The Production Debacle
Watched the Apple WWDC Keynote yesterday with Steve Jobs presenting the new iPhone 4, and he had some trouble. In the church production world, the guy running things behind the scenes would have been called out, asked why he let that happen, and then told when he messes up- there are souls at stake (I used to think this way, not so much anymore). Why is that? Jon Acuff wrote a funny post about how to get out of troubles like this when they happen at church. Check it out here.
I know we shoot for excellence on Sundays @ Forefront- But, what if something goes wrong? Is it really the end of the world? Some of the most impacting messages have been the ones I thought bombed. The times I talk about from things I thought were funny at church, are drum shields falling on drummers, feedback that sounded like a the space ship from Close Encounters landing, people tripping on cords on the stage and turning it into a silly dance, etc.
It’s those moments that many production teams and leaders cringe over, that I say we embrace. Things happen. We mess up. Things don’t always work out. 9 times out of 10, it’s an accident. From the stage I tell people “God’s got this.” The big stuff. The small stuff. The stuff you wreck. The stuff that’s a total accident.
I would contend that the church is simply an extension of our personal lives. We come together broken and wrecked, to worship a perfect God, and things will happen. Good or bad- God has the power over it in the end. For me it’s a trust issue. Do I trust that God can move in spite of a light failure or a botched transition? Can he break the hearts of people without smooth sermon slides or when someone messes up the words to a song? Yes. Yes He can, and He does.
I love the illustration Jon used in his post about the early followers of Jesus and if they held to this production debacle type of thinking:
“I can’t imagine Peter ever leaning over and telling one of the other disciples, ‘I’ve got to be honest with you, the acoustics of this particular hill Jesus is speaking from are lousy. And I don’t know how we’re going to feed everyone here. The production values of this event are horrible. Amateur hour.’”
I’m learning more and more to trust Jesus in the little things. I used to put a huge emphasis on the “production debacle.” Personally and professionally. I didn’t want to appear unprepared. I never wanted people to think excellence wasn’t important to me. But, in the process I started serving excellence instead of Jesus. I focused on being perfect instead of being His.
It’s a fine line, but I challenge you- don’t get so caught up in the details of life, having everything perfect and in line, that you miss the point of this…
We’re forgiven.
He loves us.
Let’s love others- even through our fumbles and screw ups.
Jason *over and out*
