by Don Chapman
Those of us forging ahead into the 21st century
of worship face challenges never before imagined!
Gone are the days of throwing together a
few hymns mere minutes before the service,
then waving our arms as we lead the congregation
behind the pulpit.
Those of us involved in contemporary worship
must coordinate a complex sequence of events
- computer projection, praise band dynamics,
song selection, vocal mix, video, sound and
lighting - and we must blend these events
into a smooth worship flow. With so much
going on each Sunday morning, run throughs
are critical.
This simple rule has saved me much pain and
sorrow: we must run through our entire praise
set at least one time prior to the service.
We're usually set up and ready for our run
through at least one hour before the Sunday
morning worship time begins.
If we don't run through every PowerPoint
slide, one will turn up missing or misspelled
during the service. The problem is caught
in the run through.
If we don't run through the entire CD track
(yes, I hate tracks but sometimes they're
necessary) a horrible glitch will erupt in
the middle of the performance. (Ever see
that VH1 special where Milli Vanilli's track
got stuck, repeated a phrase over and over,
and the embarrassed duo ran off the stage?)
If we don't run through tricky song transitions
we'll cause a musical train wreck and disrupt worship.
If we don't run through... you get the idea.
I know run throughs are sometimes hard or
nearly impossible to squeeze in but insist
upon it.
>Bottom Line: Complete run throughs will drastically improve
the flow of your service and the emotional
well-being of your praise team.
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