So what are we doing here anyway?
The last few years, I have been working alot in production specifically in churches and other Christian venues where the goal is to bring glory and honor to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It is both a joy and a challenge. The joy comes from knowing that because you decided to step out and give of yourself as literally an offering of worship, that other people will hear the message of Christ’s love and understand more about his love and saving power. The sound tech is helping to communicate the audible message, the lighting tech is helping to create a visual ambience of worship in a given setting or room and also has the power to highlight or mask stage activity, and the projection/video tech helps to communicate through a graphical, lyrical, and through a very visual medium. A tech team at a church is just that, A TEAM!! That means, without one of those members, things don’t flow or move as planned. The main three parts of a production team coming together, and working together, helps to create a great atmosphere of worship when things are planned out and worked out right.
One important factor that I would like to stress is that each member of that team should be prepared and should understand their roll. Now, by saying that, am I saying that everyone should be spot on and never make a mistake? No! Certainly not…I would just expect someone who is working in that kind of a vital position, understand what they are doing and know how to serve in their position effectively.
Preparation is a two-fold topic when it comes to working in a worship setting. Preparation includes a certain level of efficiency and technical understanding of their role in production, but it also includes being spiritually prepared
. I’m sure we would want the speaker or worship leader to be prepared technically in their message or music as well as in their relationship spiritual with the Lord but shouldn’t that go for the technical staff as well? We, as the technical staff, are in full control of the medium through which the message of God is being communicated through. Shouldn’t we have prepared ourselves and our hearts through time with God and through the reading of His word and prayer before we step into our roles? Yes, most of us have a timeline to work with for production or a run sheet of what is going to happen, but ultimately, God is still running and headlining “the show” and if he decides to come in and mess up your run sheet, then you, as a production tech, should be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit along with the speaker or worship leader, and be technically proficient enough to react to whatever comes. That’s not something that occurs too often in secular production, but in a church, you need to be ready for it if it happens! But, ultimately, the cool thing is that God will work in spite of us if He needs to. Quite honestly, I would rather have Him work through me and in me. It doesn’t matter how technically prepared you are if you lack spiritual preparation. It will trip you up more then you realize.
Second to spiritual preparation, is technical preparation. Checking to make sure you know what the order is before service, line checking and sound checking your worship team and speaker mics and BATTERIES, knowing when your lighting cues should be and making sure it’s thought out beforehand, checking lyrics for misspellings and continuity, and making sure cues are in order
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