I was inspired this week by Dorie Clark's post in the Harvard Business Review on the “5 things you should stop doing in 2012.” It made me curious if there might be a list of things that would be beneficial for church technical teams to consider eliminating in order to make space for better, more effective practices. So I asked some of the most talented church creative and technical leadership that I know, and this is what they had to say…
“For me, the one thing we need to stop doing in 2012 is producing cool stuff because it's cool & impressive. Stop trying to illustrate our coolness and stop trying to impress. Of course, we don't set out with ‘Let's show that we're cool, let's impress people' as our objective. But those desires are undercurrents in our decision-making too often. What is true worship, in our particular context? That should be the undercurrent, the foundation of our decisions related to worship technology in 2012. “ – Constance Stella, Director of Worship, United Methodist Church of the Resurrection, Leawood, Kansas.
“I would say that technicians and technical departments are always looking for the best, most perfect way to do things. This can sometimes take hours, even days to get right. When during the event things will often change and cause perfection to be laid aside in favor of the events flow or the moving of the Holy Spirit. Stopping the pursuit of perfection and changing to the pursuit of excellence in all that we do would certainly reduce stress, hours and allow for techs to focus on what really matters in life. It would also allow us to account for several ways of doing things, instead of the perfect way. “Perfect” typically ends up being “our” way. In the end, excellence means you take what you are given and do it to the best of your ability—five person church or 30,000 person church.” –David Leuschner, Executive Director of Technical Arts, Gateway Church, Southlake, Texas.
“To stop being in such a rush.” --Michael Trent, aka @churchbartender, Birmingham, Alabama.
"Stop trying to solve other people's problems and focus on what I should truly be focusing on. I tend to be overly concerned with how people are going to get their jobs done & it consumes my time. I need to support their goals but not do their work for them." -- Jill S. Gille, Executive Director of Weekend Experiences, Eastside Church, Fullerton, CA
“One thing I plan to stop doing this year is micro-managing our Sunday projections and giving my volunteers more freedom and ownership of the worship gathering experience.” –David Knight, DNAExcelerator, Crosspointe, Carrollton, Texas.
"Possibly sounding cheesy here, but my goal for this year is 'To stop doing and start being.' So many times I get caught up in everything I need to do, check off the list, meet deadlines and lead others I often forget about the people God put in my path. I plan to stop doing and start being who God has called me to be and love others as He does." --Bill Swaringim, Technical Arts Director, The Crossing, Chesterfield, Missouri
As for me, I plan to stop multitasking so that I give more focused attention to meetings, projects, and conversations. I may get less done, but I'm banking that the stuff I do get done will be more meaningful.
