Who are you working for? I'm not asking about your supervisor. I mean, who's out there in the audience that you are want to please?
If you are in sound, you might be thinking of some of the older folks who sit near the back who need to hear clearly. Or if you are in video, you may be thinking of the younger people who need more visual references to help them understand. If you do the graphics, you might be thinking of that new Christian who needs a jump start engaging with the scripture. Maybe, the person that came to your mind was the pastor, worship leader, or someone else in a position of authority. You might even be thinking about someone in your own family.
May I suggest, that these are all good ideas, and good reasons to want to do our best, but none should not be your primary audience. I would suggest that it's a waste of time to focus on pleasing any of those people. There really is only one person who should be the target audience for your church's technology and your role in it. This is the same person who should be the focus of all of our preaching, teaching and even our music. He is present in every church in every country and if we begin to center our work on Him, we can lose a whole bunch of stress,
Of course, I'm talking about our Lord Jesus. He is our “audience of one”. Perhaps you've never really thought of it that way. You would even think, “How do I run audio (video, graphics, or lights) to please Jesus? Doesn't that just add more pressure? I mean he's perfect.”
Let's look to the Bible to guide us. First, read Paul's words from, what most scholars say, is his first letter:
For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. - Galatians 1:10
Pleasing God was Paul's primary mission. He says that if he were trying to please people, then he would not be a servant of Christ. That sounds like a guy who was focused on the right audience. Yes, he was a missionary, church planter and evangelist, but Paul is not that much different from any of us. He had failures and struggles, guilt and pain. We wouldn't be talking about him today, if he didn't have this attitude.
The challenge for us is found in that that last phrase. We would all say that we are serving God, but if our focus is on pleasing people, we're wasting our time and energy on the wrong thing. Paul would tell us that we're not really serving God at all.
In Paul's second letter, you'll see the same words but with a different ending:
But just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts. - 1 Thessalonians 2:4
Put yourself in that picture. We have been approved by God and entrusted with the gospel presentation in video, for example, so we produce content not to please man, but to please God. How does that sound? It certainly puts in into a new light and should give us a new attitude about what we do.
How do you think Jesus would react to your work? Would he berate, criticize or nitpick? I don't see Jesus doing that in any of the Gospels. I see Jesus encouraging, and He certainly would encourage us. In that, we should find our peace. It should give us a desire to do our very best, but never waste our time worrying about people who will berate, criticize and nitpick. Just look beyond them and see the audience of one who is applauding our effort. That will actually motivate us to do more and to do better for our audience of one.
The last phrase, “who tests our hearts” is actually a reference to Old Testament:
And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. - Deuteronomy 8:2
Of course, this is a reference to Moses and the Exodus. God says that he brought them into the desert to humble them and test them to know what was in their heart. Does God not know what's in their hearts? Of course He knows! The test was for them. He was looking for a people who would lean in to Him for guidance. He even told them what He wanted.
He's doing the same with us. He wants us to lean into Him and be led by Him. It does not matter if we are a shepherd, a traveling preacher or a church tech. He is looking for humble people. If we, or Paul, or anyone is so concerned about pleasing people, the reward will be pride or depression.
If we begin today to focus on the audience of one, we will always leave feeling encouraged and loved. It will add a new meaning to everything we do.
