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.