By Matt Hemmele
When I was first getting started in my career, the church I was working at had a couple of work trucks for hauling dirt, gear, supplies, and just general work truck tasks.
My boss at the time asked me to grab the truck and go pick up some supplies from the hardware store for a stage design coming up. This would have been no problem except the truck had a manual transmission. My boss, upon learning that I did not know how to drive stick shift, gave me some really great advice “everyone should know how to drive a stick, you never know when you will be behind the wheel of one”.
He then proceeded to teach me how to drive it. I was clunky at first, definitely killed the engine trying to start at too high of rpm, but after a dozen or so times, I was able to shift smoothly between the gears. Over time shifting between gears became second nature, in fact, it became fun to drive.
I have had a lot of moments over the course of my career when I would think back to that old work truck and first learning how to smoothly move through the gears, careful not to start too quickly, shifting at the correct speed, not letting off the clutch too abruptly. There is a feeling, a connection, something to be in tune with, something you need to actively pay attention to and react upon that isn’t formulaic. A worship experience is a living, breathing, and ever changing entity that we need to be in tune with.
There were three main pieces to that process of learning how to drive that old work truck; the explanation of the mechanics, the low risk trial and error, followed by feedback. I would like to see about taking that very practical process of learning how to drive a stick shift and see if we are able to apply those to how to create a worship experience with smooth transitions.
To the average attender, I would imagine the number of resources put into planning a worship experience is completely lost on them, and for the most part, that is the goal. Much like creating a smooth ride in the truck, we want to create a smooth ride for our attendees so that as we move through the service, the transitions seem invisible.
Explanation of the Mechanics
Most churches have some level of planning that goes into their Sunday services. This may range from the lead pastor simply jotting the service down on a piece of paper, day of, all the way to an entire department with complex systems working across multiple teams planning out weeks or months in advance.
The process can look different, however the underlying mechanics of it are essentially the same, what is the order of the service? If I were to shove the gear shifter into fourth, turn on the ignition and slam on the gas, there is a high chance that either a whole lot of bad things would happen or nothing at all, I honestly have never tried that, but the point is that there is an order of operations to move the truck forward. It is the same idea in a worship service, prior to Sunday there should be an explanation of what it is we are going to be doing so that everybody is on the same page.
Low Risk Trial and Error
When I first got behind the wheel of that old work truck, I didn’t immediately take it out onto the highway or into town and figure it out in a high risk environment.
Instead we took laps in our parking lot, where there were no cars and most importantly nobody to laugh at me when I inevitably killed the engine taking the clutch out too quickly. It is so incredibly important to not only do a full run through of the entire worship experience during the week, but technical rehearsals and workshops are incredibly valuable.
Aside from a dress rehearsal there are really three types of rehearsals that will not only identify rough spots, but also help create transitions that are intentional and invisible.
- Workshop – These are really useful for drilling down into either an element, a song, or even a larger segment of the overall service. Additionally, these may include light programming, audio needs, as well as video support, however, the key element going into these workshops is knowing this is where we will be figuring it out together.
- Technical Rehearsal – How many times has someone walked on stage and the sound engineer is in panic mode trying to find out what mic they are on, or a host throws to a video that the video director did not know about. Technical rehearsals iron out all of those details, they force producers and directors to think through all of those transitions, who needs to be where, what videos need to be played when, do we have the correct lyrics loaded into the computer, does the vocalist know where to stand for their spotlight cue…etc. Technical rehearsals are for critical systems and operators in order to ensure all of the technology is not only fully operational but is configured properly to execute that specific service. This is also the time to sort through any technical issues that may arise.
- Run Through – Hearing everyone chime in over comm to confirm they are ready to start run through very much feels like a NASA mission control before a shuttle launch. It is important to treat run through as if it is the real thing as this is when we are putting all of the components together for the first time. The biggest reason for this is to help test “ready for anything” systems. Speaking from a lighting standpoint, there have been times when I am going into a run through hearing an arrangement for the first time or seeing an element for the first time that I did not program lights to. I am not able to simply stop the entire run through and have everyone wait while I program, I need to have some basic busking sequences that I can lean on to get me through those moments.
What are your “ready for anything” systems?
Feedback
Eventually I would have gotten the hang of shifting smoothly between the gears on my own, a critical component of my success was the feedback I would receive after we came to a stop via the brakes or by killing the engine. Rehearsing is where you get the mechanics right, however, the fine-tuning comes in the debrief room. These rooms can be tough places to be as this is where critiques both big and small are made, systems are tested and created, and sometimes the whole service is thrown out and re-built.
The entire goal when walking out of a debrief is to ensure that we are bringing our absolute best going into Sunday morning. Hyperfocus on the details such as; lyric font and size, audio mix in a video, correct language in a graphic, name slides in the correct order, lighting during the sermon, scuffs on stage, water bottles visible, messy cables in camera shots…the list can go on. Our teams are walking out of those rooms with a list of actionable items and additional details to be added, changed, or removed and in some cases re-rehearsed to ensure proper execution and that all the details are accounted for.
Grind the gears in the debrief room so that come Sunday, it’s just smooth shifting from start to finish. Most people may not notice the lighting seamlessly change from one song to the next, or how the band was vamping in the same key as the music bed in the video, or that the cameras cut around a stage transition happening live, or how that new waves plugin gives you a higher gain before feedback ratio, and that is okay.
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as if working for the Lord and not for men…”
– Colossians 3:23
Matt Hemmele is a lighting designer based out of Charlotte, NC, with over 15 years of lighting experience, currently working in the church world as the Broadcast Lighting Designer for Elevation Church. He also is the owner and operator of Mammel LX LLC specializing in lighting and stage design in the house of worship market. Email him at Mammel.Lighting@gmail.com
