Confessions of a Tech Director
July 28, 2008
I wear a lot of hats here at St. Simons Community Church and at the Gathering Place where I volunteer regularly. My job title is Technology Director. My roll is WAY more complicated. I am involved with everything audio, video, lighting, IT, software, graphic design, video production, event production, service planning, content planning, and a few other things I am missing. I like the multitasking, I like the every-day-is-different, I like the freedom & responsibility. (This is where I must mention the two guys I work closely with: Bo and Chris, they share an equal load in tech direction in the church and I/we couldn’t come close to doing it without them.) What I don’t like is how it has fostered a critical nature in me.
For instance, I am responsible for what happens in our live services. So whether I am running front of house, producing, or making sure that our awesome volunteers are taken care of, I still find myself generally somewhere in the back of the room or video booth critiquing. It seems that without it being specified in my job description anywhere, I am constantly identifying problems, errors, oversights and just things we could have done better. This is bad for people in my postion or similar ones because we will become generally negative pretty quickly. It is the nature of the beast I think. We just have to tame that.
I don’t want to be the guy that only points out the bad things and neither should you. People will quickly discount what we say if all we ever have is a bad thing to say. Even worse probably, it will frustrate us quickly. If all we do is focus on the bad stuff we will stop seeing any good stuff. I had a real gut check this past week when running sound at a youth event in our community. We have had some technically frustrating nights this summer and followed that up with a few nights that SEEMED spiritually frustrating as well. This past week everything went pretty smoothly, which is nice, but the big thing for me was SEEING life change. People responded to a clear message and call from God through our speaker. I stood at the console in the back of the room while two people behind me wept and prayed out loud.
There are about 1000 students a week there and lives have been being changed all summer, I just hadn’t really even attempted to put myself in a place to notice. Actually, lives have been being changed by God long before I offered Him my amazing services. Lives were being changed before you jumped on board at your place too. Here is the kicker, God doesn’t need perfect pitch, flawless transitions, the right SPL and hyped up videos to move. He uses them to move and thankfully allows us to be a part of that. We need to remind ourselves of that fact.
So here is the take home on this, and yes, it will be on the test. Have you heard of a compliment sandwich? You should try one, they are delectable. I must confess that Stewie Griffin set the example for me. Anyway, KEEP CRITIQUING. It is important to always work to honor God by doing the best you can with what He has given you. However, every time you notice a negative, find two positive things about the event, service or whatever to report on as well. Sandwich that criticism between some positive review. Trust me, the people you work closely with will greatly appreciate it and they will PROBABLY start listening to what you have to say too.
So, anyone else feel me? Chime in with your thoughts and experiences.
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Travis,
Great insights. Not long ago I wrote a blog about this, called “Celebrate the Victories” … essentially, reminding us to stop working so hard on criticizing everything, and actually spend some time CELEBRATING the good things.
As you know from serving on staff at a church - you hear so much of what goes wrong behind the scenes, and it’s refreshing when we all stop and listen to positive testimonies.
thank you so much for your honest heart. I find myself in similar situations often when it comes to the corporate worship environment. I’m a worship leader at a church in Plymouth MI and when i’m in the audience i constantly find myself asking some of the same questions and finding the same “errors” you do. What i’ve found helpful is spending a minute in prayer after I find my seat and just ask God to work in me and to help me find that place where i can be alone with him and worship him minus the distractions.
Blessings
Josh
Amen to that brother. I’ve find myself in this place almost every week. I am the “worship” “technical” “director”….which means I lead worship, over all the pre, live, and post technicalities of a service, and director of services. It’s easy for me to go home not really knowing what we accomplished that day. I’ve had to take to heart what I’ve read in 1 Samuel 30:6 “but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.” Bottom line to what I do, create opportunities for people to engage a Living God. Did we do that? then great job Jon.
Let me say that you’ve done great as of late balancing criticism and encouragement, and I greatly appreciate it, for one!
Thanks Shannon. I am trying, haha.
Great article. I agree about the comliment sandwich. A similar piece of advice that I heard and have tried to follow is that whenever you’re critiquing or advising, start out with the positives. You can always find at least one good thing to say, even if it’s just “I can tell you put a lot of effort into this and you’ve got a good work ethic.”
Wow, thanks for your honesty. I, too, struggle with a critical spirit. It is so easy for me (church staffer) to pick apart a service, event, etc. In so doing, I miss what God is doing in and around me. I will be sure to start making compliment sandwiches!
Hello,
Thank you for reminding us that we need to look beyond all of the bad stuff and look at the posative things as well.
As the guy who (at the Embassy of the Kingdom of God http://www.embassyofgod.com) maintains the family centre sanctuary, family centre sound, recordings, sermon editing, assistant to the embassy | this generation (young adults) worship leader, projection on Sunday Nights and cd duplication.
I at times forget to look at what is going right in a service.. I have no problems complimenting the people I work with (and they are the most wonderful team a man could be blessed with) but I always am looking at how the technology is not working in the way I want it to or how the worship slides look on the screen. I tend to always want to see the negative. Even when the family centre stage is not setup the way I labeled and set it out. I tend to get frusterated.
One day though chatting with my mentor I started to lay down all of the negative things in my ministry (Geeks 4 God) and let God have it all and over a period of 4 weeks I began to see what we could do with it. What is going right and letting go of things that cannot be changed. Through the power of the holy spirit and God working in me I was able to focus on the fact that God was the head of the ministry and to let him guide and direct all that we do.
Weather in the Main Sanctuary or the Family Centre, Weather a Sunday or a Tuesday night I was able to ask God before a service what he wanted me to do and follow the direction that he was leading.
We have to remember weather we are a volunteer of one dept. or many areas of the church that God is the head of what we do and when we can realize that and constantly remind ourselves then we will be able to see more of what God is doing (ie the positive stuff) and begin to improve and perfect what we are doing.
Thanks again for this article
Be Blessed!
Thanks for that post it was GREAT! I am actually moving to my old church in 1 month to be on staff as the Director of Media and Production doing the same work you do. I will defiantly remember the “compliment sandwich”
thanks again for the great post
Fantastic insight, my friend! Being a bit of a perfectionist myself, I admit it is hard to pull back and see the overall effect of what we are doing. In our church, I have taken on the mantle of Technology Leader. I tend to look at everything critically and get bent out of shape when the service does not go the way “I planned it”. About the time that I get ready to make a correction, I have to remind myself that we (the Tech Ministry gang) are focused on pleasing the Lord, not Bill. At that point I offer suggestions and become content in the message. We only provide the vehicle to better communicate the Word not the Word itself. Here is an example for you…I spent this past week at a Children’s Camp at Latham Springs (awesome event). The sound guy was obviously new and really struggling with the variety of speakers and performers and the equipment at his disposal. My first thought was “Yikes, he’s going to blow a voice coil or something” and began to head for the sound booth. Fortunately God grabbed me and told me to be patient. Eventually he got the hang of the board and put everything under control. Afterward he came to me, said he had noticed me starting to get up earlier and wanted to know if I could help him with the board. Instead of beating on him, I waited and we had a great time of learning and fellowship.
Great reminder that it’s not about performance but availability and faithfulness. As a musician, I can totally be about everything being “perfect”. It’s a curse and a blessing. The blessing of this OCD like behavior is that you tend to offer the best you have. The curse is that you have a hard time letting go of things that did not go as planned, even the small things. I like the compliment sandwich on many levels and can see how it would be helpful in many types of relationships as well as working relationships. I like the comment by Jon Morris also. He asked the question’ did I create an environment for people to engage a living God?” Maybe a good way to practice what you’re discussing is to,instead of beating ourselves up, ask Jon’s question about what kind of environment was created, and instead of beating other’s up, use the compliment sandwich. Thanks for your insight…