I realized yet again, that I love to collaborate. As a Technical Director, I don’t necessarily “do” anything, other than try to set other people to do what they do. If I can get out of the way or get other things out of the way so people can bring their best, then I have succeeded.  This doesn’t happen without lots of collaboration.

For people to bring their best, means they need to be allowed to make choices that I wouldn’t necessarily make.  For them to succeed, I need to learn the difference between my way being right (and theirs wrong) and my way just being different.  On some level, it would be so much easier to not collaborate and just tell everyone how I want everything to be.  The problem is that most people can’t function very long just being told what to do at every turn.  Eventually, they turn off their brains and just become robots…but at least things are done the exact certain way.

I will wrestle and struggle my way to collaborate as a first choice every time.  I know that collectively, the group as way better ideas than me alone.  If I restricted our team to just what I know and what I think, it would be a very stale and dull environment.

There is definitely a baseline of how things should be.  That should be defined and everyone should know what those things are.  Above the baseline, I want to release people to bring their best so that what we do can have the maximum impact.

If you lead production folks, how can you release people to bring their best?  How can you change your process to allow for more collaboration?

I have been struck again this week by the fact that the world of church production is a mystery to non-production people.  This isn’t a bad thing, or something to try to solve.  Andy Stanley would say “it is a tension to be managed” (he would actually say it twice for emphasis, but I’ll just write it once).  I agree that it is something that is ongoing, but the word managed sounds too much like the word tolerated or even giving up on it being any better, almost resignation.

As I have been talking to the various production people I work with, and then speaking to the producers of the ministry they support, I am amazed at how easy it is to misunderstand each other, to assume something that isn’t true, to make conclusions about people without knowing them or asking for more information.

As I write this, I am realizing that there are tons of dynamics going on here, and that I could write all day about ways to improve things or how things should be different, but I am going to focus on one.

For crying out loud production people, start communicating with your counterparts that don’t get your world!  You do so much behind the scenes that nobody sees or even understands, and instead of giving you a pat on the back for all your hard work, they end up wondering what you do with all your time.  All they know is that they don’t see you around.  The other thing they know is that you say “no” to all their great ideas without any kind of alternatives or options.  When someone is wondering what you do all day, and then you tell them they can’t do something, no wonder there is a gulf between the booth and the stage!

For years, I would wait for the stage people to come to me to understand my world.  I’m an introvert.  It’s OK if I just hang back here by the booth and everyone will come to me and get to know me and ask me how I’m doing and marvel at all the gear I re-racked this week.  It sounds like the beginning to a bad joke.

Get out of your cube, your office, the booth and engage with the people on stage on stage or whoever you need to, in order to bridge the chasm of understanding the exists.  Make the move to help the non-production people you work with understand your world…in language they can understand.  Create opportunities to connect outside of the tension of services and rehearsals.

Is there tension?  Yes.  Will it go away?  Probably not.  Do we need to live with it?  No.  Should it be managed?  I think we must get beyond managed and figure out ways to leverage the tension for the benefit of our churches.  How can we take our differences and celebrate them and push each other to create the best services for our congregations possible?  One thing is for sure, it won’t happen without tons of communication.  That starts with you.

Have you ever noticed that the stereotype for production at events involves a microphone not being on, followed feed back. I always get annoyed when I am watching a movie or a TV show where this scene is acted out. It is so cliche and predictable, and so true so much of the time.

I was at an event a while ago, and I saw all this play itself out.  The technical botches went beyond mics not being on, but included poor lighting and less than wonderful graphic work.  People are so used to going to events where this happens, that it is accepted as normal.  So normal, that it is part of pop culture.

As a technical artist, I put a lot of effort into changing this generalization by making any production I am a part of invisible, seamless with what is happening on stage.  It’s not always wiz bang or the most cutting edge technology, but it is always using technology to advance the event/service to a higher place. This includes having mics on when they should be, lighting something up that should be lit, or pointing a camera where the focus needs to be, but it also means something much more.

To take this one step further, if production is only about hitting every cue right, pointing lights in the right spot or having a mic on a the right moment, we are missing so much of what production can be about.  I have been thinking about U2’s current tour and how breathtaking the production is.  Now if the same set and same lights and same everything were applied to a high school  battle of the bands, we would all say the production distracted from the content of the event (or maybe vice versa).  For U2, the production supports, nay, enhances the content that U2 is bringing to the party.  Does this happen because there are some gear happy tech people in a dark room deciding what the production should look and feel like?  Definitely not.  What’s happening here is U2 is partnering with some amazing production artists to create an entire experience for thousands of people.

Now, I would wait in line to hear U2 play at the Penny Road Pub down the street without much production, and it would be amazing.  But with the combined efforts of the members of U2 and their production team, they can create an experience like none other for thousands of people at once.

Let’s take this one step even further.  What if we used the technical arts, not for the sake of using cool gear, or trying to be the U2 360 Tour, but for the sake of enhancing the message of Christ.  Not changing the message.  Not creating our own message.  Not enhancing it into something totally distracting.  But working closely with the people creating content to craft a life changing experience for people, together.

Production without content is like battle of the bands using U2’s stage:  a huge waste.  And content without production is like seeing U2 at the Penny Road Pub:  good, but not all it could be.  But content, enhanced by the artistic use of production is a powerful combination.

I was so moved today listening to Harvey Carey talk to a room full of technical artists. He spoke directly to the heart of what most of us deal with on a daily basis with no real encouragement to keep at it and keep moving forward.

He talked about about how King David had to encourage himself.

And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God. 1 Samuel 30:6

We have to remind ourselves that what we do matters and has eternal significance.  We can’t wait for someone else to tell us what a great job we did, we have to be able to tell ourselves.  When we are down and things get difficult, we need to encourage ourselves in the Lord, or as the NIV says: “David found strength in the LORD”.

The beauty of the Gurus of Tech Chicago conference, as well as CTDRT.com and CTANonline.com, is that we can encourage each other.  We have to take advantage of the communities of technical artists in our own backyards and build each other up and support each other.

Does this mean you can now wait for someone from this community to reach out and encourage you?  No.  You reach out.  You encourage the TD at the church down the street.  You make the effort to get together for lunch.  You put yourself out there and make the call.  Nobody else is going to get it started if you don’t.

I had the privilege to dive into the Enneagram Personality types with some of the members on the programming team this week and I am happy to say that it has completely messed with me…on so many levels.  After agonizing over which type I “should” be, I feel like type 9, the peacemaker, might describe me the best.  As we discussedt the characteristics of the peacemaker type, we talked about how a 9 usually has a big cause that matters to them and that they want to bring peace between the two sides.  For some in the room, racial reconciliation was their big issue.  For someone else it was between rich and poor.

As I have been trying to figure out how I “feel” about what my cause is, I have been reaching the conclusion that the cause that matters to me feels so much smaller than some of the others we talked about.  Regardless, it is a cause, and it does matter.

My heart beats fast for the production person in the local church.  For how that person uses how God has made them to accomplishes His purposes on this earth using their gifts.  I also feel like one of the largest issues that this group deals with is a disconnect between them and the programming team, stage personalities, talent, musicians, actors, artists, etc.  These two groups couldn’t be more different and yet we work so closely together.

I want my life to be about bringing these two groups together.  Not only bringing them together, but maximizing the impact we can have together.  Do things work when we don’t get along?  Generally.  But the vision of how things could work so much better if we could learn to see each other’s POV so that the Gospel can be presented in new and creative ways, and so that we could live in a genuine Acts 2 community, gets me excited like nothing else.  I want to shrink the divide.  I want to bridge the gap.

I have been reading Seth Godin’s book “Linchpin” and he talks about the principle of sprinting. I’m just going to quote from him:

“The best way to overcome your fear of creativity, brainstorming, intelligent risk-taking or navigating a tricky situation might be to sprint.

“When we sprint, all the internal dialogue falls away and we focus on going as fast as we possibly can. When you’re sprinting, you don’t feel that sore knee and you don’t worry that the ground isn’t perfectly level. You just run.”

In my world of production at Willow Creek, there is something fascinating about the sprint.  It seems like we spend quite a bit of energy trying to simplify stuff or to make something doable so we don’t burn ourselves out.  But instead, what seems to happen is that we tend to have too much time on our hands to worry about what’s next, or get frustrated by the things we don’t like, or wish that something that is broken would get fixed.  This idea of sprinting makes me think about the huge tasks that get put in front of us that take too much time, require too many resources and generally push ourselves to the limit.

I had lunch with someone and we talked about old times, and some of the crazy projects that he had been a part of.  In a particular era, he didn’t have a day off for something like 2 years, yet those 2 years contain some of his favorite memories of working here.  I started thinking about all the amazing things I have been a part of over my life, and most of them have come at a time of immense work load, a sprint.

The sprint feels like something we need, to stay energized and to push us to the next level.  Something that helps us stop thinking about all the problems we have and focusing on getting something done. Most people I know, including myself, get a little nervous when people start talking about an all out run. By sprinting on a regular basis, our endurance is built up, we can run farther, we can begin to pick up our normal pace.

Seth Godin summarizes this thought nicely:  “You can’t sprint every day, but it’s probably a good idea to sprint regularly.”

In my view, one of the primary goals of the local church is to join God and help meet the needs of the broken world. Not just locally, but globally as well. We are Christ’s representatives on this planet, to help bring the kingdom of heaven to earth.  I have been hearing this for some time and I just had this thought:

our world is broken to an extent that Christians are broken and are not fully functioning Christ-followers.

Some times we can spend so much time thinking about the ills of the world that we look right past the ills of the church and the people that make up that church. In the Bible it says that “They will know we are Christians by our love.”  Certainly that includes loving each other inside the church as much as it is about loving those far from God.  I’m not talking about loving ourselves to the point of being insulated from the outside world or just having an inward focus.  I look around at the people I am with everyday, and we have a pretty huge pile of junk that requires us to love each other; to live in honest community with each other; to speak the truth in love to each other.

For the body of Christ to function properly and to have the maximum impact on this broken world, we need to be whole.  We can only be whole if we are willing to love each other; in spite of our weaknesses; in spite of our differences; in spite of conflict.  All people, everywhere, have to deal with these issues.  We are called to rise above them and to love each other.  I want to be a part of a place where we love and support each other so much that we become an unstoppable force for changing the world, letting the love of Christ naturally flow out of us.

“May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” – Romans 15:4-6

I have been sitting in front of my computer with tons of spare time, the thing I always wish I had more of.  I have been confined to my bed while recovering from a minor surgery and was really looking forward to getting something to this site.  Instead of being bombarded with great ideas of things to write about, I have been starring at the blank page in frustration.  Finally free time!… … …nothing.

I was explaining to someone last night, that at the baseline, production is about executing content that someone else has created.  That isn’t to say we aren’t creative or that we just push buttons, but we are about getting it done; adding to it; making it better.  I generally don’t have to come up with the original idea.

Sitting here, trying to come up with something original has been maddening.  Creativity is not easy.  Just because I have the time doesn’t mean something creative will result.  This has been a good reminder for me that the people I work with who create  services, deal with this every day, and it is relentless.  When I wonder why deadlines aren’t made, or if I find myself being overly critical of someone’s creative ideas, I want to remember how I have felt the last 3 days and remember that it isn’t as easy to have a brilliant idea as it seems from the outside looking in.