The Sound Deacon: August 2010

Burnout and Lessons Learned: "

It is easy to get burned out because as a tech volunteer, you are juggling your volunteer work at church with work, family and so many other things in life. Recently, I asked a question on Twitter and on Facebook. The question and many of the responses are below.

Have you ever experienced burnout as a church IT/AV volunteer? What have you learned from this?

Jim Walton

As I changed jobs, it quickly became apparent that I was working more and had less energy after my workday was through. This situation forced me to re-prioritize things and, of course, work was the top priority. I had to be even more intentional about my time with my family. Even with my schedule change, the expectations from the church leadership did not let up, but in fact were continuing to increase. Early on, requests were considered “get to it when you can” but more and more had become “this has to be done now” and I just couldn’t do that. Something had to give and I stepped away.

I’ve learned to be careful not to over commit but that can be hard to do. It’s easy to creep up on you by adding one more small thing on top of another.

Scott Goodger

I learned to say “no” and also understand that the church WILL live without me being there for EVERY service.

Darrell Jordan

I did experience burn out in the AV area at my church in Richmond. I

was the only one running our graphics computer on Sunday mornings and

never got to spend time with my wife in church. I was there before she

got there and I left sometimes well after she did. I learned how to

say no. Well a little bit anyway.

Kirk Longhofer

Suffice to say that there was a significant self-inflicted element to it, but ultimately, an extraordinarily unhealthy work environment pushed me to a place where I was making poor and unhealthy decisions in a LOT of areas of life. For me… getting out was the ONLY option. I think a key is that if you can’t support where leadership is going… you should go, and sooner rather than later.

The other thing that figures into this dynamic is a lack of understanding on the part of leadership and others that with tech stuff you CAN’T just show up and wing it. Prep and rehearsal is a part of the deal. They don’t understand the real cost of doing what we do.

Greg Simmons

I’ve noticed that burnout is common among IT/AV volunteers. Like I have said before, it’s one of those few volunteer positions where you can’t just show up and wing it at the last minute…at least not if you want to deliver quality. I got burned out in a situation where AV/IT responsibilities were growing and the volunteer base was not. I was taking on more and more responsibility with no new help – even though I was attempting to enlist new volunteers.

What did I learn? It is acceptable to say no to adding something new until you have the volunteers in place. Most leadership will understand that you cannot do something new at a quality level without the right level of staffing and prep.

I now have enough volunteers with a broad skill set and we are already training some Youth for certain roles as we need their help.

Peter Schott

Feeling it a little bit right now, but part of that is probably frustration with some of the decisions being made in the church. Of course, the decisions were made prior to even seeing if such a decision would be reasonable in the tech area. Add to that the fact that I’ve been pretty much the only one who sees value in this new “internet” thing and it’s kind of frustrating. I’ve placed a large hold on my internal support because I can’t do it with the right attitude at this time. I’m helping with the website, but even that is a struggle because nobody really want to step up and help out by giving me content / news.

Chase Livingston

I’m in the process of recovering from a bit of burnout. It’s tough, because in many churches, including mine, tech volunteers are few and far between, so the burden rests on very few people, regardless of the complexity of what needs to be done. One big thing I’ve learned is that it really helps to take some time off if possible to recharge. It’s so nice to be able to just sit as a regular attendee and listen to the message and music without having any responsibility as to what happens.

Joshua Withers

Before changing which side of the nation I lived on, my church wanted to do so much, which was initially my idea, but I couldn’t get volunteers or money, yet the expectations never died.

As a result our relationship is a little awkward now, but it’s not too bad.

My church in this town is the biggest at 100 people in a town of 15k, so the fact I mix sound without feedback and I setup Opensong for lyrics instead of PowerPoint almost makes me an idol lol. Now I’m on the roster every third week and it’s pretty good, thank God!

Angela Mullins

i certainly feel symptoms from time to time. most of my to do list is self imposed, so i have learned to back off of it when i begin to feel overwhelmed. i set boundaries on my time from the onset so i wouldn’t neglect my family and over do it.

Chris Duckett

Although my love for live production and the support of my pastors makes it easier to deal with problems of burn out I still definitely have feat burn out at times. It’s hard to deal with but God has for me always seemed to provide some type of support or relief when I’m feeling a little warm. I’ve been very lucky that i don’t deal much with members of the church confronting me about tech items that they don’t like or problems they perceive and my pastors are very good at only passing on legitimate concerns and then nicely listen to all of the rest. I’ve also been fortunate that my volunteers don’t gripe or complain although my leadership likely leaves much to be desired.

Have you ever experienced burnout as a church IT/AV volunteer? What have you learned from this? Please share your thoughts.

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