I’m not sure what this even has to do with production in the local church, but I was so moved this morning listening to one of my favorite musically pieces by Mozart, the 3rd movement of his “Gran Partita” Serenade, that I felt like there was something to write about.
I am a fairly even-keeled person. I don’t get very emotional one way or another. That said, listening to Mozart can fill me as nothing else can. I don’t cry at movies, but watching the movie “Amadeus” gets me…at the same spot every time. I have the movie memorized, so I know it is coming, and it still hits me as if I’ve never seen it before. When I visited Mozart’s birthplace I was overwhelmed by the reality that the violin I was looking at, helped to create some of the music I love the most.
This all leads me to 2 very different thoughts.
What inspires you?
If it isn’t obvious yet, I am inspired by Mozart’s music. It feeds my soul as very few other things can. I am listening to it right now, in fact. I love having it on in the background most of the time, and the way that every so often I get caught up in a perfect melody, just for a few seconds. It is enough to help re-energize me for another stretch of work. Without this in my life, I am not sure how I would keep going each day.
What inspires you? What do you have in your life that helps to lift you out of the everyday and help you to see beauty? It doesn’t have to be music, it could be going for a run, or joining a sports team, or serving at the local food pantry.
This looks different for all of us, but it is equally essential for all of us.
We facilitate inspiration
As technical artists in the local church, much of our job is to help facilitate art that is happening on our stages; to help it inspire people. Our congregation isn’t inspired by the great mic’ing you’ve done on the kick drum, or the artistic camera shot during the instrumental breaks or the lighting effect during the bridge of that one song. All of this is important and eventually adds up to helping to create environments where people can be inspired. Where their hearts can be deeply moved. (I stole much of this language from Troy Bartholomew, the soon-to-be TD of our weekend services.)
When I am being moved by Mozart’s music, I am not caught up in the technology of it, all that is transparent. Everything is out of the way, allowing me to get straight to the beauty of the music.
In the same way, the technology that we use should be transparent enough that our congregations can get immediately to whatever will potentially move them.
Isaiah 57:14 is a verse our production team has talked about many times. It says:
“Build up, build up, prepare the way,
remove every obstruction from my people’s way.”
Let’s remove the obstacles so that people in our churches can be moved and inspired.
