TBC Stage Design on CSDI

http://www.churchstagedesignideas.com/2012/11/21/destroyed-angel-wings/

Check out TBC's latest stage design online!  Thanks to our tech volunteers for all their hard work! Be sure to check out all the other great stage designs at ChurchStageDesisngIdeas.com

Keep Calm and Carry On.

Just when something has worked consistently enough to be deemed reliable, it goes wrong.

We recently had an LED light fixture malfunction during a worship service.  But it didn't just malfunction.  It malfunctioned in such a way that it caused all the other LEDs in the light rig to strobe randomly.  In the middle of the pastor's message.  Pretty much a TD's nightmare.  Fortunately it was the last light in that particular DMX chain and it was on the ground so I was able to nonchalantly unplug it from the rest of the lights, thereby ensuring an uneventful conclusion to the service.  After switching the fixture out between services, the rest of the morning went smoothly.

I'm sure you've experienced a similar situation.  Something is going really wrong and you have a few minutes (or a few seconds) to decide what to do about it.  Staying calm and taking time to think through the situation are the keys to solving issues during a live production in the least painful way possible.

Stay calm.  If you start to sweat and hyperventilate, you're not doing anyone any good.  You'll figure it out and the world will go on.  This is especially important if you are a team leader.  Nothing will freak your team out faster than seeing their leader fall apart.

Take your time.  If you react abruptly and suddenly to a situation, the likelihood of your reaction being a distraction or not best course of action is pretty high. Sometimes problems work themselves out after a moment.  If the pastor's mic crackles once and you immediately sprint to the stage with a spare hand held, only to realize that it rubbed briefly against his beard, you've probably caused a larger distraction then necessary.  Ask yourself which is more disruptive to the service, letting the situation play out or stepping in to change something?

Decide and act calmly and with authority.  If you decide to go on stage and unplug a malfunctioning light, then just do it. Don't run, don't look around at the audience, don't apologize, don't fiddle, just do it and leave.  Act like it was part of the show.

Tell your leadership that the problem is fixed.  They don't necessarily need to know how, they just need to know you've got everything under control.

Analyze afterwards.  Take the time later to go over the event and see what could have been done to prevent the issue, what contingencies could be put in place, and if your response could have been different.  Learn from these experiences, unpleasant as they may be at the time.

Justin Bieber and Theology.

If you follow pop music at all, then you've heard Justin Bieber's latest song "As Long as You Love Me".  Although the song is primarily focused on Bieber's romantic relationships, the bridge of the song (featuring Big Sean, of course) contains a lyric that is applicable to all areas of life.

"But the grass ain't always greener on the other side,
It's green where you water it..."

We've all heard the saying, "The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence".  In most cases that's the end of the phrase, leaving us with the idea that what looks good from a distance, isn't always what it seems.  But in this case, the lyric takes it one step further - "It's green where you water it..."

What a profound idea.  Any place you find "green grass", remember that it didn't get that way by accident.  This truth applies to relationships, careers, the arts, and even church tech.  Its easy to look at some churches and think they have it all together.  They've got the gear, the resources, the personnel, the healthy culture, the creativity, the vision, and the buy-in from their leadership.  And you may think that you could never achieve anything worthwhile or effective because of the "limitations" of your situation.  However, as you dig deeper you may discover that they experience limitations and frustrations that dwarf yours and your situation is really not so bad.  Now, while its good to keep that fact in mind, thats not my main point.  

Here's the truth that could change your team and inspire your church.  There are many churches that have developed a vibrant and effective creative arts ministry, in which worship and production are aligned and church leadership supports their efforts with resources and personnel.  In those organizations, the grass really is green.   But remember the caveat from before: "Its green where you water it."  Those teams did not become effective and powerful forces for the Kingdom of God by focusing on the things other teams had and being discouraged by the things they didn't have.  Rather, they built into their people and focused on getting the most out of their resources and equipment.  It wasn't easy and nothing changed overnight.  But being consitently faithful with what they had eventually resulted in the growth of their ministry.

Jesus teaches us this same principle in the Gospel of Matthew.  In chapter 25:14-30 Jesus shares the Parable of the Talents, in which a master gives his three servants varying amounts of resources, each according to his ability (v. 15).   When the master returns from his trip he finds that two of the servants have been faithful with what they were given and he gives them even more!  But the third servant had not done anything with the resources he had been given and in the end even that was taken from him and given to another.  

Whether you're a volunteer, a leader of volunteers, or a leader of staff, these are sobering words but so very applicable to our work in the Church.  So how are you doing with the resources you've been given?  What are you doing to water the grass where you are now?

Who knew Justin Bieber was such a theologian?

Keep it Simple.

Simple.

Live production has the potential to be incredibly complex.  Just look at any of the stadium tours that are currently out and you'll find intricately choreographed lighting, automated rigging, LED video walls, media servers, and ProTools rigs playing back a dozen backing tracks.  Teams of seasoned pros keep all this equipment up and running in sync night after night.  Often, the result is an amazing and exciting show that thrills audiences.  As technical artists in the Church, we are called, not to produce the most technically amazing services, but to point people to our Almighty God through worship and teaching.  We still desire quality, but for a different reason and with a different goal.

At my church, like most, we rely the skills and passions of volunteers to execute our services.  These are people who invest their time and energy to build into the Kingdom.  They are doctors, salesmen, I.T. professionals, but they are not production professionals.  So how do I as their leader set them up to succeed at executing great worship services?  Maybe you are on staff at a church and want to empower your volunteers.  Maybe you’re a volunteer tech leader who wants to help your team grow in confidence and consistency.  The answer may not lie in more gear or better gear or different volunteers.  I’ve discovered that it’s much simpler than that.  Since I came on staff at my current church, we’ve been making our production positions and processes simpler...


Simpler? Yes, simpler.  There was a time when late lyrics, missed audio cues, clunky lighting changes, and missing video clips were common.  Dedicated volunteers showed up week after week to fill positions and week after week there were issues.  What was the problem? Systems and processes were too complex.  One person managing too many details results in frustration and mistakes.  So in order to take the quality of our services to the next level, we didn’t need to do more tech or add more gear.  Instead, we had to do the opposite.  

First, we simply eliminated some processes.  If something was was not clearly contributing to our goal we just stopped doing it.  Second, we streamlined processes.  Does the computer graphics operator need two computers, or can we streamline that position down to just one machine?  Does the video director need to be responsible for video content playback or can he be freed up to just focus on directing?  Third, we divided some positions into two separate positions, allowing each person to focus their attention more specifically on the task.  

The same approach applies to actually operating in various technical positions.  I would rather have a lighting operator who programs a handful of well timed cues and can hit transitions with precision than one who programs twenty cues per song and then gets lost halfway through.  I would rather have an audio engineer who has the right mics on at the right times than one who is so busy adjusting the acoustic guitar reverb that he doesn’t notice the pastor taking the stage.

Once I began to implement this concept and communicate these values, a different pattern began to emerge.  Videos played at the right times, mics were on when needed, lighting transitions were seamless.  Volunteers who had been serving in the same positions for years expressed how they’ve never had so much fun serving.  The stress was off, the objectives clear, the task attainable.  Success boosted confidence, which in turn generated more success.  By simplifying, we actually enabled our team to accomplish more than ever before.   As technical leaders in the Church, whether you’re paid staff or “volunteer staff”, part of our role is to help our volunteers succeed in this ministry.  And when that happens, our entire body of believers reaps the benefits.  

What are ways you’ve found to help volunteer teams succeed?



Check out more great articles at churchtechleaders.org!

5 Things My Worship Pastor Wants Me to Know.

If you haven't read the previous post in this series, 5 Things I Want My Worship Pastor to Know, go do that now and then come back.

We're picking up with the rest of the content that my worship pastor, Bryan, and I shared at the Gurus of Tech conference in May.  While there are things that every worship pastor should know about their technical directors/volunteers, there are just as many thing that technical directors need to know about worship pastors.  Here are the five things that Bryan shared:

#1.  I need to trust you.

Character trumps competence every time - but trust in both are important.  I need to be able to trust that your intentions are the best, trust your ability, and trust that you have my back.  It creates a situation where an answer of "No" can actually be an invitation to discuss and learn. This can lead to new ideas and initiatives that will lead people to new or deeper life in Christ.

#2.  I need to have healthy conflict.

I need to have healthy conflict.  Create a win-win.  Tell me what you don't want to say - and tell me in love.  Don't email me. Don't allow what you cannot do to get in the way of what you CAN do. This leads to a culture where you spend time on the right stuff.  If you have conflict, do it privately. If, and only if, the conflict spills into the public - make sure people see the resolution.

#3.  Function trumps friendship in the short run.  Friendship trumps function for the long term.

Functionality is expected.  Friendship is considered icing on the cake.  Don't get me wrong, you have to function, but that alone will only work in the short term.   Developing a friendship will help you survive difficult times in ministry that might have destroyed your "working relationship."  An African proverb says, "If you want to go fast, go alone.  If you want to go far, go together."  That's the situation we find ourselves in.  Worship and tech are completely interrelated and if we want to succeed in ministry in the long term, we need to start operating as friends, co-laborers, team mates, because we each have a stake in the success of the other.  Even if you work with a jerk, remember that you can only control your response and you will be held into account for how you respond in love.  You may win them over after all.

#4.  I need you to replace yourself.

This has everything to do with the success of your ministry in the long term and with enabling your ministry to achieve greater impact.  The fact is that you can't do everything alone.  There's just too much to do.  The ministry can't expand if you become the bottleneck to growth.  In different situations this may mean building into volunteers or training other staff members.  But its never a good thing when one person "holds the keys to the kingdom."  As a technical leader, there are times when you have to let go of control and enable others around you to step into the gap.


#5.  I'm intimidated by your world.

Many worship leaders may not admit it, but the world of tech arts can seem pretty daunting.  Shoot, it can seem daunting to techs.  I am intimidated by your world. I want to invite myself into your world more, but I won't unless you show me you're interested in mine first.  Be approachable and open about what you're working on and let me know about stuff that might pertain to what I do.  Strike up a conversation about a new piece of gear or ask me about something I'm working on.  When we each understand the each other's world, it allows us to collaborate more effectively and relate to the triumphs and struggles that we each experience.


Just like any good relationship, the Technical Director/Worship Leader relationship takes work and intentionality.  By thinking about the other person's needs and point of view, we can come alongside one another and achieve much more for the Kingdom together then we ever could alone.