FRONT OF HOUSE
WHY TRENDY IS NO LONGER TRENDING | Kent Morris
Relevance is a fleeting , everchanging concept . For centuries , the idea of being current was foreign until the world economy grew enough to make differentiation possible . When everyone simply survived , everyone was the same and wore similar functional clothing . As trade increased , some people reaped more benefits and began to display their good fortune with different clothing as the fashion industry developed to fulfill this new desire for vanity .
As a result , the clothing industry serves less as a functional enterprise and more as a status identifier . Of course , that status requires constant updating since its exclusivity is always under assault from the masses closing in on the latest trend with knock-off variants via fast fashion . The result is a continual casting off of perfectly good clothing in the pursuit of the next trend . In the same vein , production technology pursues its own vanity and assigns value to its users based on their relevance to the current norm .
As the post-war economic boom took hold in America , it became desirable to trade in a functional three-year old car for a new model with more chrome and flashier paint , not for any real improvement , but for the fashion and sense of newness it portrayed . Today , relevance is measured in hours , not years , thanks to social media and the phenomenon of Tik Tok and its ilk . There is always the next scroll , the next thing and the next vibe . Our worship technology has taken a frighteningly parallel path away from functional systems toward the latest trend , whether that be line arrays , elaborate digital consoles , 4K cameras , LED video walls or immersive audio . Let ’ s explore why this may portend a negative result .
Audio , video , lighting and acoustics ( AVLA ) as an integrated discipline functions to convey an event to an audience . The event can be a musical , a concert , a play or a church service , but the point is the same : to deliver what is happening on the stage to those in the audience with clarity and comprehension . How this goal is achieved varies widely , but , as long as the goal is met , the process is valid . We can illuminate a pastor with an ETC Source4 , a Chauvet Ovation 910FC or an old Altman Leko with passable results . The question is , what is appropriate in a given situation ?
For churches in the US , there are vast options when selecting a media system . In other parts of the world , those options are limited to what is available and works at a given price . In any scenario requiring media reinforcement , the value of the system is directly proportional to its ability to deliver . Media systems are essential in practically every church environment . Having said that , the value scale begins to slide once the functional threshold is reached . For instance , spending $ 250 per seat delivers a basic working system , but spending $ 500 a seat does not double the performance ; it simply raises it by about 25 %. Moving to $ 1000 a seat results in an additional improvement of roughly 15 %. In essence , the ROI ( Return On Investment ) is logarithmic , not linear .
Here is the crux of the issue : stewardship trumps trendy because trendy is overly expensive and doesn ’ t produce the promised results . Immersive audio , for all its cool factor and stunning demos , may turn out to be today ’ s version of environmental projection or the LARES reverberation system : cool technologies that died away once the novelty wore off . It is disheartening to see nine massive line arrays in a church where the previous system , while dated , was still functional . For the one-percent of churches with the staff talent to pull it off , these systems may make sense , but for the other ninety-nine percent , it doesn ’ t . And , it creates speaker envy and becomes a stumbling block . Finally , it turns us inward instead of outward in our pursuit of worship . Shouldn ’ t we be following the Great Commission instead of the Great Immersion ?
What should it cost to worship ? Should it be an exclusive foray into media system zenith or should everyone be allowed to worship regardless of their ability to pay ? We should always pursue the best for our work , but we must consider the exorbitant costs imposed by the latest trends and realize tomorrow they will be just as dated as a Peavey SP2 . Stay true to your calling .
Kent Morris Kent is a 40-year veteran of the AVL arena driven by passion for excellence tempered by the knowledge digital is a temporary state .