Signal Flow, Does it Apply to People?

One of the great things about technology is the logical, left brained process of signal flow. You start with a source which sends out a signal. The signal goes into another device which modifies the signal. The modified signal goes out and then into another device and so on.

When something seems off, you simply start at one end of the signal chain and work your way through the chain until you find the problem. It is usually simple, neat, and logical.

Does a similar process apply to people? I would love to hear your stories of trying to apply logic to people problems.

Let me relate a couple of recent stories where the technology was more like people and much less than logical.

First, I have been chasing a hum in one of the recording signal chains. A possible solution occurred to me which would entail using an optical connection between two devices. It should be simple, connect out to in, right? After a couple of hours trying all the logical connection possibilities, a couple of illogical connection ideas, and updating everything, I was forced to admit defeat. I posted an entry on the manufacturer's website asking for help. Come to find out, the sending device only sends info in one format. The receiving device only receives in a different format. How often do we communicate with each other in a similar way?

On another occasion, I was mixing Live Sound and I encountered a truly perplexing problem. The lead guitar was somehow bleeding through into the bass channel and layering on top of the bass sound. Not only was that occurring, but the guitar was also missing all of low frequency content and it was heavily distorted. Imagine hearing heavy metal guitar lines played through a tin can. After trying the normal solutions, I was able to reduce it, but I couldn't completely eliminate this odd phenomenon. I was also simply out of time. So I hid the sound in my mix as much as possible and tried to ignore it for the rest of the day. How often do we relate to each other similarly? We try to fix people a few times, but we quickly reach a point of simply trying to ignore the inexplicable.

Loving People? Part 2

Today, I want to turn this focus on “loving” people towards the Technical Ministry. How those of us in tech ministry care for each other? Is it restricted to just the team on a service day, to the larger tech team within the church, or to a larger global community of tech servants?

My answer to the first question is simply to pay attention to those you regularly serve alongside. Do you know what is going on in their lives? Do they have a need you can particularly relate to? If they have such a need, can you do anything to help or even just listen and empathize?

I know, I know, much of this sounds platitudinous, but sometimes just stopping to listen is a huge help. Pay attention and don’t forget that the relationships do not end with the worship services.

My answer to the second question posed at the beginning of this post is all three. If the teams stay relatively the same by weekend in a month then you will definitely begin forming relationships with those you serve alongside. It is tough not to when you are in a smallish room with six other people for seven hours once a month, right?

Regarding the larger team within the church, I have never wanted to see teams become separate from the larger team as a whole. We all use the same equipment in pursuit of the same purpose and vision.

We have fought this occasionally at my church. There used to be a very separate group of people who served on Saturday night and who served on Sunday morning. Now because the services are so different there will always be different teams who specialize in the particulars of the services they most commonly produce. However, this does not mean that they are separate. We should learn from each other’s experiences and challenges and I think we do a pretty good job of this here at my church, but we certainly did not always do so.

Finally the larger global community of techs, I have been occasionally surprised at how common the challenges and experiences are for all techs. If you subscribe to Curt Taipale’s Church Soundcheck Discussion Group (www.churchsoundcheck.com) you will find people asking all kinds of questions about equipment, challenges of relating to church leadership and each other, and prayer requests. Subscribing to the discussion group will put you in touch with over three thousand techs who worship through service in different ways all over the world. If you have stayed cut off from the larger community, I would encourage you to engage and offer your insights. Another way is through reading blogs (yes, like mine), but also Anthony Coppedge (www.anthonycoppedge.com) and any others you can find that relate to the unique challenges in pursuing ministry through technology.

All I am really trying to say is that you are not alone in the world with the challenges and struggle that are faced. Techs tend to be too task focused and they forget to stop and listen to each other. That is what I am really trying to get across. Stop once in a while and listen and don’t forget that there are others who are pursuing the same purpose on other days and in other locations around the world.

Loving People? Part 1

Well, I am back from vacation; somewhat rested and definitely re-focused. I quickly come back to my original premise for this blog. Ministry, even technical, is about the people. It is about loving people.

How do we love people?

It seems to me that the word “love” has become somewhat hackneyed and overused; particularly in Christian circles. We throw the term around a lot in sermons and in conversations, but how often do we actually act?

Jesus lays out how important love is in Mark 12:28-31. He [Jesus] is asked by a teacher of the law "’Of all the commandments, which is the most important?’ ’The most important one,’ answered Jesus, ‘is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these.’” Very rarely do we talk in plain, practical terms on how to do this within a community.

After all, a team is a community of faith. It is similar to a small group with a key difference. Small groups gather to learn and grow together. A ministry team gathers to undertake a task.

How do we bridge the difference? How do we live out Hebrews 10:24 “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.”?

I don’t have all the answers, but this is the central question I am wrestling with as a ministry team leader. How do I do this from a leader standpoint and keep my life balanced? How do I help the teams encourage each other?

On thing I have learned is that “loving” is a verb. It is an action, it is not a feeling, but about a choice. Look through 1 Corinthians 13, love is not described as a feeling, but as an action that requires choice.

What do you think?

Vacation Time!

Hi everyone, I am going on vacation. I am going to take my own advice and completely shut down for the next two weeks. I need some time to rest, refocus, and revitalize.

Thank you for reading. You can expect new posts beginning August 7. I will see you in August.

Blogging Preferences, who knew?

My apologies, I somehow disabled the ability to comment on my posts. Sorry to anyone who tried and couldn't. I have since fixed that issue. If you have comments on my last two posts, please title your comments with the post title and comment under this post.

Again my apologies!

What Should the Future Hold?

Today, I find myself thinking about relationships; how important they really are.

I spent part of Friday night talking to a friend who also plays on stage at the church. We were able to have good conversation. I was a little surprised at how different our viewpoints are based on which side of the mixer we are usually on.

Through some honest conversation, I was able to hear about his frustrations and his hopes and expectations as a musical performer. In turn, I think he heard about some of the challenges that are faced both as a mixing engineer and some the challenges of being the leader of mixing engineers in a volunteer/church setting.

We even discussed the possibility of getting the mixing engineers and the musicians together at a casual event such as a cookout, hoping to stimulate the same kind of conversation between more than me and him. I truly think the idea has merit. We will have to organize it in the next six to eight weeks.

Thinking about Friday night and letting the future simmer in my mind brings me full circle. I have not done much in the last year beyond my job description. That said; I truly appreciate the time to heal and rehabilitate my knee. (For those who don’t know, I shattered a kneecap in December) The rehabilitation was more time consuming and required more resources that I expected, but enough is enough. I am done with rehab and ready to look forward.

Looking into the next year, I see relationships taking a much bigger part in the overall picture. Some of it will need to happen at fellowship events such as the cookout. The rest really needs to happen in training sessions.

What specifically to train? That requires more thought. What will be the schedule of training? Also, more thought.

I have a few ideas, but what are your thoughts?

How Do We Go Forward?

What drives technical ministry forward? Is it solid dependable equipment? A good vision for the ministry? Servant hearted team members?

I have been reflecting on this lately. With the economic recession budgeting has become more difficult than ever. I am challenged to bottom line my budget to maintain the status quo. That is not my usual approach to the ministry. I look to upgrade equipment before it breaks and use the older equipment in less demanding applications until it no longer works and it is no longer worth fixing. The bottom line approach also cuts down my training budget and I am forced to re-think how to increase the skill sets of my team members.

This church has also been somewhat a victim of the “purchase the best equipment without carefully considering what was truly needed and the maintenance requirements of the system.” So it is expensive to maintain and equipment breakdowns are not cheap to fix. Also, by now we are used to what we have so simplifying would not really provide the results to which the congregation is accustomed.

So I find myself trying to re-cast the vision to uphold quality without being able to upgrade and unable to spend money to invest in training. There are training ideas that do not cost money, but the time commitment to writing the materials is extensive. As I wrote in the “Pacing” post, I usually feel behind and like I am making this up as I go. The whole training model becomes more complex when I consider the diverse skill sets my teams require.

My team members are incredible and we would be seriously challenged to stay running if it wasn’t for them. I regularly find myself blessed by their willingness to put in time and energy working to maintain our aging technical systems. I feel like they deserve more support and feeding from the organization they work so hard to support.

Anyone who has ideas, please comment! I’m going to sign off here for the day and go think of some training ideas and hopefully vision.