Media

The Resources department at North Point treated our team to lunch today to thank us for some extra work we’ve done with them over the past few months.  As if we could be any more thankful for our jobs, Suzy Gray and her team decided to celebrate the wins of the past couple months with a surprise gesture of gratitude and encouragement, and they took the time to share some really cool stories of people who’ve had their lives changed in small part because of what we get to do on a weekly basis.  It’s that kind of celebration that motivates us to continue giving our all to our work and supporting the other departments of the church with everything that we have.  They didn’t have to buy us lunch and we certainly didn’t expect it of them, but it spoke volumes about the staff culture we’re blessed to be a part of:  A culture of encouragement and celebration.

I just wanted to take a second today, in the midst of the inevitable evaluations and service critiques you are all experiencing post-Sunday, to encourage you guys to pause and celebrate what God is accomplishing through you in your town/city, etc.  (I know you’ve got a busy week, but it doesn’t take long to tell someone on your team, “job well done”.)  It’s vital to realize just how significant what you’re doing is, even if it’s just mashing buttons and compressing videos.  In a very small way, you are leading people to Christ with the work that you do, and truly, from an EXCELLENCE standpoint, you don’t realize just how amazing you all are at your jobs.  You are SO brilliant and resourceful, I hope you stop to celebrate that.  Not in a prideful way, but in a way that helps you realize how significant of a role you’re playing in this generation.

Just take a brief look outside your church one day for comparison’s sake to see what I mean.  If you take the average tech-savvy contemporary church of 200 or so–and juxtapose that with the average concert venue of 200–the higher production value is often hands down at the church.  I’m not saying this to brag about the modern church or to knock small club/concert venues, but to encourage you to stop and appreciate what each of you are accomplishing on a weekly basis from a purely technical perspective.  Not as compared to some other church with more or less money, but as compared to a real-world venue that parallels yours in size and resources.  Think about the last modest club/concert venue you went to:  feedback in the PA, muddy acoustics, dim lighting, and don’t even think about video screens or graphics…and it was a permanent installation, right?  Same amount of seats, less compelling environment, and they are charging for it.  Many of you guys, on the other hand, are portable churches with passionate volunteers who set up A/V rigs from scratch every week with screens, lighting, motion graphics, bulletins/logos and full on branding strategies, and your sound guy has WAY more knowledge of signal flow & EQ than attenders could ever appreciate, all with limited resources.  If culture is any indication, the majority of you church media types are incredible at what you do and you don’t even know it.

I hope somebody on your team is pausing enough to celebrate that reality with you.

If you are one of those solo jack-of-all-trades guys who is responsible for ALL of the editing, preproduction, tech directing, audio, lighting, volunteer coordination, and live production at your church…we salute and admire you guys like you wouldn’t believe.  Just know that you guys are heroes to us with the proportion of results you achieve. Each weekend, you hold your head down and work twice as hard as most larger teams, with a level of expectation being placed on your shoulders that far surpasses what your budget and manpower allows.  Each weekend, you are accomplishing more than could or should ever be expected of only one or two people. Each weekend, you are blowing similarly sized concert venues out of the water with your production & media excellence.  Each weekend, you achieve a near miracle by creating church environments that unchurched people love to attend, with extremely limited resources and time.  Though you may not hear or feel it very often, just know that your work is not in vain.

Take a second to breathe, look at how far you’ve come, appreciate the people who are coming to Christ at your church regardless of your most recent missed lighting/mic/video cue…and CELEBRATE that!  I promise you, this is not the same as bragging about your accomplishments or “settling” for less than the best.  You can evaluate your need to get better and celebrate what God is doing through you all at the same time.  Encouragement is a huge and vital motivator for so many people, myself included.  Celebrate what you’re doing, regardless of the size or scope, and let your love for those outside the church motivate your ambition to improve it week after week.  You ARE making a difference–remember that.  Celebrate!