Peter Lane

The Funeral Problem

Posted on by Peter Lane
Sepia desert banner with a tumbleweed made of tangled cables. Bold text “What Could Possibly Go Wrong?” runs almost to the edge — a fitting metaphor for church systems that nearly work until they don’t.

Nothing tests a church’s technology like a funeral.

On a normal Sunday, the PowerPoint might freeze or the sound might squeal, and everyone sighs and carries on.  But at a funeral, the grieving family’s cousin turns up with a USB stick, the funeral director wants a tribute video right now, and the operator’s prayer is simple: Lord, let HDMI be merciful today.

The Funeral Problem Defined

“The Funeral Problem” is shorthand for any big, emotional service where the usual church systems are asked to cope with outsiders and surprises.  Weddings, carol services, school prizegivings — they all bring the same pressure.  But funerals are the clearest example: high emotion, high expectation, and no time for fixing cables.

And here’s the catch: what feels “good enough” on Sunday morning often falls apart when the funeral arrives.

Two Faces of the Problem

Sometimes, the outsider makes it work.  A cable gets rerouted, a bit of software is installed, or a laptop is plugged in directly.  The funeral runs smoothly, everyone is thankful — but by Sunday the volunteers are left with a mess.  The confidence monitor has vanished, the livestream no longer talks to the projector, and nobody knows what’s been changed.

Other times, it doesn’t work at all.  The slideshow won’t open, the sound cuts out, the video freezes.  And instead of quiet dignity, the room fills with stress.  Families remember the tribute that never played; volunteers remember the panic of being blamed; and the community remembers that this church’s system failed at a funeral.

Why It Matters

Technology glitches are annoying on Sunday.  At a funeral, they hurt.  Grief plus frustration is a painful mix, and a single failure can damage trust in the church’s care.

It’s tempting to shrug and say, “We’ll cope.”  But fragile systems invite shortcuts, and every outside event becomes a gamble.  True reliability isn’t just “it worked today” — it’s “it can reset and work again tomorrow.”

What Can Be Done

The good news is that churches don’t need fancy systems to do better.  Options include:

  • Investing for resilience: systems designed to reset easily, with confidence monitors and overflow screens that just work.
  • Stabilising what you have: fix broken cables, tidy workflows, and train volunteers.
  • Hoping for the best: the cheapest choice, but the riskiest — every funeral could be the one that fails.

The Pastoral Payoff

Reliable AV isn’t about looking professional.  It’s about care.  When families walk into church on one of the hardest days of their lives, they should be able to trust that the slideshow will run and the sound will hold.

Imagine a setup that just works — Sunday to Sunday, funeral to wedding, guest preacher to Christmas concert.  Reliability in our technology is hospitality in action.  It is one more way the church says: You are safe here.  We have prepared for you.

PS: d|c|t (Diaconate of Church Technologists) is also collecting stories for our upcoming Church+AI resource. If you’ve experimented with AI for rosters, sermons, or parish admin — or simply bumped into its challenges — we’d love to hear from you: dct.org.nz/church-ai.

Peter Lane is Principal Consultant at System Design & Communication Services and has over 30 years of experience with Technology systems.   We invite your questions, suggestions and ideas for articles.  These can be submitted either through the editor or by email to dct@dct.org.nz.  We also operate a website focused on building a community of people interested in improving how we use technology in churches, located at dct.org.nz.   

Cartoon of stressed-out church volunteer managing tech at Sunday service
Peter Lane

“Help! I’m the Church Techie Now”

Posted on by Peter Lane

A Survival Guide for the Suddenly Responsible

Congratulations!  You made eye contact at the AGM and now you’re in charge of “the sound thingy”.  Or someone saw you plug in a laptop once and assumed you could livestream a funeral.  However it happened, you’ve been drafted into the sacred, mysterious world of Church Tech — where no two cables are the same, and the Holy Spirit is sometimes blamed for dodgy Wi-Fi.

You’re not alone.

Across the country, small churches are running on the goodwill of volunteers who didn’t ask to become AV wizards but said “yes” because no one else would.  These are the accidental techies: the schoolteachers, engineers, students, grandads, and organists-turned-camera-operators holding things together with gaffer tape and prayer. If that’s you — welcome.  You’re in good company.

And Church Tech is more than just sound and slides.  It includes livestreaming, websites, projectors, computers, Wi-Fi, email lists, Facebook pages, CCTV, alarm systems, and that weird digital signage in the foyer that no one knows how to update.  If it’s got power and a password, odds are it’s landed on your to-do list.

Here’s what you need to know.

1. You don’t need to be an expert — you just need to care.

The tech world loves jargon. But church tech doesn’t need to be rocket science. You don’t have to know the difference between balanced and unbalanced audio or be fluent in HDMI arcana.  What you do need is a cool head, a willingness to learn, and a sense of humour when the data projector decides it needs a firmware update during the opening hymn.

2. Reliability beats flashiness every time.

It’s tempting to chase after the slick livestreams you see from megachurches on YouTube.  Don’t.  Their pizza budgets could fund your entire parish for five years.  Focus instead on reliability and clarity.  If the microphones work, the slides show up, and the people at home can hear what’s going on — you’re doing well.  Resist the urge to “upgrade” things you haven’t fully understood yet.  Shiny gear is not holy.

3. Documentation is love.

Write down what works.  Take photos of the cable setup.  Label things.  Create a Sunday checklist.  Imagine you have to explain your whole system to someone who’s never seen a computer before — because one day, you will.  Every bit of clarity you create now is a gift to the next accidental techie.

4. You are allowed to ask for help.

Just because you’re the “tech person” doesn’t mean you have to do it alone.  Bring someone younger in and show them the ropes (they won’t know what VGA is, and that’s OK).  If a job is outside your comfort zone — like replacing the sound desk or reconfiguring the burglar alarm — it’s fine to suggest calling in an expert.  Tech is ministry, not martyrdom.

5. Perfection isn’t the goal — participation is.

Yes, things will go wrong.  Yes, your livestream will have that one week where the sound cuts out and the pulpit mic picks up someone coughing in the third pew.  Keep going.  Church tech isn’t about performance — it’s about removing obstacles between people and the worship they came for.  If you help one person feel connected, included, or able to hear the gospel clearly, then that’s a win.

What’s next?

This is the first in a series of articles for people like you — the brave souls holding the HDMI cable in one hand and a worship folder in the other.  We’ll cover practical topics like livestreaming on a shoestring, avoiding Sunday morning tech disasters, and what that confusing sound desk actually does.

In the meantime, if you’d like something a little more structured and slightly less sarcastic, check out dct.org.nz — we are planning a new project offering plain-English guides for small churches trying to keep the faith and the internet connection.

And if you’re stuck or overwhelmed, just ask for help.  d|c|t is here to support you — and your cables.

God bless your cables, your coffee, and your ability to find that one adapter that always goes missing right before communion.  You’ve got this!

Peter Lane is Principal Consultant at System Design & Communication Services and has over 30 years of experience with Technology systems.  We invite your questions, suggestions and ideas for articles.  These can be submitted either through the editor or by email to dct@dct.org.nz.  We also operate a website focused on building a community of people interested in improving how we use technology in churches, located at dct.org.nz.