I stumbled on a church worship article geared towards pastors and worship leaders, however, there was a line in the article that caught my attention:

"Seek in your sound booth a person who technically knows the sound board and has a musical ear."

Years ago, our church had one small worship team and a sound mixer that was stored in a closet.  We had a few people to run sound.  As far I know, none of them had any formal sound system experience outside of the church.  But they did a good job and like I said, we just had one small worship team.  One of the sound op's was very reliable.  Then one day he mentioned he was moving to another state.  That didn't shock me.  What shocked me was when he mentioned he was surprised the church had him run sound as he was tone deaf.  TONE DEAF!

Anyone can be taught to operate a sound board.  But not everyone has a musical ear.

How does one check for that?  Oh surveys would be a logical choice but very simple questions will probably do the trick..."have you ever sung in a choir or a worship team?  do you play a musical instrument?  do you have proper hearing in both ears?  and based on my experience, are you tone deaf?

My friend was very reliable when it came to running sound.  He could even set levels properly.  However, he could never alter the EQ where necessary.  A thousand thank you's to him for his dedication to our sound team.