Egypt in the Rearview Mirror

Second week in the Wilderness series.  This picture is of Fred the Manequin who watches over our tech team in the back on Sunday mornings.  He has served the last few weeks as a stand-in for Jeff as our light and camera techs work some things out.

He has scared many people over the last few weeks as they walk in a dark room, turn on the lights, and there he is waving.

Egpyt in the rearview mirror.  While the Israelites were in the wilderness, they struggled with many temptations on their trek to the Promised Land. Along the way, they even desired to go back to Egypt – the place of their slavery. In the midst of their struggles, Egypt seemed to appear better than their present circumstances. Paul warned us not to “crave evil things” as did the Israelites while in the wilderness. These evil things seek to take us back to a time that may seem less stressful, before the time when we were following God.  Great message – listen to it.

Today, we worshiped to:

Powerful service today, and we had a lot of technical difficulties.  Our keyboardist, Woody, always says, “God inhabits the praises of His people, and Satan inhabits the sound system.”  Practice we had some weird sound issues going on.  This morning, they were working.  Then some video issues messed up in the 11:15 service.  It was actually quite funny because I could tell people couldn’t see the words.  Some people look confused, most of you just smiled and hummed along.  I could tell something wasn’t right.

I did something that I didn’t think was a big deal – apparently it was for some people:  I called attention to the problem.

I called attention to the problem, but I didn’t blame our technicians.  I got everyone to applaud for their great efforts.  I didn’t think it was a big deal, I know no one is trying to sabotage the deal, but technology is a disaster waiting to happen.

I realized it was a big deal when people commented in the positive about it.  I have often seen a worship leader look blatantly upset during a worship service because the AVL wasn’t going the way it should.  What that leads to is people turning around and glaring at a sound guy or commenting about how the words were late.  It starts with the leader.  I will never speak ill of our team, because we are a team.  They don’t work for me; we work together.  Stuff happens, and I am thankful they are along for the ride.

So while we had some minor noticeable AVL issues today, I was still able to worship and I thank God I’m a part of a congregation who can do the same.  So once again, thanks to our tech team for what you do – you get the message heard!  Hope to see all of you next week for the third installment.