What’s in this Episode?

In this episode of the Church Tips podcast, Dick Hardy and Jeff Deyo (former lead singer of Sonicflood) discuss maintaining unity between the worship team and live production team.

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Show Notes:

PDF’s:
The Pastors Guide to Navigating Generational and Cultural Worship Gaps
The Worship Pastors Guide to Honoring The Lead Pastor

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Read the Transcript

Dick Hardy 0:06
Hey friends, welcome to the Church Tips Podcast. I’m Dick Hardy, and we are here with my friend Jeff Deyo from the great state of Minnesota. Jeff, say hi to everybody.

Jeff Deyo 0:14
Hey, what’s up guys. How’s everybody doing?

Dick Hardy 0:17
We’re rolling along here. We have made a connection here over the last number of months, and embarked on the creation of the Worship Leadership Course for Church University. And Jeff has, I was there when he shot all the videos and created the content. It’s absolutely phenomenal. I’m telling you, every pastor, every worship leader is going to want to grab the church, or the Worship Leadership Course.

Dick Hardy 0:45
Along with the course itself, we created a couple of PDFs, some free PDFs, that we think will be very helpful to you. The first is The Worship Pastors Guide to Navigating Generational and Cultural Gaps, and great peace. Very comprehensive, that would help you in that navigation. The second is the Worship Pastors Guide to Honoring the Lead Pastor. I think you’ll find that very, very helpful. Both of those will reference here at the end how you can access those.

Dick Hardy 1:17
But we want to jump in today on the topic of working with production. So everybody sees the singers, everybody sees the band. But then there are these guys and gals back there, generally, that are making all this happen, the production people. So give us a jumpstart on that. Jeff, how should we be thinking about this going forward?

Jeff Deyo 1:41
Well, you know, if you’re a worship pastor, or a worship leader watching this, then you know some of the challenges that can you can face when dealing with your production team. And you know that there’s some potential tension there that the production team sometimes, you know, looks at us like a bunch of divas. They’re like, Oh, those divas, again. Oh, they’re always whining and complaining, and oh, you know al that. And there’s there can be some tension. And we want to try to alleviate that tension, we want to try to bring everybody together as a part of one team. So that’s really what we want to talk about in this episode.

Dick Hardy 2:15
Yeah, that’s good. You know, along those lines, then, what should you communicate with your production team about rehearsal? Specifically?

Jeff Deyo 2:27
Yeah. Well, interestingly enough, there could be a question for those watching whether or not they would even have their production team there. Now, typically, if you’re having a rehearsal, you’re going to have to at least have a sound engineer. But it could be that once they get that going, they have other responsibilities, and they leave. I personally think it’s best if you have your entire production team there. Lighting, lyric operator, you know, sound all those people. Now, we can’t always afford that, we can’t always get those people there, maybe it’s a lot to ask, we understand that. But if it’s possible, it’s amazing if you can have all that team there.

Jeff Deyo 3:05
So, that lyric operator can also practice. We like things to be in rehearsal, like they’re gonna be on Sunday morning.

Dick Hardy 3:12
Yup. Exactly

Jeff Deyo 3:12
So, the lyric operators not there, it’s different for the team as they lead worship, if there’s a confidence monitor, or whatever, you know, if there’s no lyrics versus there being lyrics, but being allowing for that, for everything to be worked out, you know, the engineer is able to get a feel for what the mix is gonna be like, and the lighting person is able to get the lighting going, all that stuff. So it definitely is best if we can have everybody there and on the same page. And I would say, you know, I’ve mentioned this before, and some of the things I’ve shared is that when we gather together as a team, at the beginning, we would call all the production people up with us on the stage, we would gather in a circle together as one team, right? We’re all together. And you would emphasize that, so that you’re breaking down those walls.

Jeff Deyo 3:58
And then I would also find moments that are genuine moments to be able to be complimentary to your production people. Just randomly, sporadically, in a rehearsal, maybe even in a public moment, like on a Sunday morning, or that type of thing. You know, you think of what happens if you go to the theater, and a lot of times at the end, you know, all the people come out. All the actors and all that they come out and they bow and everything, but then they always take their hand and they stand it up to the production people up top, you know, and everybody applauds them, you know? So I don’t know that would be something you would do every Sunday morning, but there could be a moment or two that would really encourage people free to do that.

Dick Hardy 4:38
Well, I like what you said about, I don’t know if you use the term you have in some of these past episodes of the huddle. The thing that ends up there and the first part of the service and certainly explaining the why to have them up there is they are so valuable. To prove how valuable they are, one thing goes wrong and what happens in the whole church when one thing goes wrong, everybody’s head turns out back to those production people. So the best production people that I’m sure want to never be seen on these, because they want to just do a good job.

Jeff Deyo 5:17
That’s right. That’s right.

Dick Hardy 5:18
Doing what they what needs to be done for the worship team.

Jeff Deyo 5:21
I would also encourage, along those lines, this does happen sometimes. I think it probably happens a little more with lead pastors. I would encourage you, if you’re a lead pastor, be real careful with correcting the sound and production team, or kind of berating them on the microphone. Because man, there’s some tense moments that happen, right, the mics not on and it’s not on for the 1400th time. And so it’s easy to kind of throw them under the bus. And sometimes it’s actually us, we forgot to turn the mic on, we forgot to turn our pack on, those types of things.

Jeff Deyo 5:56
So be real careful not to throw the production people under the bus because we really want to build those relationships. And that is one of the things we could do in our moment of feeling insecure. And that’s what this really is, right? In our moment of feeling insecure, because everyone’s watching us and the mics not working, or something’s not working. We don’t want to bring them down during that moment. Right? We want to do whatever we can to fix the problem. But we can talk about it after the service if necessary. But be careful what you say on the mic publicly.

Dick Hardy 6:28
Well, I think you referenced I think it was just an off camera conversation we had, the the nature of production people are frequently as different than the people on stage, in terms of they’re introverts. They’re task oriented. So, talk to us a little bit about that, in terms of how you talk with them.

Jeff Deyo 6:51
Yeah, I mean, I think they’re, you know, I think they’re less, they’re not as easy to read sometimes. And of course, you’re we’re very much generalizing here, right? But, we’ve got to be careful, because we want to understand that just because they’re quiet doesn’t mean that they’re passionate. But it might actually require you stepping into that relationship and being more vocal than they might be, right? It might be you putting your arm around somebody and say, Man, I’m just so thankful that you’re here. Bringing that encouragement, even when you’re not feeling it coming from them.

Jeff Deyo 7:26
And I think that, again, I don’t want to put everybody in the same box here, because there are certainly some outgoing sound production people and, and there are some introvert musicians and all that too. But, but just make sure that you’re sensitive, and you’re aware of your production team, that you don’t put more emphasis on the musicians and singers than you do on your production team. Because your job as a worship leader is not just to deal with the music, it’s to deal with the whole picture.

Dick Hardy 7:53
Yep, no, exactly right. How do you include production people in your worship decisions? Or do you?

Jeff Deyo 8:01
Yeah, it’s a good question. Um, if there are things that. Well, here’s what I’ll say, there’s not, there’s not a lot of crossover there as far as like, hey, you know, sound engineer, do you think we should use a C chord in this course, you know. If they’re musicians, then sure, you could get some opinions from themm but what I would do is, I would encourage you to give your production people the floor at the beginning of your rehearsal a few times. Now, again, this might be something you do at a team night, which would be a separate time, or we’re doing some training.

Jeff Deyo 8:32
But what I’m saying is, a lot of times the sound people, the tech people, they might get frustrated with us about maybe mic technique. They might get frustrated with us, the lighting engineer might get frustrated with us the way that we stand, we’re always in the shadows. We’re not where the lights are, you know, we’re stepping too far forward, or we’re out of the camera shot, or we’re, you know, whatever, those types of things. And so what would be great, as opposed to just them being frustrated and us not doing it right, would be potentially to have a moment of short training. And you get the sound engineer ahead of time, you talk to him about this. Hey, can you give us a five to 10 minute presentation for the whole worship team about mic technique?

Dick Hardy 9:13
Yeah.

Jeff Deyo 9:13
Hey, line director, could you give us a few pointers about what these little X’s are on the stage and where we’re supposed to line up? You know, give them the floor. And you’d be tempted to be the one to communicate it? Well, I’ll just tell him but no, give those people the floor to be able to talk about what they’re passionate about.

Dick Hardy 9:30
No, that’s good. That is so good. You know, this stuff you’re talking about with production is so practical. And it’s right where we live, whether worship pastor, lead pastor. And it all, it’s all part of the team to really make the worship experience the best it can be.

Jeff Deyo 9:48
Yes.

Dick Hardy 9:49
Give us a heads up on this. Jeff. We’ve covered a lot of territory. What do you want the viewers and listeners to hear from what we talked about?

Jeff Deyo 9:55
Well, again, I just want to emphasize the idea of team. Because this is so important. All right, we’ve got I think so often we, in our minds, we might say, okay, in my brain, I’m the leader of 80% of my job is what the worship team, the musicians, the singers, and 20% is with the production. Now, obviously, there may be more things for you directly to oversee in the musical side of things. But I want to encourage you to even that out a little bit more, put more emphasis in, especially to the people that are on your production team. Because they are so valuable, and you need to train them up, love them up, bring them into the fold.

Dick Hardy 10:35
That is so good. When I think about what can happen, when all the production elements flow together, with what the worship leader and the lead pastor want to have done, beautiful things happen. The whole spirit moves. And you could sit and say, Well, I mean, the Holy Spirit moving on those production, believe me, and you would agree, that happens, and you watched it happen.

Jeff Deyo 11:03
In fact, I would even say, Dick, that you would encourage your sound production people that there is an anointing on their lives as well, right? We don’t talk about this, right? We think that the singer or the lead pastor, they are the only ones that count

Dick Hardy 11:17
That was so anointed, right?

Jeff Deyo 11:20
But I want to encourage you to increase in your anointing as a mix engineer, increase in your anointing as a lighting director, increase in your anointing as you lead the scroll to the lyrics, all those things. Like God will use each person on the tech team in their anointing, and He will use them as worship leader.

Dick Hardy 11:40
That’s good. That’s good. Jeff, thanks very much, man, this has been very, very good. I have so appreciate the content that you’re providing for us. We want to again, remind the viewers and listeners to pick up either one or both of the PDFs that are there in the show notes. The first one is the Navigating Generational and Cultural Gaps, just go to Leaders.Church/Gaps. And the other is Worship Leaders Honoring Their Lead Pastor, and that’s Leaders.Church/Honor, so slash gaps and slash honor.

Dick Hardy 12:18
And we’d certainly love to be able to get those to you. And, keep your eye peeled for the Worship Leadership Course. Jeff and I are so excited for it. You’re going to hear more and more about that as the days keep coming along. And if you’re a lead pastor, you’re a worship leader you’re going to want it. I’m just telling you right now, you’re going to want it. So again, thanks again, Jeff. Really appreciated hanging out with you. Make it a great day today and be blessed.

Jeff Deyo 12:44
Thanks.

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