Conversation with the Event planner:
“Hey, I would love to host an Event coming up…
It is largely a speaking event, so I do need a talented speaker who can connect well with the audience.
The speaker will have about 30-40 minutes and I would prefer the speaker have a sort of “call to action” at the end of the talk. If the speaker could keep the talk humorous, kind of personal, and yet deeply moving and challenging, that would be great.
In fact, the message needs to be incredibly sound and powerfully delivered… and of the most important topics from the most important materials. This is life-and-death stuff.
However, I also want to have some music at the event – maybe a full band?
They would need to perform for 15-20 minutes. Preferably mixing in a few different style of music, since the crowd is likely to vary in age from preschool to great-grandparents. The speaker will need to keep that in mind too, now that I think about it.
Again, think lively and joyful but still deep and impactful.
Both of these aspects of the Event are pretty key and need to be excellent. However, this means that they not only need to coordinate with each other, but also with the Audio Video team. Since the band will not only performing, but also encouraging the crowd to sing along, so the lyrics need to be either printed or on a screen or both (make sure not to break any copyright laws in this, too!).
The AV team needs to keep the sound mixed well, the lights coordinated, the mics for the different speakers ready, etc.
Let’s go ahead and serve coffee and maybe some snacks too. The coffee needs to be pretty good stuff, please. Cheap stuff would communicate the wrong message.
Can we get some door greeters, ushers, people to take information on people and then prepared to send out follow up info as well? Thanks.
I was also thinking we could do break-out sessions before or after the Event. Let’s plan on having trained and competent facilitators for those – maybe one or two for every 10-20 attendees. Thanks again.
Oh, since families will be attending, we better not forget about break-out sessions for the kids and youth too. Wow, I nearly forgot – we need childcare during the main event and the break-out sessions too!
In fact, I don’t think child-care is really sufficient for what I am thinking. Could we instead offer children’s programing for the kids from birth through Senior in HS?
So, I guess we will need back-ground checked and trained children’s trainers for both the main event and the break-out sessions. I guess we better develop or purchase some kind of curriculum for those break-out facilitators. I appreciate it.
I guess that covers most of it – so, please have the rooms clean, grass mowed, chairs set-up, the climate control handled, and enough seats for those coming…
How many? Gosh, not sure. I can come up with a pretty good guess, but it will likely be 20-30% more or less than my guess.
We are going to be constantly adding in other events surrounding this one, and we ought to take a few minutes to tell people about those – but let’s be careful not to drag that part out. Lots of good, clear communication but spending as little time as possible would be best.
I also thought I would mention that we aren’t going to charge for this event. Instead, let’s just pass a hat or something and let people pay whatever they choose to. We can pay some of the people in some of the main roles from that, but most of the people will need to be volunteering their time, obviously.
So, we better account for people arriving late, and cancelling at the last minute – volunteers and guests alike.
And, now that I am thinking about it, let’s go ahead and do it again next week…
and the next week…
and the week after that, too.
In fact, every Sunday morning would be cool.”
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This little vignette is to honor all those men and women who manage to pull this off week after week in an effort to worship God well and equip His saints for the work of the ministry. They have been doing it, often with little thanks, but plenty of criticism, for hundreds of years… it is especially dedicated to those who are willing to attempt it alongside me.   Thank you.
As Pike Wisner point out, the old poem should just show  the people… and say “Here is the Church.”
Church is about God’s people and is never about merely an event or a building, but the Sunday celebration has been a key to the experience of Christian fellowship for a very long time.
Soli Deo Gloria!