How well do you learn from your mistakes? How well do you learn from your successes? We often learn from our experiences through repetition, but we can accelerate the positive (and negative) input by being intentional about growing and improving.
Here at Church Production, and Worship Facilities Magazines, we're deep into the planning stages of the upcoming WFX 2011 event in Dallas. Over the past seven years of hosting WFX with our partners at EH Events, we've learned a lot about what works and what doesn't. In the past, several presenters have done classes on "Lesson's Learned" where they chronicle the good, the bad and the ugly about church projects where they've been involved.
Yet, whether you are a technical director, worship leader or pastor, too often, if we fail at something new, we take it as a sign that we're going down a wrong path. If our attempt at a new activity fails, whether it be a new set design, a new lighting transition, trying a new effect on the audio or video board, or even assigning a new person to a given task or position, too often our first reaction is to retreat to a "known" position --- to revert back to the way we've always done it. But this is not the path to growth.
Formulas, processes and procedures are important --- dare I say vital --- for staying organized and on track, but new ideas, experiments are what will cause you and your team to grow. Sure you might fail. The new idea might even cause a disaster, but if you can foster a team environment that encourages new ideas, encourages healthy risk taking, of being entrepreneurial, I think you'll see the Lord will bless that.
Now that the holidays are behind us (Christmas and Easter can bring a difficult one-two punch to a church technical team), take the time to evaluate what worked, what didn't --- but do so with an eye promoting newness and change, not one that solely relies on retreating back to the safe position of past successes. You can't duplicate the past, but you can learn from it and use those lessons learned to build a new, more successful future.
Best Regards,
