Planning, Preparation, Practice

Planning, Preparation, Practice! These are the 3 Ps that I have been preaching when it comes to media ministry.

You have to plan your services and special events. I don't just mean setting a date, theme etc. I mean thinking of every minute detail and what needs to be implemented to make a service or special event flawless or appear to be anyway.

Next comes preparation. This is where you get everything ready. You make sure that you have all that you need. When it comes to sound you must have all the right cables, with the right connectors going to the right connections. You must have the correct number of mics and then some. You must have all the right components to make good sound. With video presentation you must have all the slides in perfect order with correctly spelled text and the correct lyrics to songs. You must have the correct format video and the right video you are asked to show placed into your program. These are just a few examples of preparation.

Next comes practice. Also known as rehearsal or sound check. This is where after all of your planning and preparation you make sure that nothing was missed and that all is functioning correctly and in order. This is where you discover bad cables, adapters etc. This where you adjust your levels. This is where you adjust video and audio together. This is where you make sure everything you programmed looks good on the big screen. Then you will know that everything is ready to have a flawless service or special event.

Having known all of this I did not practice what I preach this past week and Sunday night's concert laid it all bare. I was not in on the planning of this concert. I knew a band was coming but was not made aware that they needed sound until Friday afternoon. A return phone call earlier in the week would have been nice but that would have not made a difference come Sunday. The band did not show up until almost start time either but that also would not have made a difference either. Why? Because I had not planned or prepared so therefore no practice was even possible.

I knew when I got off the phone with the band leader on Friday that I was going to have to scramble. First of all I had to find a stage snake to borrow. Thank God for my brother, who's place I took a few years ago, because he came through for me with a snake. Unfortunately that was the least of my problems. When I came in Sunday afternoon to set up I began to realize that everything I had used last summer for outdoor concerts didn't seem to be in the place I had left it. Three hours quickly passed by and we were not remotely ready to put on a concert. At start time I was in a room soldering 1/4" connectors on speaker cable. After several attempts to get a full sound system with monitoring I had to face the inevitable. As they say, the worship concert must go on. We started a concert with only half our mains producing sound, no monitors and no sound check. When the first song started is when my level adjusting started and it took me about 3 songs to get it decent and I found out that not all the mics were working. I certainly didn't have time to mic a drum kit so it could not be heard. And on and on... When I finally hurried back to the main mixer I kept my head down and didn't look at the crowd. I just wanted to bury myself.

The band was excellent though. I could tell they were slightly out of time because they couldn't hear. But they took it all in stride and they thanked me for the effort afterwards. They said that they had a great time because they don't do concerts very often. I hope I get another chance to do sound for them because I think they would be awesome.

I heard the crowd enjoyed themselves regardless and they thought it sound pretty decent. After all it wasn't about me or the sound system or the band. It was about God. It was about Jesus Christ and offering up our praises to Him. That is what we did.

Lesson learned is to practice what you preach. Next Sunday night is another concert. I have planned all I could in one day. I have been making preparations all day and will continue tomorrow. Practice is coming...
I know that I must strive for excellence because I believe that is what God wants from us. Not because He will love us any more or any less but because as one praise and worship song states "...because He gave His everything." That's why we praise Him and that is why we should give our everything for Him.