The MxU Podcast

Most worship and tech teams are running on five too many apps. Planning Center, Trello, WhatsApp, group texts, email, a Facebook group, three different timer apps, an SPL meter, ProPresenter notes scattered across someone's laptop — and somehow we keep adding more. In this episode, Spencer and Dillan get into why the answer is almost never another tool, why every new app you adopt actively hurts your volunteer culture, and why the church Dillan talked to recently couldn't even name what they use for team communication. They walk through the specific gaps in Planning Center for bidirectional volunteer communication, the fragmentation between weekend tools (timers, notes, volume tracking, streaming analytics) and why nobody's actually evaluating any of it, and Dillan makes the case that the first question for any new tool shouldn't be "is this useful?" — it should be "how does this affect my volunteer culture?" Because if you lose your volunteers, none of the tools matter. 
They close with what MxU is building toward — bringing training, planning, communication, ProPresenter control, service analytics, and multi-site dashboards into one place with one login — and why "more tools" is almost always the wrong answer to a leadership problem.
Check out our FREE Team Night Guide: https://getmxu.com/resources/team-night-guide/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=too-many-apps
FREE RESOURCES 🆓 Take advantage of all the free resources for worship and tech teams that MxU has to offer (growing weekly): https://getmxu.com/resources/?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=too-many-apps&utm_medium=social
IMPROVE YOUR SUNDAY SERVICES 🎓 1,000+ Training Videos: https://getmxu.com/training?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=too-many-apps&utm_medium=social
🖥️ Volunteer Training Tool: https://getmxu.com/learning-management-system?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=too-many-apps&utm_medium=social
🚀 Personalized Coaching: https://getmxu.com/coaching?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=too-many-apps&utm_medium=social
JOIN THE COMMUNITY Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MxU.app
WHAT IS MxU? MxU is an online training platform for church leaders to train and equip their worship and tech volunteers: 
https://getmxu.com?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=too-many-apps&utm_medium=social

In this episode, Spencer, Dillan, and Jeff open with a line that's going to make some people close the tab — churches should stop hiring so many people. They pull that statement apart for forty minutes: why hiring is almost always the easier path instead of the better one, what gets stolen from a church when leaders pay people instead of recruiting and developing them, and the leadership disconnect that treats the tech team like janitors ("we pay people to clean toilets, we pay people to mix audio") while expecting kids ministry and guest services to run on volunteers. Jeff makes the case that serving on a production team is fulfilling a priestly role — preparing the place of God for the people of God — and that pastors who offload that role to paid contractors are robbing their people of the discipleship that comes from sacrificing time and gifts. They get honest about front-of-house mixing being a real outlier (it's a long-game skill that takes reps), and Dillan offers a middle ground: take your annual contract budget and use a chunk of it to fly in a high-level coach once a quarter to pour into your volunteers, instead of paying someone to mix every weekend. They close on the harder truth underneath all of this — the church isn't a business, the people in the seats aren't customers, and the moment a leader treats the weekend like a transactional experience instead of a body of believers stewarding their gifts, something has been stolen.

Check out our FREE Team Night Guide:
https://getmxu.com/resources/team-night-guide/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=stop-hiring

FREE RESOURCES 🆓 Take advantage of all the free resources for worship and tech teams that MxU has to offer (growing weekly):
https://getmxu.com/resources/?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=stop-hiring&utm_medium=social

IMPROVE YOUR SUNDAY SERVICES 🎓 1,000+ Training Videos:
https://getmxu.com/training?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=stop-hiring&utm_medium=social

🖥️ Volunteer Training Tool: https://getmxu.com/learning-management-system?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=stop-hiring&utm_medium=social

🚀 Personalized Coaching:
https://getmxu.com/coaching?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=stop-hiring&utm_medium=social

JOIN THE COMMUNITY
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/MxUrocks

WHAT IS MxU? MxU is an online training platform for church leaders to train and equip their worship and tech volunteers:
https://getmxu.com?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=stop-hiring&utm_medium=social

In this episode, Spencer, Dillan, and Jeff dig into a stat that should reframe how we talk about church on this podcast — the median church size in America is 70 people, and it just ticked up for the first time in two decades. We get into why the podcast (and most worship/tech conversations online) tends to revolve around large multi-service, multi-campus churches when the vast majority of churches don't have a staff, a budget, or a building. We unpack a listener comment that called us out on using "the church" when we really mean "church organizations," and whether that distinction actually matters. Dillan brings up the conversation he had this morning with a church that's drowning in sound complaint emails and asks the question that sits at the center of this episode: when did we become a customer service business instead of a ministry? We walk through the real-time example of a worship team debating who should have the hard conversation with a struggling bass player, what Jesus would actually do in that room, and why ministry gets lost the moment skill and experience become the metrics. We talk about why megachurches catch disproportionate heat (and why some of that criticism is unfair), why a 200-person church shouldn't be looking up to a 2,000-person church, the difference between learning from a leader and trying to mimic them, and the trap of aspiration turning into expectation turning into disappointment. Jeff shares the honest tension of being a leader who has tasted recognition and the addictive pull of likes, comments, and crowd validation — and what it looks like to drown that noise out. We close on the kind of leader we actually want to follow: the one who, when asked what they're working on, says "still trying to be a good dad."

Check out our FREE Team Night Guide:
https://getmxu.com/resources/team-night-guide/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=customerservice

FREE RESOURCES 🆓 Take advantage of all the free resources for worship and tech teams that MxU has to offer (growing weekly):
https://getmxu.com/resources/?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=customerservice&utm_medium=social

IMPROVE YOUR SUNDAY SERVICES 🎓 1,000+ Training Videos:
https://getmxu.com/training?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=customerservice&utm_medium=social
🖥️ Volunteer Training Tool:
https://getmxu.com/learning-management-system?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=customerservice&utm_medium=social
🚀 Personalized Coaching:
https://getmxu.com/coaching?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=customerservice&utm_medium=social

JOIN THE COMMUNITY
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MxUrocks

WHAT IS MxU? MxU is an online training platform for church leaders to train and equip their worship and tech volunteers:
https://getmxu.com?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=customerservice&utm_medium=social

In this episode, Spencer and Dillan are joined by Jeff Sandstrom for a follow-up to "Can You Be Too Young for Ministry?" — but flipped. When is it time for older worship and tech leaders to step aside? Or is that even the right question? Jeff brings decades of perspective from working alongside Chris Tomlin, Steven Curtis Chapman, and others, and the conversation gets honest fast. We dig into why churches deplatform people too soon based on age, the difference between someone aging out and someone refusing to stay coachable, why the church's "if it ain't broke" attitude toward worship and production lets segregation between ministries grow, and Jeff's own honest admission about the tech he resisted learning. We also cover why "closed fists" disqualify you faster than any number on a birthday cake, the real reason a lot of older leaders are leaving ministry (hint: it's not age — it's burnout, frustration, and the friend who told them they could make $200k working 15 hours a week), and what it actually takes to keep getting better in your craft instead of coasting on what used to work.

Check out our FREE Team Night Guide: https://getmxu.com/resources/team-night-guide/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=ageout

FREE RESOURCES 🆓 Take advantage of all the free resources for worship and tech teams that MxU has to offer (growing weekly): https://getmxu.com/resources/?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=ageout&utm_medium=social

IMPROVE YOUR SUNDAY SERVICES 🎓 1,000+ Training Videos: https://getmxu.com/training?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=ageout&utm_medium=social 🖥️ Volunteer Training Tool: https://getmxu.com/learning-management-system?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=ageout&utm_medium=social 🚀 Personalized Coaching: https://getmxu.com/coaching?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=ageout&utm_medium=social

JOIN THE COMMUNITY
🤝 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MxUrocks

WHAT IS MxU? MxU is an online training platform for church leaders to train and equip their worship and tech volunteers: https://getmxu.com?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=ageout&utm_medium=social

This week, we're tackling the conversation everyone in church tech is dancing around — what happens when AI starts running Sunday morning. Spencer and Dillan dig into where AI actually fits in worship and production ministry, why the under-resourced church might win this era, and the real cost of replacing volunteer roles with automation. 
It's not a hot take or a doom prediction — it's an honest look at what's coming and how to think about it without fear or hype.
Check out our FREE Team Night Guide:
https://getmxu.com/resources/team-night-guide/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=facebook

FREE RESOURCES 🆓
Take advantage of all the free resources for worship and tech teams that MxU has to offer (growing weekly): https://getmxu.com/resources/?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=facebook&utm_medium=social

IMPROVE YOUR SUNDAY SERVICES 🎓 1,000+
Training Videos:
https://getmxu.com/training?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=facebook&utm_medium=social
🖥️ Volunteer Training Tool:
https://getmxu.com/learning-management-system?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=facebook&utm_medium=social

🚀 Personalized Coaching:
https://getmxu.com/coaching?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=facebook&utm_medium=social

JOIN THE COMMUNITY 📸
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mxurocks/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MxUrocks

WHAT IS MxU?
MxU is an online training platform for church leaders to train and equip their worship and tech volunteers:
https://getmxu.com?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=facebook&utm_medium=social