Ch 4: Supporting Services
In the last lesson, we discussed navigating changes from the Worship Leader. The other type of changes we have to navigate is when a factor out of our control forces us to pivot or adapt. Examples of these may be when tracks stop working, the in-ears pack for our drummer dies, or a guest preacher is not in the building yet and we need to extend the set. As much as we have processes and systems in place to minimize these things, we need to be as prepared as possible if/when they happen. Most of our MDs who have been on for conferences know that all three of those examples can happen within the same day. A great MD is like a captain who has to navigate rough waters. As a church and as Christians, we’re called not to back down when a storm is brewing, let’s reflect that in our musical leadership as well!
Seeing From A Distance
Throughout the Bible, there are many examples of great men and women of God who see things from a distance. In the story of the Prodigal Son, the Father sees the son returning from a distance. In Gen 22, Abraham sees the place of worship (Mt Moriah) from a distance. In 1 Kings 18, Elijah’s servant sees the raincloud in the distance representing the mighty work of God Elijah had been believing for. As Christians, we’re called to see from a distance, which couldn’t be more true in MDing! As MDs, we’re not just called to see the stop light we’re at; we’re called to see the next three or four down the road, anticipating traffic and debris so we can pivot and plot the safest route to our destination.
A great MD will look at the service well in advance to identify potential issues and have a pre-plan set for that situation. For instance, If you have a WL rostered who has a tendency to get off track, have a plan to get back on track or flow on a drummers click. If multiple new elements are added to a service, ask clarifying questions in the runsheet meeting to understand the vibe and flow. As much as we can, let’s stop hiccups from becoming emergencies by seeing them from miles off!
Responding vs Reacting
As we spoke about a few lessons ago, the tone of your voice will be reflected in your team’s headspace. It’s important to respond calmly to the situation instead of emotionally reacting to it on any level. Our response aims to avoid any heaviness or unease on stage. Returning to the rough waters metaphor, a crew naturally reflects their captain's anxiety or calmness levels.
Decisiveness
We have to understand that even the greatest MDs will have to navigate changes in real-time that they have never seen before. It’s important to make sure that while we’re weighing options, we don’t lock ourselves up out of indecisiveness. Know that, as an MD, you have been entrusted and empowered to make decisions when there are no easy answers. Having a decisive, good answer is better than a sluggish but perfect one.
That said, if the WL makes a call on how to navigate the change, follow it and if you disagree with the call, you can debrief after the service. It’s very possible they knew something you didn’t about the situation.
Debrief
Once the service is over, it’s important to debrief what happened to make sure we can learn from the situation and be even more equipped to handle a similar situation next time!