My favorite fictional characters are the feisty ones who take charge. The more hardships they face the better. I enjoy writing about those kinds of characters because they’re fun to watch in action. Although, they’re a lot better at facing life’s difficulties than I am.
A few weeks ago I encountered a few trials and tribulations of my own … behind the scenes … in church. Who even knew they had such a thing? I didn’t, until I became a member of a Worship Team at my church. We meet in a middle school auditorium. Our team is comprised of Roadies, a Sound Tech, Producer, Band, Pastor and a “Propresenter”.
That last one is my job. To be clear, I’m not a pro at it. Propresenter just happens to be the name of the software program we use to display slides for song lyrics, as well as pictures and text that the Pastor uses for that day’s sermon/message. Basically, it’s the Mac equivalent of PowerPoint. I personally think of my title as “slide controller” because I control the slides that are projected onto the two large screens set up on either side of center stage.
Stage Setup with Two Screens
Because our services take place in a school auditorium, we need to cart everything in and set it up before the congregation arrives for the nine o’clock service.
On a good day, behind-the-scenes prep looks like this:
The truck with the trailer pulls up front.
The roadies arrive at 6:45 A.M. and roll multiple black cases into the building.
They set up the backdrop, two projectors, the projection screens and some of the musical instruments.
The musicians come in at 7:15 A.M. for a sound check and musical run-through.
The Sound Tech uses an IPad as the soundboard to adjust and coordinate the sound in the musicians’ ear bud monitors. The Propresenter (which happens to be me on alternate weeks), attends the rehearsal to ensure that the lyric slides synch up with the singers.
Usually, the only behind-the-scenes hiccups that might occur before a service are either a wireless mic that needs a new battery or the Worship Leader, AKA the lead singer, discovers, two bars into rehearsal that he’s playing in the wrong key. He laughs, apologizes to the band and they start over.
My story, told in 3rd person even though I was the Propresenter, begins a few weeks ago when the Producer (who can solve any crisis with aplomb) was on vacation.
On that fateful day, the substitute lead singer and his vocal accompanist wife were absent when the rest of the band took the stage to rehearse. At five minutes until eight they were still missing. The other musicians couldn’t practice anyway because the Sound Tech discovered that the IPad used for the soundboard was across town.
The roadies couldn’t center the projectors to the screens because the computer that provided the required “adjustment slide”, was temporarily without WiFi.
The slides for the day’s sermon hadn’t been imported into the projection software yet. At the time, the Propresenter wasn’t worried. Someone else knew how to do it and would arrive shortly.
During the wait, the Propresenter, who knew just enough about computers to be dangerous, saw an open tab on the computer titled, “songs.” Believing it was unnecessary, X-ed out of it. A moment later she discovered that the slides that should have displayed the day’s lyrics were for the lyrics from last week. She now had two options: panic or ask for help. The Sound Tech, still waiting for the missing IPad, kindly located and inserted the correct lyric slides into the program. A second helper loaded the slides for the sermon.
At 8:05 the missing singers made their appearance just as the IPad arrived. About the same time, the second helper, who had been so helpful importing the sermon slides, discovered a formatting error on one of the slides and felt compelled to fix it.
The band began to rehearse. The Propresenter wanted to practice putting up the lyric slides while they sang, but the second helper, who had taken over control of the program, was still “helping.” The Propresenter wanted to suggest that, despite the formatting error, the slide was still readable (translation: leave it alone). The helper fiddled with the errant slide and the band played on.
At last, the helper corrected the slide. He saved it, but couldn’t import it into the program because he couldn’t remember where he’d just saved the file. Meanwhile, the Propresenter, who still couldn’t coordinate slides with the singers until the helper stopped tampering, was ready to hyperventilate into a paper bag.
Despite all that, when the red decimals on the wall clock read 9:00, the service proceeded as expected. The musicians sang in perfect harmony. The lyric slides appeared on the screen in synch with the singers. During the sermon, the misaligned slide was in alignment. Not a single congregant suspected or was aware of the difficulties that preceded the service.
The moral of the story is: no matter what your character goes through, it can’t hurt to have a little …
Oh yeah and: God does answer prayers. 🙂
Oh, Aud — I was very anxious for you, reading about trials and tribulations…And then — you made me laugh! I couldn’t help myself, I was chortling at the end. But if I were in your shoes, I would have been hyperventilating right there too!
I love the graphics, by the way — very artistic use of photos!
Thanks, Gemma! I was playing around with filters in my photo program and really liked that my pictures looked a little like they belonged in a graphic novel. This would be a superhero graphic novel, featuring “Anxiety Woman!” Kinda like Wonder Woman but in my case, I wonder if I’ll survive. LOL
I once saw a Christian satire post that listed a flawless IT service as a notable event of church history. I’m glad you came out of it unscathed and relieved, with a greater appreciation of God’s mercies.
Thanks, Stan! I definitely have a greater appreciation of God’s mercies. But unscathed? The jury’s still out. LOL
I’d love to read that satire post!! Yesterday the sound tech threw out his back so the producer (back from vacation) took over the job for the Sunday services this morning – and did an awesome job of it. 🙂
P.S. – I might have future posts about my “service” – I just told the producer I’d be interested in playing drums with the band. 🙂 🙂