Monday Musings: When the Plan Changes

Have you ever had a church service where it feels like the technology is out to get you?

Yesterday was one of those mornings, I came in bright and early to be greeted by a locked out lighting system and a projector that decided it didn’t want to do it’s job.  As I’ve done in the past, I don my technology hat and spent a frantic 45 minutes fixing the issues in the room and making phone calls to the people that needed to help get things corrected.  If you were there yesterday morning, thank you for your patience as we got things corrected.  I don’t know about you but it seems to me that there is always some sort of issue that needs to be addressed when we come together to lead worship.  The key is to handle the issues effectively and with grace.  Here are some thoughts to help you should you have a morning like mine:

Keep a Cool Head

It’s amazing how quickly we can let our demeanor go.  I’m guilty of going in to auto-pilot, assuming everyone will understand that I’m crabby and dismissive because I have important work to do.  I roll up my sleeves, you get out of my way and we’ll get the job done….Trust me when I say that this attitude does nothing but stress you out and those around you.  Your team members want to help you, let them!  We’re able to accomplish so much more together.

Keep God Central

Never forget that all of the sound equipment, instruments, lights, and tech are there to be used for one purpose:  To glorify God and to help people connect with Him.  The people coming through our doors need to hear from God.  They desperately need to know His love, not be impressed by a slick light show.  Don’t get me wrong, we can leverage technology to create incredible services but, at the end of the day, God can move without anything other than humble hearts. Maybe you’re guitar just didn’t work, you can still sing for the glory of our King.

Evaluate What Happened

So you’ve managed to fix what was broken!  Good job!  Don’t forget to revisit what actually happened.  About a month ago, we lost audio for our sermon feed.  You can bet we have a system in place to ensure that never happens again.  Determine what exactly went wrong and how can you make sure it won’t happen again.  Too often we fix the issue and never look back…only to see the same issue come back up again.  Learn from the crisis.  Bring your team along with you as you make your systems more efficient.

After the dust has settled, remember to thank God for working through the chaos.  A greater reliance on God’s direction is never a bad thing.