Performing Arts Director
Oneighty Youth Pastor
Production Manager
Lighting Designer
Children’s Ministry Director
Guest Services Director
Worship Pastor
Motion Graphics + Video
Producer
Writer + Editor
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According to Wikipedia, “control freak” is defined as “a derogatory term for a person who attempts to dictate how everything around them is done. It can also refer to someone with a limited number of things that they want done a specific way.”
In production circles, being labeled a control freak doesn’t necessarily have a negative connotation–most production teams require someone who must maintain the control of each situation that arises and similarly exude that control to provide the direction. I contend that in the production business, those who are not control freaks at some level and have not become successful at controlling situations are the same ones who do not play consistently at the top of their game.
So in the spirit of full disclosure, I have a confession… I am a control freak. I’ll state it again–I am a control freak… but I don’t care. I spent many years on the road watching people, bands, and management operating out of control (and with no control in sight, mind you). No one at the helm, no one to take control of the situation, no one to make the hard decision or at worst, even throw out a guess as to what direction to head in. These experiences have proven to be the largest elements of learning in my professional life. All of the negatives that arose from these particular situations only proved that someone, anyone, had to take control–and over time, this control freak mindset was birthed.
So using this as a basis in managing our production crew, I attempt to make qualified decisions as to how we operate within our constraints while still serving the church in the most excellent manner available to us.
Most people might assume that the most important thing to making our team a success is how much experience each person brings to the table or how much cool gear we know how to operate, etc, but herein lies the secret… In my humble opinion, the best way to be successful in production and team management is simple: MAINTAIN YOUR FOCUS. That’s it–a very simple strategy that allows everyone on the team to work to their maximum potential. Freeing them up from the doldrums of unnecessary interruptions and concerns allows them to direct all of their focus towards the goal (that sounds like I copied it from a self-help book but that was all me).
Maintaining the focus is largely based around time management. Once a creative plan is in place, our time is largely controlled by the “literal”–logistics, timeframes, deadlines, rehearsals, schedules, load-in times, etc. Is there still time enough to “do it” or was all the time taken up on the planning and talking points and now you’re behind the 8-ball with not quite enough time to pull it off? Don’t get me wrong–spending time developing a plan, set, or design is huge but does everyone have to be a part of this? Can the team be split up with some people planning while others remain focused on the “doing”? I devote a great deal of energy in planning out the time our crew will be spending doing each event or project. The result is that I maintain the control of what is to be done now and what can be accomplished at another time.
A key element of this is making sure others outside of our team understand how we function. The production office is the hub–everything hits me first, then I can disseminate information as needed and at my discretion according to whatever else we are involved in. If the crew is getting barraged with calls or interruptions from other departments that need something done, built, repaired, or dealt with, the tendency would be for the production crew to make it happen. That’s just how they roll–they want to serve and help solve issues. BUT it doesn’t mean that their current project load has to be dropped or put on hold. Actually, our deadlines really don’t permit that very often, so we strive as a crew to make sure that the control stays in my court. I spend the time necessary to work through the unplanned projects that inevitably come up and determine when, how, and if they will come into play.
Oftentimes, it might just be that someone didn’t know who to call and I can simply assist in getting the right person or company hooked up on the phone with them. No big deal–problem solved, the other department is happy and satisfied and my team kept their eyes on the ball. I will also slide this gem in here–managing a production of any size is largely based on what contacts you have at your disposal AND how slick you are at pulling the right people in on a project. For teams built on logistics and multi-tasking environments, there has to be a point person who possesses the skill set to solve the issue at hand OR has the knowledge of who to call to get it done.
The result of all this is that even with all the services, events, rebuilds, adapting, and maintenance that the production team is responsible for week in and week out, we manage to stay on top of things. Peter Drucker says in his book, The Effective Executive, “A well-managed plant, I soon learned, is a quiet place… Similarly a well-managed organization is a ‘dull’ organization. The ‘dramatic’ things in such an organization are basic decisions that make the future, rather than heroics in mopping up yesterday.” I can’t have my team running all over the place playing “catch-up” bouncing between their must-do projects to the “emergencies” that have popped up. We’ve got big projects that require our attention first and foremost with very little time to maneuver in between. If I effectively manage the distractions, everybody can stay on task and get it done right.
Admittedly, maintaining the focus is tough–it’s something I have to constantly be mindful of… and constantly work at–but it’s worth it. The well-being of my crew demands it, the people who make up COTM deserve it, and in my opinion, it’s just the right way to do it.
Thoughts? Hit the Comments button below.
When we as a children’s ministry make any decision, whether it’s what the next weekend series will be or where to place a new volunteer, we always begin by asking one important question, “Is this the best thing for our kids?” Now that may seem like a no-brainer but after 3 1/2 years of directing our children’s education department I’ve noticed that this is much easier said than done.
In my time here, I’ve had to make several decisions that were…let’s just say…less than popular. The reason? It wasn’t the best thing for our kids. If there is one thing I’ve learned from my Dad over the years, it’s that making choices based on principle will always serve you better than those based on popularity. I tell my team this all the time – I have to. It’s amazing how many things come up on a week-to-week basis that challenge this belief. Let me give you an example.
When I first came on, the vast majority of our 4 year old – 6th grade classes were taught by our volunteers. And although they were good, faithful people who had been teaching our kids for years, we knew it was time for a change. You see, it would have been impossible for us to achieve the level of ministry we were shooting for while relying on people who worked 40 hours a week somewhere else. I wish I could tell you that every volunteer gladly received this news and wholeheartedly bought into the vision we had laid out before them but that wasn’t the case. Although many of them stuck and are a tremendous help to us today, several got offended and quit. Even though it was the right decision and has proven out over the course of time, it was not a popular one. As children’s ministers, we are called by God to teach kids His Word and the best thing for our kids is that we start engaging them in the classroom and assume the role of pastor and shepherd, not just oversee or administrate.
Even though this decision wasn’t the most popular at the time, we knew it was right because it was based on a principle: Is this the best thing for our kids? When the answer to that question is yes, we know we are on the right track.
Now there have been other times we have made decisions based on this very same principle and the outcome was quite popular. Last October I was meeting with Stephen Posey, our Elementary Pastor, about the upcoming schedule for Kids on the Move. We got talking on the subject of kids bringing their Bibles to church and how it seemed they were using them more as seat holders than for following along with the message. As we discussed how to fix this problem, it occurred to me that the kids weren’t following along because they had no idea how to navigate through their Bible. It was time to put our principle to use. The best thing for our kids was that they learn the value of God’s Word, as well as memorize all the books of the Bible, so we began an 8-week series called “I Love My Bible”. As part of this series we gave each child a CD with a catchy song we wrote to help them remember all 66 books. The disc also included a message from Pastor Stephen explaining its purpose as well as asking parents to encourage their kids to commit the books to memory. (Click here to download the series)
Our kids absolutely loved it and so did their parents. At the end of the series, we gave kids the opportunity to earn a certificate for memorizing all the books of Bible. We handed out over 200 of them in one weekend (there were some interesting interpretations given by some of our younger kids, i.e. the book of Jonicles – Chronicles, The Very Kiss – Leviticus, and also Have A Cake – Habakkuk). I must say, we’ve received more pats on the back and recognition from that series than any other series we’ve done but honestly, that never entered my mind when we came up with the idea. We didn’t create this series for people to tell us what a great job we were doing. We didn’t write a song and give out a CD to gain popularity throughout our church. We did it because it was the best thing for our kids.
You see, there are times when choosing to do what’s best for your kids brings great recognition and praise but that can’t be what you aim for. There are other times when your decision isn’t popular, but you can’t let that hinder you. Either way, making choices based on principle will always serve you better than those based on popularity. In John 21:15, Jesus said to Peter, “Feed My lambs.” Making that your #1 priority will always be the best thing for your kids.
Last year, I spoke a message to our Lincoln Christian School students titled “Real World Rules”. In this message I shared that when you are a child and you’re living with your parents, having everything given to you, it’s easy to have the idea that “If I make a mistake, it’s really not that big of a deal. If I need something, someone will get it for me, and I’m the best at everything because people close to me say that I am”.
However, those things may be true when you’re a child, but when you get out in the real world you will learn very quickly - that is not how things work.
If students are ever going to become what God designed them to be, they are going to have to not only learn the real rules of this game called life, but also begin to play by them.
The same is true for us in ministry. Sometimes the reason we don’t succeed in our God-given endeavor is not because of a lack of talent, money, or a calling from God. Sometimes we don’t succeed because we are not playing by the real rules of the game.
Here are some “Real World Rules” of life and ministry.
1) Small is Big.
Someone fairly famous once said, “If you have not been faithful with little, you will not be faithful with much”. Good words to live by.
2) Your talent and 50 cents will get you a cup of coffee.
Are you talented? Great. So are 1,000’s of other people. What will set you apart from the crowd is not your ability, but your purity and passion for what God has called you to do for him.
3) A servant’s heart will take you farther than you ever dreamed.
When we give up our ego, give up our attitude, give up our agenda, and simply serve, we will get back more than we ever thought possible.
4) You “get” nothing. You “earn” everything.
In the real world, you don’t get anything handed to you. Respect, money, volunteers, and appreciation are all commodities that we have to earn. The quicker we stop waiting on people to give us what we need and start rolling up our sleeves and earning it, the better off we will be.
These are some “Real World Rules” that I have noticed over the years. What are some that you have learned? I would love to hear them.
P.S. If you haven’t heard, the Oneighty Conference is back! Get all the info and register your team HERE.
I recently had an incredibly hectic Thursday. Here is how it went.
Watched the video from previous night’s Oneighty service. Made some mental and written notes on what we could have done better as a team and how I could have been more effective in my presentation.
Sat down as a staff and planned out our LIVE@ONEIGHTY event that’s coming up in September. In this meeting we secured plans, gave job assignments, and set deadlines for everything it would take to have a great outreach event.
Spoke with a youth pastor from another state about youth ministry. He told me about some great things he had coming up and I shared some things we were doing as well.
We took a few hours to meet with Whit and his Creative Arts team about our conference coming up in February. We talked about scheduling, advertising, and tons of things that will help us pull off an incredible training event for visiting youth leaders.
Now on the surface, this may seem like an extremely boring and uneventful day. However, if done right, it is days like this that shape the future, make things better, and win more people to Christ. Meetings are extremely important. Here are some things I always do for a meeting…
1) Ask the question…”Do we really have to meet or can this be done over the phone or email?”
2) Set the “win” for the meeting. What are the top three things we want to accomplish?
3) Take time beforehand to prepare all information needed to play a solid role in the discussion.
4) Stay on task during the meeting.
5) If getting off on rabbit trails, take a break and come back when ready to focus again.
6) Once the “win” has been accomplished, call the meeting over and move on to the next thing.
If done right, meetings can be fun, energetic, and a catalyst for change in ministry.
This last week I was asked to an interview for the blog at ShareFaith. I don’t do many interviews so I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect, but this one was a lot of fun, primarily because the questions were really good (big thanks to Daniel at ShareFaith for that!). I’ve posted most of the interview below but if you’d like to check out the official version you can click here.
First, can you tell me just a little bit about yourself? How you got into the position you’re in now?
Wow… long, long story that I’m not sure anyone is interested in! The short version is that I hated school, so when I graduated in 1994 I knew college wasn’t for me and I went to work for my dad [pastor of COTM]. I started at the VERY bottom laying sod around the campus for minimum wage which lasted for all of about two weeks, at which point my dad transferred me into our TV/Media department.
Again, I started at the bottom. Sweeping the studio, running camera. I had minimal creative input but I really loved what I was doing. From there I started doing graphic design. I had no formal training in it so I taught myself and with a little help from some friends I got pretty good at it. I won a few advertising awards here locally and was promoted to leading a team of graphic designers here at the church.
Somewhere around 2003, me and my dad visited Fellowship Church in Dallas and we came back bursting with creative ideas about how we could update what we were doing in our church. We didn’t exactly know how we would pull it all off but we knew we had to do something so it was decided that we would merge our TV and graphics departments into a new department called creative arts and that I would lead it. After a few twists and turns, including me doing a short stint as the youth pastor up at Oneighty, our department has finally evolved over the years to what it is today, the Performing Arts department, which basically includes worship, video, graphic design, drama, marketing, audio, lighting, production, and a bit more here and there.
So, what is a creative director anyway (if that’s what you call yourself)? What do you do in the church? Are you a pastor? A deacon? An in-between?
We have a saying around here that “it’s not about getting it done, it’s about getting it right.” For us, being a creative director means taking whatever project that you’re working on, whether it’s a ladies event or weekend service or a simple promo, and making sure that it’s done right. So that’s what I do. I oversee all the meetings, all the brainstorming, all the planning that goes into the events, brochures, promos, etc. and to make sure that they’re not just done, but that they’re done right.
As for the church, I am a pastor and I also serve on the church’s executive leadership team.
Creative. That’s a big word. What do you focus on? If you have help or assistance, what do your helpers/assistants do?
The funny thing is I don’t “do” much. I don’t create the videos, I don’t sing the songs, I don’t write the scripts, I don’t stage the interviews. I’m not really a doer. I guess my job is sort of like that of a conductor. I set the tempo and provide guidance. Honestly, we have a lot of talented and creative people around here and my job isn’t to tell them how to do what they do, my job is to bring focus to what they’re already doing. Sometimes I start the creative ball rolling, sometimes I don’t, but I’m always the guy to steer the ship.
As for assistants, I really only have one. He just helps me to keep up with all the crazy stuff going on around the church. He’s a detail guy, I’m definitely not! Other than that I would consider the people on my team to be more like partners than assistants. I don’t think the creative genius surrounded by his minions is really an approach that works anymore.
Where do you find creative inspiration to do what you do?
I guess I’m just like everyone else in that I find inspiration in good creative work, whether that be another church or something I found online or on TV or whatever, but ideally I’m inspired by the very work that I’m doing. In other words, I try to find inspiration in the core of the project we’re working on. An example would be Dad Life. We were inspired by the very notion of Father’s Day. I mean when you boil it down, we’re honoring guys who have chosen their family over their image, so that right there is pretty inspiring. From there you just look for a vehicle to carry your idea and having recently seen Swagger Wagon we were pretty sure that a rap video would work. You never sit down with the idea to just “make something cool” that your message will fit into, you always start with your core message and let the idea and inspiration come from that.
Do you see any exciting trends in church media or arts today? Any not-so-exciting trends?
I’m not really someone who follows a lot of global church trends. Honestly, for me it just leads to comparisons and I’m not interested in that. I’m glad that the church has embraced the power of the arts and I see a lot of great work being done out there.
What’s one of the most common misconceptions about your job?
I say this as humbly as I know how, but I think the most common misconception is that to do what I do, you have to be some sort of genius. I’m not a genius, I’m just called. If you’re called, then you’re also graced and equipped to do what God has called you to do. Trust in your call, serve the church, don’t promote yourself, and you’ll be fine.
Talk to us about relevance, especially as it relates to your role.
Relevance isn’t really a word I spend a lot of time thinking about. I just try to serve the message in a way that moves me. I’m pretty cynical so if I’m moved, then I feel good about how it’ll impact our congregation. The only other thing I would add to that is that I avoid being cheesy. Our message isn’t a cute one full of nice sayings that would go nicely on a motivational poster. It’s real and it’s raw and it’s powerful and I don’t think we do it any favors by making it cute.
Can you briefly describe a normal day (if there is one) in your life as a creative director?
I’m pretty much meeting with different people all day every day. Often we’ll start the day with one big brainstorming meeting and then from there I’ll meet with smaller groups of people about specific parts of specific projects.
How do you do the cool stuff? The cool graphics, videos, etc.?
I don’t! Gary Hornstien, our motion designer, does all that stuff. You can read his two blog posts on our resource site, Seeds, about the equipment that we use.
How should other churches, especially churches with a teeny budget or limited resources, get involved in media–if at all?
I like to think of creativity like a muscle, when you exercise it, it gets stronger. So make time every week, every day, to intentionally be creative. Involve other people if possible. Even if they’re not “creative” you never know what the accountant or secretary might be able to contribute, plus, I hate working alone so I think building a team, whether they’re staff or volunteers, is essential. I guess it depends on the church. This is our calling so it’s what we’re supposed to be doing, but I wouldn’t presume that everybody everywhere should do things just exactly like we do. If you were wanting to transition your church into this kind of thing, you could start just by making time to be creative on purpose. If you don’t create on purpose you’ll also never create by accident. It’s a practice, a habit, that you have to develop.
What is one of the best ways of using art in the church? (Besides, obviously, using a sound system to make sure people hear the speaker?)
Well I think art really allows us to connect people to God on an emotional level which I think is important. I can’t think of a better place to be “moved” than church. We have the greatest message and I think we have an opportunity every week to create moments where people can feel God even on an emotional level. Additionally, art is a perfect medium for telling stories and I think that’s a huge part of our calling as creative directors in our churches. We are charged with the great responsibility of taking the stories of what God has done and what He is doing across our communities and making those stories come to life.
What is one thing that every creative director needs besides a good cup of coffee?
You have to know what you want. If you constantly waffle and question yourself, chances are you’re not a creative leader. You may be a great contributor, but you’re not the leader and these are very different roles. The leader HAS to know what direction the team needs to head in. It isn’t that you can never allow yourself to be challenged or questioned, but there comes a point where you have to have a certain sense, a certain knowing that the group must head in a particular direction. If you don’t know where you’re headed, your team will either be hijacked by someone else or you’ll waffle around in no man’s land never really accomplishing anything.
What advice would you give to small churches regarding creative arts, media, etc.?
I would say recognize your advantages. I may be in a position where I have a larger team and a larger budget but larger doesn’t always equal better. Our size affords us some awesome opportunities but it also presents us with some disadvantages too. We can’t be as relational or intimate in our creative approach as a smaller church can be. When I saw U2 in Arrowhead stadium in 1997 for their Popmart tour it was HUGE in every way. That tour cost a fortune and it was amazing to see, but just as awesome as that was seeing Sigur Ros play a small venue with 1% of the budget of U2. So recognize your strengths and play off those instead of dwelling on what you don’t have and you’ll go a lot further.
Here’s a quick list of everything you might have already assumed that we use in our post-production workflow. Let me add that all of this stuff won’t make your stories and ideas better - they’ll just make it easier to produce/convey them.
We have two edit rooms. Really these rooms are just me and Chris’ offices, but for the sake of sounding professional, let’s go with Edit Room for the remainder of this post. Each of our rooms are about identical in hardware and software. Here’s my not-too-technical rundown:
We shoot everything on P2 cards so we have no tape back up. It’s very important to have a backup of all our current projects in case a drive goes down or I hit the “delete important files” shortcut on my keyboard. We have a few 1TB internal drives (which means three I just found out) inside our Mac Pro. One is used as the OS X System and the other two are RAID 0, which means they are connected and files are split between the two drives for extra performance. Do not ever do this unless you have a constant backup of that drive. That’s what our 4TB drive does - backs up all of our current work.
If you’re using something you love that’s not on my list, I’d like to hear about it and maybe add it to my list. Just drop it in the comment box.
On Thursday, July 29, we had the amazing opportunity to host Hillsong Live here at COTM. Since we do a lot of their music it was awesome to be able to let our team peek behind the curtain of the most recognized worship team in the world. I am glad to say that we found Reuben Morgan, Ben Fielding and the rest of the band just as we had hoped they would be – real, engaging, and in love with Jesus!
Having time to reflect on the 12 hours or so that they were here, I have a few observations that I believe can help all of us as worship leaders who desire to do something meaningful with our music and teams. So here are 4 quick thoughts:
MAKE OLDER SONGS FRESH AGAIN
They were here promoting their new project, “Beautiful Exchange”, but they did several of their older songs as well. Instead of rehashing old arrangements they took songs they have been doing for years and made them sound fresh. I’ll be honest, their version of “Mighty to Save” was my favorite moment of the night. They made it interesting and moving, even though I’ve heard and sung that song 1,000 times. It’s motivated us to rethink older songs that we know our congregation loves to sing, but that we have grown tired of as a worship team.
TAKE TIME TO BUILD A MOMENT
Hillsong definitely knows how to “idle” in a worship moment, allowing time for the Spirit in the room to go to another level. Obviously, for most church services, we don’t have 2 hours set aside for worship – 20 or 30 minutes is more likely. But we can always find time to build personal worship moments where our congregation can close their eyes and worship in their own way, without someone telling them what to do.
IT’S NOT ABOUT THEM, OR US
It was refreshing to see artists not being artists. They were here to lead us in worship, not necessarily to sell the “Hillsong” brand. Yeah, they sold cd’s, dvd’s and t-shirts, but I never got the sense, on stage and off, that we were just another stop on the tour. They were kind to our staff and crew, always taking time to compliment our facilities and show genuine interest in our church. They never seemed to put themselves above us. Sometimes as worship leaders we can get caught up in the performance and execution of our sets (and don’t get me wrong – performance and execution are extremely important!), causing us to lose perspective. Why do we do what we do? Ultimately, our worship service is exactly that – service to our church and our pastor. Hillsong modeled this beautifully.
WE ARE NOT HILLSONG
Although we do a lot of their music, we are not them! It’s a good thing to emulate what moves you – vocals, guitar sounds, drum patterns, etc. We spend a lot of time breaking down songs to find out why they work musically and emotionally, and it definitely makes us better at what we do. But at some point we have to realize that we are unique. So many people have emailed us to let us know that although the loved the Hillsong concert, they love what we do here at COTM more. Why? Because we take the best of what we see around us and make it our own, which, honestly, makes it better. It is a constant struggle to stay current by introducing the most exciting new music every week, and yet be sensitive to what music will encourage our people to drop their guard and worship with all they have. To become Hillsong Tulsa is a mistake; to let Hillsong and their music influence us to be better at what we do is more appropriate. And we are better for having met them and having worshipped with them.
Food for thought.
There is nothing like being a youth pastor. We are a totally different breed. In this blog I thought I would celebrate some of the traits and tendencies that can be found in almost all of us that work in youth ministry.
You are probably a youth pastor if…
If you’re a youth pastor, you know what I’m saying is true. Rather than fight it, let’s embrace it. I say, let’s go out and get a cool deep v-neck shirt, read a Driscoll book, and keep setting up folding chairs at a lightning fast pace… because that is who we are. We are youth pastors and the body of Christ needs us… soul patch and all.
We get asked about the gear we use for our productions and service events and this seems an appropriate time to discuss how much equipment that we actually rent or lease. I presented this idea soon after I started working at COTM not knowing exactly what their reaction would be, but it was agreed that this presented a possible solution that allowed us to branch out and try some different things without the church being on the hook for a huge cash outlay.
As I noted in a previous blog, my experience prior to taking this position was through many years of touring where renting was commonplace and in most situations, the only way to get the job done. It seems to make the most practical sense from the fiscal and cash-flow side of a church. Whether you are a small operation or a big one, the same financial responsibility and stewardship is a common denominator–we all still have to spend money in a practical manner that can work within a budget.
Over time, we have discovered what items it made sense to own vs. rent. By renting for awhile, you are able to try out different gear in your particular setting–the piece of gear you thought would change your life may not be as cool as you thought once you immerse it into your current setup.
LIGHTING
For our moving lights, with the exception of a handful of fixtures, we rent everything. We’ve used several different vendors over the years depending on what we needed and who had the inventory at the time but as of our most recent set change we were able to consolidate our lighting rental down to one local vendor, Integrity Lighting. These guys not only have a huge inventory of lighting but have a large selection of LED products that have come in really handy in our various lighting and scenic designs. Using a local vendor is a major plus as well in that they can provide assistance with skilled maintenance for the equipment and added labor when our gear and design needs change.
In the conventional lighting world, we own and maintain a fairly large inventory of conventional instruments including Source4 pars, Strand SL lekos (ranging from 10º to 50º), an assortment of 1K and 2K Fresnels, and the normal array of dimmers, cabling, and utility items you would expect.
VIDEO
We made a decision several years ago to upgrade our camera package as our current cameras had served the ministry well but had reached the end of their lifespan. I reached out to a longtime touring associate, Evan French with Big Picture Productions, for a solution. We pulled in one of their 3-camera fly-pack systems using Hitachi Standard-Definition cameras with an EchoLab switcher and the typical but simple complement of outboard gear to get us going. We still tapped into our existing projectors and screens as they were a built-in part of the stage at that time.
Over time, we figured out the best way to implement this monthly rental and are still renting a video package from BPP consisting of (5) Hitachi SD cameras and a new Barco FSN-150 switcher. One of the reasons we have been able to stick with Standard Definition cameras is that during the recent remodel of our main auditorium, we made the jump to Barco I-6 LED walls instead of projection. Once we saw the incredible difference in the display quality, our SD cameras looked amazing. We do use one of our own P-2 HD cameras as a wide-shot, so it gives us a 6-camera shoot that serves our needs quite well. If interested, you can check out this link which goes a little more in depth of some the Barco gear we use.
By establishing a long-term monthly rental situation on these high dollar items, it allowed us to build up a fantastic control room with all the bells and whistles but we did it a little bit at a time over a couple of years, so again, this didn’t create a massive cash outlay that would cause any kind of a financial drain for the church.
AUDIO
It’s safe to say that the audio equipment gets the heaviest usage at all of our facilities. This is one of those areas where owning vs. renting will in almost all cases prove to be more cost-effective to purchase rather than rent. It is very sensible to rent and hang a speaker system to help give you an idea of what you may want to purchase. Same with an audio console–if you’re thinking of a purchase or upgrade, rent something first and give it a test drive.
I already had a lot of experience using most large PA systems, so we didn’t necessarily have to rent something for our main auditorium prior to a purchase but in our secondary auditorium (built as the original auditorium on this campus), I rented a new small line-array that I had never used–this allowed me several months of trial and error based on our specific usage and need before we settled on what exactly we were going to purchase.
You can rent almost anything that’s out there, not just the main items like the lighting, video and audio I’ve mentioned above but you can rent stage sets, band risers, backdrops, curtains, carpeting, chandeliers, pipe and draping, wireless mics, ear monitor systems (great way to gear up for a large holiday event) etc, etc. The list is almost endless as to what vendors will rent to you and most of it comes with delivery and setup assistance included. It is rare that we’ve done an event in which there is not some level of rental involved–it has become something that we can budget for easily and it’s a huge plus that we are not left with a massive storage situation when the project is concluded.
Our KOTM services are very production heavy. The elementary creative team spends hours through the week creating services that are extremely intentional with their message while still being exciting. When a kid walks out of service, we want to know that they know the Big Answer to the Big Question (What did you learn at church today?) While there are many people involved in every service, there are only a handful of them who attend the creative meetings. That’s where I come in. My job is to take what our creative team dreams up and communicate the needs to everyone involved. Questions must be answered like:
So how do we make the jigsaw pieces fall into place? Sitting down with our production guys is really just the beginning. There are singers, dancers, speakers, CG operators, lighting guys, musicians, puppeteers, the list goes on. So, what’s the key? Andrew Stone once told me, “If you have a mistake happen in your service, it’s not because of what’s happening right then, it’s because of the lack of preparation leading up to that point.” It’s very true. So, how do we make sure we’re ready? It’s in one word: REHEARSAL.
Nearly every time we’ve had a mess up on stage, it was because someone didn’t know the information they needed, information that would have been covered in rehearsal.
After we create the concept, here is our plan of communication and rehearsal:
After our Saturday service, we’ll meet. If we need to, we’ll make tweaks or cut parts of the service. Our goal is to produce a fluid service that communicates a story and the truth of God’s Word. There’s not too much we consider sacred. If a segment doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. We return on Sunday for another full run through, with any changes.
I’m convinced that you can’t over communicate service details to the team. You can’t assume that everyone will know what’s happening, even if you planned a similar service to last week’s. Send emails as ideas are being conceived. Shoot a text after a meeting. Communication is a must! That’ll keep the jigsaw falling into place.
So there you have it. I’d love to hear any feedback!
“A man may show himself to be a wise man, by the good temper of his mind, and by the good government of his tongue. He is careful when he does speak, to speak to the purpose. God knows his heart, and the folly that is bound there; therefore he cannot be deceived in his judgment as men may be.” — Matthew Henry Commentary on Proverbs 17:27, 28
First off, let me say, I love the church. Not just our church, but THE Church, at large, and I know that our way of doing things isn’t always THE way to do things for every church. I get that. I also get that no two churches are alike and so we shouldn’t be inbreeding with each other, but we should be different and diverse. That’s a good thing.
That said, when I browse the web I spend a lot time checking out other churches. I watch service videos of big churches and small churches to pick up ideas and see how different churches do different things. And one thing I see across a lot of different churches, both big and small, that drives me is NUTS is people getting on the stage and just “wingin’ it.”
I’m not just talking about the pastor who’s giving the message, I’m talking about the announcement guy/girl, the person who’s doing the offering, the worship leader, basically, anybody who’s on the stage.
If you look at the scripture you can’t help but see a plan, a design. Every word has meaning, every verse has a purpose. In the Jewish tradition it was said that God gave Moses the Torah not just verse by verse, or even word by word, but letter by letter. That’s God being VERY intentional, and yet for many of us, when we address our church families, we’ve put little to no thought into what we might say. Sure, it may only be an announcement or a welcome, but when there’s no purpose or design we tend to ramble on and throw out tons of corny Christian phrases that really have no meaning and only serve to alienate those who aren’t familiar with our christianese.
To be clear, I’m not suggesting you don’t speak from your heart. I’m not suggesting that you memorize every word or that the Spirit doesn’t prompt you to say certain things from time to time when the moment arises but I’m simply suggesting that you spend a little time crafting your words so that when you hit the stage you are concise and purposeful.
You only have so much time with your church family every week so every second counts. Let’s stop wasting it with aimless speech.
“Say it clearly and you make it beautiful no matter what.” — Bruce Weigl
Here are some classic church time wasters that we could all stand to eliminate from our services.
I’d love to hear your thoughts and some the time-wasters you deal with in your church.
We’ve had several queries lately as to what type of LED products we’ve been using so it made sense to give an update of our ongoing foray into this crazy world of Light-Emitting Diodes. We’ll discuss more specifics of our current lighting and set design in a later post but here’s the LED info for what is shown in this photo:
The crux of our permanent video install is the BARCO I-6 XP LED product. These are configured on either side of the stage in true 16:9 ratio–we made it easy to calculate and made these appx 16’w x 9’h. There was a great deal of engineering put into the mechanics of how these are mounted since each wall weighs roughly two tons and at the same time, much care was given as to how they would be kept accessible for maintenance and repair. This photo is taken from the backside of the stage right LED wall.
The I-6 was something we rented for a special event prior to our auditorium remodel and it was such a vast improvement over the standard screen and projection fare that we literally built our remodel production budget around it. These panels have a 6mm pixel resolution giving it very intense contrast and color reproduction. They’ve been great so far and will be something we’ll look forward to using for quite some time.
The ground row of LED walls forming a short wall across the back of the stage is another Barco product, the BARCO S-LITE 10XP. These are more of an outdoor LED product but we’ve had them in and out of here quite a few times over the last 3 or 4 years and they seem to like being in the air conditioning. These don’t have quite the resolution of the I-6’s but work REALLY well for B-roll footage, jumpbacks, and graphics. The major thing about the S-lite is the weight–they are extremely heavy so we try and utilize ground-stacking whenever possible. One example of how we implemented them as both a rigged and a ground-stacked element is shown here. To say that it was challenging to figure out the load balance hanging from our grid is an understatement…
The final element of this set’s LED is what we hung above the band to assist with tying the lyrics in a bit more to the actual stage set. This is the BARCO O-LITE 510. These have a 10mm pixel resolution so it was a perfect solution to display lyrics on as the edges of the lettering would still appear smooth–this has a bit of an issue on some other products that have lower resolutions. We are using an auxiliary bus on our switcher to route lyrics only to these O-Lites so any lyric our CG operator puts on the main video walls will be mirrored on these and it has really been a nice addition. The following rehearsal photo is a bit rough but you can see the O-Lite wall suspended above the stud guitarist in the white shirt…
There is another product that we fell in love with during our previous Easter services: the WINVISION-8. We used these to add a center video image with a similar resolution to the existing I-6 walls but something that would still hang easily in our venue. We did a few tricks with the Winvision for these events but we’ll leave that for another entry coming soon! The Winvision just rocked–check out these photos:
We made a conscious decision a while back to embrace these and other LED products and incorporate them into our designs as the impact and clarity available is second to none. It has forced us to think outside of the box to continue to come up with creative ways to not only implement them creatively but how to use them as an enhancement to the event rather than the focus.
Stay tuned for more “nerd-speak” (proper credit given to Dave Rat for coining that phrase)!
Sometimes it’s good to be reminded that we aren’t the ones holding this whole thing together. This weekend we had an incredible service and we really didn’t spend much time putting it together. We weren’t lazy, we were just working on that whole getting ahead thing! Anyway, it just reminded me that although God uses us, we’re not the ones making this whole thing go, and that’s a good thing!
On a practical note, we tweaked a couple of our camera positions and slightly adjusted our approach to shooting each service and I think it made a huge impact. If you watch our stuff regularly you’ll notice the difference. Would love your thoughts.
Over my past two blogs I’ve been writing about some of the nuances of doing a Big Event in your student ministry. So I thought I’d take a minute to give you the low-down on what we did for some of our big outreach events and show you the promo video we ran to promote the event to our students and their friends.
Here are a few of the things we’ve done to reach out to students in our area.
The Biggies
We kicked off this 6-week series at Oneighty with a big event that featured guest speaker Justin Lookadoo, free pizza, and some sweet prizes including the all-new Apple iPad. On this night we had over 1,500 in attendance with more than 200 first-time visitors and 28 young people accepted Christ.
On the night of the big event we ran this video, letting students know what we were going to be tackling over the course of the next few weeks. It worked. This was one of the best series we’ve done at Oneighty. (You can download it here)
Oneighty’s World Premier Event
We’ve done this event three years in a row and each year it just keeps getting better and better. On this night we rolled out the red carpet (literally) for the world premier of Oneighty Films “The End is Near” scary movie. We invited students to dress in their Hollywood best and walk the red carpet as Paparazzi took their photos, we had free popcorn for everyone, and we gave away an LCD TV as well as a Flip camera. This past year we had over 1,300 students in attendance and 51 young people accepted Christ as their Savior. (You can download all 3 installments of The End Is Near here)
Crush
This is one of my favorite outreach events that we’ve ever done. For this event we created our own boy band called “There4u” and we made special music videos to promote their live performance on the night of the big event. We had a special speaker that specialized on the dating topic and served free cupcakes to everyone.
One of the unique things we did for Crush was fill our basketball court knee high with balloons and then had a contest for teenagers to dive in and find prizes that were hidden under the balloons. This night was a huge success! We had 1,200 in attendance with 100 first-time visitors and 10 teenagers accepted Christ as their Savior.
ALL OUT w/ Shawn Alexander
For this event we invited former NFL MVP Shawn Alexander to come and minister to our students. We gave away some sweet prizes, had a post-service party with a live DJ, as well as a Punt, Pass, and Catch Contest in our Oneighty field. We worked with the local schools and FCA programs to get the word out and it worked. That night more than 1,500 students showed up, 315 of them were first time visitors, and 61 teenagers gave their life to Jesus Christ.
Multi-Week Themed Pushes
Over the years we’ve done several multi-week themed pushes at Oneighty. One time, we did a multi-week event called “Oneighty Wars”, where we divided our students into teams and had a giant party for the winning team.
We also had a four-week event titled “American Gladiators”, where we had a contest between our students and our Oneighty gladiators. We did the joust, the gauntlet, and more. It was incredible seeing teenagers go up against our monstrous men that completed as our gladiators.
However, my favorite themed push that we’ve done took place last Christmas. We did a two-week series titled “Give Life” in which we teamed up with James Robison Ministries and challenged our students to raise $4,800 to build a clean-water well in a village on the continent of Africa. They came through in a big way, giving more than $6,800 toward our water well project.
One thing I’ve seen through my 19 years in youth ministry is when we get creative and give teenagers a physical reason to come to church, they actually show up, have fun, and walk away closer to Christ.
So this fall, sit down with your team, plan out some incredible outreach events and see what God does in the lives of teenagers in your area.
A couple of weeks ago I posted about choosing involvement or excellence and how that we at Church on the Move have chosen excellence over involvement. To be clear, we’re not against involving new people, but as priorities go, we’re more concerned with being excellent at what we do than involving everyone everywhere. If you you’d like to read that post you can catch it here.
Another side of that coin however is the process of developing talented people. Clearly, not everyone can be involved in everything, but I firmly believe that people are our GREATEST resource and if that’s true, then a great deal of my time should be invested in developing people. We’re doing a reasonable job of that now but we could do better.
Jim Collins said in his book “Good to Great” that great companies “get the wrong people off the bus, the right people on the bus, and the right people in the right seats BEFORE deciding which way the bus should go.” If you haven’t taken the time to read his book, you really should, it’s shaped a lot of our thinking around here.
If that whole wrong people off the bus, right people on the bus thing is true, and if that process is necessary to successfully determining which direction you should go then developing the right people becomes HUGE!
One of our challenges and I suspect it’s the same for many of you as well, is making time for developing people. I recently heard Ed Catmull, the president of Pixar talk about his job, which is essentially managing the health and chemistry of the many different teams working at Pixar. You can watch that interview here.
Jack Welch said this, “My main job was developing talent. I was a gardener providing water and other nourishment to our top 750 people. Of course, I had to pull up some weeds too.”
I love this because time and time again we have seen this to be true. Surrounding yourself with the right people is paramount to finding success in whatever field you work in. So people really are our greatest resource. The challenge is lifting up your head long enough from the “doing” of church work to begin developing the up and comers around you.
I’ve got much to chew on.
One of the big challenges we’re facing lately is learning to work ahead. We put so much effort into each weekend that when a big project comes along that isn’t a weekend, we struggle.
This became really clear a couple of weeks ago during a special women’s event we did here called Romance. Angie said it like this:
Romance 20:10
For God so loved the woman, that He tortured the creative team…
Don’t get me wrong, the event came off great and everyone was pleased. The trouble was that this was one of the more stressful events we’ve done recently and honestly, it wasn’t very much fun for us (the people who put it together) to experience. We were on edge because we were working on it right up until the very last minute and we weren’t exactly sure that it was all going to connect or even work and that’s not a fun place to be in. We felt unsatisfied with what we had created because it was unfinished and untested. When the event was over we all said to each other, let’s not do that again!
BTW, If you haven’t seen our Romance event you can watch it here:
Now to be clear, I realize that these events aren’t all about us, and I also know that many challenges we face are stressful and that’s just part of life, but I also believe in being prepared and doing all that you can do to eliminate stressful situations because we do our best work when we’re relaxed and enjoying ourselves.
So how do you pull this off? How do you work toward HUGE events in the future (Christmas, Easter, Conferences, etc) and still put the desired emphasis into every weekend? That’s our big question right now.
Here are the solutions we’ve arrived at.
1) Hire a bunch of new people to work the weekend so we can concentrate on the future.
Hahaha yeah right. Let’s hear option #2.
2) Slightly pull back on the weekend and use volunteers and other contract laborers within the church to maintain the weekly status quo, while we work to get ahead.
So far this is our best idea. We figure that if we can take a slight step back we can shuffle some weekend projects to other people. If we don’t have to be as involved this will at least allow us to create a plan for Christmas and then conferences so that we can take a look at the work required to pull those events off at which point we’ll find a way to get it done.
One of the principles we live by around here is that God doesn’t always provide all the details, but He always provides a way, and if we’ll just trust Him enough to take that first step, then the next step will become clear. If you wait for all the details to come into focus before you make your move, you’ll be waiting forever. It’s a ready, shoot, aim, approach. So for us, solution #2 is a good first step. We’ll know how we’re gonna cross the Red Sea when we get there, and when we do, I’ll blog about it.
My previous life as a touring guy did not prepare me to serve as the Production Manager and Audio Director of a large church. Yep, you are correct, I quit traveling and took the same job I had been making fun of for years… Still can’t believe how uninformed I had been–unbeknownst to me before I accepted this position at Church on the Move in Tulsa, OK was that they were the largest church in the region with a campus sitting on more than 300 acres of property and had a weekly attendance of about 10,000 people. The church had managed to stay quite current with its service content so someone with my production background felt immediately at ease. I still feel like I’m part of an awesome production machine and honestly, I had no idea that I didn’t have to travel everyday to do what I love. Being an integral part of communicating a positive message with impact feels like the right thing to do and the right place to be–some of the work I’m most proud of (and the most challenging) has been done here.
This church has recently completed the largest phase of a massive campus-wide renovation project. The decision to preserve both our physical plant and secondary spaces was not an easy one when it came to the main auditorium–it meant that the auditorium would have to be gutted and redesigned while maintaining the current floor slope, exterior walls, and roof design all the while keeping the attached building spaces open so church activities could continue uninterrupted in all adjacent spaces. This gave us the “box” for the new auditorium design and gave us a starting point as to what could be reused and what would be reworked. In the end, every production area was either torn out and rebuilt or completely overhauled to accommodate the level of production we were in need of.
When this auditorium was built, it was relevant for where the church was at the time but it didn’t allow the production much room to grow or change for the future. This remodel would need to not only be comprehensive but allow for future changes and adaptations farther down the line. Now don’t get me wrong–we were having some really great events over the last few years but there were several big-ticket production systems that were on their last legs and massive problems were on the horizon.
We had made the decision a few years ago to go without any large-scale church consulting firm. These companies can be great for some situations but with the level of experience found within COTM’s own production staff–it became apparent that we could save the money on consultants and put it into the gear. We reached out to COTM’s long-time associate Brant Doell and Strategic Connections (formerly One Source Building Technologies) to assist in integrating our new design into this existing building and to help strategize on how best to make all of this come together on this rather short 18-week timeline. Brant and the Strategic Connections team were assisted throughout the install by our own paid technical staff–this not only helped COTM realize a significant savings on labor but it gave us a great working knowledge of how this very complicated system was put together and decreased our learning curve when it came time to make it all work.
VIDEO
The decision to go with two large 16’x9’ Barco I-6 walls instead of projectors was made pretty simple once we experienced them in the old auditorium. We had rented them for an Easter production and knew immediately we could never go back to conventional projection. Our video supplier Evan French and his company Big Picture Productions hammered out a deal and this became our new building block for the video side of the renovation.
COTM has had a fairly extensive background in television and movie production, some may have heard of The Gospel Bill Show–Willie George (i.e.: Gospel Bill) is the Founder and Pastor of COTM, so we were already used to video being a major part of our events. We had been renting our camera package from Big Picture for quite some time with the thought of going to a High Definition platform in the future but after seeing the massive change in the video quality just from the LED screens we opted to stay with our conventional Hitachi cameras instead of making the jump to all HD heads. I know this is not “cool” by some, but we have no broadcast other then Vimeo uploads and archiving, so the investment required for HD cameras just didn’t make any sense although we did install the necessary groundwork to accommodate HD cameras in the future if needed.
Along with the LED walls and the camera rental, Big Picture provided us with a new Barco FSN-150 switcher. This was one of the few switcher products we found that had the onboard effects we wanted and would keep our latency to a minimum. We added a nice supplement of video front-end devices that gave us an all HD signal path in the control room, HD feeds to all closed circuit televisions and fiber-optic feeds to the LED walls.
We rounded this out by adding our complement of existing Mac Pro towers to the mix, maintaining ProPresenter as our computer graphics platform and Final Cut for all live service captures.
Overall, the video looks absolutely fantastic, is easy to operate and has been able to accommodate everything we have thrown at it. Our live captures look good and every seat in the house has a great view.
AUDIO
Given the focus that COTM has always placed on great sound reinforcement, there was no choice but to go with a line array–but making that happen and staying within budget was the challenge. It became obvious that Harman International had the goods to make this a reality.
The final speaker system is comprised of (38) JBL Vertec 4088 modules flown in (4) arrays with (16) JBL ASB6128V subs, (10) flown and (6) under-stage; Front-fills are (7) JBL AC28/95’s housed behind the finish work around the perimeter of the stage.
Amplifiers are (49) Crown MA5000i amps and (10) CT 2000 and CT 3000 amps. All control and routing is handled with (8) BSS Soundweb London’s and (2) DBX 4800’s.
All of our wireless systems had to be reworked in light of the 700MHz issues and to salvage any useable systems we currently owned. Wireless is a challenge here as our geographical location puts us in a frequency hotbed and most of church events utilize about 50 wireless channels between microphones and in-ear monitors–not to mention all the wireless com belt-packs and 2-way radios floating around. Needless to say, our Intermodulation Analysis software from Professional Wireless Systems gets quite a workout… Everything has worked great utilizing all Shure products for microphones and a combination of both Shure and Sennheiser products for all in-ear systems.
The existing conduit lines under the original slab had become waterlogged and were compromised over the years–and it didn’t necessarily fill me with confidence to splice onto the existing copper to reach the new patch-bay location. So we made the decision to replace all of our existing snake lines with a Whirlwind SPC83P 3-way splitter system which utilized all new IJIS cable runs along with some CAT6 runs for any future audio, video or lighting growth we might encounter. This snake system is coupled to several Whirlwind Patchmasters located backstage so all input and output patching remains flexible but extremely simple to deal with.
The FOH position is made up of (2) MIDAS Heritage 3000 consoles. Yeah, I know this is where everyone groans and says “Why not digital?”. Well, we already had an H3000 in pristine condition–and adding an additional H3000 back in my touring days was always an easy deal–so it seemed to be an easy solution for this application. One of the wizards at Strategic Connections made me a cross-connect cable to link the console electronics and Whirlwind built a harness to link up the outputs–done deal. I will say this, it really feels good to have this many analog inputs that sound this great–I am never buried in layers or submenus and to be honest, it feels like I can still be an audio engineer instead of a computer genius when “in the moment”. Every “A” console has it own list of pros and cons–but for this particular situation, sticking with this version of Midas “awesomeness” serves us great. The outboard gear list is fairly simple: a complement of Klark-Teknik Square-Ones for compressors and gates, several effect units from Eventide, TC Electronic and Lexicon and a few DBX and UA tube preamps.
The coolest thing about this particular audio rig is that Jim Brawley did the EASE modeling for this room AND took a week out of his very busy schedule to traverse to Tulsa and really dial in all of the PA components. I knew of Mr. Brawley by reputation only and was blown away that Strategic Connections worked it out to incorporate him in to the mix. Aside from being a gentlemen, I felt he did his homework by watching some of our services on Vimeo allowing him to become familiar with both my mixing style and our high-energy service content.
The audio package is outstanding–everything sounds perfect and sweet–it gives back exactly what I put into it–transparent, in your face, adaptable…All the adjectives you would want to use to describe it are applicable. In short–being the audio engineer in this room is the best seat in the house.
LIGHTING
A few years ago I was able to convince my good friend Daniel Connell to leave the comfort and predictability of his tour bus bunk and move out here to serve as our Lighting Designer. Due to the many lighting changes we had implemented after his arrival on staff, the lighting system didn’t require a complete overhaul.
We currently maintain a large inventory of Vari-lite, Martin and conventional fixtures, control by GrandMA and Pathport, ETC dimming throughout and all necessary infrastructure you would expect in a system of this size but the majority of our moving light package is rented based on each specific design. This gives Daniel the creative freedom to swap out gear and switch things around as needed. “Gearing-up” for larger events and designs or scaling things down when needed has proven to be great option for us.
Since much of our stage lighting was already sorted, we devoted some time to coming up with a better data distribution plan. The original auditorium had incorporated only two DMX universes and we had been getting by thus far by using extra lines from FOH to stage and occasionally renting a GrandMA NSP for larger events. As part of this project we were able to integrate a network of Pathport nodes throughout the room. This provided data to our built-in lighting elements such as dimmer racks and architectural LED’s using a combination of Pathport DMX Manager Plus 4-point nodes and Pathport UNO nodes. To accommodate the frequent redesign of our components onstage, we went with the Pathport Touring Edition nodes for a more flexible solution. The seamless integration of the MA Lighting GrandMA control console and these Pathport nodes allows a total of eight universes to be distributed anywhere in the room.
Although most of the lighting changes were centered around infrastructure, the most obvious change was a complete overhaul of the house lighting. Prior to the remodel, the houselights were comprised of numerous 8’ fluorescent fixtures. Several years ago the church had begun to integrate a few various dimmable lighting fixtures here and there to try and create a warmer atmosphere but it did not allow for the proper coverage to light the room evenly. After going through several types of fixtures trying to find the proper “warmth” for the room, the ETC Source 4 Par ended up providing a quality of light that was warmer and more friendly than any of the architectural fixtures we had tested. The final result in the house is a warm atmosphere with extremely even coverage that greatly accents the color palette of the room.
The design also allowed us to focus on how to consolidate the dimming, power distribution and data which helped make our moving light integration and motor control a much simpler process. To be forward-thinking on what the future holds within our lighting system, we devoted considerable thought to cable management, cable drops, and floor access panels. Not only do our light and set designs look current and stay relevant, the lighting control areas throughout stay neat and organized. Although it involves a great deal of cabling and gear, everything has a home.
The final result of the lighting system is a room that is extremely comfortable and warm for the audience, a stage that is flexible and accommodating for our lighting designs while maintaining a sophisticated control system that has lightened the load considerably for our technical staff.
STAGE, RIGGING, & BACKSTAGE
Hands down, the most labor intensive part of this remodel was the stage–between the demolition and removal of the old stage altogether, the backstage wall, and removing the overhead facade that housed a small lighting grid and outdated video projection and screens. The build-back gave us a massive flat stage with plenty of backstage space. I was desiring enough room backstage to be able to build and dress band risers and backline gear quickly and we got it with room to grow. The architectural team from Selser Schaefer Architects led by Hank Spieker really nailed it with this space. They married a creative plan of repurposing old rooms and hallways in a non-conventional manner with the practical production needs we were desperate for. We now have a stage level loading dock with a 10’ wide overhead door opening into our backstage space–directly above this on the 2nd floor is another 10’ door that opens to the scene shop. This allows us to use the same loading dock with a forklift or jib crane to transfer equipment and materials to the shop. There is another 10’ door that opens from the shop onto the stage so that large pieces can be lowered directly onto the upstage area. The support structure for the stage allows for 15,000 lbs/sq foot which gives us the ability to use large equipment on stage such as scissor-lifts, boom-lifts, cars, elephants and just about anything the creative team can come up with.
With such a large stage space, we needed to be able to handle a large overhead lighting and video rig not to mention the weight of the audio system so we designed a rigging grid that used I-beams spaced every 5’ from upstage to downstage separated by the main support beams running front to back every 25’. The engineers put their pencils to it and allowed us a dynamic load limit of 3000 lbs per beam per 25’ bay which supplies us with an extremely agile rigging solution for almost anything we would need to hang.
By opening up our space, it has breathed new life into our creative and design process (not to mention how good it feels to not build set pieces out in the hallway). Also, I think our Facilities team is happier not repairing doorways, sheetrock, carpet and tile since we’re no longer using the front door to load and unload trucks.
SYSTEM CONTROL
To tie everything together and provide some type of system control, we went with a full-blown AMX system. From one of several touch-screens, we have the ability to control the power procedures on all major systems as well as control for all pertinent facets of the main video and closed-circuit television system. It also provides on and off continuity to the houselights for either cleaning, rehearsals or events, and gives us instant control of the audio to the lobby and common areas. Going this route for system control gives us a nice advantage as we continue to renovate other parts of the facility which will incorporate more control and flexibility into the system. Oh yeah…it’s also kind of nice to monitor the A/V system components from home.
IN CLOSING
As we’ve been using this room for several months now, we haven’t really had to change anything of consequence. This comes as quite a surprise to some of us since you always seem to hear of the myriad of punch-lists, follow-up details, and nightmare stories after a project of this scope. The lack of problems only serves as a perfect example of what can be done with the proper amount of planning married with communication between the install teams, contractors, designers, architects and house staff. Everyone I had the privilege to work with on this remodel had an outstanding work ethic with every company and individual bringing nothing but the best to the table.
From the viewpoint of a church production guy, I am humbled at the opportunity to serve this church and community with such a tremendous auditorium and look forward to what the future holds.
There are times at our church when it gets pretty crazy in our department. Easter, Christmas, Mother’s Day, Romance (women’s event), etc. are just a few examples where our rehearsals can stretch over a span of several days and some of those rehearsals could last 6 hours or more. And in the midst of all that, the weekends keep coming! So it’s important to find ways to keep from burning out our volunteers. These are amazing people who have 9-5 jobs and families and still are able to give of their time to help us put together our events. And they do it with devotion and excitement. But at some point, if we don’t keep them refreshed and focused, we will wear them out.
Here are a few things that we do to help prevent burn-out:
WE MAKE SURE WE ARE PREPARED FOR EACH REHEARSAL
It’s important that our team is not burdened with our lack of preparation. When they walk in the door they should be greeted with enthusiasm and direction. We know what we’re doing, what we expect of them and how long we will be rehearsing that day. We load all of our songs onto Planning Center well ahead of time to make sure everyone is familiar with the feels, keys, and arrangements. As the worship pastor I need to be extremely confident in our vision for the service/event. That alone will relieve stress for our team members.
WE ACCOMMODATE OUR TEAM’S SCHEDULE AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE
We come up against scheduling obstacles all the time, especially when we need to add rehearsals for a special event. If my drummer’s work schedule changes, I will consider changing rehearsal times so that he doesn’t feel the pressure of making a decision between job and church. If we need an extra vocal rehearsal we may do it on a Sunday after church or Wednesday night before service when I know our singers will be there anyway. In other words, make it as easy as possible for your team to make rehearsal and not feel like they are putting the rest of their life on hold.
WE GET DEEPER
I understand that for small churches it is difficult to have multiple drummers and bass players, or more than 3 or 4 quality vocalists. But that’s no excuse for not seeking more talented people who can help you (read my earlier blog post on ideas on how to develop new talent). We deal with this issue every summer when we send music teams out to Dry Gulch to lead summer camp worship. We dealt with it last year when we had to split up our services between buildings when we remodeled our sanctuary. Motto: you can never have a deep enough roster. Being deeper also allows you to not have to lean on the same people every week. Giving one of your key players or singers a couple weeks off will keep them fresh!
WE LET THEM SEE BEHIND THE CURTAIN
I think it’s important to let our team in on why we do what we do, to help them understand the creative process that got us to this point. When they can buy in to the big picture they are more apt to shrug off tired voices and heavy work schedules. We share our victories with them, letting them know about the lives that have been changed because of the service/event that they were a part of. Nothing will motivate someone more than knowing they are making a difference.
WE HELP EACH ONE GET BETTER AT WHAT THEY DO
By letting our players and singers know that we will do whatever we can to help them get better, we motivate them to stay connected. I will offer vocal and performance instruction to any of my singers who desire to get better. In the past we have set up our players with private teachers. We want everyone to feel as though they are on a journey and we are going to help them any way we can.
WE FELLOWSHIP
We have a nice, comfortable and spacious area each week where our team can relax and have fun between services. We provide food, drinks, WiFi, etc. in an effort to help them relax. We build in fun events for our team several times a year to say “thank you” for all of their hard work. We’ll cater in a nice meal, play games, and give away prizes, letting them know how much we appreciate their hard work throughout the year.
As leaders we need to continually be aware of the “condition of our flock”. Make sure that as you motivate and push your team to do bigger and better things that you don’t lose sight of the gift that your volunteers are giving you: their time.
Comments or questions? Would love to hear them…
Last week I posted a video of our creative meeting. In it we focused on creating a weekend service for July 17-18. In case you didn’t catch it here it is again. It’s about 75 minutes long and it’s pretty boring in places but you’ll get a chance to see how we put a weekend together.
For us, often times what we develop in a creative meeting doesn’t get realized in a service but on this particular weekend things worked out just about like we had planned. So here’s the video of the weekend that we planned the Tuesday before. Enjoy and if you have any questions, fire away!
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