This past weekend was one heck of an awesome weekend. It was another fun and energetic weekend playing on the worship team at Fellowship Church (Grapevine). This weekend stood out for me, because of a few things. For one: hundreds (if not thousands) of people work extremely hard to pull off a 1 hour worship service. I showed up this weekend at 1:00 pm on Saturday to set up gear and set volume levels on my various guitar patches. The official first call is 1:30pm. But 1:30 is when the first note as a band is played, not when you show up and set up. Time is precious, so there is never any dilly-dallying around. First service is at 5:00, so everything service related must have all kinks refined into excellence by 4:30 to clear the auditorium and open the doors. For you math wizards, that's 3 hours to go from 0 to perfect. We usually get the music charts 2-3 days ahead of time, so that's plenty time to go through the music and more/less memorize it.
Saturday at 1:00, there are still 50+ people working on the stage, building walls, painting everything, and producing other stage elements. It looks more like a construction zone than a worship center. Meanwhile Kenny, Daniel and their crew help the band get power, cables, amp connections, ear monitors, wireless instrument packs and everything else the band needs to make the music be heard. These guys are amazing at what they do, and have the ability produce audio/technical miracles at the first sign of need. The strict time of 1:30 arrives in the blink of an eye and it's time to run instruments on song 1. In fifteen minutes the band should have its act together to add the vocals to the mix and run the full rehearsal. From 1:45 to 3:00 the worship team is running songs, working out last minute changes, tweaking intros/outros and finalizing musical transitions. Meanwhile construction is wrapping up and final walls were being erected and put in place during the music.
At 3:00, it's time to test everything else: video pieces, message bumpers, Ed's headset mic, back up handhelds, lighting tweaks and transition cues, and every other piece of the service. Band is on a semi-break until 3:30 for a full service run through. That's the time to tidy up the area; ditch music stands, remove trash, coffee cups, water bottles, tidy up any/all cables/power-snakes and the like. After a likely restroom visit, it's already 3:30 and it's time to perfect what should have already been perfected. : ) Full run through means all music, prayer spots, welcomes, video transitions, stage movements, message intro & outro, more stage movements, offertory song, final words... yadda yadda yadda… the whole kit and kaboodle. In what seams like seconds, 4:30 has arrived and it's time clear and open doors.
That's just a super brief version of what all is going on from first call to service time. Everyone there is an expert, well… except me (that's how I feel about it). Most of the folks are full time musicians and can play/sing circles around me if they wanted to.
But with all that said, I have to tell you what makes it a great weekend from my point of view. It's NOT the wireless electric guitar connection and the freedom to walk out on the new runway to interact with the congregation while emulating the closest I'll ever (probably) be to rock-stardom. It's not the fact that myself and long time friend Eric Orson were staffed to the same campus on the same weekend (which does add fun, but is rare). It's much simpler than that. It's not a complicated formula, so I hope you don't miss it. It is this: people sang every word to every song. After being asked to sit down for a quick word from Eric, they were back on their feet by verse 1 of the next song. Worship was achieved. And for me, with music memorized, being familiar with the whole process, I don't have to concentrate on playing the right chords/notes. Which means I get to worship as well. If everyone leading knows their stuff, they can lead worship while worshiping, and not while worrying about playing the right stuff, singing the right words, and doing all the right things. It just happens. And the result is something out of this world (in my opinion).
And I just have to give a shout out to Adam Nanez. Adam has been playing guitar at FC longer than I have (6 years plus), and the guy is absolutely amazing. I don't even pretend to have the talent this guy has. In fact anytime Adam is shredding a solo, I often watch him, or turn around and look at the big screens so I can see what he's doing. Somehow, he naturally plays without error and can make sounds with his guitar that are jaw-dropping unbelievable. Even though I've been playing with him for several years, I think I still want his autograph.
Well that's all for now. If you attended FC Grapevine this past weekend, what did you think of the service? Would you have done something differently? Any comments or thoughts?
Hey Matt I actually ran spot this weekend and it was pretty awesome weekend. The new stage set is pretty cool alothough it kept me Busy keeping up with Ed when he walked to the back of the stage off the runway. The music was awesome this weekend I always love to listen to Eric. His versions are always better than the original. I can't wait for him to put out a new album. I have worn out his first. I have to watch myself because I will be singing and lose focus of who I am covering on Spot. As for Adam he is awesome. I enjoyed watching him this weekend. He rocked on his Solo's. I think that was the first time I watched him as much as I did.
Matt, Hello!! Happy New Year!! Matt- I thought the whole service was great last weekend. I actually serve on camera a lot but had last weekend off and I really enjoyed being able to actually watch and worship. I too thoroughly enjoyed Adam's solo...especially on "Another Hallelujah." I thought the design of the new stage was cool too. I know what you mean about such an amazing group of people that make the services happen every weekend. I consider myself so fortunate to be able to contribute my small part. Glad I ran across your blog page. Take care. Matt,
