FILO Podcast

Todd talks with Rusty Anderson from Passion City Church about live video and making sure that it is not distracting but instead invites people into an experience with God, rather than a show.

Kaleb Wilcox, the executive producer for the weekend service at Willow Creek's North Shore campus talks with Todd about their relatively new building project and the challenges that went along with it.

Easter is coming up pretty quick. For most of us, it is the event that tends to sneak up on you if you aren't careful! In this episode, Todd talks with Chris Thomas, the Technical Arts Director at Cherry Hills Church about how they have been preparing for Easter this year. There are some great leadership lessons in this one! (and some random thoughts on Easter candy)

Dennis Choy is responsible for many production teams across many venues and several campuses at North Coast Church. Todd and Dennis have a great conversation about what success looks like when you've got people of different abilities scattered all over the place. With so many opportunities for things to go wrong, they talk about doing the best with what you have.

Andrew Starke, the audio director at North Point Community Church, talks with Todd about the journey many of us take to becoming a fully developed tech person. We hear Andrew's own story and his learnings about being defined by more than just the task you are doing for church. We all need to realize that we are more than our last service and that we are more than just a great mix or an amazingly edited video.

Todd talks with Stef Cassetto, the weekend producer at Saddleback Church, about the reality of working through competing values to accomplish a weekend service. What's best for the creative team, isn't always best for the production team, and vice versa. Now add what the pastor needs...and then there's the question of what's best for our church.

As technical artists in the local church, we all have to figure out the relationship with our team and the team on the stage...the band. Todd talks with Delwin Eiland, a worship leader at Willow Creek, about ways to develop this relationship so that our services can be the best possible.

Where did FILO come from? Listen. You'll find out.

Coming up with the perfect Christmas program seems really simple when you see what churches all over the world are doing. It all looks so easy and magical. The reality is much different. First off, there is probably nothing even close to a perfect program. Second, developing an effective Christmas service (or any event for that matter) requires tons of work, lots of collaboration, and probably even more compromise. Easy isn't one of the options.

Photo by Mourad Saadi on Unsplash

For the Willow team this year, we had our share of ups and downs to get to where our program ended up. Is it perfect? No. But it is a product of our best effort, given our abilities, given our limitations, given our resources. And with all of that, it is a really good Christmas program.

Without question, there are things I would do differently. There are things I wish others had done differently. If we were going to take this show on the road, then we'd be able to make some more tweaks and turn it into a "better" version of itself…but we aren't.

However, as Seth Godin talks about quite a bit, there is a time for planning and tweaking, but there is also a time to ship; a time to stop adjusting and get your product out there.

All along the way, we tried to make the best decisions we could, based on the information of the moment. Looking back is easy. Knowing what I would do differently is the easy part. Living in the moment and making decisions along the way is not easy to do. You can only do your best.

Wishing the last event was better doesn't really solve the problem. Looking towards the next big event, the goal will be to build on the successes of this event and to learn from our "mistakes".

I'm really proud of the work our team has done to make this Christmas amazing. Hardworking, highly creative people, creating in community for the benefit of our congregation and their friends. In spite of whatever could have gone better, this is a Christmas to remember.

I am sitting on the back deck, enjoying some nice weather in Chicago (finally!), with my youngest son bouncing on the trampoline and realizing that I have a pretty great life.  I am also remembering a time when I would be holed up in an editing studio making just one more tweak to make a video perfect and missing out on a beautiful night with my family.  While I love creating the perfect video, I have to say, I love this version of my life far better.

Photo by Martin Magnemyr on Unsplash

As detail-oriented people, most tech people I know have a difficult time letting go and heading home.  It is so easy to get wrapped up in the things we love to do, that we forget that we desperately need to have a life outside of our jobs.  It is also easy to forget about the families we leave at home during all those long hours.

In his book "Winning", Jack Welch talks about the work-life balance and how important it is for each of us to know what that looks like.  In my younger days, I wanted my boss to tell me when to go home or when something was good enough.  I also wanted to blame my workaholic tendencies on someone else.  My first boss and Jack Welch agree:  be an adult and figure it out for yourself.

Chances are your boss has no idea what needs to get done in your world and no idea what is required of you at home.  It is important for each of us to figure out what it means to give all that is truly being asked of us at work and, what our families need from us.

For as long as I can remember, my wife has been joking with me to "Come home early".  I usually give a nervous laugh anytime she says it because the reality is pretty unrealistic.  Even my kids say it now!  However, this little joke has helped me think about whether I need to stay an extra hour or if I can actually come home at a reasonable time.  How to come home early is always on my mind, whether it is possible or not, which helps my family know that they are important to me.

Having a life outside of work makes me a complete person.  Giving my entire self to my place of work with nothing left over is not being a good steward of the life I have been entrusted with.

Have you taken responsibility for your work/life balance?  Does your family feel as important as your work?  When was the last time you "came home early"?