Second Preview

This last Sunday was the second preview service for Story Church. Here are my thoughts about what went well and what we learned:

1. Setup went much smoother - everyone was assigned a job, and there was a clear priority list in terms of what needed to get done first.
2. Our new screen is approximately 1,000 times better than the original. It is no longer a jumbotron and we were able to project straight ahead to the stage.
3. Tablecloths made a huge difference! Made our hospitality and check-in areas look sharp.
4. The first preview was too bright on stage, so this time we turned out the lights. It was too dark. We need to invest in some lighting.
5. We are still borrowing from a couple of different sound systems. This makes setup a bit confusing and cumbersome. We need to get our own stuff soon.
6. The flow of the service worked out much better this time.
7. We intentionally had a woman on the stage! We are no longer chauvinists.
8. Our media looked good, we just need to work on the timing of changing slides.
9. We need more signage - outside, inside, hallways, registration areas, everywhere.
10. We did a better job with the offering this time - we didn't belabor it, and we had a cool new box for the offering specifically. It is no longer on the food table :).
11. Our team needs to model worship a little bit more. At times there was some awkwardness because it seemed like people didn't know when to stand or sing or whatever.
12. Alastair still has an accent. Haha. We're thinking about using subtitles.
13. The teardown went fast. We were out by 8pm (service ended at 7:15 - right on time!).
14. We forgot to bring our connection cards and kids registration cards. That made for a panicked 15 minutes until my wife drove home and found them. That's probably one of the most important elements to what we're doing - so slight oversight there!
15. My sermon felt rushed and crammed. I'm out of practice with this preaching stuff and I need to relearn how to simplify.
16. We need a second parking lot person.
17. We need a countdown clock or something like it - it didn't seem like people really believed we were starting when we did.
18. We should probably mention the connection cards more than once.
19. Facebook ads really work! I think we need to do them more.
20. I can't wait for November 15. This is too much fun.

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First Preview

Now that we're two days removed from our first preview, here are some things that we learned as a team:

1) We knew we had a lot to setup, but we didn't really have tasks assigned. So we ended up looking like a 5 year old soccer team - all of us together running around chasing the same problem.

2) Flexibility is the name of the game in a portable environment. When we showed up, there were 200 chairs set up and the back wall of the gym was open into the cafeteria. While we ended up getting it closed and most of the chairs put away, right from the start we had obstacles we weren't planning on.

3) We needed start times for each of our jobs. What time should we be at the door greeting? What time should the band be done? What time should kids registration start? etc.

4) Our screen is too big. Seriously a 9' x 12' screen is cool, but way too big for our setting. Because of the size we had very little flexibility on our setup and it had to be way over on the side which caused people to look sideways to see it.

5) Transitions. They need work.

6) Borrowing from three different sound systems is confusing. It made for a much more complex setup and teardown. "Is this mine, or yours, or theirs?" Next time we'll try and piece enough together to use just our own stuff.

7) Connection Cards are awkward. We didn't really know when in the service to do them, and it just felt weird.

8) Money. In our effort to not talk much about money and not make an offering a big deal - we ended up making it a big deal. haha.

9) Our band rocked. Too bad they may be all different next time!

10) This is stinking fun. I could give my life to this kind of thing.

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