Behind The Mixer

Learn Church Audio Artistry | Church Sound

Topics: , ,

planningmeetingTime for part 2 of developing technically transparent worship; PLANNING.

The best results come when the whole team participates in a brainstorming session, with the pastor acting as the moderator.  Using a whiteboard, for recording ideas, is helpful. There are no wrong ideas at this point. The whole object is just to get things down in writing.

Brainstorming sessions generate seeds

I’ve been in so many brainstorming sessions where this happens.  We’re all tossing ideas around and then, out of the mess, comes an idea unrelated to any other ideas but ends up being the right one. All because a person said something generating the seed of the final idea.

Practice makes perfect.

The first few times may feel awkward and everyone may wonder what the point is.  However, after a few times it feels natural and you won’t want to do it any other way.

Here are two tips for the first time.

  1. Bring food to the table. For some reason people drop their guard when they’re breaking bread with others. It’s a great way to bring up the comfort level.
  2. Do the planning meetings are far ahead as possible. At least a month if not longer. The farther out, the more relaxed the group and the more that will get accomplished. No one likes being under the pressure of last minute planning sessions. Don’t cheat the congregation out of a transparent worship experience and short-change God by not doing your best.

Once you get the genesis of the idea, remember it’s never set in stone. Change can be good and even though an idea may initially have sounded good, make sure everyone is encouraged (has the respected freedom) to suggest changes. This doesn’t mean on the Saturday before service it’s okay to totally change everything around! But, as you build upon the idea, continue refining it and always referring back to the main point of the message/service.

Pastors:The earlier a sermon outline is provided to the worship and tech teams, the better chance they have at integrating your message points into worship songs and imagery. I’m a firm believer of communicating the main point of the sermon or better yet, the sermon series, to the teams at least a month before. Longer is better.If you are going to commit the church to technically transparent worship then commit to giving the team as much lead time as possible. Big churches do things as seamlessly as they do because they start planning at least 6 months out.
Worship leaders:Keep the technical team in the loop as you develop the song lists. Part of worship leading is providing the right environment for the congregation to enter into worship. It doesn’t help anyone to have the main point defined then go off and plan the songs without realizing that the presentation of the lyrics has as much an effect as the actual performance of the worship song by the worship band.As a team, you need to set the stage – so to speak. It’s not just worship songs or music backgrounds but also visual cues and stage sets that must be considered.Doing technically transparent worship means thinking outside of the church box and expanding how you view the service experience.  This means considering what people see, hear, and feel in the same way as what they experience when they go to a play or a performance or even a movie. Every part of those experiences are carefully choreographed to either enhance the experience, or to make it more memorable. It’s the little things that matter and when planning things out, look at it from the viewpoint of how a first-time church visitor feels when walking in to the building.
Technical leaders:Ensure you’re part of the planning process. Lead time is needed to come up with video backgrounds, set designs, lyric presentations, and video or still imagery to coordinate with the worship experience. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking you can stay up all night on Saturday and get it done RIGHT. You can’t. Doing so, trust me, will show. Tech leaders are as much an integral part of the team as the pastor or worship leader.Run through the entire service with the pastor and the worship leader. Build a detailed service order run sheet. The more information, the better off the tech team will be. My mantra is “No surprises on Sundays.”  Thorough communication between the pastor, worship leader and technical leader is vital. The technical lead should know who’s going to be doing what on stage, during the message, any guest speakers, any videos or special music, etc.

No surprises on Sundays. Thorough communication between the pastor, worship leader, and technical leader is vital. [tweet this]

There’s an old saying among project managers that states, “Plan the work, work the plan”. It is apropos for our situation at church. If you don’t plan the work then you can’t work the plan. If you plan the work but don’t follow the plan it won’t work right. A plan is a step-by-step guide to achieve the goal. If you don’t have one you’ll never achieve the goal.

I OBJECT!

You might be reading all of this and thinking that planning every part of the church service leaves no room for God to work.  PLEASE read this article which tackles that very subject.

Next up, Organizing the elements of the plan.

Reader Interactions

Thought? Questions? Comments?

Notify me of followup comments via e-mail. You can also subscribe without commenting.