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Author and Technical Consultant Brad Herring shares his views on using technical gifts for missions. He wrote this article, Haiti; Sound Nightmare for us in October of 2002.
One of the topics we cover often is sound. It seems that almost every church in America struggles with sound. Well, lets expand that - I think every church in the WORLD struggles with sound!
I recently returned from a mission trip to Haiti. One of the most surprising things I found was that all the churches had a sound system. Well, they all had speakers and microphones. The most common “sound” heard from the system was the constant sound of earth shattering feedback.It was amazing.
The Haitian idea of church and structure is far different from the common church in the USA. People would walk up an any time and plug in an instrument, tune, and play (yes, even DURING a song). The entire service was chaotic at best. The constant ring - or scream at times - of feedback was not even mildly irritating to most of the parishioners. I on the other hand sat on my hands in painful agony.
The Haitian idea of maintenance is also something far different from the USA. Wires are just twisted together, speakers barely hanging together -- the entire system barely hanging on for dear life. They are obviously from the rock and roll era. I think the smallest speaker I saw was a combination of 4 15’s and a large format horn. I chose to sit on the front row not noticing the size of the boxes RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME. The congregation sits more towards the back -- I don’t think this is because of lack of interest, but rather one of self preservation. My ears were at the point of bleeding by the end of the service!
Okay, so now that you have an idea of sound Haitian style, you may be wondering where I’m going with this. Mainly it’s to encourage you. Sound could be much much worse. And also to let you know that we are not the only ones that struggle with sound. Think of how much better their worship COULD be with just a little training. I am NOT suggesting that we try to change them to a Western style of worship, but rather help them bring their current style of worship to a higher level. I am certain that they could continue their controlled (well usually controlled) chaos in the same manner as they currently have it only present the chaos without feedback and poorly patched together equipment.
On your next mission trip consider using the talent God has given you. When I first arrived in Haiti I had no idea how I fit into the mission trip -- I simply new that God had told me to go. Then my pastor shared his wisdom with me -- be yourself and utilize the gifts God has given you. If you have the chance to share the Gospel, then do so. But be yourself. For me, being myself on this trip meant videotaping the trip and preparing a documentary for future groups. It was a trip that God blessed. In keeping with our calling to perform technical ministry we should not forget those at the far reaches of the world that we might be able to help simply by being ourselves and utilizing the talents that God has given us.
As always, I’d love to hear your response to this and hear from some of you that have mission stories of your own regarding technical ministry. We’re always looking for articles to post. E-mail us today.
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Fundamentals of Audio - DVD
This DVD based training system was developed by Brad Herring - National Speaker and “Recording & Production” Editor for Technologies for Worship Magazine.
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