By Kari Martinez
I was about 19 when I desired to serve in the AV ministry and make it a career choice; I thought it’d be a cool way to get involved considering I had some musical background. I was excited for the lights and being able to control the fancy technology.
However, once I started to serve more, my perspective changed a little bit. The academic and learning process to figure out how to do audio was a humbling experience. It took about 3 years to transition from a brand new volunteer to a full-time staff position. It took longer than what I expected to get to where I am now, but do not despair—when people say it’s about the journey and not the destination, they’re mostly correct. Waiting to be where you want isn’t fun, but rejoice in the process.
Here is one suggestion that can help you make the most out of the learning process:
Remember What and Who You are Doing This for.
When you are called, He will equip you with what you need to succeed for that day. If you’re going into the AV ministry for the first time with no experience, it can seem overwhelming once you realize some positions may be harder to grasp than expected. Just like your walk with Christ, sometimes you wish you were already “there,” you wish you were that complete work, but God can work with where you are and how much you currently know.
Serving in the AV ministry is the same—despite how much you know, do what you can unto the Lord. It’s hard to
wait, but whether you’re wrapping a cable after service or shadowing the lead engineer at Front of House (FOH), you will get to where you want to be when you keep the perspective that ordinary simple tasks are Kingdom work. You are accomplishing the same thing the other experienced person is doing: communicating the gospel through technology.
Additional Advice to Consider
It’s not which title position you’re in, but your heart position. Stay humble, stay teachable, and become a blank canvas for God to write on. In due time, He will mold you and shape you into the vessel He desires for you to be in this ministry. And take that with you into the rest of your life. Do not tie your identity to the ministry, though. Who you are is in Christ and if you lose your position, you haven’t lost who you are.
The time will come when another person will come in as green as you were, and you may not know a lot, but with what you do know, bring those people up. The AV ministry, like all ministries, is more than serving alongside people—it’s about telling people what they need to hear: exhortation, encouragement, and calling out when needed. And it’s through our gifts that we have the opportunity to do so. We have people around us to show us things, so let’s not
throw that away. This ministry is more than technology.
So, yes it’s about the journey. We won’t reach completion in our ministry or in Christ until we are met up with Him. Take encouragement that maybe we won’t reach where we want to go right this moment, whether that’s in audio, video, or lighting, but (as cliché as it might sound) our destination should bring us hope that we will, in fact, be positioned up high because of the grace and blood of Jesus!