For Mack.
NB. not edited
I recently served at a Christian camp for the NZ police. I
was doing the sound for a band with which I have a long association and is made
up of good friends. I was struck at this conference that I have been doing this
sort of thing for a while, I have been behind a sound desk at church and other
events now, for most of my life. And it strikes me as an odd situation that
many would not appreciate and thus I have chosen to write about it.
The events at the camp were slightly unusual in that while a
great deal of the group events required someone behind a sound desk (in this
case me) the was a short time after one of the late night sessions that only
required me to play an iPod and leave it on at a specific volume. This in turn
allowed me to lock the desk and just enjoy the music and ask for prayer from
the speaker (the prayer itself is another matter entirely and for another
time.)
Now this act, to many Christians seems normal, comfortable
even. The speaker askes at the end of service if the worship band that has been
playing will come up and play something lightly in the background and if anyone
would like to simply come up to the front for prayer of any kind, be it to
commit to Christ, recommit, receive healing or just any other form of prayer.
And to most people the option is given, some take it at this time and some at
that. To most this is a normal event.
But spare a thought for those who serve. The worship team
has just been called up again, and it may not require all of them to play for
the whole time but at least some of them will have to play for at least some of
the time, and it is understood if one of them stops play (or just does not make
it any further than the front of stage) as these are those that may need
prayer, and it is not a great imposition if the second guitarist leaves the
stage, or if during a slow song the drummer stops.
But what of the keyboardist or the lead singer, the person
doing words, lights or indeed the sound guy. These people are faced placed in a
difficult position. If the lead singer leaves the stage – who will continue the
worship? If the keyboardist leaves who will provide the lovely chords? If the
person doing words leaves then how will the congregation know what to sing? OK,
perhaps the lighting guy could leave things on a nice blue and red, but then
again we reach the sound guy.
The sound guy has perhaps the hardest place to leave of all,
the sound guy is the one that often the whole thing rides on – weather or not
you know it. If the sound guy leaves his post you may not notice, the keys can
be left playing at a certain volume the lead singer can probably be relied upon
to keep singing at the same level, but if something goes wrong – everyone will know and the entire
service can be ruined. This is largely due to a thing called feedback, that annoying
(usually) high pitched sound that just builds and builds and builds until the
sound guy catches it. Now most sound guys are pretty good and will catch it
quickly. But if he is not there to catch it, it may be 30 seconds and even up
to a minute before the noise is caught. Let me assure you that nothing will
break a mood, feeling or mind set faster than feedback.
So what does the sound guy do? Well, he stays at his post. He
must, for if he was to leave the “enjoyment” of tens hundreds or thousands may
be broken. And it will be his fault. So the sound guy stays at his post until
the moment has passed, until everyone has come up for prayer, until the
minister has called the meeting to a close, until everyone has left and the
background music has stopped, the sound guy stays.
Now don’t get me wrong, sound guys know this, we know that
in taking the job we must give up certain things. But it accoutred to me that
perhaps the sound guy misses out sometimes and this is what was pointed out to
me at the camp I was on. We did the worship, the speaker said his bit, we
entered a time of extended worship and genral prayer for everyone. But then the
speaker made the call for me to change to pre-recorded music and said that he
would wait for as long as anyone who had not yet received pray that wanted it,
needed him to wait. So I finished up – muted the instruments and mics, the
speaker was no longer using his mic and I let the music play.
I wen and sat down the front and just listened, the speaker
came to me after a few others and said, among other things, that one of the
reasons that he had made the offer in such a way was specifically for me. So I
could be released from my duty and come and receive, and for once be without
care. It was then that I realised that this was the first time in my capacity
as church sound guy that someone other than another sound guy who knew the
commitment to the job that we have had done something like this for me.
I was massively humbled by this man and the care he had
taken for a stranger, not a member of his church, not an old friend, but for a
sound guy who had been behind the sound desk for 3 days at a random camp he was
speaking at.
So next time you have an altar call at your church, or next
time the worship goes long or perhaps even just the next time that you didn’t
notice anything wrong, thank the sound guy, thank the lights person or the guy
on words, thank the lead singer, or the keyboardist who played for the extra 20
minutes while you were receiving.
I’m not saying we need it, or that we expect it, but it’s
nice every once in a while to know that someone else notices that we are not
just in the service of God, but we are also in the service of you.
