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Where to Start When Purchasing Gear for Your Church

When I started working at my church, our technology spending was about one percent of our total budget. We didn’t have money to do anything. I would spend my time trying to replace equipment that was breaking and it seemed like everything had duct tape on it (because we couldn’t afford Gaff Tape).

What allowed us to finally to start getting out in front of our technology nightmares and issues, was to develop a plan.

1. Have a plan.

Our plan was simply to try to make our major technology purchases last for 10 years. When it came to making those purchases, it helped our leadership to see we were being proactive, rather than reactive. When it is budget time, leadership already knows what requests are going to be based on the fact that we “try to get 10” out of our gear.

Knowing when we purchased a piece of equipment it has to go the distance also helps us make wiser choices. The duct tape and trips to Radio Shack aren’t going to make it 10 years, so we had to put a little more time into thinking through our technology systems.

2. Find someone who knows more about gear than you.

One thing that has helped us make wiser technology purchases is I have a great relationship with some integrators who will tell me when I should take a look at some other products.

Don’t buy gear from the guy who just wants to sell you stuff. Create a relationship with a few people that will speak into your technology needs. Just for clarification, I do have a guy at “{PickYourFavoriteGearStore).com” that I can call to get my discount for a DI or Microphone, but for systems and large purchases, find an integrator or company that knows more about systems and gear than you do.

3. Try it before you buy it.

My integrators will spend the time to get the product into my hands before I purchase it. A lot of major equipment manufacturers have loaner and demo programs and will send you gear for free, or a small fee. This has been huge for us.

For example, we were about to launch our first video campus and we needed to jump into the world of IMAG. I had a bunch of integrators quote the project, but only two lined up gear for me to try out. I had originally chosen one set of cameras, but being able to see a different product side by side and use them for a weekend, totally changed my mind.

The same thing happened this year with a projector upgrade. I had my mind made up. Everything I read was great. The price was great. But when I saw the projector I wanted in our space next to a competitor, I had to take another look at the project.

Another option is to look for other companies or ministries that are using the gear that you are looking to purchase. Go see it and get your hands on it before you buy it.

JEREMY FRAMSTAD
Technical Arts Director
Grace Community Church | Fremont, OH
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