You should be treating your sound techs like they are a part of the worship team. Part of that means helping new sound techs grow in their craft and training them up.

The only question is: how is a worship leader in a small church supposed to help the sound tech when they're always the one on stage playing?

Here are 4 ways you can train a sound tech when you're always the one they're mixing:

1 | Record and evaluate

Most simply, you can record the main mix from your board and then listen to it at a later time. Find a separate time for you and your sound tech to get together and listen to the mix. Don't just listen on headphones or computer speakers. Take that recording right into your worship space and listen to it through your normal Sunday set up.

Alternatively, if you have a digital board, you can multi-track record your band and then come back in at a later point and still have full mixing control to teach your sound tech.

2 | Point them to good resources

Let them teach themselves. Just focus on pointing your sound person to really good resources. I'd recommend starting with some of Churchfront’s podcasts on the topic. There are also tons of great videos on YouTube about live sound.

3 | Have someone else train them

You don't have to be the one that teaches them. Get someone else to step in and help out. Team up with another church and have their more experienced sound tech come in and show your team the ropes. Or, if you already have someone on the sound team that knows what they're doing, have them show the new sound tech what's up!

4 | Have another band play

There are ways that you can be creative in not always having to be the person your sound tech mixes. Invite another worship team from your area to come and rehearse in your space. This will give you a chance to sit back with your sound person and train them while still having a full band to mix.