First Morning at the Shark Club

Last Sunday was my first morning working at Rockharbor's satellite church. Unlike a typical satellite church that meets at a school gym or community center, this satellite service takes place in a lively night club called the Shark Club. Every Sunday morning, volunteers from Rockharbor transform this late night hot spot into a place of worship. The bar was blocked by a curtain display, paintings of revealing women around the room were draped over, and certain questionable items were rolled away from the meeting place.

For this morning, my job was to help and observe how the portable sound and media equipment was set up. Around 7 a.m., a truck with a large trailer pulled into the club's parking lot. The trailer was filled from one end to the other with road cases, chairs, and speakers - all specifically used for this service. As I helped to begin wheeling in the speakers and road cases, other volunteers were already putting units into places and running wires. The worship band would play on the club's stage, while the seats were placed over the dance floor. The sound board was positioned at the very back of the dance floor, as well as the multimedia unit next to it. A handful of power cords and an XLR snake ran from these two units to a separate rack off to the side of the stage. This rack contained power amps and the other side of the snake.

All cables (both XLR and speaker), music stands, mic stands, and microphones were stored in a "custom" case that was wide and tall. In it were three bins that helped to separate between instrument cords and power strips. I helped with plugging in mics, direct boxes, speakers and sub woofers, and monitors. As mentioned before, all cords eventually ended at the power unit that was placed next to the stage. The channels on the snake mirrored those on the board. This configuration was set up exactly like that of the board on the main church campus. The channels on the board were specifically labeled and never changed, while the snake at the power unit served as a patching bay.

By the time we were done setting up, the Shark Club looked like a miniature version of Rockharbor's main building, complete with a heavy wooden cross always lit on the side of the stage. The atmosphere of the service was undoubtedly a little different, though. Two large permanent disco balls hung above the stage; red velvet couches and booths surrounded the dance floor seating area; and a fish tank lit by black lights could be seen directly behind the sound and multimedia consoles. Not to mention that people played a few games of pool in the club's pool room before the service. There was no mistake that we were still in a night club, but I enjoyed the fact that we Christians could take part in a genuine worship service in the midst of such a worldly atmosphere. Rockharbor could have easily chosen a more neutral and less questionable venue, but instead we meet here in a dirty night club. I find it to be a fitting representation and reminder of our calling as Christians to go into the world and transform it with the Gospel of Christ rather than be intimidated by it.

First Post

Hi journal,
This is my first official field practicum post. Come tomorrow I will have completed my second full week as an intern at Rockharbor church! For this portion of my internship I have chosen to be a part of the production ministry. Basically, my internship consists of learning how to operate lyrics, mix sound, record podcasts, operate lighting rigs, operate cameras, and be a stage coordinator for services. I chose this production internship because, as a musician and worship leader, I'm very familiar with what happens on stage and the preparations that need to be made. However, I've always felt that I lacked in understanding what takes place to make what I do on stage possible. During this portion of my internship, however long it may be, I hope to understand how the production end of ministry works; and with this knowledge, I hope to be a better equipped and well-rounded musician and ministry leader.

These past two weeks of my internship have been very introductory. Alex Magaro, the production director and my mentor, showed me around the different "stations" that make up the production ministry and briefly explained the responsibilities of each. My first night there, I simply sat in a chair, in the production booth, in the back of the sanctuary, and watched the behind-the-scenes chaos unfurl. I was both surprised and excited to see how fast of a pace the production team worked. Everyone communicated through headsets. Commands for the lights to dim and the video to play could be heard among occasional jokes and bantering. But aside from all the stress and light-heartedness, every person there had a heart to serve and a motivation to do their job excellently.

Aside from having me take in the whole experience of being on the production team, Alex also got me started on learning how to mix sound. In Rockharbor's broadcast room, there is a sound board that receives a direct feed from the main board in the sanctuary. Because of this, I have the opportunity to learn how to mix with live music. For my first night there, Alex had me mix the volumes of each channel to see how I interpret the sound. He would have me mix, walk out into the sanctuary and listen, then go back and mix again. After a few times, Alex came to the conclusion that my perception of the drums was not entirely accurate. What I thought was mostly coming from the drum set itself was actually coming from the microphones that were placed on it.

Last Sunday I learned about on-board EQ's and how they work in developing sound. I was given the same task, but this time I was allowed to adjust the EQ controls. According to Alex, this was my first step in learning how to create and manipulate the "sonic landscape." I learned that every instrument has its "pocket" or strongest frequencies on this landscape. These frequencies can be harnessed in such a way that as different instruments are mixed together, each of them can be heard clearly and will not be crowded out by any other. This is a key element in creating a clear, full mix.

Finally, on Wednesday night I sat in with the lyrics operator for a worship night that Rockharbor periodically holds. This night is heavily based on the music and has a reputation for being "spirit-lead" and ever-changing in structure and song order. Luckily, the multimedia program that Rockharbor uses is extremely useful for these settings - not to mention that it is also extremely user/volunteer-friendly! The program, called Easyworship, incorporates Powerpoint slide shows, song lyric databases, and Bible software into one easy interface. With the clicking of a few buttons and the dragging of a few items, entire services can be constructed and ready to go within a few minutes. What makes this program really impressive, though, is that it has a search engine that recognizes song phrases, titles, and authors as well as Scriptures. So, if a worship leader begins to sing a song that was not originally planned (which happened a lot on Wednesday night), the lyrics operator simply needs to search for the title or phrase, drag it into the cue, and click on the appropriate line to show on the sanctuary screens. Worship has never been so easy...
With all of that being said, I have greatly enjoyed my first two weeks as a Rockharbor intern. I am excited about what this church is doing, and my respect for the leadership here and how they do their jobs continues to grow. I am looking forward to the rest of this internship.