The Liz & Dana Tucker Church Audio Ministry
Serving the Body of Christ ~ Honoring Liz ~ Continuing a Dream
For many years, D & L Recording Studio LLC has been a part of my journey in music, recording, live sound, and audio education. Through that work, I have had the privilege of teaching people how to use professional digital mixing consoles, including the Behringer X32, M32, and WING, and helping churches, musicians, and audio volunteers learn how to get the most out of their sound systems. But there has always been something more important behind what I do. Liz and I shared a dream of traveling throughout the United States, visiting churches, meeting the people who faithfully serve behind the scenes, and helping them learn how to operate and improve their Behringer sound systems.
We wanted to help churches that might not have the financial resources to hire expensive audio consultants or professional engineers. We wanted to take what we had learned and simply give it away. On June 15th of this year, my beloved Liz unexpectedly passed away and losing her has changed my life in ways that are difficult to put into words. This year would have been our 40th anniversary. But one thing that has not changed is the dream we shared. I have decided that rather than allowing that dream to end, I am going to carry it forward in Liz’s memory. For that reason, I am beginning the process of closing D & L Recording Studio LLC and creating a new nonprofit organization called The Liz & Dana Tucker Church Audio Ministry Inc. I hope to have everything finalized by the end of October.
This ministry will be dedicated to honoring Liz’s memory by continuing the work that we dreamed about doing together: helping churches and their audio teams learn, improve, and succeed. The purpose of The Liz & Dana Tucker Church Audio Ministry Inc. will be to provide practical audio education, training, consultation, and assistance to churches and nonprofit organizations. This may include helping church sound teams learn how to operate Behringer X32, M32, and WING digital mixing consoles, teaching volunteers about proper gain structure, equalization, compression, effects, monitors, routing, streaming, recording, troubleshooting, and overall system operation.
It may also include traveling to churches to work directly with their sound teams, helping them understand the equipment they already have and teaching them how to use it effectively. My goal is not simply to teach people how to operate a mixer. My goal is to give volunteers the confidence and knowledge they need to serve their churches well. One of the biggest changes with this new ministry is that there will be no required fee for my services. I do not want a church’s financial situation to determine whether its volunteers have access to quality audio training. If a church needs help, I want them to be able to ask for help without worrying about whether they can afford an expensive consulting fee.
The ministry will operate on a donation-supported model. Churches, individuals, businesses, and others who believe in what I am doing will have the opportunity to voluntarily support the ministry through donations. Those contributions will help make it possible for me to travel, provide training, purchase and maintain equipment, develop educational resources, cover ministry expenses, and continue bringing this assistance to churches throughout the country or helping Christian Churches worldwide via Zoom. This does not mean that the ministry’s work has no value. Quite the opposite. I know how much time, experience, knowledge, and preparation goes into helping a church improve its audio system.
I believe the value of that knowledge should not prevent a small church or a church with limited resources from receiving help. Liz and I always believed that if we had the ability to help someone, we should help them. This ministry is my way of continuing that philosophy. The ministry will also allow people who have benefited from my training and educational resources to become part of something larger. Someone may donate $100. Someone else may donate $1000. A church may choose to make a larger contribution. A business may decide to sponsor travel or equipment. Every contribution can help make it possible for another church to receive training that it otherwise might not be able to afford.
The goal is not to create a price list for services. The goal is to create a community of people who believe in the mission and want to help us reach more churches. As this ministry develops, I hope to expand the educational resources available online as well. The knowledge I have accumulated through years of working with live sound, recording, digital consoles, streaming, and church audio can be used to create tutorials, training materials, videos, workshops, online meetings, and other resources that churches can access regardless of where they are located. While I may personally travel to churches when appropriate, the ministry will also use technology to reach churches that are hundreds or thousands of miles away, or on another continent.
The name The Liz & Dana Tucker Church Audio Ministry Inc., is intentional. Liz was not simply someone whose name I wanted to put on an organization. She was part of the dream. She was part of my life, and she was part of the reason this dream mattered to me. By putting her name at the heart of this ministry, I want every church we help to be a reminder that the dream we shared did not die with her. It continues through every sound volunteer who learns something new, every church that improves its audio ministry, and every person who discovers that they can serve their church with greater confidence because someone took the time to teach them.
D & L Recording Studio LLC represented an important chapter of my life, and I am grateful for everything that came from it. But I believe this new chapter has a different purpose. Instead of asking, “What can I charge for my services?”, I want to ask, “How many churches can I help?” Instead of measuring success by the amount of revenue generated, I want to measure success by the number of people who become better equipped to serve their churches with more confidence. This is the beginning of something that Liz and I once dreamed about doing together. I wish more than anything that she could be here to see it happen. Since she cannot make this journey with me in person, I will carry her with me in everything I do.
Every church I visit, every sound team I train, every volunteer who learns how to confidently operate their mixer, and every person who contributes to this mission will become part of the legacy that we can build together. The Liz & Dana Tucker Church Audio Ministry Inc. is being created to serve, to teach, and to give back. There is no required price for the help I provide. If your church needs assistance, I want you to be able to reach out. If you believe in this mission and would like to help us reach more churches, I invite you to support the ministry with a voluntary donation. Together, we can turn a dream that Liz and I shared into a ministry that continues helping churches for years to come. This is more than a new organization. It is the continuation of a dream.