As I sit here writing this piece, it occurs to me that I really should be writing an article like this prior to the holiday onslaught. By the time you read this it will be spring and most of us will be looking forward to the busy summer season. But it wasn’t until this past Christmas/Hanukkah season that I had the types of experiences I will be sharing with you here.
Let’s start with the simple fact that most of us want to work as much as possible. At least if you like to pay your bills on time and eat regularly this is the case. There are those of you who volunteer as sound guys or girls for your home church. We will speak to you a little later.
Anyway, back to those of us who love this type of work, believe we are a positive influence in the community of God and also enjoy cash. “More work is better” has always been my mantra until this last holiday season. I was absolutely overdosed with work (spirit-filled and secular), and the worst part of it was that I wanted every gig, driven by a combination of guilt, responsibility and greed. I was simply unable to be two places at once.
Last month, I wrote about employing a Godly tech, and I do have a couple of really good guys on my team. They were a big help, but the circumstances were unique and they were unable to accommodate many of my church clients’ wishes.
The dilemma I faced (and I am sure many of you have faced as well) was that the houses of worship that I had been mixing at all year wanted me specifically to mix their very important Christmas or Hanukah shows. Thank God the Jewish holiday is slightly offset from the Christian one. Of course, I still had all of the regular Christmas parties and secular events that my company supplies sound for during the season. The crew handled most of those, but there were some that insisted on my presence.
You see my friends, by following my own advice that I have been giving you all year, I have developed some very loyal clients who are confident that I will do an excellent job under any circumstance. So it is only reasonable that my clients would want me to personally handle their holiday services and events. I am not telling you this to make myself out to be some sort of mixing superman. If any kudos are due my way, it would be that I made it through the season without punching out a pastor or losing my religion.
Learning From the Past
Well, the season is thankfully behind us now, and this is the perfect time to set ourselves up for a more successful year. As I write this, Easter is just around the corner and myriad children’s worship plays and events will accompany the holiday. So, the question becomes — how can we handle it all and not get burnt out on God?
The first thing I plan to do is sub myself with one of my techs on a more regular basis. The idea here is to get my tech comfortable in a particular house of worship and at the same time let the church staff become acquainted and confident with one of my guys. If a member of my crew clicks with a particular house of worship, I have set the foundation to be able to send out that particular individual should I have a conflicting schedule. I potentially have a Jamie Rio replacement in a pinch. I have already started to implement this practice.
Now I have a year to fine tune it before Santa Claus shows up again. As for the houses that use volunteers most of the year and call me for special events, I don’t have any ideas yet. Most religious organizations really frown on cloning (just kidding), but there should be some sort of compromise out there. If I come up with anything, I’ll let you know. By the way, if you are a volunteer, my advice to you is become very conscious of what you commit yourself to and practice saying “no.” The idea is to celebrate the season, not burn out on it.
Hitting the Wall
I definitely hit the burnout point by Christmas Eve and I still had Christmas day to go. Church services can start very early (7 a.m. in La Cresenta) and Christmas parties can go very late. I guess we all have to be able to say “no” at some point no matter how much gold is on the table.
Sleep and good nutrition became very scarce during this time. It reminded me of my years on the road without the glamour (ha ha). At any rate, I managed to mix three events on Christmas Eve and Christmas day itself. Next season, somebody else can mix Christmas day.
My personal issues were based around scheduling and knowing my limitations. I started with a nice tight schedule, and then I got those last minute calls that I just couldn’t pass up. For all of the above-mentioned reasons, I said yes when I should have said no. Had my team of techs been in place, I could have said no and offered a tried-and-true replacement.
I have no real complaints about the entire holiday season, I just intend on doing a better job next season. We all want to work smarter not harder, right? And, of course, it’s not a good idea to neglect family during the holidays — especially if you want to have one next year. Not to mention our own personal beliefs during the season. I sure got a lot of God time racked up in a variety of forms. If that helps to absolve any future sins, I should be able to raise hell all year.
