Enjoy The Process
The soundcheck is a handshake, if you will, between the tech crew and the worship team. The end result should be one of joyful abandon during a worship service.
Yes, it’s O.K. for the tech crew to enjoy the worship service as much as the worship team. I can’t exactly throw my head back, close my eyes and worship God like the vocalists might be able to do. If I do, I’ll likely miss a cue or create a problem. But that doesn’t mean that I can’t have fun and enjoy the process.
The bottom line is to help you engage in a conversation between the worship team and tech team that will help all come to an understanding and agreement about the objectives of a soundcheck.
I’ve witnessed worship teams say things to tech crew volunteers and production staff that, shall we say, they wouldn’t have said if Jesus were standing there. I’ve also been around worship teams and tech teams alike saying stuff about the other “side” that they shouldn’t have been saying.
When you get down to the bottom of all that strife, it generally turns out to be a lack of understanding. Some music pastors and many musicians and vocalists think of the tech crew as subservient to them. Unfortunately, some tech crew leaders think more highly of their efforts than they should, as well.
The reality is that every one of them needs to come to the understanding that they’re all in this together, that each musician, singer, worship leader, sound tech, lighting tech, video graphics tech, and so on are all equal members of the same team, striving together toward a common goal.
Why am I so hot on this topic? Because through Church Soundcheck and my work as a consultant to churches, we hear about this kind of strife happening every week.
We often find ourselves counseling or at least consoling some embattled tech guy, music pastor or player. We even hear from musicians who are tired of tech guys beating up on the players and singers.
It doesn’t have to be that way. Our time on this planet may be short. Jesus may be back sooner than we think. I would suggest that it’s way past time that we lay down our petty personal goals let’s learn to enjoy our time of worshiping together.
It’s an honor to serve the needs of technical excellence for great players, singers and music pastors. It’s no fun when those individuals are full of themselves and acting like idiots. I’ve worked with both.
I’ve looked, and can’t find anywhere in the Word where it says that we’re supposed to be at odds with one another during a worship service. So let’s choose to worship God together and get on with the task at hand.
Curt Taipale of Taipale Media Systems heads up Church Soundcheck.com, a thriving community dedicated to helping technical worship personnel, as well as the Church Sound Boot Camp series of educational classes held regularly throughout the U.S.