Sunday Challenges

Today, at the church by 7:15 to set up after a wedding. Praise God for servants who went in last night and set up stage and my instrument...heavy, heavy, Roland. Ahh.

But....still missing...the ground plug for my amp. BuZzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Ugh. So, I had to do without. I hate weddings. Not really, but when the stage has to get broken down for pictures and beauty, it's a pain. I can't wait to get into the new multi center...though I have a feeling we may have to break down every single Sunday to keep basketballs from hitting equipment. Joy Joy.

I let in leading the wrong song. Got two switched in my order. Palm Sunday...four baptisms and tons of visitors, the Lord's Supper, following an awesome videography of "Do You Know My Jesus" (by that famous pastor of days past whom I cannot remember to save my life)--no big deal.

I should have re-double checked order. Too much going on. The pastor lost his Bible before the service and I left my order of worship...somewhere.

Then again, sometimes I think our mistakes make people wake up from the "show", to realization that we are real, what we are doing is real and living, authentic, prone to not being all polished up and ready for them to sleep through. We are working hard, and expect them to. Our mistakes reveal that effort sometimes better than a clean set. I think it shocks them back into attention. That's my new theory/inspiration and I'm sticking to it. Mistakes are okay. Lack of preparation/laziness isn't.

Someone got upset today in practice over getting sound levels set. Always puts me in a funk the whole service...do I apologize, let it go, let God deal with them, baby them? I thank God for other team members who get involved and can say to the person, "It's creative critique, we all need it. Part of the process. It's okay. Just keep moving."

You know how it is...someone says it's too loud, we can't hear anything else, it goes down...too much, then we're all tired of dealing with it and instead of the person just saying something, they sulk or get mad or refuse to join back in and play and have fun.

So hard to communicate with the sound guy 300 feet away up in a sound booth. I still have a cold and don't feel like yelling up there, so after the one comment, nobody else says anything...even if they can't hear.

We have to talk, and ask, and listen and just do it--together. Keep tweaking until we're all happy. I can't do it all and don't intend to. I just hear what is sticking out...I can't fine tune it...that's up to the musician and the sound guy.

I don't mind tweaking, but it really bugs me when people get frustrated instead of just talking. Instrumentalists can get so insecure (me included...more so a few years ago than now, but it wouldn't take much). Yes...it's all certain character development for musicians. Humility and teamwork not our forte most often!

Give and take, and try and fail, and try and succeed, and fail and try. Every week.

Church was out at 11AM. Back 12:30-4:30 for band practice for the Easter Cantada worship celebration challenge. We finally got all the way through that--heavy on my mind. Most of my prep time for worship this week has gone into that project.

I don't know how we'll have time to prepare for the actual morning worship before this event Sunday AM, but having the same musicians will help keep sound levels where they need to be. It's going to be a riot. Only the biggest crowd of the year. I hope we are prepared.

Anyway, the production went well. Timing still a group effort for those of us who read music all trying to keep each other on board. I wish I'd had a third hand to take notes of where I/we need to work.

Anyway...there is hope! I'm alive! I was afraid I'd put a lot into it and then we wouldn't get it...what a waste of time and effort that would have been!

So, all in all....I've been in a adrenaline sweat since 7AM...It's now 4:30. I need a bath just to go back to church tonight.

Well, that's all the Sunday Praise Band commentary. Time to rest and enjoy some Sabbath Sunday night!