BETTER BY SUNDAY
[ WITH PLANNING CENTER ONLINE #5 | Doug Doppler ]
FIVE TIPS TO SUPER-CHARGE YOUR SERVICE sound team is truly engaged around the songs in the original key, while also allowing them to
WITH PCO that were rostered for that week. Before we see the artist’s inflection as they move through
start beating up on the faithful sound peeps the arrangement. Professional sound techs
Welcome back to #BetterBySunday with PCO serving long and frequently thankless hours, are expected to know the material they are
(Planning Center Online). As noted in previous let’s be honest about where most sound team mixing, and the same should be true for those
installments, I’m a firm believer that PCO is problems usually start – leadership. Getting serving at church. Fortunately, PCO makes
an incredibly powerful vehicle for doing far your sound team on board with listening for implementing this super easy!
more than simply rostering people and songs. dynamics and arrangement cues is simply a This time we’re going to flip the script and matter of good leadership around why this is TIP #4
talk about how you can actively use PCO to important. The vast majority of sound techs I’ve DO A PRE-SERVICE RUN THROUGH WITH YOUR
improve engagement for your teams and your encountered were raised up in church, with far SPEAKERS AND TEAMS
congregation. So let’s get to it!
TIP #1
POST THE YOUTUBE VIDEOS FOR THE SONGS YOU’LL
BE DOING ON YOUR FACEBOOK FEED
If you’re using PCO, chances are whoever
is doing your social media is already being
rostered via PCO or at least has access.
Regardless, getting your social media peeps
to post YouTube videos for the songs you’ll
be doing each Sunday is a great way to get
the congregation engaged before they walk
into church. There is nothing like hearing the
congregation singing away at the top of their
lungs, and getting these songs posted early in
the week is a great way to get them there.
TIP #2
SHARE LINKS FOR YOUR SONGS IN YOUR WEEKLY
EMAIL NEWSLETTER
While congregations are quite forgiving
when it comes to awkward pauses or
[ PCO makes it easy to
missed video cues, many if not most
map your entire service, of these mistakes can be prevented.
including how long each service, including how long each part
part should be. Running service with all your speakers and teams
PCO makes it easy to map your entire
should be. Running through the order of
makes it easy for the left hand to know
through the order of
what the right hand is doing – before
the service starts. Noting that videos
service with all your
transitions are one of the most common
speakers and teams places where services stall and audio
makes it easy for the left throughs provide a valuable opportunity
hand to know what the tech teams through these transitions,
cues are missed, these PCO run-
for service directors to walk their
including asking them to do test runs.
right hand is doing... ]
TIP #5
DOING A PCO RECAP WITH KEY LEADERS
A lot of churches are using weekly newsletters
to keep team members and congregants more more attention given to what they do wrong PCO is a lot like a script is to a movie. Just
engaged between services. This is also a great versus what actual training around what being a because some actors like to go off script does
place to share links to YouTube or iTunes so great sound tech looks and sounds like. If your not mean it is good for a service or the other
people can live with the songs in your worship church is using PCO, your sound team already team members. Conversely, purposely leaving
repertoire. This is an equally effective way to get has access to the audio files – so long as they a little room for people to ad lib can keep
your congregation singing along come Sunday. are being attached to your service plans. Noting services from feeling canned. Regardless, a
that these files have often been transposed to PCO recap with key leaders a day or two into
TIP #3 fit the range of the worship leader, PCO’s ability the week is a consistently great way to get
GET YOUR SOUND TEAM IN THE MIX to attach YouTube files is particularly useful for things #BetterBySunday.
If your worship team only rehearses on Sunday engaging your sound team. YouTube videos morning, chances are this is the only time your make it easy for sound techs to hear songs 32 August 2017
WorshipMusician.com