The Importance of Concentration

I nearly rear-ended another car this morning.  I was driving on the interstate and cruising along in the left lane of a three-lane section of road.  The sun hadn't come up and therefore, I could easily see the dash-mounted GPS on the car in front of me.  In about 100 yards, the interstate would split.  Suddenly, the driver (the one with the GPS) slammed on his breaks as he tried to find room to move into the middle lane for the split.

From my limited observation, I saw his car license plate was for the same county as my own, thus making a small assumption that he had driven this road before.  When you couple that with the presence of the GPS map on his dashboard, he had no reason to be in the left lane that late in the game.  Penalty on the driver for not concentrating on what he was doing!

I started this post with that story because it shows the many effects of a lack of concentration.  First, the driver might have missed the split had he not been able to merge over.  Second, the driver slowed traffic suddenly in the lane in which he was trying to merge because they had to let him in or he was going to crunch someone's car.  Finally, he slowed traffic in the lane he was in because he had to slow down to merge.

When we, as sound techs, miss a cue to turn on a microphone or start music for a soloist for example, we cause mental turmoil for ourselves (trying to fix what we messed up) but we also impact the people on the stage and in the congregation.  This can shatter the mood of the service in a second.    

Yesterday, I posed a question on this blog about the hardest topics to teach new volunteers.  One person said this;

"Pay Attention...there's actually quite a number of things that can happen that you have to watch for and they're not going to necessarily happen center stage...especially when the entire band is off the platform stage right!"

Another person said;

"Always pay attention. Don't have conversations with friends when your eyes and ears are supposed to be on what's going on."

A schedule of the service's events is a great place to start.  It lays out everything.  It is our GPS map.  It's our OnStar.  It tells us "turn on the pastor's microphone in 15 minutes...10 minutes...5 minutes...turn on the pastor's microphone NOW."

The schedule also gives the sound tech the ability to plan ahead.  For example "after the second song, there is a video, therefore, I need to have the audio on for the DVD/computer channel as soon as their song ends."  The schedule should be reviewed with the worship leader and the pastor before the service in case anything has changed.  Sound techs hate surprises.

I think GPS maps and OnStar are great uses of technology.  My OnStar tells me when I miss a turn and then tells me it's re-routing me based on my destination.  The schedule of a church service is my OnStar.  But there is one HUGE difference.  When I miss a cue, the schedule doesn't alert me to that problem.  Instead, every head in the congregation turns and looks at me.

Can you afford NOT to concentrate?

QUESTION: What has caused you to miss a cue?  How to you stay focused during an event?