Over the last few months, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the pace at which we move. And by that I don’t mean how quickly we walk down the hall or how fast we run. Rather, I mean the pace at which we live our lives. Lately, I’ve been trying to determine how I can live my life in a sustainable way; that is to say, at what pace can I move through life that I can maintain for the long haul. I call this my “sustainable pace.”<\/p>\n
When I talk about a sustainable pace I mean this; working at a pace that enables you to remain fresh and enthused about what you’re doing, month after month, year after year. I qualify it that way because there will be weeks, and occasionally months that have us moving at a pace we could not sustain for long. Christmas and Easter come to mind. During those seasons, we work like crazy; after those events, we need some time off to recharge. It\u2019s not a flatline pace, but the average needs to be comfortable.<\/p>\n
Young church techies are especially vulnerable to running too fast, too hard for too long. Because we love what we do, we pour ourselves into it. As geeks, we often have no life, so we spend every waking moment at work trying to make it \u201c1\u201d better. After a year or two, we burn out and quit. Don\u2019t act like you don\u2019t know what I\u2019m talking about.<\/p>\n
As I\u2019ve considered this phenomenon, I have identified three factors that keep us working too much. To be fair, sometimes church leadership places unrealistic expectations on us. They don\u2019t understand the process, don\u2019t appreciate how long things really take to get done, and don\u2019t provide the resources necessary to do that job. Most of the time, however, it\u2019s our own fault. See if any of these sound familiar.<\/p>\n
We think of ourselves more highly than we ought.<\/strong> Here\u2019s the real deal, though. We\u2019re not that good. And everyone else is not that bad. The truth is, God has been moving for a long time without perfectly EQ\u2019d vocals. Sure it may not sound or look quite as good if you take a week off, but where two or three are gathered in Jesus\u2019 name, it\u2019s church, and He\u2019s going to show up and change lives.<\/p>\n We don’t train others.<\/strong> I know of church techs who kept so much knowledge to themselves, they made themselves indispensable. Churches that allow this to happen are in danger are partially at fault. I constantly say to people at my church, \u201cHere, let me show you how to do this so I\u2019m not the only one who knows.\u201d I call it the, \u201cif I\u2019m hit by a bus,\u201d strategy. We need to train others. If only because there will come a day we just can\u2019t make it in.<\/p>\n We are insecure.<\/strong> Sometimes, it doesn\u2019t take me even 8 hours to swing from, \u201cMan, I\u2019m really good at what I do,\u201d to \u201cI suck at this and should be flipping burgers at McDonalds.\u201d We can be insecure about watching our students become better than the \u201cmaster.\u201d We can be insecure about someone else getting credit. We can be insecure because an usher told us the music is too loud.<\/p>\n As a result, we feel we have to be there every week to prove, once again, that we know what we\u2019re doing. That we\u2019re indispensable. That we\u2019re worth something. I could go on for a while about this one, but let me leave you with this thought–and it\u2019s been one I\u2019ve had a hard time learning most of my life.<\/p>\n God doesn\u2019t love you for what you do.<\/p>\n He loves you for who you are.<\/p>\n Read that as many times as you need to for it to sink in.<\/p>\n God doesn\u2019t love you more because you created a great worship set last weekend.<\/p>\n He loves you because you\u2019re His child and He created you.<\/p>\n He doesn\u2019t get mad at you for taking a day off. In fact, He modeled that for you. Slow down. And find the right pace for your life.<\/p>\n This is a guest post by Mike Sessler, a Tech Arts Director and creator of an incredibly useful website full of info and insight into the technical side of worship. Mike has created a page just for Musicademy readers with links of posts he thinks you will find helpful so do click through and have a read.<\/p>\n Mike will be contributing new posts from a tech perspective in the future. If there are particualar areas you would like him to cover, please post your comments below. And do let us know what you think of this post too!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Over the last few months, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the pace at which we move. And by that I don’t mean how quickly we walk down the hall or how fast we run. Rather, I mean the pace at which we live our lives. Lately, I’ve been trying to determine how […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5020,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14,676],"tags":[795,797,796],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nI\u2019ve talked to plenty of sound guys who will say with a perfectly straight face, \u201cI\u2019m really the only one in this place that knows how to mix.\u201d Shoot, I\u2019ve been one of those guys. We can easily convince ourselves that we are pretty much God\u2019s gift to this local assembly and if we\u2019re not here, everyone else may as well stay home.<\/p>\n
\nThis is kind of a corollary to the first lie. Because we\u2019re pretty sure there\u2019s no one else around with nearly as much talent as we possess, there\u2019s really no point in even trying to train someone else. This lie is a double-whammy. First, we prevent other people in the body from using their gifts to serve God. And that\u2019s a problem. Second, it puts us in a position where we need to be there all the time because no one else even knows how to turn the dang system on.<\/p>\n
\nI read a great quote the other day (though sadly I can\u2019t recall where). \u201cThe creative personality is a 50\/50 mix of ego and insecurity. During the day, we\u2019re on top of the world, confident every decision we make is the right one. At night we go home wondering if we have what it takes to fool them again tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nGod wants you to do what He created you do to, and enjoy doing it. For a long, long time.<\/p>\n