We have been having some great discussions on our team about the purpose of production in the local church, especially our local church, and in the course of the conversation, I have realized that there is quite a lot I take for granted in the expectations of production.
As I have been thinking about it, we have been talking about two very different, yet very interconnected ideas about production. In a very simple way, it can be boiled down into 2 types: production support, and production [insert a word that means “to enhance”, but sounds better than enhancement].
At the most basic level, to do production with excellence at the baseline, we are called to support what is happening on our platforms. This means mics are on when they are supposed to be, lights are pointed at the right things and the correct graphics are on the screens at the right time…very objective stuff.
So many churches I have been to, or even events at the local high school, don’t even reach this basic level of production. While production support is the baseline for what should be expected, more often than not, even that isn’t achieved. Without this baseline covered, how can we hope for people attending our services to be able to focus on the message of what we are supporting?
Production support is just the starting point for an amazing technical arts ministry at your church, but to fulfill our role as technical artists, we need to start by nailing production support. Am I covering the baseline? Are you covering the baseline?
Obviously, I haven’t talked about [word that means “to enhance”]. I’ll unpack that next time. Meanwhile, if you have a word suggestion, I’m all ears.
