The other night, I met a man who told me a story about my father, a college professor who passed away far too early in his life. And this story was about how my father, as a teacher, had a profound effect on another’s life, even 40 years later.
No matter how long you’ve been mixing in your church, be it in weeks or years, you must consider the legacy you’ll leave. Whether you leave a church or retire from running sound or move on to the great beyond, you need to consider the “church audio production” legacy you’ll leave behind.
It’s not only about miking and mixing. Consider what you might teach others in words or in actions.
Take these examples:
- How to treat musicians who frustrate you.
- How to react when equipment breaks during a service.
- What to do when a band or tech member is suffering through a difficult personal time.
- What to do when people complain about your mix.
- How to see tech work in a church as a ministry.
- How to teach others to be their best.
- How to keep God in the center of it all.
I’m lucky, God’s using me to teach people across the globe, but YOU have just as much influence.
Let’s say you mentor two other sound techs who go on to each mentor two others and one of those goes to another church and they keep up the legacy. The number of people grows exponentially but so does the number of people who attend those services and indirectly benefit from your efforts.
Maybe you’re new to audio production and the idea of leaving such a legacy seems far-fetched. I was that way once. The good news is you won’t always be that way. One day you’ll wonder why it ever seemed so hard. And maybe that’s the day you’ll ask yourself the question…
What legacy do I want to leave?
I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
Bob Brock says
February 27, 2018 at 4:09 pmChris, I always appreciate your insight. Here it shows itself again. I have always thought along the same lines as you just described, whether it’s in the church or out in the field doing “secular” shows. I understand that what I do is God’s gift, both to me and to those I serve, and I try to keep that perspective in all things. I’m told that it shows, that the bands I work with have never had that experience with other engineers. I find that sad. Jesus told us to have a servant’s heart. That is the legacy I wish to leave – that I was a servant. Actions speak so much louder than words.