The Role of Production Managers

Production Managers at Mars Hill Church are responsible for the organization and execution of live production elements at our weekend services and all special events.  This role requires a mixture of technical knowledge and ability balanced with strong communication and leadership.  Generally this position reports directly to the Campus Operations Director or the Campus Worship Pastor and works closely with the Regional Production Technology Manager (a function of the Central Operations Branch’s Production Technology Department).  Production Mangers hold the office of Deacon and typically are established as part time paid positions.

Responsibilities

On a weekly basis this includes:

• band scheduling
• scheduling of production volunteers
• downloading video files from the media and communications branch
• testing the sermon video
• obtaining the band’s set list
• building a slide deck/song cue list
• building any campus specific announcement slides
• establishing a stage plot
• preparing the service order
• coordinating an input list between the band leader and the FOH engineer
• building lighting cues
• ensuring a successful band practice
• troubleshooting of technical systems as needed
• ensuring that the room is prepared and ready for service, stage is clean and clear
• leading a pre-service production team meeting
• ensuring the right people go on stage at the right time (stage management)
• ensuring smooth technical transitions throughout the service identifying areas for improvement

Additionally there may be special elements that the campus pastors requests accommodation for that will require extra planning and communication with volunteer teams.  If you are adding baby dedications or baptisms to the service order there are many logistical details that must be thought through (i.e. What is the plan for bringing people up on stage?  Who will have a mic?  Who is filling the baptismal and ensuring the water at the right temperature?  Who is coordinating towels?).  It is the responsibility of the production manager to think through all the details of every event, develop and communicate a plan, and then execute it effectively.

On a more ongoing basis:

• training of volunteers
• recruiting new volunteers
• managing the production budget for expendables, special services, band gear, and volunteer appreciation
• performing routine maintenance of audio, video and lighting systems
• capturing and distribution of campus specific audio and video content
• planning of special services (i.e. Good Friday, Easter, Christmas, beach baptisms, etc.)

Expectations

Technologically, Production Managers are expected to have a good understanding of how each of their audio, video and lighting systems function and should be able to jump in and operate any position if a volunteer fails to show-up or troubleshoot issues that come up by tracing the signal flow.  They also oversee the technical training at their campus, ensuring that each volunteer has a working knowledge of the system, or is in the training process to gain that working foundation.

There is specific routine maintenance that is required by the Production Manager at each campus.  The specific maintenance varies depending on what systems have been deployed at any given campus.  Production Managers are encouraged to talk with their Regional Production Technology Manager if they are unsure what is specifically expected of them in regards to maintenance.

Systems are designed for specific functionality and Production Managers are expected to execute campus events and operations within this normal functionality.  If a campus would like to use the system equipment in a way that is different than how the Regional Production Technology Manager has approved, we ask that a discussion take place around the requested special use of the system.  Additionally it is expected that Production Mangers do not alter the deployed production technology systems from their initially deployed design.  This means that existing equipment is not removed and that no new equipment is procured or integrated.  We have established this flow of work in an effort to support the Production Managers in accomplishing as much ‘people ministry’ as possible – that is talking with people, seeing the gospel worked out in their volunteer’s lives, rather than being distracted by technical issues.

In regards to spiritual oversight, we fully expect Production Managers to take initiative in digging into the lives of their volunteers, knowing where they are at in their walk with Jesus, knowing what scriptures are challenging to them, knowing what struggles or addictions are distracting them from living a life in the light before the cross.  While the spiritual oversight provided by Production Managers should encourage open and honest community, it doesn’t not replace the need for community groups.  Serving in any volunteer role is a secondary place of community and accountability, as community groups are specifically aimed and purposed at achieving true gospel community.  All too often we find volunteers serving in a production capacity and not involved in any community group – production managers should encourage/push their volunteers into true community, recognizing the limitations of potential spiritual oversight and accountability in a task oriented volunteer role.

Hiring Considerations

When we are looking at resumes and interviewing potential candidates for new staff Production Managers we specifically focus on four areas:

Calling – How has Jesus specifically called you to this role?  Are you on mission?  Are you currently serving your church?  Are you in a community group and living a life that is open and accountable those around you?

Competency – Are you an effective communicator while also being incredibly detail and technically oriented?

Character – Do you meet the qualifications of the office of Deacon as outlined in Acts 6:1-7 and 1 Timothy 3:8-13?  Can you model humble leadership?

Chemistry – How are you going to ‘gel’ with the campus team?

WFX Charlotte Wrap-Up

I am just getting back from my trip to wfx charlotte where I had the privilege of participating in leading several of the conference sessions, meeting with many churches, and catching up with old friends while making an overwhelming amount of new ones.  I want to take the opportunity while this event is still fresh in my mind to share the 5 thoughts and reactions I walked away with.

WFX is a must. If for nothing else, to take a few days to connect with other people from around the nation and share what Jesus is doing in our churches.  There are so many brilliant men and women that join together at this event and anyone that thinks they are too good for this event is sorely mistaken.

Unity. The entire event had a vibe similar to a family reunion, from catching up with friends that I normally only talk with via twitter to meeting new people, and immediately having unity around our shared desire to see more people come to know Jesus through the use of technology.

The speakers were top notch. From what I am told there has been a shift in the speaker line-up methodology – less manufacture reps talking about their equipment and more people who are actually in the trenches of church ministry talking about their experiences.  All the speakers were accessible and simply there to love and serve other churches.  All the speakers that I engaged with were completely transparent about where they were at, the challenges they faced, the mistakes they have made.  I went away challenged in several areas and it’s nice to simply know that I am not the only person that doesn’t have everything figured out yet.

Technologists not into technology? This was kind of weird.  I met way too many people that just wanted the answer book.  People who simply wanted model numbers and clearly had no intention or desire to really learn our trade.  People who scoff at the idea of twitter and facebook?  It was clear that some people are trying to use technology as a means to an end in and of itself.  It is my prayer that people may see beyond the technology and get on mission, on mission to make disciples of Jesus.  If technology can help them do this then great, but if it is in the way, then throw technology in the garbage.

It is all about Jesus. Technology is worthless if it doesn’t point people to Jesus.  What does your church do really well and how are you seeing people come to know Jesus?  Let’s use technology to support those things.

Burn Out

Recently we have heard a lot of people in the church production world talking about burnout and asking how to avoid it.  Quite frankly this has us very concerned, asking a lot of questions, and driving us to prayer.  Here are some of our thoughts on the subject:

What is burnout?  Is it simply the feeling of having to much to do and not enough time to do it?  Is it no longer having the desire to do… anything?  Tiredness?  Depression?  Emptiness?  To us this sounds like a person who never has, or takes, the time to unplug, relax, and spend time with Jesus.  Someone who is running constantly and never fully recharging.  We bet that someone claiming ‘burnout’ has lost perspective of how the overall mission and vision tie directly to the work they are doing every day.

Jesus calls us to have a day of sabbath – that is a day of rest.  Are those that are experiencing burnout doing this faithfully?  Are you taking the time to disconnect your mind from work in order to see the recent evidence’s of God’s grace in your life?  We know that when life gets busy for us, especially at work/church, we have a tendency to hunker down and plow through until the work is done.  Leaving no time to align our hearts with our maker’s heart.  When we do this, the work only piles up, and our lives at work gets more stressful – our entire life suffers, including the time with our friends and family.  Let’s call this what it is – sin.  We think we can do the work Jesus has called us to in our own strength, that we need to just pull ourselves up by the boot straps and get-r-done.  Just so you know – this approach to getting work done doesn’t glorify God. We glorify God by aligning our will with His perfect will.  And by working out of the reality of our complete need and dependence on Him, as without His work on the cross there is no purpose to our work in church production.  The only way to combat this popular sin of ours is to make sure we are spending time daily with Jesus, praying for His will to be done in everything, reading our bibles, and worshiping Him through our thoughts, actions, and attitudes.

Whether we spend 5 minutes or 2 hours each day with Jesus in silence and solitude, His expectation of us is clear.  We should be spending quality time each day reading His Word (the Bible), praying and worshiping.  We are also not supposed to be working seven days a week.  We are to take at least one day a week off and spend that time with God and family. [John 20:9, 2 Tim. 3:16, Deut. 5:12-14, 1 Thes. 5:16-19]

Also something else comes to mind.  God has given each of us the skills to be able to do the work that He needs done.  In Exodus 28 and 35, God is speaking to Moses about the construction of the first portable church in the dessert of Egypt:

Exodus 28:2-3 And you shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty.  You shall speak to all the skillful, whom I have filled with a spirit of skill, that they make Aaron’s garments to consecrate him for my priesthood.

Exodus 35:30-36:2 Then Moses said to the people of Israel, “See, the LORD has called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah; and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold and silver and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, for work in every skilled craft.  And he has inspired him to teach, both him and Oholiab the son of Ahisamach of the tribe of Dan.  He has filled them with skill to do every sort of work done by an engraver or by a designer or by an embroiderer in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, or by a weaver—by any sort of workman or skilled designer.  “Bezalel and Oholiab and every craftsman in whom the LORD has put skill and intelligence to know how to do any work in the construction of the sanctuary shall work in accordance with all that the LORD has commanded.”  And Moses called Bezalel and Oholiab and every craftsman in whose mind the LORD had put skill, everyone whose heart stirred him up to come to do the work

God has called each of us specifically to be able to do a specific job, or jobs, for him.  There are a number of areas in our lives in which Christ has called us.  Some of those big picture items include but aren’t limited to the following:

• Jesus – First and foremost, He has called us to Him, to follow and obey Him, spend time with Him. Think of the parable in John 4 of the Women and the Well, Christ referring to the living water instead of the water that can be drawn from the well.
• Family – God calls us to love our families and men are to be the Pastor of their families Eph. 5:22-33 Also see this e-book on the subject.
• Discipleship – Discipleship of those that are around us in everything, from work to the the rest of life Exodus 35:30-36:2 and Matthew 28:16-20. This makes us all a leader and puts every Christian into a leadership position.
• Vocation – Are we doing the job that God has called us to do? Exodus 35:30-36:2

We believe strongly that we should be living life within our calling and inside of God’s plan for our lives.  When we don’t we become much like the Israelites wondering around the desert for all those years – discouraged, hard hearted, unbelieving, burned out.  How many times in those forty years did the Isrealites want to turn back and go back to Egypt?  The average Isrealite probably never asked God about their place in His vision of life, but few had a very clear idea on what they were to do (Moses and Aaron for example).

Challenge yourself:

We want to challenge everyone to honestly ask yourself a few questions:

1. What is the vision/calling God has placed on your heart?
2. Are you following that calling?
3. If you are not following that calling, why not? And how can you change what you are doing, so that you are?
4. Do you take the time to spend quality time with your Lord and Savior?  If not, why not?
5. Do you take at least one day a week off? Totally and completely disconnected from work…

Ephesians 5:15-17 “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.  Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”

Please Welcome TJ Wright to the Team

We want to welcome TJ Wright as our newest team member.  He comes to us from the Downtown Seattle Campus, where he has been the Audio lead volunteer for the past year.  He has also been serving with us, the Production Technology Department, on a very regular basis.  Every Monday night we have a small group of people that get together to work on different projects (one of the big ones being this website).  TJ has been a very faithful and regular volunteer in that group.

TJ also has a professional background in Audio.  He graduated from the Art Institute of Seattle with a degree in Audio Production, and has worked with A/V Factory, supplying Audio/Video rental equipment and services for a number of corporate companies and events.

TJ comes to us with a humble heart, a desire to serve God in our department, and a great compliment of skills, which will further round out our department’s skill set.  We are excited to enter this next year with TJ on the team.  His contact info can be found on the About page, along with the rest of our contact info.

‘Church Arts United’ Networking Luncheon

Our heart is to see technology be utilized for the glory of God and the preaching of His word.

On Wednesday September 16, 2009 we will be hosting a networking luncheon at the Ballard campus from 12:00pm-2:30pm. We will be gathering together with many of the area church technicians to have a community discussion about technology, and how each of us use it with in the church. This will be a time to meet the others within our industry, who are working at other churches and we may not know. We will have a time for food and discussion. Hopefully afterwords we will know who to call to help out when/if we have questions/problems.

This discussion is an open invite for all involved in church technology, at all churches that preach the gospel. Please RSVP so we know how many people to expect. Hope to see you soon.

Pastor Mark’s Microphone

One of the most common questions we get is “What microphone does Pastor Mark Driscoll use?”  Here is the low down, on what we use and some of the rational behind it.

We use the Countryman E6 and E6i headphone microphones for 95% of our applications.  We do own 2 DPA 4066 Headset microphones as well.  Pastor Mark uses the DPA because he thinks it is more comfortable, however I think the Countryman is more comfortable, but he is the one that wears it.  They booth have similar capsules and pick up patterns.  For our application, Pastor Mark, the DPA 4066 sounds better, but it is also a more expensive microphone.

The biggest difference between the units is the way they sit on your head.  The countryman E6 and E6i sit on one ear and wrap around the cheek to the mouth.  (Countryman has come out with the “E6 Ear Clip” to give the mic support over both ears.)  The DPA 4060 series mics have a frame that sits on both ears and the boom of the mic attaches to that frame, and wraps around the cheek to the mouth.  Both are fairly comfortable, lightweight, and easy to mold to the user’s head.

I’ve mentioned the E6 and the E6i – so, what’s the difference?  The E6 is a slightly stiffer boom arm and ear piece, and consequently meant for mostly one user.  With it being stiffer, it can be stored in it’s case and pulled out, and still be shaped right.  One note of caution with this though, I’ve had Pastors reshaping an E6 and break the boom arm in half.   Countryman does provide directions for the shaping of the E6, and if they are followed, it wont break.  So, moral of this story is to make sure you really know how to mold the E6 properly (and it’s not that difficult).  The E6i is a much more flexible boom arm and ear piece, which makes it ideal for multiple wearers of the mic.  The downside to this is that it doesn’t hold it’s shape as well in storage, and needs to be remolded before every use.  The E6i also offers a larger rubber grip for the portion which goes around the ear, that does grip the ear a little better.  There are various sensitivities and colors to choose from for booth mics, please see their webpage for complete details.  (Countryman has also come out with the E6s, which is a short boomed E6, a cool idea, but require more gain to use, increasing your chances of feedback.  Use this one with caution.)

We also utilize a DPA Lavaliere microphone on a wireless for primary back up.  There is also always a wired DPA Lavaliere microphone close by in case all wireless systems go down for some reason.

We use Sennheiser wireless systems.  Most brands would work comparably well.  Every campus has the Sennheiser G2 series for wireless microphones (as Sennheiser replaces the G2 with the G3 series we will be purchasing those for new applications).  Pastor Mark is using the 3000 series wireless systems.  If you are looking to go wireless, look for the following in the unit(s):

• Diversity antennas – Allows for pick up from the strongest signal on the strongest antenna.
• Remote-able antennas – Allows you to move the actual antennas to a different location then your equipment racks, and allows you to use antenna combiners, so multiple wireless systems can use one set of antennas.
• Frequency agile units - There are two basic types of units out there. Ones that allow you to change the frequency you are operating on and ones that do not.  Get the ones that allow you to change frequencies, as this will let you change them without having to go buy a new system.

In general, wireless units do follow the rule of the more you pay for them, the better they are.  Yes, you can hear the differences as well.  In general, I would not look at purchasing any system that the MSPR (retail or list price) is less than about $700.00.  Remember that you should never actually pay the MSRP price.  For instance the systems we use list for $899.00 and we can regularly purchase them for $500.00-$550.00.  Systems less then this generally are really cheap and you wind up unhappy with it in the long run.

Welcome.

I am very excited to finally be unveiling this site. Our objective in this effort is to best equip Mars Hill Church campus staff and volunteers to flawlessly produce Sunday services. Our plan is to develop and maintain a resource library full of system documentation, training resources for standardized systems, procedures, and equipment information pages. On this site you will be able to find blog posts about what work we are currently working on, frequently asked questions (FAQ), and eventually even line diagrams of standardized campus systems.

This site is very much a site in progress. We have been working this site for a couple of months, and during this time have seen the numerous occasions for needing this site functional. As such is the need, that we are launching in the current state, so as to be able to serve you the best. We know where a lot of the holes are and will be working to fill them in as quickly as we can. In the next month we plan to get the ‘Production Suite’ (the capture facility’s main system) details up, as well as the missing equipment at each campus.

For those of you who are not directly connected to the production teams at Mars Hill Church, we thank you for stopping by. We hope that this site may be of use to you as well. Feel free to drop us a note and tell us what you would be interested in seeing here.