10 years ago when I started at Greenwood Baptist Church my title was “Small Groups Pastor” and I was told there would be some other computer stuff too. I’m a tech enthusiast so I thought - ah no problem.
When I started at the church, I ran the network (and still do - though much more confidently now). Back then I knew enough to run a personal network at home pretty well. That was fine, because we had basically a large home network. It consisted of a router with 3 access points, one in each building.
As we grew, it would only work well on Wednesdays, but horribly on Sundays. (I know now that it was because of the extra people there on Sundays overcrowding my access points.) I was told several times that we needed to fix it. I tried. I tried harder. I asked a guy who was part of the church and ran a local network company for help. He said he couldn’t suggest anything more powerful without spending lots of money but he was reluctant to spend the church’s money on networking equipment. The problem is that checking in children requires a working church network. Some of the Worship Team’s music was dependent on an internet connection. You know, working internet is important.
Finally I asked a network consultant that a larger church recommended. He gave me a suggested network design and a price tag. He was right, it wasn’t cheap. But my pastor said “It’s something we have to have so do it”. I did it. Best move I ever made on the network. We bought a fortinet firewall and a few switches and access points. Some of that equipment from 8-9 years ago is still being used in low-capacity areas even though we are 3 times as large as we were then. Find a network consultant you trust and let them do their magic!
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