I am so dang frustrated right now, I thought I would go ahead a blog about it. I really hope I get some comments concerning this issue. Feel free to reply to this blog with your comments.

I was recently doing a gig, and I contacted some music/technical directors from the churches around the area, to see if they would be interested in getting their tech guys involved in this relatively large event. The main draw was that we needed help setting up all of the gear, but the fringe benefits for the group was that they got to spend time in community with each other, developing relationships with other people with the same interest, crossing over church membership and denominational lines, to serve God by offering their knowledge. It also would have been a great training and learning experience for them all (for free), and lastly, it would have given them the chance to be part of something bigger than themselves and the monotony of Sunday morning hymns.

Out of 15 or 20 emails I sent out, I only had one reply. That alone was discouraging enough, but the content of that reply is what really made things bad. It set off such a sadness/disappointment/anger in me, that I needed to write this blog, just to see if I am just way off base here. I of course won’t use personal or church names, but the reply came from the music minister of a well known church in the city, and his reply was to the effect of (paraphrased):

“….I am too busy right now for anything like that; I just have too many things on my plate to add anything else to my schedule…”

As I got this response, I was disappointed, but deleted it, and moved on with my day. But after a while, I began to start thinking about the values that we (as church staff) should be trying to uphold; and I got pretty angry. I have two major conflicts with his reply statement. First of all, what are you doing there? As a church staff member, our job is NOT to do all of the work ourselves, nor is it (in a music ministers case) to produce a great worship service. Our job is to produce great people, and help them excel in their field of interest. If you do this correctly, great worship services will come by default. And you produce good people by investing time in them, getting to know them, being there for them, and most importantly, providing them the resources they need to carry out the tasks you have asked them to do. You don’t ask a soloist to sing a special without giving them direction, music, and a microphone. You don’t ask a drummer to come play drums at church on Sunday morning, but don’t provide a drum set. Likewise, you shouldn’t ask someone to operate sound (or any other technical equipment) without giving them the sound console, and the knowledge of how to use it. Many churches don’t spend enough time (or money) giving the appropriate amount of resources to their volunteers, yet wonder why they have a high turnover rates. There are two aspects to every single job function in the church: The operational side, and the relational side. The operational side is the stuff that has to be done, or the tasks at hand. Your sound guy knows he has to come in and run sound at the 10:00am service, he just knows that. The relational side is what the majority of most churches miss, but is the most important. That’s where the staff needs to make it fun, or make it so the engineer looks forward to coming to run sound at 10:00am. Give him the knowledge he needs. Give him the gear he needs. And most importantly, give him the attention and atmosphere he needs to produce great work for the Kingdom. Remember, they aren’t just button pushers, they are silent worship leaders, and the spirit of the leader, will be the spirit of the team.

In short, to say he was too busy mystified me, because the very thing I was asking of him, should be what he is there to do. He had a perfect opportunity to let his team grow and learn (again, for free) and be in community with other, and all he had to do was take 5 minutes on Sunday morning while his team was there, and ask them. But he was too busy. That’s a shame.

Finally, the second thing I was disappointed about was the cop-out line itself. Too busy?! We should never be too busy to take time and invest into someone else. Volunteers are the life-blood of the church, and when they get burnt out after doing sound for 10 years without so much as a “Thank You”, you’ll wish you had taken the time. I work at the largest church in the city of Las Vegas. We are adding a 5th weekend service because we can’t contain everyone who is showing up, we are about to start of 4th 40 Days Series, we are in the middle of a $16 Million expansion project, and we have more money and people than we know what to do with. Yet, I and my fellow co-workers saw the opportunity to reach out into a spiritually coma-induced area of the US, and they allowed me to step away from my obligations here, to reach out to those in that area. But he was too busy. That’s a shame.

My last two paragraphs ended with “But he was too busy. That’s a shame.” What if that were true of God? What if when we needed Him to reach out to us, and invest in us, he was too busy? Where would we be? Our job as church staff and as Christians is to reach out to those both inside and outside of the church. For those on the outside, Invest in them, and then Invite them to church. For those inside the church already, invest in them, and help them to be 110% all the time. Volunteers are what make ministry happen. They can’t be forgotten. But he was too busy. That’s a shame…..

I want to start this post with a excerpt from my book, in Chapter 10:

“Serving in the technical ministry requires you to have a certain ability to balance both science and art. This doesn’t mean you have to hold a microscope in the left hand and a painting in the right. It means that you have to find your own little niche in the booth, and figure out when the right time to use each process is. Let’s look together at an outline of when to use science, and when to use art. Since I’m not there, how about you just look at it by yourself, and then let me know what you read.

I refer to “science” because understanding how to mix first begins with it. You can’t paint a beautiful priceless painting until you know how to mix colors, how the paint reacts to the surface, and how everything flows together. The same is true with technology. You can’t design a lighting plot for a play until you know how the colors react to the set pieces, where the shadows fall, and how the technology works to make the end result possible. In audio, you can’t mix a band together until you know how the equipment works, how the songs flow, and what instruments are featured. You use the science to master the concept of technology, from the basics of how a microphone works to the everyday sound check. The science comes into play when it’s time to get the band (or vocalists, or whatever) checked. Get the monitors set, figure out when certain instruments are soloed, etc. In lighting, figure out where lights need to be focused and colored, and then use those fixtures, and figure out when to fade in and out. You will find that the science is a long a tedious process that should never really end. If you find yourself not using the science as often, that says that you already know it all, and have nothing left to figure out. If this is the case, please come teach me everything you know! Again, without giving the proper attention to the science aspect of technology, you can bring you final product down from a Picasso event to a Barney Fife event.

The art aspect of technology is definitely not something that comes perfectly the first time, yet it is something that takes time after time of practice to refine. Art in technology is taking all of the things you learned with the science, and applying them to your task. For the audiophiles, it is masterfully creating a work of art with the sounds and nuances of the music that you learned during sound check. You are a band member, and the sound console is your instrument. For you lighting guys, it is craftily mixing your lighting to create moods that send your audience exactly to where you want them; whether it is a feeling, mood, or even place. Using the art does not, and should not mean you live by a “set it and forget it” mentality. Especially is audio mixing, you cannot expect to set your levels and not touch them……”

So many times, I think the problem with the local “tech guy” is that they are really good at one aspect, but have insufficient knowledge in the other. I believe this is why so many churches have a 2nd rate technical ministry, and in turn, have a second rate music ministry. When people don’t give 110% of themselves, and give the attention to detail that the job requires, it shows, and it shows bad.

I guess this blog is written mostly to the sound tech, and the person that manages them. If you find yourself leaning more towards science than art, or vice versa, I encourage you and challenge you to step back, analyze what you are doing, and consider doing it differently. Change CAN be a good thing, and when you try new things and they work out well, people will notice. And because perception is the prelude to expectation, if someone comes into your church, and the environment is set for a 110% performance, they are going to expect good things to happen- and that’s when God shows up….when you are giving your absolute best for Him.

Well, months of planning and hundreds of dollars in cell phone bills later, Worship Under the Stars was an awesome event! Despite the problems we had getting started on Thursday, and wondering if it was even going to happen on Friday, when we opened the doors at 6:35pm on Saturday, it was evident that something was going to happen that was bigger than all of us, and bigger than all of the problems we faced prior. We were forced to move into the convention center, after the rental company put the halt on setting equipment up outside, (mostly due to high winds, not rain). We were all very frustrated at first that the vision of being under the stars had been erased, but little did we know of the Divinity of that move. The Ampitheater holds approx. 1200 people. By 7:05pm, we had 2100 chairs out, and loading more in. By the the time we started the show, the convention center had ran out of floor space to put chairs, and people were lining the walls. Vertical Window did a great job opening, despite their opening technical issues, but once we got rolling, it was a great event. People were worshiping, and it was evident that many people, from many churches, from many denominations were all there together, and it was awesome. THANK YOU to everyone who came out to the event. I hope it was awe-inspiring, and a great time of worship for everyone who attended. Don’t forget to pre-order your DVD or CD of the event at the Worship Under the Stars website. So what’s next year? Well, let’s recover from this year a little longer before we start speculating about next year. I can tell you this though. First, the success of the event this year was beyond anything we had ever envisioned…just goes to show that we really were never in control to begin with…..Secondly, this success will definately spark a conversation of whether to do it again next year. Thirdly, It goes without saying that the amphitheater and the convention center are no longer options for us, so pray for a larger venue for us next year. Thanks to everyone who helped me pull off the night. Kay Oplinger was a silent hero, who really pulled off making everything happen right prior to the event. I would also like to thank my staff, who put in HOURS and HOURS of work, including Dennis Williams, Richard Milner, Stephen May, our helpers Bradley Jones and Chris Moncus, and the staff at StageFront. It couldn’t have happened without you guys!! See you next year!