Mike Walker Creative

Every year churches all over the country gear up for Christmas productions. This has been the second year in a row I haven’t had any production responsibilities for a church, but every year it’s still fresh on my mind.

I have a very simple philosophy on church production….go big or go home! When I say that you need to understand I am not saying that the production needs to overshadow everything or that you need to pull out your full bag of tricks. What I am saying is this, in the church world we get to tell THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD…so why not be good at story telling?

I just got back from trips to NYC and Las Vegas. Their messaging is big and larger than life. In some cases complex and in some cases very simple, but they they are still saying it loud and proud. Why can’t the church do the same? In some cases it’s a taste thing, in some cases it’s a talent/skill level, the one thing I don’t buy is that it’s a budget thing. You can do plenty of great story telling on a smaller budget….I have done productions that cost upwards of $750,000 and I have done productions with less than $1,000. Get creative and tell a good story. It’s not about having a ton off moving lights, it’s not about HD video, it’s not about technology at all (even though they CAN be valuable tools)…it’s about getting creative and making a good presentation.

In thinking through a good presentation, don’t get locked in to entertaining yourself. Just because you and your staff think it’s a good idea doesn’t make it relevant to the majority of your attendees. Does your presentation make people want to come back for more or did they get their fill until next year? The choice is yours on how you want to approach it, but my approach has always been to gain return attendees after the first of the year….it’s good marketing

I have seen a couple of really good Christmas eve presentations in the past 2 years. At the end of the day do what you can do well. If you can pull off a large elaborate event….do it….if you can’t then maybe simple is the way to go…but either way do it well. Your audience demands it. If you want proof then look at your numbers from previous years and in the weeks that follow.

I got my start in the music world in Christian Music back in the early 90’s (which I realize dates me).

The first artist I worked for had a profound affect on my life. I learned so much from him that has really made me look at everything I do in my work and personal life different.

He had a song that he wrote that came out of personal experience he had gone through titled “To Forgive”. The song was incredible and had an ever more powerful video. I remember night after night how that song affected both he and the audience. Little did I know that almost 20 years later it would change me.

The song came out of a personal experience of his, but I have now lived it and the message has taken on a personal twist for me. It’s amazing how forgiveness and unforgiveness can impact our lives..even when you don’t realize it’s there.

Here are the words:
-I have never been the kind to let too many get behind the walls that I have built around my heart
-Now I find myself afraid, feeling like I’ve been betrayed by one I had trusted from the start
-But friends are only human and at times they’re gonna fall and when it hurts the most is when you need them most of all

-To Forgive is to reach out to your brother…as one friend to another…no matter what the cost
-To Forgive is to leave the past behind you…and pray tomorrow finds you stronger for the journey as every day I’m learning to forgive

-It was another place and time that I had failed a friend of mine and there was no one else to take the blame
-Though he could have turned away, somehow he found the strength to stay, his love for me was stronger than the pain
-In light of all this mercy, it’s much easier to see that even from the cross the Lord was calling you and me….

-To Forgive is to reach out to your brother…as one friend to another…no matter what the cost
-To Forgive is to leave the past behind you…and pray tomorrow finds you stronger for the journey as every day I’m learning to forgive

Now every day I am learning to forgive.

One of my favorite people in the bible is David. His journey is such a roller coaster from a shepherd boy in the fields (also the youngest of all his brothers), to slaying a giant, to being in the kings court as a musician, to being run out of the city and chased by King Saul after having done nothing but serve the king faithfully, to hiding in the wilderness and in caves, to eventually becoming King….lots of ups and downs for sure.

To me one of the most fascinating times in Davids life is his time in the cave. A lot of his character was challenged and shaped while in the cave. I would imagine that his belief system was challenged as was his character. I’m sure it wasn’t one of the highest points in his life after having been a celebrated warrior and living in the palace to be forced to live on the run and live in caves.

He could have been angry and bitter, but instead he chose to embrace his time in the cave. He allowed that time to influence his character for the better….even though several people around him wanted him to compromise (and I would imagine at times he also wanted to compromise) he never wavered.

I believe that David’s time in the cave is what gave him his final preparation he needed to handle his duties as a future king. David needed that experience and time to prepare him for what was coming next.

It’s almost like the military that puts new recruits through boot camp. One of my good friends is a former marine who often recounts boot camp as the toughest time he encountered in the military and has been through combat situations. To hear him describe it, boot camp exists to prepare you for the next situations you will face later….almost like the cave was for David.

The past couple of years have been some crazy ups and downs. Without going in to details, I have had to learn to embrace my time “in the cave”. It’s been an exciting, but at times very challenging season, but what I am learning that by embracing the time in the cave life my life has been blessed ten fold.

The cave looks different for everyone. For some it can be in business, the economy, family, relationships, etc…the truth is though that at some point we will all go through our version of the cave. Take time to embrace the cave and allow it to be a building time…you never know what your time in the cave is preparing you for in your future.

Even the NFL is feeling the effects of the recession. Crazy times!

I read a book about a year ago called The Long Tail. The author studied trends in both the music and film industries and it got me thinking about both.

Having a background in the music industry I can speak in to it from a more educated standpoint. As I listened to and thought about some of the great songs and artists in history one common thread I noticed is that of artistry. They were all leaders and change agents in their own right. Names like Nirvana, Metallica, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, and Michael Jackson, while yes older names, all changed the landscape of music and the status quo. Even in Christian music names like DC Talk, Amy Grant, and even now Hillsong have created something new and different, and the industry was changed because of them.

My question is, where are todays artists? The people who are coming in with fresh new ideas and are going to change the face of music.

As of late I have been on a search for something new and exciting in Christian music especially. Unfortunately Christian music, like the church, tends to be about 10+ years behind. I live in Dallas, home of KLTY which at one point set the standard for new upcoming Christian music. At the time they were led by a friend of mine named Jon Rivers who is a man who is a true artist himself that happens to be a radio personality, and because of Jon the industry was changed. After Jon left KLTY has gone through a phase of a lot of advertising and a whole lot of nothing interesting. Bring back the artists…

Artists change things and refuse to accept the status quo. They don’t do it for huge profit margins or record sales numbers. They do it because it’s inside them and they have to get it out.

Hillsong radically changed the face and sound of todays praise and worship market. We should celebrate what they have done. The problem is that in celebrating them too many other organizations have copied them and not put out their own artistry and voice.

I believe there is a huge disconnect in the understanding of the worlds of talent and of artistry in the church world. I have worked side by side with people who are great artists and people who are great talents…and you need both.

Talented people have an extraordinary gift in a given area. For some it’s singing, for some it’s an instrument, for some it might be technical such as lighting or audio. They have a talent for their craft. They do it and do it well.

Artists are those, however, with something to say…something to add to the conversation….something that changes our ways of thinking. Artists almost always have some extraordinary talent, but talented people do not always have artistry. I think too many people in Christian music and the church don’t understand this and it’s a big reason why music and the arts have gotten watered down in recent years.

One of the first artists I worked with when I broke in to the touring market was one of THE FIRST Christian artists (actually one of the first artists period) to use interactive video inside a concert tour. He changed the market. Now almost all artists look to take out interactive video with their shows. He was a game changer.

When was the last time you heard a song that revolutionized your life in Christian music or church? When was the last time the churches or Christian tours led the way in technology? There are a few out there….Northpoint in Atlanta, Willow Creek in Chicago, Life Church in Oklahoma, Hillsong in Australia….but by in large where are the trend setters? The people who are tired of the status quo? Sure we have heard some good performers, but who is changing the game? Who is challenging us? Have we really become a society of cheap knock offs whose highest aspiration is to be just like Hillsong? Hillsong is incredible and should be celebrated. What do you bring to the conversation?

I could go on about this for a long time, but I will wrap with asking the question….where are the artists and leaders who are going to lead us in to the next 20 years? There’s lots of talent….where are the artists?

Having worked with churches and non-profits I have dealt with a lot of volunteer situations. One thing that always concerned me was burning people out. Most volunteers I worked with had full time jobs as well as families, then on top of that many organizations will ask for a commitment of 15-20 hours a week additional as a volunteer.

My concern was always burnout. As a leader in a volunteer driven organization it’s imperative that you not only recruit volunteers, but you should also be responsible to manage them. This includes having a feel for how they are doing. A close friend of mine has volunteered at a church for some time and loved the work. The church kept using this person over and over without ever keeping tabs on how she was doing. Being young she hasn’t learned how to balance things yet so consequently she ended up on vocal rest which has affected her school life, personal life, and professional life. If we are going to take on the responsibility to recruit and use volunteers we have to be responsible enough to look out for them when they may or may not look out for themselves.

I am probably going to date myself a little, but I grew up during the age of arena rock shows. Every act aspired to perform in arenas. The size of those shows eventually grew in to stadium shows and as you can imagine every act aspired to have a stadium show.

In the late 90’s the industry went through it all again. In the early 2000’s everyone pulled out and pulled out quickly. Acts that were playing to scores of people inside stadiums went straight in to theaters and clubs basically overnight.

What happened was a series of things. Itunes changed the buying habits of listeners and the record industry didn’t (and still doesn’t) know how to respond. Creativity started lacking in the shows. It became cookie cutter. One of the biggest things that happened was the fact that the bubble burst. The costs of keeping a show in a stadium made them far less profitable. There was a ton of money coming in, but what it took to keep it going wasn’t worth it.

A show that might profit $150,000-200,000 in an arena after expenses might profit $275,000-325,000 in a stadium. More money right? Not exactly…it takes 2-3 times the man power, expense, and effort to put on a stadium show than it does an arena show. So while on paper it looks more profitable it’s really not sustainable. You have to maintain a larger staff, more hotels, more meals, extra production, more security, etc…so more is not exactly more.

The church world always has been and still is about 15 years behind. One thing I think we are seeing is that more is not always more. Churches are building larger and larger buildings and adding more and more staff. My question is, are they more effective? Some would say yes and some no.

I think churches should in fact grow. There are scores of lost people in the world who need to hear the message, but are churches growing smart and are they growing healthy? I have seen up close examples of some that have and some that haven’t.

We celebrate explosive growth, but that same speed of growth can also be the speed of your undoing.

Business has countless examples of both as well. In the early 2000’s we saw a boom in mortgages and refinancing. Today we are reaping what was sowed. The mortgage industry handed out bad loan after bad loan (a lot of good ones too) and they had more business. I am curious if they had it to do over again if they would have been so anxious to write every loan or if they would have been a bit more strategic and taken the time to write better paper?

Again, the church has much to learn from this. Otherwise we will see in the church world more of what’s happening in corporate america. Just doing good business is not going to exempt the church from feeling the pressures of the economy, but it sure will help it cope effectively.

Smart growth is smart growth…as is smart reductions.

A good friend of mine nearly lost his company 2 years ago. They were doing more business than they ever dreamed and had more money flowing in to the company than ever before. The problem they had was sustaining what they had grown to. More was not exactly more. It wasn’t until they went through the organization and did some timely pruning that they were actually able to grow in a healthy manner.

Starbucks realized that this year. They had added more stores to hopefully increase their profit shares. The problem was that it wasn’t smart growth. More stores didnt exactly equal more profits. They had to cut back in order to see more profitability.

As you are growing it’s important to ask the question…can we do this? It’s equally important to ask…should we do this? Growing an organization to a certain size isn’t the hard part….sustaining it is. It’s funny how growth can actually cost you your organization if you aren’t careful.

So I ask again…is more always more?