What happens when there’s a technical glitch during one of your services? There should be an understanding on the team [and with senior church leadership] of the process that goes into play when something inevitably goes wrong. Believe it or not, many times an issue won’t even be noticed by the congregation, and – even if it is – most people will think “no biggie” and will have forgotten about it five minutes later. If it’s something obvious , like lights or sound going out, the techies in the sound booth don’t need you to come to inform them of something that everyone can see – they are already working on trying to fix it. If ten people come back to the booth over the course of the service to express concern, it often adds greatly to the problem (and hovering over someone’s shoulder in a stressful situation usually does not improve response time). Give the team the space to do their job.
Senior pastors/service hosts/worship leaders or anyone else on the platform – YOUR job is to defuse. Continue if you’re able. The congregation and team will be looking to you in these moments to see if they should be concerned. Reflect calmness. Keep things light and humorous, if possible. And NEVER call out the Production Team from the stage in a negative way. It just makes you look like a jerk…
Hmmm - well, let's see...
I'm a Christian, a husband, a dad, a son, a pastor, a consultant, a musician, a writer, and bits and pieces of a bunch of other things. My work life has followed three main phases - business to teaching to church. I was the Weekend Services Pastor for nine years at Northview Church, an awesome church in the Indianapolis suburbs. I used to work for Willow Creek, another awesome church in the Chicago area. Plus I've written for various magazines and websites, and other freelancy sorts of things... My life mission is to help the church be as excellent as it can be.
Oh yeah - the name's Greg. Greg Wallace. But not the race car driver or the major league pitcher or the British celebrity chef. Just the creative worship guy. Hi.
It's my hope that these ideas, musings, rants, raves, etc... will inspire you. They're just my opinions - but again, I hope that they'll help to inspire you. Because the church really, really needs inspired creative types. If you're a creative type (and most people are, deep-down), ask God for help. Then take any ideas that are useful to you - borrow them, nab them, use them, adapt them - and make them into something greater...
You can head over to my Instagram site for an abundance of shorter posts: creativeworshipideas. If you're looking for consulting - especially on weekend services, team leadership or multi-site strategies - I'd love to help. Just message me here, and I'll be in touch - Greg
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