In the service of…

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.