Front of House is responsible for mixing all sound sources so that the presentation of the Word of God in our gathering is clear, compelling, and beautiful. It presents a set of challenges that we will tackle in a series of training reads, videos, and sessions over time. Front of House can be a really intimidating position and it does require work to arrive at a level of confidence where you feel equipped to lead well from this position. Over the next year, we’re going to gradually develop our understanding of the vision, our mindset for mixing, and our tool bag for mixing. We’re going to break it down like this:

1. The Vision: “What are we trying to do here?”
2. The Mindset: “What do I need to do and how do I prepare?”
3. The Tools: “What do I use to lead on a weekend?“

The Vision

Our gathering is not that it’s a great “show” or even that it is completely distraction free. We have a production team to help us present the good news of God’s Word to our congregation the way it already is: clear, compelling, and beautiful! To do that, we use technology to amplify sounds to reach a large room of people as well as other spaces in our building and an online audience—alongside a team presenting lyrics and teaching aids, lights to dynamically highlight our stage, and cameras to capture it all. Our goal is to be confident leaders who help the pastors and musicians onstage lead our gathering. We believe that good production is invisible, but the leaders behind it are not.

The role of a Front of House mixer is to lead the gathering by actively mixing our service audio so the Word of God presented by our pastors and musicians is clear, compelling, and beautiful! Does that sound intimidating? It’s okay if it does! We’re going to tackle becoming a confident Front of House mixer like anyone can tackle a big sandwich: one bite at a time.

The Mindset: What do I need to do and how do I prepare?

You may have joined the team because you love technology and want to use it for God’s glory—that’s an awesome motivation! We just want to say that the use of technology will always be limited first by our mindset. We believe that preparation leads to confidence. Preparation has two contexts: first, big picture preparation looks like growing in your craft, but second weekly preparation will help you feel confident the day you’re called on to serve. We’ll tackle big-picture prep as we go, growing in our craft over time to confidently handle more and more responsibility where we serve. But you can prepare the week you serve so you can arrive on Sunday and do the task in front of you confidently if you know what you’re expected to do and how to do it.

Here’s what we expect from a Level 1 FOH tech:

• Know how to read the service order and be able to communicate with the Producer about it.
• Know how to check gain during sound check for the Producer to adjust.
• Know how to balance faders to create a basic mix, and actively adjust that mix during songs and transitions to execute the service order.
• Execute the service order so that everyone on stage who needs to be heard is able to be heard at the right time.

You’re going to learn about gain and mixing below—these are skills that develop over time. Preparing your mind and heart for the weekend is something you can do now! Here are the best ways to prepare to serve as a Front of House audio tech:

1. Read the Order of Service on Planning Center and make mental notes of transitions, persons, and important audio sources. Look at who is on the team this week.
   1. Ask yourself questions like, “What mics will people use on this song? What needs to change after this song? How soon does this video need to be turned up? Is someone going to play keys while the pastor is speaking?”
   2. Write down any questions you need answered by the producer or creative director—we’d love to answer!
2. Listen to the music for the weekend on YouTube or Spotify [This will be sent to you each week!]
   1. Ask yourself questions like “What instruments do I hear most in this song? How can I replicate that with the band?”
   2. Ask any questions in the group chat you want answered about the songs!