In a recent post on my blog, I talked about how we being excellent in each tiny detail adds up to overall excellence. You can't have a great event without taking care of all the small things. If you look around at many live events or events on TV, you'll notice that these things happen all the time. There are tons of amazing technical artists taking care of the smallest details so that the event happens without us even noticing how production is playing its part. At the least, we should be striving for this kind of excellence in production.
But I don't think that's enough. For those of us doing production work in the local church, or even in my recent case, being a part of a German/American production crew to pull off the Germany Leadership Conference, there has to be more to it than just nailing all the production details. So what separates our production from any other?
For those of us doing production in the local church, we have the opportunity to use our art to advance a pretty amazing purpose: spreading the gospel message of Christ. However, this is only an external difference between doing production in church or being a part of a production at the auto show. But this still doesn't begin to define what it means to practice the technical arts as a Christ follower.
While we are taking care of every little detail, while we are striving for excellence, how are we treating each other?
Excellence in production is pursued everywhere, so that can't be the answer. Whether you are turning a mic on for a pastor or a spokesperson for the car company, that doesn't define the difference either.
Jesus summed it up pretty well in John 13:34-35 ...
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
While we are taking care of every little detail, while we are striving for excellence, how are we treating each other? While we are striving for excellence, how are we interacting with each other?
When someone asks for something at the last minute, what is your knee-jerk reaction?
Jesus said we wouldn't be different because we just happened to be doing production in a church. He said we'd be different because people would see how we love each other as we are doing production.
When things get intense during rehearsal, how are you responding to those around you? When mistakes happen, how do you handle yourself with volunteers? When someone asks for something at the last minute, what is your knee-jerk reaction?
While the task of production is important, if we aren't nailing the details, loving each other isn't going to be the answer for doing great production in your church. But if you are killing the production parts, but steam rolling over people, you're totally missing what it means to follow Christ as a technical artist. You must be doing both.
