Working or Worship

[samchuck]

Reading the threads here made me start to think about my Sunday mornings. I leave the house an hour early. I get to the church turn on the computers,projectors,cameras,mics,soundboard and the screens. Lately I have been setting up the Easy Worship program while the choir is warming up.
Usually when everything is set up I will have a couple minutes before the service starts.

Once the service starts things are pretty hectic until about an hour afterward. During this time,I am pushing buttons and making adjustments constantly. I do sing along some times but I have to be careful because I tend to forget to advance to the next verse if I start getting into the music to much.Even in prayer time I am prepping the recording equipment to start soon for the sermon.
Once the sermon starts, between the the EW and camera I am pretty occupied. At least the sound at this point is only the pastor lapel mic and does not require anything until the end of the sermon.

With all that going on I wonder if I am worshiping the Lord. Often times can not remember what the songs were and some times the point in the sermon.

What are your thoughts and experience when "working" during worship?

[waynehoskins]

Clearly you need more people. Let me suggest starting with audio, projection, camera. No lighting op? I'd suggest that's something you need to add before you broadcast, and may imply some lighting system upgrades you might need before then, but that's tangential to this topic.

Audio and projection would be called at the same time as the band, if not before, so they can do their prep work of soundchecking, getting lyrics in and rehearsing them, etc. Camera ops could be called later at this point.

Service can be a form of worship, but it's very different from what everyone else experiences. What you get out of it will be different from what they do, since you have duties and they don't. This is a big reason many people recommend setting up a rotation of technical people so that some of the time they can be only participants. Or find another service somewhere, perhaps a Sunday night or midweek, that you can attend without working.

Some people prefer working. I do, and one of my projectionists does. But that's a personal thing, and I realize most people aren't that way.

Some of the Sunday morning time crunch can be alleviated with a midweek music rehearsal, with the relevant technical people in attendance. Lyrics can be entered and rehearsed, a mix can be set up (and monitors as well), so you're all ahead of the curve on Sunday. The band also has a chance to rehearse new music and all with less time crunch.

We unfortunately don't have such a rehearsal; it's all from 8:30 to 9:30 on Sunday morning (with first service downbeat at 9:30). For me as audio mixer, it's basically nonstop from 8:00 until the first sermon at about 10:00. Everything's done at 12:30, and I'm usually able to leave by 1:00.

[petereit]

LOL!! That's why I took the initiative to podcast our sermons -- so *I* could listen to them during the week and catch everything I missed.

[[Admin] osborn4]

I have a unique gift in that I can worship and hit the next key at the same time. I realize that not everyone is gifted in that manner.

But I still feel the need to get out at worship other places. Sometimes, I go to a Saturday night service at a different venue. I just got back from the Gurus of Tech conference which included times of worship that were a wonderful break. So look for those opportunities.

But it does sound like you need to expand your team so you can rotate on a regular basis. Even with our smallish team, I generally only have to run the computer one or two weekends a month.

[Esoteric]

Yeah, "work" and "worship" are not mutually exclusive.

[prochlea]

I have a hard time enjoying the music when I'm running lyrics - but I generally feel more into worship when I'm running FOH then when I'm out in the congregation.

In your case, I think the biggest issue is not enough help back there. There's no way I could run FOH (and actually have things sound good) and at the same time run the lyrics - let alone the camera or lights. You need one person per station, otherwise the quality of everything suffers - not to mention the stress you endure.

At my church - we have to set everything up each sunday morning - and while I'm there for nearly 7 hrs on a Sunday, I only feel stressed out when I've been short on help and had to make up the difference by working really hard myself. If I really push it - I can generally do the work of at least two of my mid-level volunteers - but it really wears on you. Getting more help will do wonders for your stress level

[yagabu]

A while ago someone posted what is worship. Basically answering your question. If i can find it I will post it, but basically it said any service, even if it is your job to run the sound or the projector or the camera is your act of worship. Worship doesn't have to be singing, listening to a sermon, ect... it could be serving as an usher, greeter, prayer partner, ect..... remember God sees our heart, he is not looking at what we do. If serving is in your heart, then you are worshiping in your own way.
I have been in your position as the only person running everything, so I can understand how you feel. And I wondered the same thing till I came across the list of worship.
Keep the faith, pray and God will provide the people to help you.

[rjwalker]

FWIW: It seems to me that "worship" has many facets: moving into right relationship with God; singing his praises; learning from the message; becoming the body of Christ in community with the others in congregation during the service hours.....

When I was leading the media team, I found that I was missing the regular community and communion aspect of attending services, and I found it hard to even concentrate on the message, even when I took a week off from the tech area.

To fill this void, I started attending another church's Sunday evening services, and finally transitioned entirely to that church, but have stayed clear of any formal commitment to tech work during services.

[WORDpictures]

For me, worship is through contributing to the service through tech and media. I've been in just a few services the past several years where I "sat" and it wasn't a very worshipful position for me as I know serving through media is my calling. As you describe, this support ministry does hold the danger of becoming mechanical. I'm responsible for AV preparation and operate the sound board during services but appreciate help from volunteers to cue lyrics/projection. There's nothing wrong with a break - but it definitely sounds like you need some assistance.

[syntaxterror]

I presonally like to hit the saturday night service at another campus. This allows me to devote sunday just to serve. I really love to visit other churches too. I call it intelligence ministry, but it helps me to stay fresh. And, they won't let me touch anything.

[petereit]

Originally Posted by syntaxterror

And, they won't let me touch anything.

There's a LOT of freedom in that!!

[wogster]

Originally Posted by samchuck

Reading the threads here made me start to think about my Sunday mornings. I leave the house an hour early. I get to the church turn on the computers,projectors,cameras,mics,soundboard and the screens. Lately I have been setting up the Easy Worship program while the choir is warming up.
Usually when everything is set up I will have a couple minutes before the service starts.

Once the service starts things are pretty hectic until about an hour afterward. During this time,I am pushing buttons and making adjustments constantly. I do sing along some times but I have to be careful because I tend to forget to advance to the next verse if I start getting into the music to much.Even in prayer time I am prepping the recording equipment to start soon for the sermon.
Once the sermon starts, between the the EW and camera I am pretty occupied. At least the sound at this point is only the pastor lapel mic and does not require anything until the end of the sermon.

With all that going on I wonder if I am worshiping the Lord. Often times can not remember what the songs were and some times the point in the sermon.

What are your thoughts and experience when "working" during worship?

It depends, if you are paid staff, then like the Pastor, Sunday is a work day, you should have a day off during the week.

If you are a volunteer, what you need to be careful of, is that you don't get spread too thin. The most hats anyone should wear is two, because if you try to do too much, you will quickly burn-out and either quit church entirely, or you will change churches, simply to get away from the work. I usually end up running the sound board and the projection system. If they want me to do something else, they either need to find someone to take over my duties, or they get one of these -> ....

Ideally there should be a sound technician, a video operator and a camera operator, unfortunately churches tend to be short of three things: time, money & volunteers.