FIRST IN LAST OUT
“ CHOICE AND DISCIPLINE ” - FROM THE FILO BLOG ARCHIVES | Todd Elliott
Having worked at Willow Creek for over 10 years , I would often talk to people who were visiting from other churches . As I was giving people tours of the production spaces , I would often get comments about how “ easy ” it must be to do production at Willow , since we had everything we could ever want . While being far from true , I was never quite sure how to respond .
Now that I ’ ve been gone for some time , and spent more time with other churches , and seeing how they do production , I think I have something to say . I listen to audiobooks a lot in the car , and I was just re-listening to “ Good to Great ” by Jim Collins , and this statement really resonated with me . “ Greatness is not a function of circumstance , but of choice and discipline .” – Jim Collins
This is the response I have been searching for . For me , it has never mattered if there were 100 people in a room or 10,000 . I ’ m going to handle my responsibility the same . I ’ m going to come in early to make sure everything is checked and working before everyone gets there . I ’ m going to be concerned with preventing audio feedback regardless of the event , size , or who is in attendance .
When I moved from Kensington Community Church to Willow Creek , someone asked me what it was like to do productions in such a large room . It hadn ’ t even crossed my mind . The goal is to do great work . Period .
A big difference I see between how Willow Creek does production and churches that are struggling with production is the second half of Jim Collin ’ s statement : choice and discipline . This is about setting expectations for how we want the production to go ; making the choice to set up effective processes for getting results , then having the discipline to keep doing the process week after week .
A few weekends ago , there was a portion of the service that I was working on that required lots of work to get right . I think we talked through a particular transition 4 or 5 times , then during our run-through , we walked through it another 4 or 5 times . At a certain point , I felt like the volunteers were looking at me like “ Can you please go away ?” We were all a little frustrated with each other . However , in the end , we nailed it … and that moment went flawlessly every time . Because we chose to hold ourselves to a high standard , then had the discipline to work it until we got it right , we experienced a little piece
of greatness that morning .
Greatness in production isn ’ t something that just happens , it is a choice , that takes massive amounts of discipline to follow through on . Your church deserves it .
Todd Elliott Todd is a writer , speaker , technical artist in the local church and founder of FILO , which stands for First In , Last Out . FILO was born out of his own need as a technical artist in the local church to be in community with other church tech people , to learn new ways of doing things and to be inspired that what he did mattered . The more FILO-type people he met , the more convinced he was that these are things we all need . That ’ s why FILO exists : to equip , encourage and inspire technical artists in the local church to become the best version of ourselves . 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 .
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116 June 2023 Subscribe for Free ...