AUMC AV Blog

First, let me say that I should be getting to sleep right now, and I pray that God will see this time writing this post as a sacrifice, and that he would reward me with rest. =: >

Second, for your consideration (not only because it is a cool scripture, but because it is the scripture that I was reading that made me get up to write this post): Ephesians 6:10-20

OK, on to business. I have been thinking a lot about the new tech team, and specifically how I am going to lead the new tech team. A general idea has been beating around the bushes, and tonight it cleared up: I don't want to just lead a bunch of guys into working perfectly as an AV team. Yes, leading worship is a large goal that this team has, but I am now convinced that this is not what God is calling me to have as my main goal.

I believe that God is calling me to minister to the people in the tech team. And I don't mean "minister" like a pastor does, or "minister" like an accountability partner does. I feel that God is calling me to help people focus on God. Too often I see teams in churches get the job done, but not much more. For example, every Sunday morning at AUMC, long before any service starts, everyone involved in worship (IE: the staff) gets together and goes over the services; who is doing what, the topic of the day, any special announcements that need to be made, etc.. And then they pray.

This weekly meeting is effective because it gets things done. I realized that every Sunday our tech team will need a similar meeting to cover similar (but media focused) topics. But I don't want it to be a simple quick meeting; I feel like there is an opportunity to do more. See, in the staff meeting, everyone there is on staff and knows their parts well, but my volunteer team will be much less focused and aimed, ready to fire on all cylinders (sorry about the mixed metaphors).

Before I go on, let me backtrack a moment. As all three readers of this blog well know, we have been working on the AV system in the new building, getting things ready. About a week ago some painters were going though the building, re-painting all of the door frames. We were working in the booth that day, so we were constantly going in and out of the booth. If you have seen pictures of the booth or have been on site, you know that there are several steps right inside the doorway to the booth, so as you are walking out of the booth it is very natural and often necessary to put your hands on the top of the door frame to steady yourself. If you can't see where this is going, you need to go back to 6th grade: yes, we now have not one, but two lovely handprints forever embossed on our door frame. (And from two different people, neither one me, I might add.)

Anywho, the painted-on-handprints led us to start joking about football stadiums that have sayings over doorways, so that as players walk through the doorway they see the saying and reach up and slap it. We decided that we needed to put a sign over the door that people would see every time they left the booth, because they are already putting their hands up to touch the door frame.

When we were talking about it that day, I took it as a joke; but the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. I like the idea of having something (probably a scripture) there to remind people of our purpose, our reason for being here (both specifically volunteering at the church, and our reason for being here on Earth). The more I thought about it, the less I could narrow down what I wanted to put up there. I soon had the idea of every week having a different scripture, just to give volunteers something to think about and to help them stay focused. I took it one step further: I was thinking that it would be a good idea for, every Sunday morning, before any service, us to get together as a tech team and first read over the scripture of the week, then pray. At that point, we could have our tech meeting, I would tell them what they needed to know for the services.

OK, bringing the two halves of this post together: I again took it one step further. The following is my hair-brained idea. It is the ramblings of a brain that needs sleep, but here goes: The two tech volunteers and I show up at the same time, probably at 7:45. I go to the 7:45 staff meeting, while the volunteers turn on the system and get everything ready. At 8:00 (or whenever the staff meeting gets out), I grab the two (or however many there are) volunteers and we head into a conference room (that is, if we can find an open one). In the room, apart from the hustle-and-bustle of everything else, we would have a 5 minute "Mini Bible Study." It wouldn't be in-depth or profound, but it would be enough to help people focus on WHY we are here volunteering, on HOW we can serve God, on WHO we are serving. (The studies would not be geared for these specific topics, those are the reasons for the study.) After the study, which would focus on the scripture that is hanging over the sound booth door, we would pray, go over anything about the service that needs to get covered, then at 8:10 head to the booth for final prep. This would give us plenty of time before our 8:30 service to have things ready to go.

Yes, I know that taking 10 minutes of busy time could be a bad thing, but I think that having volunteers (and of course myself) focused on God BEFORE we start leading worship for others could be an amazing tool to help us be focused and ready to glorify God.

Is this a good idea, or just a waste of precious time? I love to hear any and all feedback on all of my posts. =: >

Matthew