Worship Musician Magazine June 2022 | Page 150

FIRST IN LAST OUT
FLYING UNDER THE RADAR | Todd Elliott
How do you help your leadership understand what production in the local church is all about ? For my ministry and your ministry to survive , it rises and falls on how well you and I educate the decision-makers at your church about what you and your team do . Without this information , production is way too mysterious for senior church leaders to advocate on your behalf . As important as it is for your leadership to get you and what you do , that is only part of it .
I have noticed that many tech people are introverts . They also enjoy flying under the radar . I ’ ll do my job , keep my head down , and hopefully , I won ’ t draw attention to myself . I don ’ t like to be on stage and I would rather do my job by myself . I would tend to put myself in this category .
Unfortunately for all of us who find ourselves in this place , more is required from us . I am the leader of my team . As a leader , my team looks to me to advocate for them ; to stick up for their needs , and to fight for what they need to do their jobs . It is my job to clear the way for them so that they can be freed up to do what they are being asked to do and what they were created to do .
Even though my knee-jerk reaction to life is to fly under the radar , my staff and the volunteers that serve with them are desperate for me to fly above the radar and be their advocate . For me , I can tend to put my advocate hopes onto my boss and want him to do all the heavy lifting to the leaders above him . In reality , I need to push the needs of my team up the food chain . I need to be the one who shamelessly plugs the hopes and dreams of our production team .
I was in a meeting awhile back where I realized that my desire to go unnoticed and put the advocacy hat on someone else had hurt my team . In your situation and mine , no one understands the world of production like we do , no matter how much time you spend educating your boss . No one cares as deeply as you do for the volunteers in your ministry , in spite of the fact your boss may come to your team ’ s Christmas party . No one gets what makes the heart of a technical artist tick as you do .
Push . Kick . Praise . Prod . Insist . Lift up . Educate . Recommend .
Do all these things in an effort to make your case known to the people in leadership above you , but don ’ t give up the responsibility of advocacy to someone else . As a leader in production , you are , can I say , required to be your team ’ s champion . No one else can do it as well as you can , no matter how inadequate you might feel .
Todd Elliott Writer , speaker , technical artist in the local church and founder of FILO . Formerly the Technical Arts Director at Willow Creek Community Church , he started FILO in 2015 to help other technical artists become more effective so that the local church can be more effective . In his free time he enjoys being inspired by Winston Churchill speeches and visiting the gravesites of U . S . presidents . Residing near Chicago , he and his wife Bissy have three kids and a dog ... none of whom are into production . filo . org
150 June 2022 Subscribe for Free ...