There are a myriad of things that you as a pastor, worship leader or church administrator could do to improve the quality and consistency of the sound in your worship services. Here are seven simple steps you can take that will guarantee an immediate improvement.

1. Encourage and honor your sound team.
Most tech volunteers have detail-type personalities with a fair measure of musician's ego in them. They have a genuine desire to do the job right. They have also invested quite a bit of time in making sure things go smoothly. Unfortunately, the only recognition most church sound engineers get is when things go wrong, like a problem with a mic not being on when it should be. Don't embarrass them. Encourage them privately and honor their efforts publicly ­from the pulpit ­on a regular basis.

2. Communicate with your sound team.
Nothing hurts an organization more than a lack of communication. Go out of your way to communicate any changes with this weekend's service to your sound team. Include them in on your planning sessions for all services and special events as early as possible. Communicate last minute changes quickly. Details that you may take for granted, or think unimportant, may be the very pieces of information your sound team needs to do their job right.

3. Do soundchecks!
Your musicians and singers probably rehearse the material for the worship sets quite a bit. So many churches expect their sound team to deliver a flawless performance on Sunday morning without providing them ample time to rehearse with the worship team prior to the service.

4. Pray with your sound team.
Pray with them for solutions to the technical and relational problems they are facing right now. Invest time in understanding and helping them work through any relational problems that may exist. What better place for Satan to drive a wedge of disunity than between the sound team and worship team? Their gift of service and yours are equal in God's eyes.

Also, there are solutions to the technical problems you are facing right now. Pray through to the right solution. God may reveal a solution that your team can implement, or He may lead you to the right individual to assist you in solving the problem.

5. Equip and support your sound team.
Equip them with the gear and the liberty to deliver the quality of sound you want in your worship service. From the pastor to the worship leader to that little old lady in the front pew, everyone involved has an idea of what they want the worship time in their church to sound like. And church sound engineers across the country are crying out for quality equipment to deliver that elusive sound, but often their hands are tied by a lack of budget and understanding from the church administration. Also, encourage their creativity by allowing them to experiment. Blanket rules like "the piano lid will stay closed at all times" stifles their creativity to find the best sound.

6. Start and maintain a sound equipment budget.
Let's face it--a high-quality sound system is a requirement in order to do justice to the contemporary style of praise and worship so popular today. Once it becomes a physical entity, it will require regular maintenance and periodic upgrading. That's a reality. So just as the church plans for replacing burned-out light bulbs, it is simply good stewardship to budget for sound equipment repairs like replacing broken mic cables and so on. Also budget for equipment upgrades. Your sound system would benefit from a complete replacement every 10 to 15 years on the basis of technological advancements alone.

7. Invest in your sound team.
My prayer for pastors and church administrators alike is that they would come to recognize the long-term value of investing in their sound team. The individuals in those teams have made a significant investment by volunteering their time and talents to ensure that your worship services will go smoothly and sound the best they know how to make it.

One of the best return investments you can make as a church in their behalf is to send them to an educational event like a Soundcheck Workshop once a year. Attending quality seminars as a team helps each individual grow in their knowledge of the craft through which they serve the needs of their church, and it helps your team grow closer together with the bond built through that common experience. It's money well spent.

You should supplement that annual training with technical materials that the team can share and study throughout the year.

See, you can take steps to improve the quality of sound in your worship services. Start putting these seven steps into action today and watch the technical excellence of your worship services increase before your eyes ­and ears.

Curt Taipale is the owner of Taipale Media Systems, www.taipalemedia.com, a consulting firm for churches on acoustics, audio and video technologies.