One of the first pastors I worked with used to say, “serving in church is a grind, and it’s not for everybody”. As we recover from the post-Easter-hangover, I thought it would be a good idea to reflect on the grind and discuss how we can protect ourselves from two of the greatest enemies of ministry; complacency and burn-out.
My ministry tribe consists mostly of audio engineers, production teams, musicians, and technical and creative directors. But I think many of my observations and remedies may also resonate with other staff or high capacity volunteers serving in the modern church.
Before we get too self-involved and buy a cake for the pity-party, let’s all admit there are much harder ways to make a living than working in church production. I am extremely grateful that I get to do this. Most churches I’ve worked with are filled with wonderful people, have great equipment, and work very hard to provide healthy environments. Let’s never lose sight of the fact that it’s a privilege to serve in ministry. For many of us it’s a calling.
Anyone who has spent much time in ministry can attest that the practice of work-life-balance, must be applied differently in church-world. The best description I’ve heard and experienced is the Rhythm, or Season of ministry-life-balance. There will be seasons of intense daily/hourly commitments, (Easter, Christmas, new building launches etc.) followed by other seasons of simpler routines, and less stressful workloads.
Much has been written about church staff culture and protecting yourself and family from unhealthy workplace habits. It seems the majority of that content is directed towards pastoral staff, which is not a bad thing. But as tech people, we tend to roll our eyes and think to ourselves, “Yeah, that’s great for you, but…Sunday’s coming”.
From an audio engineer’s perspective, I’ve seen how the weekly grind, punctuated by high impact seasons, can take its toll on a person. As leaders, there are systems we can implement to keep our teams healthy and fresh. As individuals, there are some steps we can take to protect ourselves.
Give your ears a rest
For Front of House (FOH) and Broadcast engineers, it’s important to protect your ears in the short and long term. When mixing FOH during Sunday morning rehearsal, choose your house volume strategically. Of course you’ll want to dial in your mix at normal service volume at some point, but if the worship team is just getting started, or working out parts, keep your house volume at a reasonable level. Remember there are other team members working in the auditorium preparing for the day as well. Especially if you mix multiple services, there’s no need to blow it out first thing in the morning.
For Broadcast engineers in an isolated studio, if you’re not already doing so, start the practice of mixing at a relatively low level. Most of us enjoy mixing louder than we should. Every studio environment is different, but as a general rule if you can carry on a normal conversation, and still be heard over the music, you’re on the right track.
Whether you mix FOH or Broadcast, the old saying, “Sunday starts on Saturday” is good advice. Don’t blow your ears out at a Saturday night concert or use earbuds or headphones leading up to Sunday.
If you’re mixing FOH for multiple services on a weekend, try to recruit an A2 to fill in for you during spoken word content for at least one service, to give your ears a break.
A fresh perspective from the outside
In the short term, a simple occasional break in the routine can be somewhat refreshing. A week off? Great! Two consecutive weeks off? Even better! Of course a consistent, liberal, guilt-free vacation policy is always healthy.
In addition to time-off, having consistent interaction with other churches is a great way to keep a fresh perspective. There is comfort in knowing that you’re not alone. You may be able to share wisdom and experience with churches that aren’t as technically advanced as yours. And of course, visiting churches with more sophisticated tech ministries can be very inspiring.
Wherever you are in your technical journey, there’s always someone who can benefit from your past experience, and we can all learn from those ahead of us. I encourage you to become both a teacher and a student in your local tech community.
Invite an engineer from another church to mix from time-to-time. Having a fresh set of ears mix on your system may expose you to a different thought process and reveal some previously unnoticed blind-spots.
Sometimes a simple visit to a different worship environment makes us appreciate our home turf. If you make yourself known and available to help your local community, it’s much easier to find help from that community when you are the one in need. There are lots of great social media networking groups. But the real refreshment comes from authentic human interaction.
Experiment with the gear
Some churches are very well equipped for this while others may not be. While I am a proponent of the “if it’s not broke don’t fix it” philosophy, it is easy to become complacent when we find something that works. What I’m suggesting is, within the parameters of what you already own, experimenting with subtle tweaks can be a great way to infuse some excitement into the grind.
Challenge yourself; If you are a heavy WAVEs user, try a season without plugins. If you have been using the same mic-ing techniques on drums, try something different; an XY overhead pattern for example. If you’ve been using the same vocal processing chain for a while, change them for something different. Most of us have been using the same 2 or 3 reliable vocal effects for a very long time. If you’ve never used “scenes” or “snapshots” on your mixer, learn how to use those features an implement them into your workflow.
Between your consoles, stage set-up, microphones and PA system there are multiple areas to find fresh inspiration.
Move the chess pieces around
Similar to our mixing styles, we can get very comfortable in our current roles. It’s very common for the worship team to feel safe when their “main” FOH guy is mixing. He’s earned the spot and proven himself a trustworthy teammate, time and time again. But that hard-earned trust can become a double-edged sword. Odds are, your main guy wants to be in that A1 seat (FOH engineer) most of the time. As leaders, we need to protect our most-valued human resources, even when they may not see the need. It takes discipline and intentionality to step out of our comfort zones to build a healthy audio team.
Depending on how many weekly services your church has, your main FOH engineer needs a weekend out of the booth every 3 to 4 weeks. This will give his ears and mind some rest, and will give someone else an opportunity to earn the team’s trust.
A local church I’ve worked with has a full-time audio director who mixes FOH 3 or 4 weekends a month. A second engineer also mixes broadcast 3 or 4 times a month. Often, when the audio director takes his weekend out of the booth, the broadcast engineer fills the FOH position and another engineer does the broadcast. Everyone gets plenty of “seat-time” to develop their skills, without burning out, the audio director gets to mentor other sound techs serving in other venues, and the worship team enjoys the consistency of a reliable rotation.
Moving from broadcast to FOH or vice versa takes people out of their typical comfort zones, but in doing so it helps keep the team fresh.
Don’t waste effort
I worked with a church for a season with a relatively small stage. There weren’t many options for setting everything up. One of the few things that made a slight difference was moving the drum set from one side of the stage to the other. There was a large center screen that could not be blocked. I don’t even remember who thought of it, but for some reason it became routine to re-locate the drums to the opposite side of the stage every few weeks. This was not just a drum set. It was a full enclosure that took 4 or 5 of us to schlep back and forth. It was portable, but only in the sense that it was on wheels, because they didn’t actually roll. In retrospect that was a completely wasted effort. I’m pretty sure no one ever said, “I really got to understand Jesus better, now that those drums have been moved”.
When we’re trying to prevent complacency and burn-out, lets make our work mean something. A lot of little things matter, and a lot don’t.
Please let me know how your church is protecting your ears and hearts. Feel free to contact me at rcochran@worshipfacility.com.
And don’t forget to listen!