Sound Standards

I went to school for Recording Arts and Music Business. I’ve led worship for a long time, but I am not a great sound person. But one of the things I have realized as a worship leader is that sound falls under my umbrella of responsibility, whether I am serving with a highly-trained, paid sound person, or an untrained volunteer, I cannot be hands-off with sound. Sound is critical to a service.

Like many things, sound has best practices: how to set up a system, the levels of volume needed in a space, and the kinds of equipment needed for a specific context. There are a myriad of resources available online for technical aspects of running sound that I have found helpful. Besides general training and knowledge of a particular soundboard, I have found the most helpful aspect of equipping sound people is setting sound standards.

Setting up sound standards feels like trying to help people live by the spirit of the law rather than the letter of the law. Because sound is as artistic as it is technical, I want to make space for our sound guys to bring a level of artistry to their craft, knowing that our musicians rotate and therefore the sound is produced with in itself never be ‘standard.’ Sound standards also allow space for a specific congregation and the direction of the church as a whole. A few of my sound standards:

I want the volume loud enough that people need to sing out to be able to hear themselves sing, but not so loud they cannot hear one another.

I want the vocalist leading a song to be the loudest in the mix.

I want the instruments to be defined, but well-balanced without one being louder than any other through the entirety of a set.

The instrument driving a song needs to be what is heard most clearly.

I want the sound to serve the song and the people, that might mean it needs to be louder or quieter depending on the tone of the service, the size, and make-up of the band, or the size of the congregation.

We are aiming for consistency over individuality when it comes to the mix.

Whether on a platform or behind a soundboard, we are on the same team. One of the ways I have learned to push toward unity, and toward collaboration has been spending time with a sound person before rehearsal to walk through the order of service, the dynamics I am hoping to create, who is on the team, and any pieces I would like them to be aware of moving into the service.

What would you add?

Technology In The Gathering

Last week I wrote about what makes a good song.

Production is important in our corporate gatherings but it cannot be paramount. Technology is a beautiful tool, but a terrible master.

I love that we can project lyrics and see the faces of our brothers and sisters as we sing together. I love that we can use sound to amplify a room, instead of having to shout over one another. I love that lighting can illumine and focus our attention as we worship. I love that we can meet indoors at temperatures that are comfortable in the heat of Summer as well as the cold of Winter. Yes, technology is an incredible resource and tool. But technology can also have a mind of it’s own. Malfunctioning or breaking without warning in a moment. Does this mean we should avoid technology all together? Of course not. We receive and use technology in the corporate gathering as a gift of God.

In a similar way to what makes a good song - stripped down to all it’s simplicity - I think we should consider what makes the best use of technology in the corporate gathering. If our corporate worship is completely hindered or halted by a technology failure, is it worship that we are leading, or an experience?

Matt Redman shares the inspiration behind his song ‘Heart of Worship’ in this video. Maybe we do not need to remove the entire sound system from our church for a season, but perhaps it is always worth evaluating our use and reliance of technology as gift or god.

Entertainment | Worship

Last week I wrote about dealing with blank faces. How outward expressions are not always an indication of an internal reality. And how worship leaders may be tempted to try and elicit a response from those gathered corporately. As I was writing that post, I was reminded of this quote from one of my favorite authors:

’The church that can’t worship must be entertained. And men who can’t lead a church to worship must provide the entertainment.’ - A.W. Tozer

Maybe like me, when you think entertainment the first thing that comes to mind is high production value. A very attractional church model: the band is good-looking, the lights, loops, and lasers rival what could be seen at a mainstream concert, and the music is highly produced, and executed flawlessly. This is a service that is more concerned with playing than participation. And to some extent, this model does represent a form of entertainment over leading in worship. But to define ‘entertainment’ this narrowly would be unfair. Because at the core, entertainment is more concerned about passive engagement than high production value.

Regardless of the production value, we entertain rather than lead worship when we are not concerned about engaging our hearts and minds to behold and respond to God. We entertain when we get up and sing, rather than lead people to offer their bodies as a living sacrifice. We entertain rather than lead when we are more concerned about being in our own private worship moment with God, instead of inviting the congregation to engage through song and Scripture. We entertain rather than lead when we choose songs and keys because they sound good, not when they serve the people well. We entertain rather than lead when we are only concerned for smashing a service, rather than deeply forming the people of God. We entertain rather than lead when we do not understand what it is to lead God’s people in corporate worship.

People will default to entertainment because worship is costly. People will default to entertainment because they do not understand that true worship is the right response of our whole lives to God’s revelation of Himself. People will default to entertainment because they have not been led, truly led, by worship leaders who desire to provide the words and environment to respond to the beauty of God as revealed in His Son, His character, His Word, His creation, and His people.

If we want to be worship leaders who lead people in worship rather than provide them entertainment, we must first be worshipers before we are worship leaders. We must be led by the Holy Spirit, to behold Jesus, and to live our whole lives in worshipful response to Him.