7. Treating rehearsal time as practice time. As Jamie Harvill states, “Rehearsal is crafted to polish the song, not to learn it. Individual practice time is when learning occurs.”

Curt Coffield uses the time/money scale to weigh the value of rehearsal. If each member’s time is worth $25 per hour, imagine the total value of every rehearsal event and treat it appropriately.

8. Buying a Hyundai, then driving it like a Ferrari. Audio and video systems cost what they are worth. There is no way a modest system can perform like an expensive, properly designed system.

Churches love to set system budgets, and then try to force the integrator to “make it work.”

Unfortunately, God’s laws of physics apply in His house just like they do at an Eminem concert.

As the cliché says, you get what you pay for. If a church needs to reproduce video and audio at a high level, it takes the right equipment and personnel to achieve the goal.

9. Presenting a hip image of Christianity in place of the image of Christ. God does not call us to make Christianity cool. There is nothing cool about suffocating to death on a cross while stripped naked.

The Gospel is a wonderful message and conveys hope, but not at the expense of truth.

Our message must be applicable to all people for all time in all circumstance.

10. Creating virtual music. Performing “Muzak” versions of rock tunes with guitars played through modeling modules and drums banged out on electronics drums does not endear the message to someone raised on real rock ‘n’ roll.

If the situation is appropriate for virtual instruments and the room acoustics are atrocious, then virtual may be the answer.

However, if authenticity is the goal, then authentic instrumentation is the means for success.

Discernment is needed to understand when to wail and when to use in-ears.

Kent Morris is noted for his church sound training abilities. He has more than 25 years of experience with A/V, has served as a front-of-house engineer for several noted performers and is a product development consultant for several leading audio manufacturers.

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