A year or so ago I was on my way back from
an event and decided to drop into my sister’s church and surprise her with a
visit. The name of the church is
irrelevant (as it turns out I ended up at the wrong church and so ended up
missing my sister entirely… something for another blog) but the experience left
a lasting impression. As I entered the
facility I was warmly welcomed with smiles, handshakes and two repeated
comments:
“Feel free to grab a coffee at our
café! It's free for first-timers.” And
“You’re gonna love the music here!”
Since the auditorium doors were kept sealed
and guarded until the “appointed” time I took a comfy seat in the lounge, heard
how amazing the music was going to be a couple more times and waited. Once the auditorium doors opened, folks from
all over the foyer, café, lounge area made their way through the doors and to
their selected seats.
The first thing I noticed was that the
large windowless auditorium was dimly lit. It's not that there weren't enough
lights… it’s just that most of them were off or were dimly powered. A large
central screen counted down the minutes to the service start time and when only
seconds remained a group of twenty-somethings fronted by a David Crowder
lookalike[1]
took to the stage and selected their instruments. Once the countdown reached zero the leader shouted
a few unintelligible words and the team launched into their first number. When I say, “It was quite loud.” I’m being
polite. I couldn't understand a single
word through the distortion, the instruments and voices were indistinguishable from
each other, my ears were set a-ringing and the music slamming into my body did
its best to alter the rhythm of my heart.
I get it… Some people prefer their music
louder, and others prefer it softer…
I don’t want to talk about people’s
personal preference. For some folks volume
is not a matter of preference.
For years churches have sought to respond
with grace to the hearing impaired. At
our church this has meant, if you struggle to hear what is said or sung we will
provide a set of headphones with a personalized volume control. But what if the opposite is true, what if it’s
not the lack of signal but excessive volume that causes significant discomfort
or pain?
For whatever reason God has brought to us a
number of folks for whom this is the case.
I don’t know if this is a cultural trend, a local anomaly or just our
specific context, but several folks are experiencing significant discomfort at
certain volume levels.
This isn’t a sermon so I’m not going to
quote scripture, but as your pastor I ask for your forgiveness, and for your
gracious help as we move forward. We
follow one who willingly gave His life for others… people did not deserve
grace. Surely as those committed to
following in His steps we can come up with a solution that reflects His
likeness. Could we journey together
towards a solution in humility and grace?
Of course my plan is to chat directly with those
involved but can I suggest some early guidelines?
Sound Technicians: Make clarity the goal. Rather than pushing the volume up, up, up
find the sweet spot that provides the clearest, cleanest amplification. Don’t just go for volume. Listen for fidelity, intelligibility and mix.
In order for this to happen we need some
help from our music teams. If you could
keep the stage volume as low as possible that would give the sound technicians
acoustical room to find the volume sweet spot.
There is more at stake...
But more than all of that – more
importantly… In fact I would say the very
reason God has allowed us this challenge is this: We need to learn how to talk to
and about each
other.
Can we spend the next several months
learning how to talk to each other? – If we make grace-filled encouragement the
norm it makes it so much easier when there is a need for grace-filled
correction.
What if instead of waiting to respond out
of hurt we were to lean into encouraging what has blessed. What if we went out
of way to thank the music leader every week?
What if we said thanks to the sound person as a habit… Might we find it
easier to show grace when they have an off week, when a video starts too loud
or when an instrument needs to be turned down?
I believe God is calling us to learn the
discipline of dialogue and conversation.
Wanting us to grow in the ministry of grace-filled covenant community.
I’ll have more to say on Sunday, but would
you be willing to take this journey together?
…simply askin’
[1] I'm not trying to be facetious he was actually wearing an outfit very
similar to the one Crowder is sporting in his “My Beloved” video.
