No Stupid Questions. Period.

This insecurity has to do with our technical knowledge and skills. Simply put, nobody wants to be the least knowledgeable person in the room. Going further, nobody wants to be seen as the least knowledgeable person in the room.

It often comes up during setups, teardowns, and installs, where technical knowledge is showcased for the whole crew to see. It also comes up when we talk shop with other church tech leaders. People try to flaunt their knowledge, by interspersing highly technical terms into the conversation, demonstrating their competence with a particular piece of equipment, and avoiding the topics they know the least.

We want people to know that we know things… or at least, that we’re not completely ignorant.

We’ve been there. We’ve hidden our knowledge gaps to our colleagues. We’ve made fun of somebody for not knowing something that seemed so obvious to us. We’ve thrown as many big, technical words into our conversations with the financial pastor so that our budget is justified. We crossed our fingers and hoped that nobody asked us a question we didn’t know the answer to… or we faked it when that moment came.

We know this insecurity stems from fear, though. We feel like imposters in our profession sometimes, especially around people more experienced than us. We want to climb as high as we can on the tech person ladder, and not knowing something makes us feel diminished in the group's eyes.

This typically leads to a fear of asking questions, because we’re afraid we’ll ask something stupid. Maybe we look up a YouTube tutorial or an online guide later, but we avoid asking other people… that would just be embarrassing, right?

Of course, if we learn to swallow our pride and ask any questions we can, as soon as they come to mind, we’ll probably become more knowledgeable, faster. Then we can circumvent the entire process of avoiding becoming the least technically literate person in the room, because we simply won’t be, anymore.

So the very thing that will set us free becomes the thing we avoid: Humbly asking questions with a desire to learn and grow.

But honestly, as church tech leaders, we should approach all our decisions from a place of understanding. If we don’t understand yet, we should ask questions until we do.

Let’s face it. You aren’t stupid. You have your job and position for a reason. You have talent and passion, otherwise, there would be someone else sitting in your seat. You got into this profession because you love it, or someone saw the gifting in you. You’re probably doing better than you think.

The thing is, you DO have knowledge gaps. We all do. Instead of hiding them, it’s time to confront and overcome them. Go through the problem instead of avoiding it.

We have a huge calling. The mission of your church and by extension, the kingdom depends on your ability to provide a consistent, creative, and precise production for the sake of evangelism and discipleship. Learn everything you can, so you can do the best with everything entrusted to you.

At ALTA, you can think of us as your friend who has the answers. In our years working as and with tech leaders, we’ve never been asked a stupid question. Not one. Because we don’t believe they exist. We’ve taken great joy in helping others become more knowledgeable.

We want you to feel empowered, not insecure. That’s why on all of our installs, we invite your team to work with ours so that they can soak up as much technical knowledge as possible. We also provide ongoing support after everyone’s trained.

In our decades of experience working at some of the largest and most famous churches in the world, we’ve learned a thing or two. Chances are, we have the answer to anything you might think is a “stupid” question. And we’ll give you the answer without any kind of belittlement. We want you to win.

At ALTA, we consider our clients as partners forging a new future with us. As the church continues to evolve over the 21st century, we want to be at the forefront of innovation. And we want you to join us.