Odd title I know, but this is something that couldn’t go unsaid. As Creative Pastor I make sure that nothing technical gets in the way of the success of our creative learning environments on Sunday morning. Sound, lighting, video, music selection, drama, set design and execution are all critical elements that if done effectively will all fade into the background and go without comment.
Cue the President. During what could be one of the most important “talks to the nation” he’ll make before leaving office, a continuous mic cable noise could be heard throughout his talk – an annoying muffled low bumping noise – that was distracting and, most important – not the technical quality of presentation you expect of the White House. This is especially significant when telling the nation that the government is the only entity capable of handling the economic crisis that we all are fully aware of. Mic noise – economic stability of the free world. I know they are totally dissimilar and the audio guy was fired, but given everything else on the radar, this was a time to shine and for tech problems to disappear – and they didn’t.
Cue David Blaine. In what was heralded as one of the greatest magical experiences since the Flood, David Blain made those who were interested sit for a couple of hours until….in a moment that was to at least rival Houdini….did he explode?….did he transform into some other creature?….did he give everyone in the audience a new car?…No. He jumped off of a 40 foot truss, connected to a safety harness and then was lifted away by a large bunch of helium balloons while we all watched in awe. Awe that we had been duped into wasting a couple of hours to see a fair ride. How does this connect? As David Blaine is “disappearing into the night”, someone forgot to mute the audio of a guy saying, “Get him up. Higher, higher. Get him up.” Now I’m no magician, but that sounded a lot like a director giving cues.
The key takeaway is this: details matter – in life, in business, in family. Apparently we do need to sweat the small stuff…at least some of the time!