FRONT OF HOUSE
SENSING THE MOMENT | Kent Morris
Life is lived in discrete moments. While we consider time a fluid structure, our experience of it revolves around delineated segments. We feel time divided into minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years. We recall a family reunion as happening on Memorial Day in late May at a park where the trees are becoming full and the grass is robustly green. In church, we experience services of worship in the same way. Our moments are bound by segments of song, prayer, and sermon. How we portray them in our mix and relay them to the congregation determines whether the moment resonates or falls away.
The“ order of service”, or“ run of show” in secular terms, holds the key to sensing success. While it may seem odd to use a timed structure mechanism to invoke spiritual connection, it offers the best option when considering how the service will work and when things will happen. Armed with the latest version of the service from Planning Center Online, it is easy to lay out transitions and consider the song order to get a sense of how one moment falls into the next and where awkwardness can be avoided through a thoughtful keyboard underscore or a quiet strumming on an acoustic guitar. At the console, we should use the order of service as a guidepost and mile marker with notes for soloists, which instrument introduces each song, where videos will be played, and how long bumper segments are between elements.
Additionally, we need to write out special moves, such as lowering the front fills when key moments are happening, such as communion held in front of the platform at audience level.
As audio engineers, we cannot experience the event unless someone else makes it happen for us to then control. Without the worship leader, vocals, and band, all we have are last week’ s segments to serve as practice material. When the opportunity arises to practice live with the team, take advantage of it every time, even if it means missing some other tech work like cable repair. Being in front of the team as they work through each song grants us valuable time to try different EQ and effects settings, to route signals through varying paths, and to get a strong sense of where the song is going and how it feels in the room before Sunday. All of these factors contribute to a more refined mix and one that is appropriate to, not only the song, but its timing as well.
While worship team practice can seem repetitive and even boring, it holds great value because experimentation is acceptable and there is no congregation present to judge the outcome. When the soloist begins the first verse, try a new compressor type, a different EQ curve, or experiment with a C6 for the first time. See what happens when a sidechain comp is inserted on the electric guitar channel and triggered from the B3. Tap the B3’ s high
side mic with a downward expander and see if it is possible to eliminate the constant hiss in the Leslie cabinet.
Once the weekend service is underway, pay attention to the order of service and set the trigger for the snapshot change to correspond with the flow happening in the moment. Follow up the video bumper with a flourish of sub energy at the end just before the pastor begins and see how it translates in the room. Then, take the subs out of the system while the pastor speaks just in case someone has left the kick drum mic too close to an air vent and think about any path sound can take through the system that will disrupt the service and mute it.
Pay attention at all times since sound is capable of taking off in unexplained ways. There is always a first time for every sonic disaster. If a frequency begins to hang in the room, immediately localize and eliminate it. Start by deciding if it is above or below 1000Hz and then where the source is based on what channels are currently open and whether they correspond to the frequency in question. Be ready to mute entire sections of channels if something drastic occurs, such as electronic feedback. Sensing the moment requires staying alert with fingers on faders at all times.
Kent Morris Kent Morris is a 47-year veteran of the AVL arena driven by passion for excellence tempered by the knowledge all technology is in a temporal state.
110 March 2026 Subscribe for Free...