I've been to enough church technology conferences over the years to notice that, no matter where you go, you tend to hear the same stories. The names of the churches change and the technology gets newer, but the frustration sounds remarkably familiar. Church IT teams are tired. Many feel underappreciated and disconnected from the ministry happening around them. They aren't brought into conversations about where the church is going or what a ministry is trying to accomplish. Instead, they're brought in when something breaks.
The Wi-Fi isn't working. The livestream went down. Someone can't get into their email. The children's check-in system decided that Sunday morning, five minutes before the first service, would be the perfect time to stop cooperating. That's when everyone suddenly remembers the IT team exists.
It's easy for those of us in technology to complain that we're treated like "the help," but I think we need to be careful here because this is a two-sided problem. Church leadership doesn't always understand the role technology plays in ministry, but sometimes those of us in IT haven't done a very good job of showing them either. We hide behind our monitors, speak a language no one else understands and then wonder why we're not invited into ministry conversations.
Technology has also changed dramatically. Giving, children's check-in, volunteer management, small groups, communications, worship, livestreaming, security, facilities, pastoral care, websites, mobile devices, church management systems, data, cybersecurity and now artificial intelligence all depend on technology. IT isn't sitting quietly in a server closet anymore. It touches almost every ministry in the church.
At some point, we have to recognize that technology isn't simply supporting ministry. Technology has become part of how ministry happens.
That means the person leading technology in a large church needs to be more than a good technologist. We need leaders who understand technology, certainly, but we also need people who can lead, develop and shepherd the people doing the work.
I learned this firsthand while leading technology at First Baptist Church of Atlanta. Leading technology in a church was very different from simply running an IT department. Yes, I was responsible for systems, infrastructure and technology strategy, but I was also responsible for people—and those people were serving ministries throughout the church.
I was fortunate to serve under a pastor who understood that. He loved the fact that we viewed IT as a ministry. We weren't looking for special status or trying to convince anyone that technology was somehow more important than everything else happening in the church. Quite the opposite. Our job was to serve those ministries and help them accomplish what God had called them to do.
That support from the top mattered, but it also created a responsibility for me as the technology leader. If we were going to call ourselves a ministry, then I needed to lead our team like one.
Start With the Towel and Basin
For me, building a cohesive technology team starts with God's Word. If we're serving in a church, our team needs to understand that God has called each of us to ministry. Technology just happens to be where we serve. That changes the way you think about your job and, more importantly, the way you think about the people you're serving.
A technology ministry leader should lead people in Scripture and prayer. Talk about why we serve. Pray together. Help people see beyond the ticket queue, the network closet and the next project. Our teams need to understand the towel and basin approach to ministry that Jesus modeled. We aren't there to show everyone how smart we are or remind them how badly they need us. We're there to serve.
Something interesting happens when a technology department begins operating that way: other ministry teams notice.
One thing I was very intentional about at First Baptist Atlanta was making our department a place people actually wanted to come. Let's face it, IT departments don't exactly have a reputation for hospitality. Sometimes people walk through the door already expecting to be made to feel stupid because they forgot their password, clicked the wrong thing or simply don't understand the technology.
I didn't want that.
When someone walks into your department, make them feel welcome. Listen to them. Use discernment and empathy. That doesn't mean you drop everything you're doing every time someone walks through the door. Sometimes you need to write down what they need, assure them you'll take care of it and get back to them. But if it's something simple and you can solve it right then, take care of it.
That's what we do.
I've often thought of technology teams like aircraft mechanics. The mechanic isn't flying the aircraft and isn't sitting in the pilot's seat, but that aircraft isn't going anywhere without the people who keep it operational. Ministry is much the same way. We're not trying to become the pilot. We're trying to make sure the people God has called to fly the aircraft can actually get it off the ground.
Get Out of the IT Department
I also believe in sending technology teams on what I call walkabouts. Get out of your department occasionally and go see people. Have your team visit other ministry areas with no agenda other than listening. Ask what they're working on, what's frustrating them and whether there is anything technology-related making their ministry harder. And take notes.
You will be amazed at what you learn when you simply show up. You'll also start identifying problems before they become emergencies. More importantly, ministry teams become accustomed to seeing technology people when something isn't broken.
That was especially important to us at First Baptist Atlanta. Sunday mornings weren't a time for our team to sit somewhere waiting for the phone to ring. We were everywhere. We were among the first people in the building, although much of our preparation had already been completed before we left on Thursday. On Sunday morning, we were checking the check-in stations, touching base with the media team and making sure everything was humming along before people started arriving.
If the media director was stressed and needed another set of hands, we jumped in. It wasn't, "That's not our problem." It was, "How can we help?"
That may sound incredibly simple, but presence changes relationships. When another ministry only sees the technology team after something has gone wrong, they naturally begin associating technology with problems. When they regularly see your team walking through their spaces, checking on them, asking questions and offering to help, you become part of what they're doing.
Don't wait for people to come looking for you. Show up before they need you.
Your Team Matters More Than Your Technology
One of the biggest lessons I learned at First Baptist Atlanta was that building a great team didn't mean I had to have all the answers. In fact, some of the best things we did came from the people around me.
I had a teammate named Jeff who had a Ph.D. in engineering from Georgia Tech and was simply one of the best people I've ever had the opportunity to work with. We were also pretty different. I'm outgoing. Jeff was more introverted—sort of. We initially connected through our mutual engineering backgrounds, but before long we were constantly bouncing ideas off each other. He would walk in with an idea, I would throw something back at him, and sometimes the conversation would take us somewhere neither of us expected.
Then there was "Little Micah." We called him that because, naturally, we also had a tall Micah. Apparently first names alone weren't sufficient for our technology department.
The three of us made it work, and more importantly, we had fun doing it.
I learned a lot from those guys and from the others who served with us. Leadership doesn't mean being the person in the room with all the answers. In fact, if every good idea in your department has to come from you, you probably haven't built much of a team.
What I wanted was a place where someone could bounce into my office and say, "Hey, I've been thinking about something." Sometimes the idea was something we could run with. Sometimes I'd have to say, "I like it, but we've got too much coming at us right now. Let's put it on the shelf and come back to it." And then you actually have to come back to it. Nothing will shut down ideas faster than a leader who continually says, "We'll talk about it later," when everyone knows later really means never.
Give your people room to think, experiment and try things—within reason. You're still responsible for the environment, the budget, security and everything else that comes with leading technology. Not every idea can become a project, and not every good idea needs to happen immediately. But your team should know that their ideas are welcome and that they don't need your permission to think.
That's also why being present matters so much. If you're constantly locked in meetings, buried in email or disappearing behind your leadership position, eventually people stop bouncing into your office. You miss the conversations where some of the best ideas begin. You also miss what's happening with your people.
And your people matter more than the technology.
You can have the most technically skilled person in the world, but if that person doesn't have the heart to serve, their technical ability can actually work against the ministry. In church technology, talent matters, but talent without the right heart can become toxic very quickly. I'd rather build around people who are talented, curious, willing to learn and understand why we're there in the first place.
Part of leading those people is also protecting them. Burnout is a conversation I hear at nearly every church technology conference. Some of that absolutely comes from church leadership not understanding the demands placed on technology teams, but we can't blame leadership for all of it. Sometimes we, as technology leaders, aren't doing a very good job of looking after our own people.
If everyone on your team is working every Sunday, every event, every evening and responding every time something happens, eventually you're going to lose good people. Build rotations. Give people Sundays off. Pay attention when someone is running on empty. Sometimes being a good leader means looking at someone and saying, "You need to take some time off." And when they're on vacation, leave them alone.
That also means getting rid of what I call the Superman complex. Every technology department seems to have that person who knows everything. Everyone calls them because they're the only person who knows how a particular system works. It feels great to be Superman until Superman goes on vacation and suddenly the entire organization is in trouble.
That's not job security. That's organizational risk.
Cross-train your people. Document what you do. Share information. Let Jeff teach Micah something. Let Micah teach Jeff something. Let them teach you something. No single person should become a point of failure for the ministry, including the technology leader.
The best teams I've been part of weren't built around one person knowing everything. They were built around people who trusted each other, learned from each other, enjoyed working together and weren't afraid to walk into someone's office with an idea. Sometimes leadership is simply creating the kind of environment where that can happen—and then being present enough not to get in the way.
Volunteers Are Force Multipliers, Not Free Labor
Churches have something most corporate technology departments don't: volunteers. Used correctly, volunteers can be incredible force multipliers for a technology ministry, particularly when the budget doesn't allow for a large staff. Obviously there are systems, data and security responsibilities that shouldn't simply be handed to volunteers, but there are plenty of places where volunteers can serve.
At First Baptist Atlanta, we had volunteers who rotated alongside the media team helping make sure the livestream was staffed and ready. Volunteers can help with check-in stations, equipment setup and many other technology needs around the church. You establish the appropriate security boundaries, screen people and determine where they can serve effectively.
But if you're going to bring volunteers onto the team, then bring them onto the team. Screen them. Train them. Lead them. Include them. Pray with them. Study Scripture with them. Help them understand why what they're doing matters. They're not free labor filling holes in your staffing plan. They're people who have chosen to give their time and talents to ministry.
Some volunteers will serve every single time you ask because they genuinely love it, and that's where the leader has to be careful. Their willingness to say yes doesn't mean you should always let them. Sometimes shepherding someone means telling them, "You're not serving this Sunday. Go worship with your family." Your volunteers need rest too.
Technology Needs to Be at the Table Before the Drywall Goes Up
Communication with church leadership is a must, and this is one of the strongest arguments for having technology leadership represented at the table. Ministry leaders don't always realize how many decisions have technology implications until it's too late.
I've been involved in construction projects where the technology team wasn't included early because someone decided, "We don't need them yet." Then the drywall goes up. Suddenly someone asks where the network cables are supposed to run. Or materials have been selected that aren't particularly friendly to Wi-Fi. Or an outdoor event has been planned and nobody thought about the fact that children's check-in requires connectivity.
The best time to involve your technology team isn't when you need technology. It's when you're planning something that will eventually need technology. The same is true of media and other specialized teams that will eventually be expected to make the plan work.
One of the things I appreciated at First Baptist Atlanta was that our ministry teams talked to each other. If the youth ministry was planning its fall festival, for example, I could put it on my calendar and talk with Pastor Stephen well before the event. What does your team need? Where will check-in happen? What connectivity do we need? Do you need people from our team there?
Those conversations weren't happening the morning of the event while everyone was scrambling. We could anticipate the need, plan for it and have people available to help.
Now we're not responding to a problem. We're helping plan ministry.
That's also why I believe technology leadership needs a seat at the leadership table. It's not about status, and it certainly shouldn't be about wanting another executive title. It's about being present early enough in the conversation to help. Technology teams can save the church money, prevent problems and often suggest possibilities ministry leaders may not know exist, but they can't do that if they don't hear about the plan until two weeks before launch.
Pastors Can't—and Shouldn't—Lead Everything
There's another side of this that we need to acknowledge. As churches grow, pastors are increasingly asked to lead organizations of tremendous complexity.
That's not necessarily what seminary prepared them to do, nor do I think that's an indictment of seminaries. Seminary rightly prepares pastors to preach, teach, counsel, shepherd and faithfully handle Scripture. Its primary purpose isn't to produce experts in cybersecurity, enterprise technology, construction, human resources, finance and organizational management.
But the church around that pastor can grow into an organization requiring expertise in all of those areas.
A church of 150 people probably doesn't need a dedicated senior technology leader. A church with thousands of people, multiple campuses, hundreds of employees and volunteers, online giving, children's databases, livestreaming, physical access systems, cloud infrastructure and enormous amounts of personal information is a very different organization.
The pastor's calling hasn't changed, but the complexity of the organization has.
That's why leadership structures have to mature as churches grow. At some point, the senior pastor cannot—and should not—personally understand and oversee every specialized function of the church. Good leadership means developing and trusting qualified people to lead those areas while remaining aligned with the mission of the church.
Technology is one of those areas.
We Need a Different Kind of Technology Leadership
This is where I think the conversation needs to change. Large churches don't necessarily need another corporate title. They need strong technology leadership.
They need someone who understands technology but also understands ministry. Someone who can sit at the leadership table and translate ministry needs into technology strategy, then go back to the technology team and help them understand the ministry behind the work.
The higher you move in technology leadership, the less the job should be about personally fixing technology. The job becomes leadership, strategy, communication, relationships and developing people. In a church, I'd add one more responsibility: shepherding.
That means knowing your people. It means understanding when someone needs encouragement and when someone needs to be challenged. It means developing younger people and giving talented people room to grow. It means protecting your team from unnecessary burnout while also reminding them that we're here to serve.
It also means being a translator. Someone needs to sit with pastoral leadership and explain technology without burying everyone in technical language. Then that same person needs to walk back into the technology department and explain the ministry's direction in a way the team understands.
You're building a bridge between two worlds that don't always understand each other.
That's technology leadership in the church.
This Is Ministry
Church technology teams can't spend their careers complaining that nobody sees them as ministry while waiting in their department for someone to call. We have to show up. We have to listen. We have to serve. We have to build relationships and anticipate needs.
At the same time, church leadership has to recognize that technology has become too deeply woven into ministry to bring the technology team into the conversation at the end. As churches grow, their leadership structures have to grow with them. Large churches need technology leaders who can sit at the leadership table, understand the direction of the church and then go back and shepherd the people responsible for making much of it possible.
I'm less concerned about what we call that person than I am about how that person leads.
Give me a technology leader who understands the towel and basin, who builds a team around both talent and heart, who listens to the people around them, who protects people from burnout, who develops volunteers instead of using them, who gets out of the technology department and walks through the ministries they serve, and who is at the table early enough to anticipate where ministry is going.
Most importantly, give me a leader who understands that the people on the technology team aren't simply there to keep the Wi-Fi running.
They are people called to serve.
They need to be led.
They need to be developed.
They need to be shepherded.
That's not "the help."
That's ministry.