I've made a few mistakes in my church tech guy life. Once I blew up a sound system. Pretty much literally. Once I pounded my head into a concrete brick wall in anger after miscuing a CD backing track. Brilliant, I know. Thankfully, those are mistakes I made years ago. But then I made some pretty obvious mistakes just two Sundays ago, as a panel discussion was riddled with missed mic cues, buzzes, and wireless dropouts.
The first step in undistracting people that visit our churches is to avoid mistakes, so here are a few tips on how to do that:
1. Pray - Let's begin within a reality check. We are not in control. Every breath we breathe is given by God. If we were left to ourselves, we'd be dead, and it will be hard to switch cameras when we're dead. What's more, the gifts that we have did not originate in us. We call them "ours," but they were given to us by another, and that same gift-giver must empower us for "our" gifts to work. So the first step for avoid mistakes is to admit that it is impossible to do that alone. "Please, Father, help me to serve so that the glory of your name in the minds of the people at our church would not be intruded upon by a bad lighting cue."
2. Plan - Believe it or not, someone is planning your church service. Maybe it's the pastor. Maybe it's the music minister. Maybe it's six weeks ahead of time. Mabye it's Sunday morning. It's almost certainly a group of people planning over a period of time. You can avoid mistakes by communicating early with all parties, so that you know what is going to happen in the service. If you can communicate and - dare I say it - influence the planning ahead of time, you can catch a lot of unexpected collisions and omissions, which everyone will appreciate.
3. Practice - It makes perfect, or at least more perfect. Whenever possible, go to rehearsal, do a walk-through, or a run-through, or a jog-through, anything that will let your mind and fingers practice the process of making beautiful tech. Too often I have said to myself, "If I knew that's how it was going to play out, I would have made some big changes." There is nothing quite like doing it, beginning to end, with the mindset of learning how to do it even better when there are people in the seats.
4. Professionalize - Here I go making up words again, but I really needed another "P" word for the sake of cheesiness. You can avoid mistakes by learning how the pros avoid mistakes. Take classes, read books, check out the other blogs here on Church Production. I also highly recommend spending time with people who are more advanced in their skills than you. Spend an afternoon together, help them out, take notes and pictures, ask lots of questions. There is always more to learn, so professionalize.
5. Problem-Solve - Mistakes do happen. When they happen, take the time to track down what went wrong and to propose a solution. Maybe it was an equipment malfunction, but it's just as likely that it was a communication failure or an operational error. The goal is not to assign blame, but rather to take responsibility for finding the right fix.
6. Praise - Thank God. Whatever went wrong, it could have been worse. And thank those who serve well. Sincere, public thanks is a surefire way to encourage your co-laborers to do well again next weekend.
