NOV
25


How to develop a successful volunteer team:

 

In every church where technology is being used in a large capacity, you will find a strong group of willing media volunteers. The success of that group is dependent on how well that volunteer team is nurtured and organized.

So how do we get there?

Determine who is responsible for the volunteer team.
Its important to have someone thinking about this group and pushing it in a direction of growth. If this someone is too busy or doesn’t have a heart for growing the technical ministries of the church, the volunteer group will suffer.

Decide on how you will recruit and involve individuals
You may find yourself on either end of the spectrum when it comes to available and interested people. Its important that this team is balanced in the way you include people. Create your application process first, then communicate publicly that you are accepting applications. This distinction of “application” communicates the privilege it will be for them to serve, which will cultivate more dedicated individuals.

Provide training at a steady pace
It will be a detriment to the team and the individual if you simply throw someone into the fire with no training or discussion. A lack of training does not communicate value to that individual. Too slow of a training process with no actual experience will communicate a lack of trust and create frustration.

Set the standards high
Explain to the volunteer group right from the start that expectations are high and there are many demands on this team. Treat these volunteers as you would an employee and they will act as such. This shows value to the team and makes them feel like an integral part of the ministry. Constantly saying “oh, I can’t ask them to do that – they’re a volunteer” is the wrong way to go! They signed up for this because they want to help. So ask! If something needs changing, expect it to change and continue to raise the bar.

Provide opportunities as the church/organization needs help
There is often pressure to start offering 3D graphics or video editing or lighting positions because someone in the church has some experience there. While we want to be encouraging people to use their gifts and talents, maintaining all of these areas and providing adequate training for it to grow can be overwhelming. Allow your team to grow at a steady pace and resist the pressure to do everything at once.

Training Basics
When you begin your training, be aware of these basics:

#1  Be sure the teacher knows what he/she is talking about. If that person doesn’t exist within the organization, seek out external training resources. New volunteers need to feel they can receive the training they need to do their jobs well.

#2  Start simple! Do not make assumptions that there is a base line of knowledge that everyone walking in will have.

#3  Everyone gets trained! No matter who they are or what they know, everyone needs to be trained according to this group’s practices.

#4  Train without ceasing. Don’t train only the “first batch” and then let everyone else fend for themselves.

Scheduling

Once your team is rolling, it’s important that you have a scheduling system that works. Loose handshake agreements on when someone will be there will result in you getting burned at some point. Have a physical schedule that has each person and their position for that week on it.

Rotate the schedule. Don’t let someone “own” a position. Cross‐training is very important to the health and growth of a tech ministry. While its good to have individuals become very comfortable in a certain spot, if they are the only one that knows it, you’ll be hurting if they ever leave. 

 

In every church where technology is being used in a large capacity, you will find a strong group of willing media volunteers. The success of that group is dependent on how well that volunteer team is nurtured and organized.

So how do we get there?

Determine who is responsible for the volunteer team.
Its important to have someone thinking about this group and pushing it in a direction of growth. If this someone is too busy or doesn’t have a heart for growing the technical ministries of the church, the volunteer group will suffer.

Decide on how you will recruit and involve individuals
You may find yourself on either end of the spectrum when it comes to available and interested people. Its important that this team is balanced in the way you include people. Create your application process first, then communicate publicly that you are accepting applications. This distinction of “application” communicates the privilege it will be for them to serve, which will cultivate more dedicated individuals.

Provide training at a steady pace
It will be a detriment to the team and the individual if you simply throw someone into the fire with no training or discussion. A lack of training does not communicate value to that individual. Too slow of a training process with no actual experience will communicate a lack of trust and create frustration.

Set the standards high
Explain to the volunteer group right from the start that expectations are high and there are many demands on this team. Treat these volunteers as you would an employee and they will act as such. This shows value to the team and makes them feel like an integral part of the ministry. Constantly saying “oh, I can’t ask them to do that – they’re a volunteer” is the wrong way to go! They signed up for this because they want to help. So ask! If something needs changing, expect it to change and continue to raise the bar.

Provide opportunities as the church/organization needs help
There is often pressure to start offering 3D graphics or video editing or lighting positions because someone in the church has some experience there. While we want to be encouraging people to use their gifts and talents, maintaining all of these areas and providing adequate training for it to grow can be overwhelming. Allow your team to grow at a steady pace and resist the pressure to do everything at once.

Training Basics
When you begin your training, be aware of these basics:

#1  Be sure the teacher knows what he/she is talking about. If that person doesn’t exist within the organization, seek out external training resources. New volunteers need to feel they can receive the training they need to do their jobs well.

#2  Start simple! Do not make assumptions that there is a base line of knowledge that everyone walking in will have.

#3  Everyone gets trained! No matter who they are or what they know, everyone needs to be trained according to this group’s practices.

#4  Train without ceasing. Don’t train only the “first batch” and then let everyone else fend for themselves.

Scheduling

Once your team is rolling, it’s important that you have a scheduling system that works. Loose handshake agreements on when someone will be there will result in you getting burned at some point. Have a physical schedule that has each person and their position for that week on it.

Rotate the schedule. Don’t let someone “own” a position. Cross‐training is very important to the health and growth of a tech ministry. While its good to have individuals become very comfortable in a certain spot, if they are the only one that knows it, you’ll be hurting if they ever leave. 

 

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In every church where technology is being used in a large capacity, you will find a strong group of willing media volunteers. The success of that group is dependent on how well that volunteer team is nurtured and organized.

So how do we get there?

Determine who is responsible for the volunteer team.
Its important to have someone thinking about this group and pushing it in a direction of growth. If this someone is too busy or doesn’t have a heart for growing the technical ministries of the church, the volunteer group will suffer.

Decide on how you will recruit and involve individuals
You may find yourself on either end of the spectrum when it comes to available and interested people. Its important that this team is balanced in the way you include people. Create your application process first, then communicate publicly that you are accepting applications. This distinction of “application” communicates the privilege it will be for them to serve, which will cultivate more dedicated individuals.

Provide training at a steady pace
It will be a detriment to the team and the individual if you simply throw someone into the fire with no training or discussion. A lack of training does not communicate value to that individual. Too slow of a training process with no actual experience will communicate a lack of trust and create frustration.

Set the standards high
Explain to the volunteer group right from the start that expectations are high and there are many demands on this team. Treat these volunteers as you would an employee and they will act as such. This shows value to the team and makes them feel like an integral part of the ministry. Constantly saying “oh, I can’t ask them to do that – they’re a volunteer” is the wrong way to go! They signed up for this because they want to help. So ask! If something needs changing, expect it to change and continue to raise the bar.

Provide opportunities as the church/organization needs help
There is often pressure to start offering 3D graphics or video editing or lighting positions because someone in the church has some experience there. While we want to be encouraging people to use their gifts and talents, maintaining all of these areas and providing adequate training for it to grow can be overwhelming. Allow your team to grow at a steady pace and resist the pressure to do everything at once.

Training Basics
When you begin your training, be aware of these basics:

#1  Be sure the teacher knows what he/she is talking about. If that person doesn’t exist within the organization, seek out external training resources. New volunteers need to feel they can receive the training they need to do their jobs well.

#2  Start simple! Do not make assumptions that there is a base line of knowledge that everyone walking in will have.

#3  Everyone gets trained! No matter who they are or what they know, everyone needs to be trained according to this group’s practices.

#4  Train without ceasing. Don’t train only the “first batch” and then let everyone else fend for themselves.

Scheduling

Once your team is rolling, it’s important that you have a scheduling system that works. Loose handshake agreements on when someone will be there will result in you getting burned at some point. Have a physical schedule that has each person and their position for that week on it.

Rotate the schedule. Don’t let someone “own” a position. Cross‐training is very important to the health and growth of a tech ministry. While its good to have individuals become very comfortable in a certain spot, if they are the only one that knows it, you’ll be hurting if they ever leave. 

 

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posted by jon cook
Comments

NOV
21


We need the message too

This is a guest post by Jonathan Griffiths, who serves on staff at The Chapel (@chapel_buffalo) in Buffalo, NY. Among other things, he quarterbacks the tech team at a video venue of The Chapel's and helps to produce their services. You can follow him on twitter @JonathanS1824.

I've been working in media for only five years now. I volunteered for a year before that. I can remember attending a service, chatting with friends in the lobby, then going out to lunch afterward. I can actually remember a time in my life were I sat in a service and paid little to no attention to the lights, the band mix, or video issues. Now, I sit in a service and I'm either analyzing everything, or looking for things that need to be improved. It's very difficult for me to step completely out of my job anymore because my job goes beyond a specific time of day. I think I'll mostly always look at service this way now. But I'm ok with that.

The problem is that if your media team runs like ours, it's very hard to be able to do media for a service and engage in the message and especially worship. Our minds are fixed on other things, we are trying to make sure that everything is running smoothly so we can't even bow our heads when there's prayer because the pastor might be trying to get your attention from stage during this. Even during the message when things are pretty relaxed for most (besides the lyric operator who's putting up verses and notes), there are many things, both good and bad, that pull my attention:

-random conversation between volunteers
-important conversation regarding things that are coming up next in the service
-camera cues
-discussing issues that came up earlier in the service
-doing other work that needs to get done, but not right that second

My fear with this is what we are communicating to those working beside us; especially those younger than us. As I stated some of these things require our attention and need to be addressed right then, but if it doesn't need to be, I think the way we can serve best is by listening to the message. We need to be engaged and connected with what our church is doing on a human level and on a spiritual level as well as serving their technical needs. If we don't we just become a tool to be used and cease to be fellow believers. I'm not saying our salvation is on the table, but the spiritual development of our team may be. We forget sometimes that their faith is in our hands. How we serve beside them, what we show is valuable they will take as valuable. If we show them by our actions that you don't need to pay attention to what is actually said from stage then they will assume it's not important. Truth be told, being a part of a media team is hard on your faith. You see the ugly side of the church all to well. If we are not investing in our own spiritual lives then we start looking at serving in church as just an opportunity to use some cool equipment. This is a fight that we must battle in our own hearts and is important to expose to those who we are, either intentionally or by default, leading spiritually. The most important thing we can bring to the table as leaders is our own journey of faith. Lead in action and by word. Invest in your spiritual life and share it with others on your team.

 

This is a guest post by Jonathan Griffiths, who serves on staff at The Chapel (@chapel_buffalo) in Buffalo, NY. Among other things, he quarterbacks the tech team at a video venue of The Chapel's and helps to produce their services. You can follow him on twitter @JonathanS1824.

I've been working in media for only five years now. I volunteered for a year before that. I can remember attending a service, chatting with friends in the lobby, then going out to lunch afterward. I can actually remember a time in my life were I sat in a service and paid little to no attention to the lights, the band mix, or video issues. Now, I sit in a service and I'm either analyzing everything, or looking for things that need to be improved. It's very difficult for me to step completely out of my job anymore because my job goes beyond a specific time of day. I think I'll mostly always look at service this way now. But I'm ok with that.

The problem is that if your media team runs like ours, it's very hard to be able to do media for a service and engage in the message and especially worship. Our minds are fixed on other things, we are trying to make sure that everything is running smoothly so we can't even bow our heads when there's prayer because the pastor might be trying to get your attention from stage during this. Even during the message when things are pretty relaxed for most (besides the lyric operator who's putting up verses and notes), there are many things, both good and bad, that pull my attention:

-random conversation between volunteers
-important conversation regarding things that are coming up next in the service
-camera cues
-discussing issues that came up earlier in the service
-doing other work that needs to get done, but not right that second

My fear with this is what we are communicating to those working beside us; especially those younger than us. As I stated some of these things require our attention and need to be addressed right then, but if it doesn't need to be, I think the way we can serve best is by listening to the message. We need to be engaged and connected with what our church is doing on a human level and on a spiritual level as well as serving their technical needs. If we don't we just become a tool to be used and cease to be fellow believers. I'm not saying our salvation is on the table, but the spiritual development of our team may be. We forget sometimes that their faith is in our hands. How we serve beside them, what we show is valuable they will take as valuable. If we show them by our actions that you don't need to pay attention to what is actually said from stage then they will assume it's not important. Truth be told, being a part of a media team is hard on your faith. You see the ugly side of the church all to well. If we are not investing in our own spiritual lives then we start looking at serving in church as just an opportunity to use some cool equipment. This is a fight that we must battle in our own hearts and is important to expose to those who we are, either intentionally or by default, leading spiritually. The most important thing we can bring to the table as leaders is our own journey of faith. Lead in action and by word. Invest in your spiritual life and share it with others on your team.

 

/>" target="_blank">This is a guest post by Jonathan Griffiths, who serves on staff at The Chapel (@chapel_buffalo) in Buffalo, NY. Among other things, he quarterbacks the tech team at a video venue of The Chapel's and helps to produce their services. You can follow him on twitter @JonathanS1824.

I've been working in media for only five years now. I volunteered for a year before that. I can remember attending a service, chatting with friends in the lobby, then going out to lunch afterward. I can actually remember a time in my life were I sat in a service and paid little to no attention to the lights, the band mix, or video issues. Now, I sit in a service and I'm either analyzing everything, or looking for things that need to be improved. It's very difficult for me to step completely out of my job anymore because my job goes beyond a specific time of day. I think I'll mostly always look at service this way now. But I'm ok with that.

The problem is that if your media team runs like ours, it's very hard to be able to do media for a service and engage in the message and especially worship. Our minds are fixed on other things, we are trying to make sure that everything is running smoothly so we can't even bow our heads when there's prayer because the pastor might be trying to get your attention from stage during this. Even during the message when things are pretty relaxed for most (besides the lyric operator who's putting up verses and notes), there are many things, both good and bad, that pull my attention:

-random conversation between volunteers
-important conversation regarding things that are coming up next in the service
-camera cues
-discussing issues that came up earlier in the service
-doing other work that needs to get done, but not right that second

My fear with this is what we are communicating to those working beside us; especially those younger than us. As I stated some of these things require our attention and need to be addressed right then, but if it doesn't need to be, I think the way we can serve best is by listening to the message. We need to be engaged and connected with what our church is doing on a human level and on a spiritual level as well as serving their technical needs. If we don't we just become a tool to be used and cease to be fellow believers. I'm not saying our salvation is on the table, but the spiritual development of our team may be. We forget sometimes that their faith is in our hands. How we serve beside them, what we show is valuable they will take as valuable. If we show them by our actions that you don't need to pay attention to what is actually said from stage then they will assume it's not important. Truth be told, being a part of a media team is hard on your faith. You see the ugly side of the church all to well. If we are not investing in our own spiritual lives then we start looking at serving in church as just an opportunity to use some cool equipment. This is a fight that we must battle in our own hearts and is important to expose to those who we are, either intentionally or by default, leading spiritually. The most important thing we can bring to the table as leaders is our own journey of faith. Lead in action and by word. Invest in your spiritual life and share it with others on your team.

 

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posted by jon cook
Comments

NOV
12


Social media and your live event

We all know that twitter and facebook can be great tools for connecting to your audience throughout the week, mostly when they are away from you. It's a great way to continue conversations started in your church service or event, or a good tool for planting a thought process as they prepare to come. But what about twitter, facebook, and other tools DURING your service?

For some of you, this immediately frightens you. You picture the whole audience tweeting incessently during the message, phone beeping and vibrating everywhere! But trust me, social media engagement is probably happening during service anyways, just not in direct engagement with you and your church. Harnessing this opportunity is actually fantastic, and here are some ways how:

- Promote a hashtag to be used in posts regarding the day's activities.

At my church, we put #sermontitle or #seriestitle (obviously replace with the current title) in the corner of our screens during service. You could include in the bulletin, or simply tweet about or put up a Facebook post about before the gathering begins. For twitter, this is incredibly useful, as you can search that hashtag and find all of the tweets from that day, learning what people thought about the service. You might stumble on some questions that you can help answer. It's a great way to centralize the conversation.

- Tweet a few key quotes or notes of activity from the day as they are happening

Even a simple quote or two from the message will go a long way in engaging your audience and broadening it! Do you stream your services live or offer an archived version online? When someone stumbles on an interesting point on twitter, they might want to hear the rest of the message. This is a way of expanding your auduience to more than just who is engaged live right then. We tweet a few key items and inlude the link to our live stream so people can jump on and watch live.

- Prompt for a response from your audience

Realize this fact: when someone from your auduience is posting about your church's activity, all of their friends who don't know about you are now discovering the church through that person. If they have 500 followers, all of them just heard about that activity. Say 10 people tweet, all with 500 unique followers. You just had 5,000 new connections without doing a thing. So, realize that this activity is an incredibly powerful thing. So prompt them! Ask your audience a question and encourage them to answer you back publicly on twitter or facebook. 

One final questions: Do you have something in your bulletin asking people to please turn off cell phones during service? If so, remove or change it. Don't discourage the use of eletronics during service. SO many opportunities exist with them.

There are tons of ways to promote social media activity. So today consider if you might be missing out on a really large potential for engagement. 

How do you deal with social media today in the church? 

We all know that twitter and facebook can be great tools for connecting to your audience throughout the week, mostly when they are away from you. It's a great way to continue conversations started in your church service or event, or a good tool for planting a thought process as they prepare to come. But what about twitter, facebook, and other tools DURING your service?

For some of you, this immediately frightens you. You picture the whole audience tweeting incessently during the message, phone beeping and vibrating everywhere! But trust me, social media engagement is probably happening during service anyways, just not in direct engagement with you and your church. Harnessing this opportunity is actually fantastic, and here are some ways how:

- Promote a hashtag to be used in posts regarding the day's activities.

At my church, we put #sermontitle or #seriestitle (obviously replace with the current title) in the corner of our screens during service. You could include in the bulletin, or simply tweet about or put up a Facebook post about before the gathering begins. For twitter, this is incredibly useful, as you can search that hashtag and find all of the tweets from that day, learning what people thought about the service. You might stumble on some questions that you can help answer. It's a great way to centralize the conversation.

- Tweet a few key quotes or notes of activity from the day as they are happening

Even a simple quote or two from the message will go a long way in engaging your audience and broadening it! Do you stream your services live or offer an archived version online? When someone stumbles on an interesting point on twitter, they might want to hear the rest of the message. This is a way of expanding your auduience to more than just who is engaged live right then. We tweet a few key items and inlude the link to our live stream so people can jump on and watch live.

- Prompt for a response from your audience

Realize this fact: when someone from your auduience is posting about your church's activity, all of their friends who don't know about you are now discovering the church through that person. If they have 500 followers, all of them just heard about that activity. Say 10 people tweet, all with 500 unique followers. You just had 5,000 new connections without doing a thing. So, realize that this activity is an incredibly powerful thing. So prompt them! Ask your audience a question and encourage them to answer you back publicly on twitter or facebook. 

One final questions: Do you have something in your bulletin asking people to please turn off cell phones during service? If so, remove or change it. Don't discourage the use of eletronics during service. SO many opportunities exist with them.

There are tons of ways to promote social media activity. So today consider if you might be missing out on a really large potential for engagement. 

How do you deal with social media today in the church? 

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posted by jon cook
Comments

NOV
04


Leveraging the press to bring exposure to your church

 



When done effectively, leveraging the local news media can be a powerful tool in bringing exposure to your church's activity. This should be done SPARINGLY and saved for the most important opportunities. But, when you do decide to implore your community's TV, radio and newspaper outlets, make sure you do it right:


1. Make it compelling

When you write your press release, explain why this is  a compelling story. The  news won't cover it unless they can see why it's unique and would be interesting for their whole audience. Explain clearly why this is a big deal.


2. Lose the Christianese

You're a ministry, so you don't need to feel compelled to strip out spiritual impact from the story, but in the pre-event communication to the press, make sure you use language that they would be comfortable saying on-air. Often the verbiage from the release makes it way to the teleprompter, so putting "praise the Lord!" into the description may not fit. Save that for the soundbite they pull from the event itself.


3. Make it easy for them

The name of the game when it comes to the press is giving them a streamlined process. The press release should be all-inclusive, but layered by priority. The title should stand alone as descriptive and captivating. The first part of the release should summarize why this is a big deal and capture the main points. Dive in later to the full details, adding in names, resources (website links, etc) and other items. They should be able to find it here, but don't make them dig for the main points.


Think about the experience when they arrive as well:

- Have someone ready to meet them at the door (or even in the parking lot with a reserved space)

- Know where you will direct them to be able to shoot some video or pictures

- If possible, provide a dedicated audio source for them to plug into, ensuring they receive high quality audio

- Make someone from your team available immediately for on-camera comment. Have a place away from the action where interviews can take place.

 

What NOT to do:

- DO NOT assume they know you and understand all your church-specific lingo

- DO NOT repeatedly pester them. News crews rarely confirm that they will be coming. Send out the info one week before, a few days before, and the day of. Don't expect a reply.

- DO NOT expect them to stick around for hours. Give them an exact time to show up, and make sure the most interesting thing happens within 20 minutes of that time.

 

When have you utilized the media effectively in your church? What worked? What didn't?

 

posted by jon cook
Comments

NOV
02


The same, the same, the same

 

This is a guest post by Nick Thompson, who serves on staff at The Chapel (@chapel_buffalo) in Buffalo, NY. He is the Public Communications Coordinator for The Chapel, and spends considerable amounts of time strategizing how communication can be effective and clear to people in that community. You can follow him on twitter @nickjonthompson


If I say Red Robin, you think? Yummm. And if I show you an image from an Apple advertisement, no one needs to inform you what it's trying to sell. Although we, in the Church, have no need to try to sell a product, we must remember that our identity can be very, very easily lost in the mix of everyday life for attenders, and potential attenders. It's not the attenders we're after, (don't get me wrong, the growth is good) but the message being heard is the important factor. Whether that message is to those in our seats or not, doesn't really matter. The issue is then, how do we ensure that our messages and identity, are not lost in the mix of everyday life?

I can't give the end all answer, but here are my top three items to help growing churches:

  1. Consistency
  2. Consistency
  3. Consistency

See what I did there? I made one of those useless lists to prove my point? But I'm serious about it. My answers are even consistent for all three items in the list above. Yes, it is that big a deal.

Thinking about Apple advertising again, the first thing in people's mind would be white background and simple black text or visuals of the apple product that is the focus. Hipster clothes, colorful iPods, a hand holding an iphone. Those are what we know as the Apple way. Because that's how they've done it for a long, long time. Consistency.

Logo's can change, brand colors can change, and even the voice of your church can change, but it's essential that through all of these changes, you represent yourself consistently. It's in this consistency, even in spite of changes, that will give people the ability to recognize who you are, and therefore, what you're all about.

We don't have to compete for our share of TV, radio, billboard  and print ads (not in general at least), but we must remember that we need to ensure the Gospel is properly represented. The unchanging, ever powerful, consistent Gospel.


So, stay consistent my friends.

For some helpful documents that we use at The Chapel, check out the links below:

Semantics Guide

Style Guide

Communications Strategy

 

This is a guest post by Nick Thompson, who serves on staff at The Chapel (@chapel_buffalo) in Buffalo, NY. He is the Public Communications Coordinator for The Chapel, and spends considerable amounts of time strategizing how communication can be effective and clear to people in that community. You can follow him on twitter @nickjonthompson


If I say Red Robin, you think? Yummm. And if I show you an image from an Apple advertisement, no one needs to inform you what it's trying to sell. Although we, in the Church, have no need to try to sell a product, we must remember that our identity can be very, very easily lost in the mix of everyday life for attenders, and potential attenders. It's not the attenders we're after, (don't get me wrong, the growth is good) but the message being heard is the important factor. Whether that message is to those in our seats or not, doesn't really matter. The issue is then, how do we ensure that our messages and identity, are not lost in the mix of everyday life?

I can't give the end all answer, but here are my top three items to help growing churches:

  1. Consistency
  2. Consistency
  3. Consistency

See what I did there? I made one of those useless lists to prove my point? But I'm serious about it. My answers are even consistent for all three items in the list above. Yes, it is that big a deal.

Thinking about Apple advertising again, the first thing in people's mind would be white background and simple black text or visuals of the apple product that is the focus. Hipster clothes, colorful iPods, a hand holding an iphone. Those are what we know as the Apple way. Because that's how they've done it for a long, long time. Consistency.

Logo's can change, brand colors can change, and even the voice of your church can change, but it's essential that through all of these changes, you represent yourself consistently. It's in this consistency, even in spite of changes, that will give people the ability to recognize who you are, and therefore, what you're all about.

We don't have to compete for our share of TV, radio, billboard  and print ads (not in general at least), but we must remember that we need to ensure the Gospel is properly represented. The unchanging, ever powerful, consistent Gospel.


So, stay consistent my friends.

For some helpful documents that we use at The Chapel, check out the links below:

Semantics Guide

Style Guide

Communications Strategy

 

/>" target="_blank"> 

This is a guest post by Nick Thompson, who serves on staff at The Chapel (@chapel_buffalo) in Buffalo, NY. He is the Public Communications Coordinator for The Chapel, and spends considerable amounts of time strategizing how communication can be effective and clear to people in that community. You can follow him on twitter @nickjonthompson


If I say Red Robin, you think? Yummm. And if I show you an image from an Apple advertisement, no one needs to inform you what it's trying to sell. Although we, in the Church, have no need to try to sell a product, we must remember that our identity can be very, very easily lost in the mix of everyday life for attenders, and potential attenders. It's not the attenders we're after, (don't get me wrong, the growth is good) but the message being heard is the important factor. Whether that message is to those in our seats or not, doesn't really matter. The issue is then, how do we ensure that our messages and identity, are not lost in the mix of everyday life?

I can't give the end all answer, but here are my top three items to help growing churches:

  1. Consistency
  2. Consistency
  3. Consistency

See what I did there? I made one of those useless lists to prove my point? But I'm serious about it. My answers are even consistent for all three items in the list above. Yes, it is that big a deal.

Thinking about Apple advertising again, the first thing in people's mind would be white background and simple black text or visuals of the apple product that is the focus. Hipster clothes, colorful iPods, a hand holding an iphone. Those are what we know as the Apple way. Because that's how they've done it for a long, long time. Consistency.

Logo's can change, brand colors can change, and even the voice of your church can change, but it's essential that through all of these changes, you represent yourself consistently. It's in this consistency, even in spite of changes, that will give people the ability to recognize who you are, and therefore, what you're all about.

We don't have to compete for our share of TV, radio, billboard  and print ads (not in general at least), but we must remember that we need to ensure the Gospel is properly represented. The unchanging, ever powerful, consistent Gospel.


So, stay consistent my friends.

For some helpful documents that we use at The Chapel, check out the links below:

Semantics Guide

Style Guide

Communications Strategy

 

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posted by jon cook
Comments

OCT
31


Preparing for Sunday's Music

 

This is a guest post by Jonathan Griffiths, who serves on staff at The Chapel (@chapel_buffalo) in Buffalo, NY. Among other things, he quarterbacks the tech team at a video venue of The Chapel's and helps to produce their services. You can follow him on twitter @JonathanS1824.

 

For all of our scheduling and service layouts, we use a program called Planning Center. (If you don't use it, you should give it a look.) With this program we schedule our media team to specific positions and so does our music team with players and singers. Once you are scheduled for a specific event, you can then look at the flow of the service, including the songs that are to be preformed. When the music team loads a song into Planning Center, they load up chord charts, mp3's, lyric sheets, and so on. That way, when a song is added to a plan, the musicians are expected to listen to the songs and practice on their own ahead of time so that they can come to rehearsal prepared. From the media side of things, our concern is more about how many songs there are, where they are in the service, are there any videos, how many mics are needed for the message and band, that sort of thing.

Something that I've noticed is that there are a lot of people who are involved from the media side of things that don't know a lot of the songs that their church preforms. They might be able to recognize a song that's been played before, but they are mostly uninvolved with the music aside from trying to make it look good from a lighting side of things and make it sound good from a mixing side of things. The person running lyrics just needs to make sure the right words are on the screen at the right time. Other than that, it's job done, no big deal.

I want to suggest something different. I know from my own experience I get frustrated at band members that don't seem to have learned what they are playing ahead of time. An uncomfortable question rises from this: Why don't we learn the music that the band is supposed to play ahead of time as well? It all comes back to the splinter and the plank. I've heard it said before that we tend to notice flaws in others that are often mirrored in ourselves. With that, I think it's time for us to also prepare musically for Sunday.

For those of you running lyrics, if you know the song that the band is playing, you can then listen for certain things musically to happen and be able to tell what part of the song the band is going to play next. You can also arrange the words on the slides in a way that makes sense with the way that it's sung. Lyrics on a screen are supposed to be helpful. The congregation shouldn't have to study it to know what the words are when they're trying to engage in worship. You also need to be a little bit ahead. When the song leader is singing the last word on the slide you're on, switch to the next one. Give the people a second to process the words before they need to be singing them. This also means don't get too far ahead. If the band is at an instrumental break between the chorus and the bridge, don't put the bridge up and don't leave the chorus up either. Go to a blank slide that doesn't have any words on it. Then, when the band is a measure out or so from starting the bridge, put the slide up. It can be very distracting to those trying to sing when the slides are all over the place. I've had times where I've been sitting in a service and it's a song that I know the words to, but when I look at the screen and see they are on the wrong slide or jumping all over trying to find their spot or have type-o's, I get distracted from singing along. I don't need the words, and I can still get distracted by them. This past week for our college group we had a guest worship leader. The college ministry puts the song lyrics into ProPresenter (our lyric program that we use) for each night and this guy was doing some familiar songs (How He Loves, Your Love Never Fails, etc). Some of you might know that How He Loves has a few different versions in which they talk about different ways that heaven and earth kiss. Depending on who is singing it, they might use "sloppy wet" or "passionate" or whatever else. This could have been a weird moment for everyone singing if the leader is singing something different than what we were used to and the words weren't current on the screen. If you know the song, where those lyrics are is a big, epic part of the song and if everyone is singing different things, that distracts them and then they are pulled out of this intimate moment that they were having with God and sucks the energy out of the song. Another issue was that the service run down had one of the songs listed as "Your Love Never Fails/One Thing Remains." These are actually two different songs that share lyrics so people get them confused. I saw this and checked in with the worship leader to see what song this was meant to be, then checked the lyrics and they were the wrong song. This was going to be the first song of the night. That would've not been a great start to the evening to have this guy start singing, the lyrics go up on the screen and they're the wrong song, and then have the lyric person take half the song to get the right lyrics up there. This is why rehearsal is vital for the lyric operator.

Lighting people, you know you want to make the song come alive. Unless you're the best of the best, and even those people probably know the songs, you won't be able to do as good of a job if you don't know the song ahead of time. Listen for the way the song moves, the breaks, where does the song build, all that. In conversations I've had with our lighting director, he's mentioned the advantages to this as well. When preparing for our big Christmas production, he spends a lot of time programming the lighting changes for the songs that we're doing, and it turns out fantastic. Now he can do a great job on the fly, but if he knows the song, it really makes it pop.

To all you FOH folks, how are you going to make the song sound the way that the band is trying to express it if you don't know it? For example, this Sunday we're doing a new song that is heavily driven by acoustic guitar but has a full band sound. Now, our worship leader plays acoustic so it's a part of our normal flow but it tends to sit back just a little in the mix most of the time. It's just not the style of music we normally do to have the acoustic out front in the mix, but this particular song, it needs to be out front. If my FOH guy didn't listen to the song ahead of time, chances are he would have let it sit back where it usually does. It wouldn't be a bad thing, but it's not what the song is supposed to be. Maybe your band likes to change things up from the tracks that they practice to. Make sure you communicate with them to see what feel they're looking for. You have some room to make it your own but if the band is trying for something, it's good to respect that and help them out.

Preparing for Sunday is of vital importance to giving our congregations the best opportunity to connect with the Creator God.

 

This is a guest post by Jonathan Griffiths, who serves on staff at The Chapel (@chapel_buffalo) in Buffalo, NY. Among other things, he quarterbacks the tech team at a video venue of The Chapel's and helps to produce their services. You can follow him on twitter @JonathanS1824.

 

For all of our scheduling and service layouts, we use a program called Planning Center. (If you don't use it, you should give it a look.) With this program we schedule our media team to specific positions and so does our music team with players and singers. Once you are scheduled for a specific event, you can then look at the flow of the service, including the songs that are to be preformed. When the music team loads a song into Planning Center, they load up chord charts, mp3's, lyric sheets, and so on. That way, when a song is added to a plan, the musicians are expected to listen to the songs and practice on their own ahead of time so that they can come to rehearsal prepared. From the media side of things, our concern is more about how many songs there are, where they are in the service, are there any videos, how many mics are needed for the message and band, that sort of thing.

Something that I've noticed is that there are a lot of people who are involved from the media side of things that don't know a lot of the songs that their church preforms. They might be able to recognize a song that's been played before, but they are mostly uninvolved with the music aside from trying to make it look good from a lighting side of things and make it sound good from a mixing side of things. The person running lyrics just needs to make sure the right words are on the screen at the right time. Other than that, it's job done, no big deal.

I want to suggest something different. I know from my own experience I get frustrated at band members that don't seem to have learned what they are playing ahead of time. An uncomfortable question rises from this: Why don't we learn the music that the band is supposed to play ahead of time as well? It all comes back to the splinter and the plank. I've heard it said before that we tend to notice flaws in others that are often mirrored in ourselves. With that, I think it's time for us to also prepare musically for Sunday.

For those of you running lyrics, if you know the song that the band is playing, you can then listen for certain things musically to happen and be able to tell what part of the song the band is going to play next. You can also arrange the words on the slides in a way that makes sense with the way that it's sung. Lyrics on a screen are supposed to be helpful. The congregation shouldn't have to study it to know what the words are when they're trying to engage in worship. You also need to be a little bit ahead. When the song leader is singing the last word on the slide you're on, switch to the next one. Give the people a second to process the words before they need to be singing them. This also means don't get too far ahead. If the band is at an instrumental break between the chorus and the bridge, don't put the bridge up and don't leave the chorus up either. Go to a blank slide that doesn't have any words on it. Then, when the band is a measure out or so from starting the bridge, put the slide up. It can be very distracting to those trying to sing when the slides are all over the place. I've had times where I've been sitting in a service and it's a song that I know the words to, but when I look at the screen and see they are on the wrong slide or jumping all over trying to find their spot or have type-o's, I get distracted from singing along. I don't need the words, and I can still get distracted by them. This past week for our college group we had a guest worship leader. The college ministry puts the song lyrics into ProPresenter (our lyric program that we use) for each night and this guy was doing some familiar songs (How He Loves, Your Love Never Fails, etc). Some of you might know that How He Loves has a few different versions in which they talk about different ways that heaven and earth kiss. Depending on who is singing it, they might use "sloppy wet" or "passionate" or whatever else. This could have been a weird moment for everyone singing if the leader is singing something different than what we were used to and the words weren't current on the screen. If you know the song, where those lyrics are is a big, epic part of the song and if everyone is singing different things, that distracts them and then they are pulled out of this intimate moment that they were having with God and sucks the energy out of the song. Another issue was that the service run down had one of the songs listed as "Your Love Never Fails/One Thing Remains." These are actually two different songs that share lyrics so people get them confused. I saw this and checked in with the worship leader to see what song this was meant to be, then checked the lyrics and they were the wrong song. This was going to be the first song of the night. That would've not been a great start to the evening to have this guy start singing, the lyrics go up on the screen and they're the wrong song, and then have the lyric person take half the song to get the right lyrics up there. This is why rehearsal is vital for the lyric operator.

Lighting people, you know you want to make the song come alive. Unless you're the best of the best, and even those people probably know the songs, you won't be able to do as good of a job if you don't know the song ahead of time. Listen for the way the song moves, the breaks, where does the song build, all that. In conversations I've had with our lighting director, he's mentioned the advantages to this as well. When preparing for our big Christmas production, he spends a lot of time programming the lighting changes for the songs that we're doing, and it turns out fantastic. Now he can do a great job on the fly, but if he knows the song, it really makes it pop.

To all you FOH folks, how are you going to make the song sound the way that the band is trying to express it if you don't know it? For example, this Sunday we're doing a new song that is heavily driven by acoustic guitar but has a full band sound. Now, our worship leader plays acoustic so it's a part of our normal flow but it tends to sit back just a little in the mix most of the time. It's just not the style of music we normally do to have the acoustic out front in the mix, but this particular song, it needs to be out front. If my FOH guy didn't listen to the song ahead of time, chances are he would have let it sit back where it usually does. It wouldn't be a bad thing, but it's not what the song is supposed to be. Maybe your band likes to change things up from the tracks that they practice to. Make sure you communicate with them to see what feel they're looking for. You have some room to make it your own but if the band is trying for something, it's good to respect that and help them out.

Preparing for Sunday is of vital importance to giving our congregations the best opportunity to connect with the Creator God.

 

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This is a guest post by Jonathan Griffiths, who serves on staff at The Chapel (@chapel_buffalo) in Buffalo, NY. Among other things, he quarterbacks the tech team at a video venue of The Chapel's and helps to produce their services. You can follow him on twitter @JonathanS1824.

 

For all of our scheduling and service layouts, we use a program called Planning Center. (If you don't use it, you should give it a look.) With this program we schedule our media team to specific positions and so does our music team with players and singers. Once you are scheduled for a specific event, you can then look at the flow of the service, including the songs that are to be preformed. When the music team loads a song into Planning Center, they load up chord charts, mp3's, lyric sheets, and so on. That way, when a song is added to a plan, the musicians are expected to listen to the songs and practice on their own ahead of time so that they can come to rehearsal prepared. From the media side of things, our concern is more about how many songs there are, where they are in the service, are there any videos, how many mics are needed for the message and band, that sort of thing.

Something that I've noticed is that there are a lot of people who are involved from the media side of things that don't know a lot of the songs that their church preforms. They might be able to recognize a song that's been played before, but they are mostly uninvolved with the music aside from trying to make it look good from a lighting side of things and make it sound good from a mixing side of things. The person running lyrics just needs to make sure the right words are on the screen at the right time. Other than that, it's job done, no big deal.

I want to suggest something different. I know from my own experience I get frustrated at band members that don't seem to have learned what they are playing ahead of time. An uncomfortable question rises from this: Why don't we learn the music that the band is supposed to play ahead of time as well? It all comes back to the splinter and the plank. I've heard it said before that we tend to notice flaws in others that are often mirrored in ourselves. With that, I think it's time for us to also prepare musically for Sunday.

For those of you running lyrics, if you know the song that the band is playing, you can then listen for certain things musically to happen and be able to tell what part of the song the band is going to play next. You can also arrange the words on the slides in a way that makes sense with the way that it's sung. Lyrics on a screen are supposed to be helpful. The congregation shouldn't have to study it to know what the words are when they're trying to engage in worship. You also need to be a little bit ahead. When the song leader is singing the last word on the slide you're on, switch to the next one. Give the people a second to process the words before they need to be singing them. This also means don't get too far ahead. If the band is at an instrumental break between the chorus and the bridge, don't put the bridge up and don't leave the chorus up either. Go to a blank slide that doesn't have any words on it. Then, when the band is a measure out or so from starting the bridge, put the slide up. It can be very distracting to those trying to sing when the slides are all over the place. I've had times where I've been sitting in a service and it's a song that I know the words to, but when I look at the screen and see they are on the wrong slide or jumping all over trying to find their spot or have type-o's, I get distracted from singing along. I don't need the words, and I can still get distracted by them. This past week for our college group we had a guest worship leader. The college ministry puts the song lyrics into ProPresenter (our lyric program that we use) for each night and this guy was doing some familiar songs (How He Loves, Your Love Never Fails, etc). Some of you might know that How He Loves has a few different versions in which they talk about different ways that heaven and earth kiss. Depending on who is singing it, they might use "sloppy wet" or "passionate" or whatever else. This could have been a weird moment for everyone singing if the leader is singing something different than what we were used to and the words weren't current on the screen. If you know the song, where those lyrics are is a big, epic part of the song and if everyone is singing different things, that distracts them and then they are pulled out of this intimate moment that they were having with God and sucks the energy out of the song. Another issue was that the service run down had one of the songs listed as "Your Love Never Fails/One Thing Remains." These are actually two different songs that share lyrics so people get them confused. I saw this and checked in with the worship leader to see what song this was meant to be, then checked the lyrics and they were the wrong song. This was going to be the first song of the night. That would've not been a great start to the evening to have this guy start singing, the lyrics go up on the screen and they're the wrong song, and then have the lyric person take half the song to get the right lyrics up there. This is why rehearsal is vital for the lyric operator.

Lighting people, you know you want to make the song come alive. Unless you're the best of the best, and even those people probably know the songs, you won't be able to do as good of a job if you don't know the song ahead of time. Listen for the way the song moves, the breaks, where does the song build, all that. In conversations I've had with our lighting director, he's mentioned the advantages to this as well. When preparing for our big Christmas production, he spends a lot of time programming the lighting changes for the songs that we're doing, and it turns out fantastic. Now he can do a great job on the fly, but if he knows the song, it really makes it pop.

To all you FOH folks, how are you going to make the song sound the way that the band is trying to express it if you don't know it? For example, this Sunday we're doing a new song that is heavily driven by acoustic guitar but has a full band sound. Now, our worship leader plays acoustic so it's a part of our normal flow but it tends to sit back just a little in the mix most of the time. It's just not the style of music we normally do to have the acoustic out front in the mix, but this particular song, it needs to be out front. If my FOH guy didn't listen to the song ahead of time, chances are he would have let it sit back where it usually does. It wouldn't be a bad thing, but it's not what the song is supposed to be. Maybe your band likes to change things up from the tracks that they practice to. Make sure you communicate with them to see what feel they're looking for. You have some room to make it your own but if the band is trying for something, it's good to respect that and help them out.

Preparing for Sunday is of vital importance to giving our congregations the best opportunity to connect with the Creator God.

 

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posted by jon cook
Comments

OCT
25


Love your neighbor...

 



The Gibsons

Tim Gibson is a Technical Director for a church in Crystal Lake, Illinois. He and his wife Jen are walking through an incredibly difficult season right now, and they need the support and encouragement of their fellow believers and servants of Jesus to surround them. Their son, Eli, has been diagnosed with holoprosencephaly which is a rare genetic disorder that only 3% of children born with it actually survive. Due to the HPE, Eli also has severe hydrocephalus, diabetes insipidus and a cleft lip and palate with no nose.


What can we do?

First, pray. Only God has control of the situation, and we have been given the opportunity to intercede through prayer, so let's life this family up in prayer.

Second, I'd love it if we would show this family a tangible expression of love. I don't know Tim. I'm only aware of this because of blogging and twitter. But I know I want to do something to remind them they don't stand alone. Help them remember that God is with them and so is His Church. So, since I live in Buffalo, NY and Tim lives in Illinois, I can display a smally tangible gift that helps to remind them that I want to be there for them.

This isn't about money, it's about an expression

This campaign is aimed at showing this sweet family love and support, giving us the chance to be the Church, together demonstrating love for them. We want to remind them that there is a body of believers lifting them up in prayer, interceding on their behalf with the Lord. They are not alone, and this will show them that!

This is also a way to help alleviate stress. Expenses are a part of life, and the medical world has plenty of them. Even a small, tangible gift will go a long way to help.


I sure hope you'll consider joining me! Check out the campaign, here: 
http://www.indiegogo.com/EliGibson?a=1668325


Learn more:


Visit Tim's blog http://littlegibson.ibesmart.com/

Follow Tim on twitter: @timdgibson


If you do contribute, would you please mention that you have? Let's use the hashtag#ISupportEli and see this expression of love just take off!

 

posted by jon cook
Comments

SEP
25


Out Of Your League: What we can learn from the replacement refs

Sometimes, experience just matters. I’m not trying to say that experience, or a lack of experience disqualifies people, because at one time I had no experience and was given an opportunity. Before I knew much of anything, I was put in a position of leading events and a team of people. I love when leaders are willing to give young guys the chance to grow. But, sometimes there’a an obvious and visible difference between experience and inexperience.

These NFL replacement refs have given us a perfect example of how visible the difference between experience and a lack of experience can be.

If you aren’t aware, the NFL has locked out all of it’s referees over contract disputes and every referee you see in an NFL game right now is a replacement. These replacement refs are wearing the same uniform – at first glance, you can’t really tell the difference. But it’s their game time decisions that display the difference, and we can draw some great lessons about leadership and ways to understand our experience level from these refs.

Take the Seahawks and Packers game on Monday night. Last play of the game – a game changing play, and it’s anyone’s ball in the end zone. But for the referee, there job is knowing how to navigate the decision of who’s ball it is and communicate it to all sides. This is where experience comes into play. In this instance, the referees rule that Seattle has the ball, giving them the win. But, the replay shows (in my best assessment) it clearly to be different. And it’s in these moments where understanding your level of experience becomes so critical. No one on the field is upset as much about that initial call. In real time, without the benefit of multiple camera angles, it’s possibly a messy call to make, especially when you are inexperienced. The real anger came at the call being upheld after review. As Times columnist Bill Plaschke stated:

“Three weeks of gross incompetence by unqualified replacement officials crystallized in two moments Monday night that pushed the league’s integrity to the brink.”

Several questionable calls finally came to a head in this moment. You see, decision making only gets better through experience. It’s a fact many young guys have a hard time accepting (I know I did), but it’s just simply true. Practice makes perfect… er, well better, and one of the lessons learned here is that when an opportunity comes along to have additional insight on a decision, you take advantage of that time and viewpoint. It’s not the time to be stubborn.

I was first given the opportunity to lead a team at the wise old age of 21. I knew next to nothing, and a few of us younger guys were placed in positions that required experience that we didn’t have. I’ll be forever grateful for leaders that were mentoring me through a process; supporting me, and letting me borrow their experience and wisdom to apply to decisions put in front of me. Every so often though, I let my inexperience show. I’d make a rash decision rather than take time to seek counsel or reflect on all of the factors of a situation before reacting. My inexperience became incredibly visible. My game time decisions were poor and it had a negative impact for all the players.

When inexperience shows through, those impacted will become agitated.

Look at how Bill Belichick responded after a call was made during the Patriots / Ravens game on Sunday night. He saw the call as wrong, and couldn’t get the ref to communicate with him. So, he went over and tried to get physical with him.

For the inexperienced leader or operator, agitation by others has a compounding effect unfortunately, because now that inexperienced person finds themselves in yet another scenario where they have no experience – having to navigate through conflict. Whether it’s someone on your church’s staff, someone in the band, maybe even someone in the congregation, you might start getting shoved when people don’t like how you handled a scenario. This applies to leadership decisions, direction on how to operate a service – any scenario where you are in the driver’s seat and it affects someone else.

I think the lessons to be learned here important:

1. Approach decisions, especially game-changers, slowly – utilizing all of the vantage points at your disposal before landing on a decision.

2. If you don’t have experience, borrow from others around you. Seek out wise people and ask them to speak into your decisions.

3. If you find yourself getting shoved, you might need to rethink how you approach decisions.

Keep it up! Don’t get discouraged! The mission is too great and the opportunity for you to really make a difference is right there. But know your experience level and operate with that understanding.

 

This post was originally seen at jon-cook.com

Sometimes, experience just matters. I’m not trying to say that experience, or a lack of experience disqualifies people, because at one time I had no experience and was given an opportunity. Before I knew much of anything, I was put in a position of leading events and a team of people. I love when leaders are willing to give young guys the chance to grow. But, sometimes there’a an obvious and visible difference between experience and inexperience.

These NFL replacement refs have given us a perfect example of how visible the difference between experience and a lack of experience can be.

If you aren’t aware, the NFL has locked out all of it’s referees over contract disputes and every referee you see in an NFL game right now is a replacement. These replacement refs are wearing the same uniform – at first glance, you can’t really tell the difference. But it’s their game time decisions that display the difference, and we can draw some great lessons about leadership and ways to understand our experience level from these refs.

Take the Seahawks and Packers game on Monday night. Last play of the game – a game changing play, and it’s anyone’s ball in the end zone. But for the referee, there job is knowing how to navigate the decision of who’s ball it is and communicate it to all sides. This is where experience comes into play. In this instance, the referees rule that Seattle has the ball, giving them the win. But, the replay shows (in my best assessment) it clearly to be different. And it’s in these moments where understanding your level of experience becomes so critical. No one on the field is upset as much about that initial call. In real time, without the benefit of multiple camera angles, it’s possibly a messy call to make, especially when you are inexperienced. The real anger came at the call being upheld after review. As Times columnist Bill Plaschke stated:

“Three weeks of gross incompetence by unqualified replacement officials crystallized in two moments Monday night that pushed the league’s integrity to the brink.”

Several questionable calls finally came to a head in this moment. You see, decision making only gets better through experience. It’s a fact many young guys have a hard time accepting (I know I did), but it’s just simply true. Practice makes perfect… er, well better, and one of the lessons learned here is that when an opportunity comes along to have additional insight on a decision, you take advantage of that time and viewpoint. It’s not the time to be stubborn.

I was first given the opportunity to lead a team at the wise old age of 21. I knew next to nothing, and a few of us younger guys were placed in positions that required experience that we didn’t have. I’ll be forever grateful for leaders that were mentoring me through a process; supporting me, and letting me borrow their experience and wisdom to apply to decisions put in front of me. Every so often though, I let my inexperience show. I’d make a rash decision rather than take time to seek counsel or reflect on all of the factors of a situation before reacting. My inexperience became incredibly visible. My game time decisions were poor and it had a negative impact for all the players.

When inexperience shows through, those impacted will become agitated.

Look at how Bill Belichick responded after a call was made during the Patriots / Ravens game on Sunday night. He saw the call as wrong, and couldn’t get the ref to communicate with him. So, he went over and tried to get physical with him.

For the inexperienced leader or operator, agitation by others has a compounding effect unfortunately, because now that inexperienced person finds themselves in yet another scenario where they have no experience – having to navigate through conflict. Whether it’s someone on your church’s staff, someone in the band, maybe even someone in the congregation, you might start getting shoved when people don’t like how you handled a scenario. This applies to leadership decisions, direction on how to operate a service – any scenario where you are in the driver’s seat and it affects someone else.

I think the lessons to be learned here important:

1. Approach decisions, especially game-changers, slowly – utilizing all of the vantage points at your disposal before landing on a decision.

2. If you don’t have experience, borrow from others around you. Seek out wise people and ask them to speak into your decisions.

3. If you find yourself getting shoved, you might need to rethink how you approach decisions.

Keep it up! Don’t get discouraged! The mission is too great and the opportunity for you to really make a difference is right there. But know your experience level and operate with that understanding.

 

This post was originally seen at jon-cook.com

/>
posted by jon cook
Comments

SEP
17


You're not alone!

Yesterday, I had a chance to be interviewed for a podcast called "Church Tech Profiles" run by Van Metschke (@thesoundbooth) and it reminded me - we're not alone!

One reason that we decided to start churchtechstuff.com was due to the realization that many people who serve in the tech world at their church feel entirely alone on the church team. Yet there are so many people who all do this church tech thing and YOU CAN CONNECT WITH THEM! Twitter, facebook, and blogs allow you to connect no matter where you are.

If you haven't already, just start following the #ctln twitter hashtag. That's a great start! Take some time to reach out and let people know you're there, and maybe that you'd like to start up a conversation! The Church Technical Leaders Network also has a presence on The City where you can dialogue with a ton of people about a ton of issues. It's a great resource. 

In addition, here's a list of resources to check out

- thesoundbooth.com run by Van Metschke (@thesoundbooth) of course, who I mentioned above also runs the podcast Church Tech Profiles
- churchtecharts.org run by Mike Sessler (@mikesessler)
- churchmarketingsucks.com
- Seeds run by Church On The Move (@seedscotm)
- Church Mag

There are a TON others out there,  so start engaging through tools like twitter and begin to discover. I said today that sometimes it might feel more like a support group than a ministry discussion, but that's ok :)

I'll say again that I love having conversation with people who are getting it done in ministry for the tech world. If you'd like to chat, hit me up at @JonCook_ or at jon@churchtechstuff.com

One reason that we decided to start churchtechstuff.com was due to the realization that many people who serve in the tech world at their church feel entirely alone on the church team. Yet there are so many people who all do this church tech thing and YOU CAN CONNECT WITH THEM! Twitter, facebook, and blogs allow you to connect no matter where you are.

If you haven't already, just start following the #ctln twitter hashtag. That's a great start! Take some time to reach out and let people know you're there, and maybe that you'd like to start up a conversation! The Church Technical Leaders Network also has a presence on The City where you can dialogue with a ton of people about a ton of issues. It's a great resource. 

In addition, here's a list of resources to check out

- thesoundbooth.com run by Van Metschke (@thesoundbooth) of course, who I mentioned above also runs the podcast Church Tech Profiles
- churchtecharts.org run by Mike Sessler (@mikesessler)
- churchmarketingsucks.com
- Seeds run by Church On The Move (@seedscotm)
- Church Mag

There are a TON others out there,  so start engaging through tools like twitter and begin to discover. I said today that sometimes it might feel more like a support group than a ministry discussion, but that's ok :)

I'll say again that I love having conversation with people who are getting it done in ministry for the tech world. If you'd like to chat, hit me up at @JonCook_ or at jon@churchtechstuff.com

/>" target="_blank">Yesterday, I had a chance to be interviewed for a podcast called "Church Tech Profiles" run by Van Metschke (@thesoundbooth) and it reminded me - we're not alone!

One reason that we decided to start churchtechstuff.com was due to the realization that many people who serve in the tech world at their church feel entirely alone on the church team. Yet there are so many people who all do this church tech thing and YOU CAN CONNECT WITH THEM! Twitter, facebook, and blogs allow you to connect no matter where you are.

If you haven't already, just start following the #ctln twitter hashtag. That's a great start! Take some time to reach out and let people know you're there, and maybe that you'd like to start up a conversation! The Church Technical Leaders Network also has a presence on The City where you can dialogue with a ton of people about a ton of issues. It's a great resource. 

In addition, here's a list of resources to check out

- thesoundbooth.com run by Van Metschke (@thesoundbooth) of course, who I mentioned above also runs the podcast Church Tech Profiles
- churchtecharts.org run by Mike Sessler (@mikesessler)
- churchmarketingsucks.com
- Seeds run by Church On The Move (@seedscotm)
- Church Mag

There are a TON others out there,  so start engaging through tools like twitter and begin to discover. I said today that sometimes it might feel more like a support group than a ministry discussion, but that's ok :)

I'll say again that I love having conversation with people who are getting it done in ministry for the tech world. If you'd like to chat, hit me up at @JonCook_ or at jon@churchtechstuff.com

/>
posted by jon cook
Comments

SEP
05


When Your Plans Change

 


















Every year, we plan to hold a big outdoor concert for our college group. It's the fall kickoff, and we do it up big. Full lighting rig, rented PA, five camera package for live streaming and IMAG. Typically around 800 kids show up for this event.

So every year, as we get closer, we all start to watch the weather with great focus. What will that Tuesday be like? Usually around 10 days ahead of time, we start to get a glimpse. If we see that big bright sun icon, our spirits are up. Any percentage of rain, and inside our stomach sinks a little. Externally, we say "those weathermen never know what they are talking about."

This year, we were faced with the remnants of hurricane Isaac - a substantial system that was all but for sure heading our direction. Rain was in the forecast 10 days out and never left. The day of, they were calling for 70%-80% chances of rain during our setup and show times. 

We had a decision to make, and what seemed like an easy choice a week before became a much harder choice the day of. 

Option 1: Go for it
Some voices in the group were saying "let's go for it" - maybe the rationale was "a little rain never hurt anyone" or "God can change the weather."  

Option 2: Use the normal room
This is what we had decided our contingency plan was a week before - to use the church's worship center (normal gathering place for this group) if we got rained out.

Option 3: Set the same thing up somewhere else
We had a rented PA sitting in cases, a stage plot all designed, and a crew ready to set it up. But we promoted an outdoor concert…

We ended up choosing option three and spinning it to "Live and Outside…the normal room" - a completely new setup in our atrium, just to be different. It was a cool event. Here's a look at the promo video we made last minute to let the people know of the change: https://vimeo.com/48816903

BUT - this article isn't about our college event, it's abount handling changes in a plan. I'll admit that I struggled a lot with the move toward changing this plan. For one, I was bummed that we weren't going outside. It has such a cool feel to it that I knew we wouldn't capture indoors. Second, we had spent almost two hours discussing what our plan would be if we did get rained out, and landed on a mostly normal night. 


So here are the takeaways from all this:


Accept that plans change
We can't control the weather. God does that, and He has a reason for everything (even if we never find out what it was), so be accepting that although you plan and prepare thoroughly, many factors are outside your control. Accept that.


Be flexible
Our reason for meeting the week before was to hopefully make a decision on contingency minus the emotion of having to change and to walk into that day knowing what we were doing. I'm a fan of planning and understanding what we're up against when we get there. However, all said and done, it was a better decision to go with a different route than our original plan. The picture above shows what the room looked like - it was a great night.


Remember the goal
Regardless of how plans change, stay true to the point of what you're doing. In our case, the goal was to create an awesome kickoff event for these college students and to create an environment where the Gospel could be shared. This plan was just one of several ways of accomplishing that. Regardless of how plans change, stay true to the goal.

 

 

posted by jon cook
Comments

AUG
03


Batten Down The Hatches - Fall Is Approaching!

From what I can tell, it's the same with most churches - every ramps up again in the fall. Summer may or may not be quiet (for us, it used to be but no longer), but come fall, every ministry area has a kick-off, event, or something else that require both promotion and support from our team.

For years, fall snuck up on us. The third week of August, we'd have a hard time finding things to communicate/promote, and then a week later there was a huge fight over who got exposure. All of a sudden there were more projects and events than our team could handle, and it was stressful!

Since fall IS on it's way, there are a few ways you can help to mitigate that inevitable overload:


Ask questions early

Often the reason we were suprised was that no one was talking about these things until the last minute. Often, ministry leaders were on vacation or just in summer mode. When they kicked into gear, it was too late for us. So begin prompting with questions. Ask what will be needed right now!


Consolidate

On the communications front, don't feel the pressure to give every event and every area an individual highlight in your communication outlets. We now view fall kickoffs as one event, and list the details for each. Here's a look at one print piece that we provide for two weeks leading up to the calendar madness: http://ow.ly/cIdiX

Trying to communicate all of that individually just isn't practical. So consolidate!


Work ahead

Don't wait until the week of the rush to begin building any videos, graphics, or other elements for the events. Ask what you can do early to help spread out that rush of needs.


Rest before the rush

Summer is a great time to get big projects done and look at system maintenence, but don't sacrifice needed rest and recharge. Take a vacation! Rest up. If you're fall is anything like ours, you need it! 


Having a strategy on how to enter fall is important, because once the pace picks up, it's awhile before it slows down. How crazy is your fall? What have you done to help manage it?

From what I can tell, it's the same with most churches - every ramps up again in the fall. Summer may or may not be quiet (for us, it used to be but no longer), but come fall, every ministry area has a kick-off, event, or something else that require both promotion and support from our team.

For years, fall snuck up on us. The third week of August, we'd have a hard time finding things to communicate/promote, and then a week later there was a huge fight over who got exposure. All of a sudden there were more projects and events than our team could handle, and it was stressful!

Since fall IS on it's way, there are a few ways you can help to mitigate that inevitable overload:


Ask questions early

Often the reason we were suprised was that no one was talking about these things until the last minute. Often, ministry leaders were on vacation or just in summer mode. When they kicked into gear, it was too late for us. So begin prompting with questions. Ask what will be needed right now!


Consolidate

On the communications front, don't feel the pressure to give every event and every area an individual highlight in your communication outlets. We now view fall kickoffs as one event, and list the details for each. Here's a look at one print piece that we provide for two weeks leading up to the calendar madness: http://ow.ly/cIdiX

Trying to communicate all of that individually just isn't practical. So consolidate!


Work ahead

Don't wait until the week of the rush to begin building any videos, graphics, or other elements for the events. Ask what you can do early to help spread out that rush of needs.


Rest before the rush

Summer is a great time to get big projects done and look at system maintenence, but don't sacrifice needed rest and recharge. Take a vacation! Rest up. If you're fall is anything like ours, you need it! 


Having a strategy on how to enter fall is important, because once the pace picks up, it's awhile before it slows down. How crazy is your fall? What have you done to help manage it?

/>" target="_blank">From what I can tell, it's the same with most churches - every ramps up again in the fall. Summer may or may not be quiet (for us, it used to be but no longer), but come fall, every ministry area has a kick-off, event, or something else that require both promotion and support from our team.

For years, fall snuck up on us. The third week of August, we'd have a hard time finding things to communicate/promote, and then a week later there was a huge fight over who got exposure. All of a sudden there were more projects and events than our team could handle, and it was stressful!

Since fall IS on it's way, there are a few ways you can help to mitigate that inevitable overload:


Ask questions early

Often the reason we were suprised was that no one was talking about these things until the last minute. Often, ministry leaders were on vacation or just in summer mode. When they kicked into gear, it was too late for us. So begin prompting with questions. Ask what will be needed right now!


Consolidate

On the communications front, don't feel the pressure to give every event and every area an individual highlight in your communication outlets. We now view fall kickoffs as one event, and list the details for each. Here's a look at one print piece that we provide for two weeks leading up to the calendar madness: http://ow.ly/cIdiX

Trying to communicate all of that individually just isn't practical. So consolidate!


Work ahead

Don't wait until the week of the rush to begin building any videos, graphics, or other elements for the events. Ask what you can do early to help spread out that rush of needs.


Rest before the rush

Summer is a great time to get big projects done and look at system maintenence, but don't sacrifice needed rest and recharge. Take a vacation! Rest up. If you're fall is anything like ours, you need it! 


Having a strategy on how to enter fall is important, because once the pace picks up, it's awhile before it slows down. How crazy is your fall? What have you done to help manage it?

/>
posted by jon cook
Comments

AUG
01


How To Avoid Constant Overload














Everyone has experienced a point in time where the demands are more than their capacity allows. We all know the experience of working on something into the early AM hours, because there just wasn't enough time in the day. Those times should be few and far between, yet I know some people who find themselves there all the time! It's not healthy. So how do we avoid putting ouselves in those situations time and time again?

Plan: Know What’s Down The Road

Nothing is worse than finding out the week of that you are slammed – that ten things need to get done and you only have time for five of them. This seems simple, but it is a constant struggle for many. Keep an accurate calendar and task list. Intentionally be having conversations about events and plans that are weeks and months into the future. Sometimes the discussions can lead to a more stressful mindset since it seems more is happening now than actually is, but in the long run, you are further ahead and have a better buffer for the unknown.

Delegate: You Can’t Do It All

I’ve tried this – it’s not possible. The extent of what gets accomplished has a hard ceiling of what you’re capable of when you go it alone. More than that – don’t just delegate the easy stuff. Look to empower others to LEAD in areas. Yes, that means letting go a bit. In the long run, your team will be so much more effective when you aren’t the one and only, creating a bottleneck for everything. PLUS, when you begin to get overwhelmed, it happens slower and less things are affected by your personal overload.

Trust: You Weren’t Made To Be Self-Sufficient

Above all, tell God that you’re stressed. Ask Him to provide the peace that only He can provide. Rely on Him to lead your steps and to provide you strength. The American macho-man mentality that we have to internalize everything and be self-sufficient is not a Biblical principle. We’re called to be meek and humble, trusting in God’s strength above our own.


What do you think? How do you handle stressful times? What works and what doesn’t?

 

posted by jon cook
Comments

JUL
31


An Honest View Of Your Team

One of the greatest rhythms you can get into is a periodic review of your team. Ask some challenging questions both to yourself and of those who interface with you on a regular basis. Here are a few that would bring helpful feedback:

Ask yourself:

What have we accomplished lately?
What process have we improved, what new capacity have we developed, and what growth have we seen within the team? If none, set some goals right now. If it's recruiting that's needed to move from routine to achieving new things, start there!

What gets talked about most within the team?
If it's conversation around how to do something better, how to serve more or in a new way, then give yourself a high 5! If it's a conversation dripping with complaints, grumbling, or dissatisfaction with "how things are" then start praying about and thinking through how to steer the ship. Start challenging the team with new thoughts focused on their and your privilege that it is to serve in the Kingdom!

Ask others outside your team:

What does our team sound like?
Are we a positive group? Do we encourage you, or do we strain your positivity? 

Are we helpful?
Do you think we go out of our way to serve the church and those we interact with, or do you see us as being a pain in the butt every time we're asked for something?

What could we do better?
Instead of steering the conversation, this last one lays it out there - ask for honest feedback. What could we do better to serve you?


How often do you take a good look at your team? How is the view in the mirror?



One of the greatest rhythms you can get into is a periodic review of your team. Ask some challenging questions both to yourself and of those who interface with you on a regular basis. Here are a few that would bring helpful feedback:

Ask yourself:

What have we accomplished lately?
What process have we improved, what new capacity have we developed, and what growth have we seen within the team? If none, set some goals right now. If it's recruiting that's needed to move from routine to achieving new things, start there!

What gets talked about most within the team?
If it's conversation around how to do something better, how to serve more or in a new way, then give yourself a high 5! If it's a conversation dripping with complaints, grumbling, or dissatisfaction with "how things are" then start praying about and thinking through how to steer the ship. Start challenging the team with new thoughts focused on their and your privilege that it is to serve in the Kingdom!

Ask others outside your team:

What does our team sound like?
Are we a positive group? Do we encourage you, or do we strain your positivity? 

Are we helpful?
Do you think we go out of our way to serve the church and those we interact with, or do you see us as being a pain in the butt every time we're asked for something?

What could we do better?
Instead of steering the conversation, this last one lays it out there - ask for honest feedback. What could we do better to serve you?


How often do you take a good look at your team? How is the view in the mirror?



/>" target="_blank">

One of the greatest rhythms you can get into is a periodic review of your team. Ask some challenging questions both to yourself and of those who interface with you on a regular basis. Here are a few that would bring helpful feedback:

Ask yourself:

What have we accomplished lately?
What process have we improved, what new capacity have we developed, and what growth have we seen within the team? If none, set some goals right now. If it's recruiting that's needed to move from routine to achieving new things, start there!

What gets talked about most within the team?
If it's conversation around how to do something better, how to serve more or in a new way, then give yourself a high 5! If it's a conversation dripping with complaints, grumbling, or dissatisfaction with "how things are" then start praying about and thinking through how to steer the ship. Start challenging the team with new thoughts focused on their and your privilege that it is to serve in the Kingdom!

Ask others outside your team:

What does our team sound like?
Are we a positive group? Do we encourage you, or do we strain your positivity? 

Are we helpful?
Do you think we go out of our way to serve the church and those we interact with, or do you see us as being a pain in the butt every time we're asked for something?

What could we do better?
Instead of steering the conversation, this last one lays it out there - ask for honest feedback. What could we do better to serve you?


How often do you take a good look at your team? How is the view in the mirror?



/>
posted by jon cook
Comments

JUL
30


How to train when every event is important












We face this dilemna nowadays when it comes to training: there are no "unimportant events" to use as a training ground.

A few of us on the team have been working together since high school. Back then, the media team looked very different. Sunday morning was THE event; that and special events like Christmas and Easter productions. Youth group however, was our playground. Before we started into it, youth group's tech consisted of maybe a mic, a guy playing acoustic guitar, and an overhead. There were no expectations, and everything we offered to do was a bonus. It was a no-fail situation.

Well, no fail isn't quite true. We failed plenty of times. Videos that were supposed to be played sometimes didn't, audio issues definitely existed - we were experimenting! But we had a haven to explore and to fail without major issues. 

Fast forward a bunch of years - today's "youth group" looks nothing like ours did. It's a full scale, high quality production. Full band, big lighting rig, video playback, and more.

So without a training ground, how do we raise up new people and train them to the level that we got to without all of those opportunities to fail and learn from it? Well, 1st I want to examine why that time of experimenting worked and why it was so beneficial:


  • We were passionate about it: No one was telling us to do this. We were begging others to let us do it.

  • We were our own critics: No one stood over our shoulders and gave advice (might have fast tracked some of our skills if we were willing to listen), but we didn't just settle for ok. We were critical of ourselves and each other, demanding better.

  • We had supporters: Our youth pastor and others in the church, while they weren't focused on this, they did give us permission to try and experiment. Without that, this wouldn't have been possible.

  • We had very little to work with: We got creative with what we had, and learned HOW things worked so we could use them fully.

  • It was consistent: This wasn't a one-off opportunity. We had years of a weekly gathering (if not more) to play, tweak, adjust, and discover.

So we truly have faced this dilemna - we'll never again be able to recreate that environment for other people. Now that we've set that bar of quality and consistency, there won't be an environment where it isn't expected, by others or us. So does that mean that the cause is lost? No, but it will take a different approach. Here are some ideas that we've implemented to provide good training.

  • Find passionate, committed people: Direction and opportunity is our job to provide, but without the passion and commitment, the person you're investing in won't push themselves to new levels.

  • Create non-threatening environments for them to play: With audio, we actually will record a Sunday service on a multitrack unit and play it back through the system, giving them those same seperate inputs to work with. While there are certain aspects they won't encounter with this (feedback, stage volume, monitor adjustments, etc) they can slowly build a mix from the ground up, and it can sound terrible while they figure it out. We can come in and offer input, but only after they've tried for themselves.

  • Provide consistency: Don't write someone off right away. YES, they will look incompenent when they start - that's why training exists. While there are those who will get it and those who won't, give the trainee a consistent training process and stick with it for awhile (months at least).

  • Put them in not-so-prestigious positions: Let these trainees do the boring stuff. Yep - there is boring stuff and we all know it. We also know that usually people want to be trained so they can run the cool concert or "big church"; whatever is viewed as important. Give the expectation upfront that this will happen last. Having them babysit a board for a funeral, sit through an event with two inputs, etc - this will build confidence (even when they think they already have it) and will instill a servant's mindset.
On the other side of this process, maybe a year later, you'll be surprised with the results! Trust people, give them a chance to succeed, and create opportunities outside the stress of live production to train.
What do you do in your training process to overcome this issue of high expectations for every event?

 

posted by jon cook
Comments

JUL
27


When something fails...

All of us in the church tech world can take a cue from twitter's failure yesterday. If you aren't aware, yesterday twitter had a complete system failure. When you went to twitter.com, you got a big, fat error. No nice graphics, no nothing! 

But the failure isn't where we can learn, but rather it's in their response where the lesson is. Later in the day, twitter posted this on their blog:

 

We are sorry. Many of you came to Twitter earlier today expecting, well, Twitter. Instead, between around 8:20am and 9:00am PT, users around the world got zilch from us. By about 10:25am PT, people who came to Twitter finally got what they expected: Twitter. 

The cause of today’s outage came from within our data centers. Data centers are designed to be redundant: when one system fails (as everything does at one time or another), a parallel system takes over. What was noteworthy about today’s outage was the coincidental failure of two parallel systems at nearly the same time. 

I wish I could say that today’s outage could be explained by the Olympics or even acascading bug. Instead, it was due to this infrastructural double-whammy. We are investing aggressively in our systems to avoid this situation in the future. 

On behalf of our infrastructure team, we apologize deeply for the interruption you had today. Now — back to making the service even better and more stable than ever.

- Mazen Rawashdeh, VP, Engineering (@mazenra)


See, for all of us dealing with technology, we will have failures. We can plan, have redundant systems and backup plans. It won't matter. At some point, it will hit the fan. When it does, you have to acknowledge it, apologize, learn from it, and move on.

Acknowledge It: Don't excuse the problem away or blame shift. Take the heat. Say "yep, this did happen". Note that twitter stated what happened right at the top of their letter.

Apologize: Whether it was your fault, or a crazy coincidence, say you're sorry to the people it inconvenienced. It's your area of responsibility, regardless of fault. Note the 1st words in twitter's letter: WE ARE SORRY.   

Learn From It: A random problem is just that, random. But learn from that problem and implement a plan to make sure you are trying to prevent it in the future. The next time it becomes a pattern instead of random. Twitter noted that they are "aggressively" looking for other problems they might not see coming.

Move On: Don't dwell there. Don't get down on yourself or your team. Move on to bigger and better things. Again note the end of twitter's letter: "Now- back to makint the service even better..."

All of us in the church tech world can take a cue from twitter's failure yesterday. If you aren't aware, yesterday twitter had a complete system failure. When you went to twitter.com, you got a big, fat error. No nice graphics, no nothing! 

But the failure isn't where we can learn, but rather it's in their response where the lesson is. Later in the day, twitter posted this on their blog:

 

We are sorry. Many of you came to Twitter earlier today expecting, well, Twitter. Instead, between around 8:20am and 9:00am PT, users around the world got zilch from us. By about 10:25am PT, people who came to Twitter finally got what they expected: Twitter. 

The cause of today’s outage came from within our data centers. Data centers are designed to be redundant: when one system fails (as everything does at one time or another), a parallel system takes over. What was noteworthy about today’s outage was the coincidental failure of two parallel systems at nearly the same time. 

I wish I could say that today’s outage could be explained by the Olympics or even acascading bug. Instead, it was due to this infrastructural double-whammy. We are investing aggressively in our systems to avoid this situation in the future. 

On behalf of our infrastructure team, we apologize deeply for the interruption you had today. Now — back to making the service even better and more stable than ever.

- Mazen Rawashdeh, VP, Engineering (@mazenra)


See, for all of us dealing with technology, we will have failures. We can plan, have redundant systems and backup plans. It won't matter. At some point, it will hit the fan. When it does, you have to acknowledge it, apologize, learn from it, and move on.

Acknowledge It: Don't excuse the problem away or blame shift. Take the heat. Say "yep, this did happen". Note that twitter stated what happened right at the top of their letter.

Apologize: Whether it was your fault, or a crazy coincidence, say you're sorry to the people it inconvenienced. It's your area of responsibility, regardless of fault. Note the 1st words in twitter's letter: WE ARE SORRY.   

Learn From It: A random problem is just that, random. But learn from that problem and implement a plan to make sure you are trying to prevent it in the future. The next time it becomes a pattern instead of random. Twitter noted that they are "aggressively" looking for other problems they might not see coming.

Move On: Don't dwell there. Don't get down on yourself or your team. Move on to bigger and better things. Again note the end of twitter's letter: "Now- back to makint the service even better..."

/>" target="_blank">All of us in the church tech world can take a cue from twitter's failure yesterday. If you aren't aware, yesterday twitter had a complete system failure. When you went to twitter.com, you got a big, fat error. No nice graphics, no nothing! 

But the failure isn't where we can learn, but rather it's in their response where the lesson is. Later in the day, twitter posted this on their blog:

 

We are sorry. Many of you came to Twitter earlier today expecting, well, Twitter. Instead, between around 8:20am and 9:00am PT, users around the world got zilch from us. By about 10:25am PT, people who came to Twitter finally got what they expected: Twitter. 

The cause of today’s outage came from within our data centers. Data centers are designed to be redundant: when one system fails (as everything does at one time or another), a parallel system takes over. What was noteworthy about today’s outage was the coincidental failure of two parallel systems at nearly the same time. 

I wish I could say that today’s outage could be explained by the Olympics or even acascading bug. Instead, it was due to this infrastructural double-whammy. We are investing aggressively in our systems to avoid this situation in the future. 

On behalf of our infrastructure team, we apologize deeply for the interruption you had today. Now — back to making the service even better and more stable than ever.

- Mazen Rawashdeh, VP, Engineering (@mazenra)


See, for all of us dealing with technology, we will have failures. We can plan, have redundant systems and backup plans. It won't matter. At some point, it will hit the fan. When it does, you have to acknowledge it, apologize, learn from it, and move on.

Acknowledge It: Don't excuse the problem away or blame shift. Take the heat. Say "yep, this did happen". Note that twitter stated what happened right at the top of their letter.

Apologize: Whether it was your fault, or a crazy coincidence, say you're sorry to the people it inconvenienced. It's your area of responsibility, regardless of fault. Note the 1st words in twitter's letter: WE ARE SORRY.   

Learn From It: A random problem is just that, random. But learn from that problem and implement a plan to make sure you are trying to prevent it in the future. The next time it becomes a pattern instead of random. Twitter noted that they are "aggressively" looking for other problems they might not see coming.

Move On: Don't dwell there. Don't get down on yourself or your team. Move on to bigger and better things. Again note the end of twitter's letter: "Now- back to makint the service even better..."

/>
posted by jon cook
Comments

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