Interview: Rich Kirkpatrick

Rich Kirkpatrick is a worship leader and worship pastor at Sunridge Community Church in Temecula, California.  He's made a name for himself online through his wonderful "Worship Mythbuster Series" on his blog.  You can check out his blog at  as well as his "collaborate-converse" about worship at http://www.tehillamusic.com
 

 In this interview, I asked him five questions.  In response, he provided insights that I believe are beneficial to sound techs and worship leaders and musicians and pastors.  [Yeah, I think they are that good].

On with the interview...

    1. Worship sets, during a service, can range from a single singer with a guitar to a full band with special lighting and video screens.  In striving to present the perfect worship environment at your church, how do you know when to draw the line as far as "entertainment value versus worship value?"

Entertainment means "to hold ones attention" so I say if I am boring you then I am failing. Jesus never bored people in his speaking--think parables, humor and sarcasm. We get too hung up with worship verses entertainment, I believe. Really, the question is motives. What that means is that it is very hard to judge someone as being an entertainer just because they are good enough to be one. A team that executes great sound and lighting is not full of themselves because they are good at moving people with their tools. So, entertainment value is important as far as worship being its purpose. People need to be engaged. But, the purpose is worship.

I wrote a whole article with discussion on this very topic as part of my "Worship Mythbuster Series" if anyone is interested in more of what I mean here. In short, just because we use the tools of entertainment does not mean its NOT worship! And, the obvious is also that entertainment value does not equal people worshiping. Think "both and" with worship being the purpose and entertainment being one of the tools or means to accomplish that purpose.

    2. What is the best way you have found to bring about a team-focused attitude between the tech crew and the worship teams?

Relationships, roles and responsibilities all come all play a part in this. I look at my tech people as the same team. The relationship is that the tech booth is part of the band, the band is part of tech booth. Some cross-training helps as well. When some on either teams can blend their skill it helps. However, clearly defining roles and what each is counted on for is important. A guitarist must tune his guitar and be prepared and on time. A sound engineer must know the patching and the music as well. All of this is helped with tools like Planning Center (highly recommend) where what we are doing, who is doing what and what we are doing is all organized.

    3. You stop by the gas station to fill up your car.  You are alone.  You can buy any junk food you want from their convenience store - and you don't even have to share it.  Pork Rinds, Beef Jerky, M&M's...all at your disposal.  What do you buy?

Hmm. Heath Bar, Monster drink and sunflower seeds--the spiciest available.

    4. While buying your junk food, you run into the sound tech from last week's service.  He says one of the praise band singers was belting out one song and then almost whispering the next, as if they weren't comfortable with the music.  He says it make it hard to mix them in with the band as each song, they could be singing at a different level.  How do you respond?

Try using a compressor. ;) Or:  "Did you know what else was going on? Did the slides get mixed up? Did, he/she burp and lose his/her voice?" Basically, I would try to get as much context as possible. It’s hard to really know what the issue is. It could be that the singer (surprise) forgets words, or that the monitors are pumping something that is distracting the vocalists. I have learned not to jump to quickly to conclusions.

    5. If you could tell all sound tech's just one thing about working with worship leaders, what would it be?

You need to be a worship leader. The sound tech is leading as much as anyone on the stage. That is how the worship leader sees your role. So, when decisions are made at the board, the more you see that partnership the better off the whole service will be and the vibe of the room.