure. The switch to streaming services means new challenges and more potential for exhaustion. But we believe that with your faith and our shared strategies, you can maintain vigor in your spiritual journey, align with the Church's vision, and facilitate lasting change. Remember, you're not alone in this and even leaders face burnout. So let's navigate this together; let's talk, pray, and make sure we're putting self-care at the forefront of our priorities.
To check out and watch the video from this podcast recording, head over to: https://youtu.be/LhHt8S7zUBw
Hey, coming up on today's Mix Fix, we're going to talk specifically about burnout and ministry, what that looks like for technical artists, and maybe some key points to help us walk that out.
Speaker 1:Hey, what's up, guys? So today, like I spoke of in our leader, we have some things we wanted to talk about specifically, obviously, for Mix Fix and what that looks like in 2022. Some key points for that, some things coming up and some plans that we have, and then also just wanted to talk through, like I said in the lead, in burnout, what that looks like for ministry some points that I think will help us. But, interesting enough, obviously, as God does, when I was logging in getting ready to record this podcast today in the YouVersion Bible app, the Daily Verse popped up and it was from Luke, chapter 6, verse 45. And I just wanted to read that because it's very applicable overall to what we want to talk about. And it says in Luke 6, verse 45, the good person, out of the good treasure of his heart, produces good, and the evil person, out of his evil treasure, produces evil. For out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks. So one of the things that that really kind of speaks to and some of the things we wanted to talk about is one what are the good treasures of your heart? Maybe those treasures still are there, but they've faded, they've dimmed, maybe they've gone. How do you restore that? And then, out of the evil, treasure produces evil. What things in your minds and your heart are you struggling with that are creating those places of evil that are not what God has designed for us to accomplish in ministry? Some of those things, I believe, are clearly what Satan's placed in our paths to try and distract us from the cast in the ministry that's been placed before us. And so us as a team of technical artists, our staff as well as our volunteers, we're going to start this book. It's actually Zill Without Burnout, it's by Christopher Ash and it's seven keys to a lifelong ministry of sustainable sacrifice. So what are those seven keys?
Speaker 1:So, as I've already put out on our Facebook, we're planning to start this book in the coming few days here, probably about mid-ish February, and so what I would encourage you is to one pick up the book, read that book. It's been great and I believe it will be proving beneficial to all of us. If you're here local, like several other churches and ministers in town have already done, certainly feel free to come hang out with us when we get going on this. If you're not local, just text me, shoot me a DM and say, hey, we want to join in. We'll get you on a Zoom call so that when we're meeting as a team and just kind of working through this book, you'll have some community with that. But yeah, so pick up Zill Without Burnout. Even if you don't do it with us, I would encourage all of you to read the book and to work through it with yourself, your staff, your teams. I think it'll be beneficial as you continue to venture on in this thing called Tech Arts Ministry, worship Ministry, where your place to be.
Speaker 1:The other thing that I wanted to specifically talk about really quickly is there's another verse that I had found in Psalms 100, and says shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before him with joyful singing. Know that the Lord himself is God. It is he who has made us and not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him. Bless his name, for the Lord is good. His loving kindness is everlasting and his faithfulness to all generations.
Speaker 1:And so one of the things I think that we have a propensity to do in Tech Arts is build kingdoms under ourselves. I think it's true of worship teams, I think it's in technical arts a lot, and we end up beginning to get to a place where we think it's us. We begin to get to a place where we think, hey, look at all the stuff we've built, all these things we've done. Maybe the worship project we recorded or the studio we built, and the reality of it is is that it is he who made us, not ourselves, and I feel like Psalm 100 would reveal hey, there are things that God has created us to do. He's certainly gifted and talented and created talents within us to do and accomplish, and that's part of his plan and his purpose for us.
Speaker 1:But I feel like oftentimes we're really quick to begin to take credit where credit is maybe not due. And so, with that, as we're looking at the burnout and we're looking at these scriptures, is there a place that you definitively know today? Hey, I know for a fact that there are things that I am crediting myself, my team for, that honestly are not there. Are there things that I have no business taking credit for, that are clearly from God, and I would challenge us that sometimes, possibly, the burnout we're experiencing revolves around the fact that we are running unto ourselves. We are doing things unto ourselves instead of letting God do those things. Let the Holy Spirit work in us, and one of the things that I've heard recently, and I've definitely been tasked with, is this concept of if the enemy cannot slow you down, if he can't put a wedge somewhere in your ministry to slow you down or to conflict or to bind up your ministry, then what he's going to do is he's going to speed you up. And so in tech arts, in worship, we are constantly running. There is no cyclical cycle to tech arts, as much as that fallacy exists. I know people think, hey, we're going to do a lot around Christmas, we're going to do a lot around Easter, but we're going to have some down times. That's really not true. Especially in tech arts, there is never a true downtime for us. There are things that we might be slower at than others, for sure, but we are actively running non-stop For us.
Speaker 1:At our church. We have Christmas. We recorded the service after Christmas for the 26th back in November we mixed all the way through and all the way up until right before Christmas Eve we did our Christmas Eve services. Normally, in the average We'll have three or four days, four or five days there to sort of recoup and relax as a staff. But in this case, this year, just the nature of things worked out. Our staff was back two days after Christmas bringing down decorations, changing LED walls, moving things around in our setup. Then we get another couple days to kind of chill, which is all great and good and certainly what we needed.
Speaker 1:But then we're right back into the start of the new year. We have a fasting thing that we do with every nation. We are busy with that. We're right now and then ready and they'll lead up into our women's and ministry event, a big night of, you know, seven, eight hundred women in the room. So a bigger deal We'll get out of that. And we're in Easter, obviously, like the rest of the world.
Speaker 1:And then we're right out of Easter. We're planning our camps. We have three camps. We're already discussing gear flows while we're doing it, what that looks like, coordination of staff versus gear, transportation, all the different needs that revolve around our camps. So we don't really have a time, and as soon as we're back from camps, we're into our fall kickoff, we're back to school and all those different things and we're right back into Christmas. So there's not a lot of downtime for us and we have, I think, even in the fall, right there we have men's events. So a lot of different things, and that's not counting the weekly multi-service, multi-campus, multi-destination events of the regular service we do. Plus, then we're also doing men's ministry events and women's ministry events throughout the week, various different groups, things, whatever it is, and so there's a lot to it.
Speaker 1:And so I find ourselves trapped in that mindset of, hey, we got to go, we're going to do, we're going to be, this is the thing that's coming, we got to tackle that, we got to move through those things, and the reality of it is is oftentimes that's definitely part of what we do. But I also believe that if we don't monitor that, if we don't self-evaluate that and evaluate that for our teams, we are quickly going to find ourselves so sped up that ministry's happening. It seems like a lot of momentum exists, but the end result is that we are so busy we sometimes miss what God is doing, and so if the enemy can't slow you down, it's very likely he may speed you up. And, as a ministry that's already got the propensity to move quickly and to do things fast, have we allowed ourselves to be trapped in that, that trap of the enemy, that wedge that we've allowed to build in? And so I believe you're the only one, obviously, that can answer that. So that's going to be a prayerful thing I think you need to consider as you tackle any kind of form of burnout.
Speaker 1:If you're looking at, hey, man, we're slammed, and that can always be partly due to the fact that, hey, we're just short staff, we're short volunteers all those things happen. But there needs to be places that you can come back purposely and intentionally and say, hey, I want to make sure that our team is well balanced, our time flows are really balanced in how we're doing that, and we're trying to build those even kills to time for sure, as much as we can, and then allow place for rest. And so if that's not happening, it needs to happen, and that could very well be that you need to have some conversations with some of the elder leadership, some of your senior leaders, figuring out what your team can do, what you personally can do as a staff member, as a volunteer, wherever you find yourself today, to create those moments of rest. And that's the only true way to fully be effective as technical artists is that we are not just running under the gun 24 seven, and I get and it happens to us a lot we say no oftentimes and people aren't really happy about that and the reality of it is is they very rarely understand the breadth of what they're asking and they're not understanding that we are running and there's just no way we can support the event with 20 people that really try, doesn't even need a microphone in the room but for some reason they believe it does. It's just kind of rebalancing priorities and managing those expectations of other ministries of the church, because if you don't do that, if you don't sit those boundaries, you will never find yourself in a place of healthy ministry and it's going to take you truly purposely, intentionally aligning to whatever the leadership is advising. Maybe if you're the senior leader, you need to be evaluating hey, where am I asking too much? Where have I created a culture or a place that is putting our people under the gun, not giving ample time to rest, putting people in stress that don't need to be in stress and ultimately prohibiting the real amount of ministry that's really truly needed, the things that God's place for us to do. Where have I began to become the block that's not allowing that to happen or flow as easily as God has intended? And so where the Holy Spirit has aligned that ministry to be, am I aligning my vision as the vision caster or as the participant into making sure? One, I'm following the Holy Spirit's promptings to follow the vision of the church. Three, making sure that we're not just small minded, thinking only of ourselves, that we're expanding out to the capital C church. All of those things are part of why we exist and, while we're still here, is to see that kind of ministry flow out of our departments, out of our ministries, out of our churches. If we're not accomplishing that, then there's probably a reevaluation that needs to happen.
Speaker 1:What I find oftentimes in tech arts and in worship team momentum is there. Momentum is not something that typically ceases to exist in, at least in a larger church spitting we've always got something moving. So the false sense of momentum is always there. But what I would say is what's the resolution of that momentum? As we talk, gain structure. We've talked about the resolution of fader movement. So it's similar mindset. If we set our gain structure right and we move our fader just a little bit, we're going to have fairly minute deep resolution. If the gain structure is wrong, we could have drastic momentum, drastic changes in our resolution by the fader. So we begin to create a place where our resolution is not very detailed or dialed in.
Speaker 1:I think that's sort of what happens in momentum. Is the resolution of our momentum as detailed as it should be or do we just have a whole lot of activities functioning, moving about? We seem busy, we seem like we're doing a lot, we're accomplishing a lot, and we very well may be. But is the resolution overall big picture aligning correctly to where, at first and foremost, the Holy Spirit has guided us to be? Two, where the overarching vision of the Church is and leadership of the Church is. And three, have we seen ourselves be able to run resolution to the point that we can make minute changes and see drastic differences?
Speaker 1:Or are we able just to fine tune those levels of momentum and I would challenge again, that's probably something you should look at and then from there, if you are just not being healthy amongst how you live life, whether it's literally I'm stuck behind a desk, I don't ever get out, don't ever walk, don't ever exercise, don't ever have healthy eating practices, whatever. That all contributes to burnout, and sometimes we've lived our entire lives that way for many of us, and there's problems with that, obviously, and so I think that functioning in that kind of environment will also provide and lead to a propensity of burnout. And so I truly believe that as we go through the Zill Without Burnout book, as we begin to function and focus in and really dive into what some of these key things are, we want to be zealous, we want to have a lot of zeal and passion and purpose behind what we do, but we also want to make sure that that is not driving us to burnout. The statistical average is that most tech arts directors last, on average, three years in ministry, and so there's an obvious problem culturally, as the capital C church of one, our people are being used so hard that burnout happens and they're done, they're at the end. There's a propensity in those individuals as a whole to burn themselves out, which I think we all are guilty of. Or in some cases, it's literally the church just hasn't been able to pay correctly, there's not enough monetary means for them to actually continue to live and to provide for their families and to have a place where they're able to continue to serve in the church in that capacity. And so there's some burnout and some exodus from the church ministry mind as well, and I realize we all today are going to find ourselves in a different place. Some of us are staff, some of us are senior staff, some of us are not senior staff but we serve under some leaders. Some of us are volunteers. Some of us are volunteers that are actually the leader of our departments and we're not paying, we're not compensated at all. I still think all of that applies, everything that we've talked about.
Speaker 1:So today I one feel encouraged by the fact that it seems to be a year of a lot of people really reevaluating, stepping back and going hey, where are we healthy? Where are we not? Where are we needing to grow? Where have we needed to maybe pull back a little bit because we've been pushing the envelope too hard? I feel like we're, as a culture, beginning to see that. You know, for many of us COVID hit hard, not because of all the health things for sure there were challenges in that.
Speaker 1:But in tech arts we had churches that literally had not had a huge mindset of technical arts, had no concept of streaming, no real intention to stream, forced into a place where now churches shut down. We have to figure the start to this tech arts thing down. We got to get to streaming Many times. Churches still aren't even in person. So in Texas, where we're at, we've been in person pretty much, you know, just a few months out of COVID. But there's plenty of churches that are definitely not a capacity of where they were. They've never fully come back. There's some that are still online only. There's some that are son of hybrid. They're sometimes online, sometimes not online, sometimes, depending on the culture of the city, the state or whatever they're at, they're in and out of being live versus not live.
Speaker 1:So there's a lot still happening and for many of us some staff were able to come into COVID and had a season to relatively rest Tech arts literally hit the gas pedal and haven't really let off. It's only been in the last really six months that we started to see, at least in most circles, stepping back a little bit. Some of the tech arts people have began to slow down a little bit, but it's still under the gun and tomorrow we all realize this whole thing could change. We could literally see states shut down completely again. So I feel like we need to find balance in that, and that's one of the things we're going to talk about, and so I hope that's encouraging. I hope that that gives you some food for thought as you begin to continue to walk through the year, as you begin to plan out your year.
Speaker 1:We as a team are still evaluating how we're going to do some things, but we will have mixed fixes coming soon an all day Saturday kind of practical deal for anyone that wants to come and join us. We will have our Tech Arts Bootcamp again looking at dates for those things, trying to work all that out. So stay tuned. We'll have more of those details to you soon. Again, I am encouraged by you guys. I know that you're all dedicated, intentional leaders and you do what you can to further the capital C church, to further the kingdom and to help your local church there. So please know that we appreciate everything you do. We realize that it's not out of ill intent, it's not out of ill will, but perhaps today many of us have found ourselves in a place of burnout or near burnout. So I would just encourage us all, as technical artists, as worship leaders, as church staff, to volunteers, to really intentionally think and pray through those things. Hey, we love you guys and we will see you soon.
