Pulling Back the Curtain

Many of you have asked how we produce our live stream worship service. So this past Sunday I took a few pics with my phone to show you how the magic happens. But to be honest, it’s not a very magical process. It’s really just a lot of work. Most weeks something goes wrong, and this past week was no different. In fact, these pictures actually show things a little different than usual because we were having problems with the sound board and had to record using only 2 microphones! I hope it sounded ok. Anyway without further ado, let me show you our game room turned YouTube live streaming studio (with as much social distancing as we could manage) in the Ward home!

The “front” where I’m usually standing is at the back of our game room on the far side of the pool table. We rig the green curtain up on the curtain rods to cover the windows.

To my right is Bogum (ahem, Dr. Park!) on the piano. I’m glad we had this old electric piano in storage! It is used by the choir sometimes for practice and has come in real handy for our makeshift recording studio. Bogum is cheerful, unflappable, and probably the most consistent part of our weekly adventure in video service production. Even if everyone else is going crazy, she is patiently waiting to get it started.

To my left is Gregory at Mission Control. He’s the head geek in this scenario. He’s running the video camera, the sound board, and our live streaming software to get the service up on YouTube and into your homes. He became an almost instant YouTuber when the quarantine began, and I can’t tell you how much research and work he has poured into making this thing happen. Thank you Gregory!

On the far side of the pool table, beyond the lights and camera, in our entrance hall area, is the live studio congregation/choir: David, Becky, Haku, Luke, Jason, Seungmin, and Samantha. I would be remiss if I did not point out that the Finkleas were also involved in the early days of this project. Thanks to all of you, even if you are too far from me to feel like I’m preaching to anything other than the camera. They do laugh occasionally at my bad jokes, which helps. I trust all of you are laughing harder at home. It’s ok to lie to your pastor about this and just let him pretend he’s actually funny. But seriously, these folks do a wonderful job of leading us in song and responding in liturgy, even if none of you can see them, their voices help give voice to us all.

Further still, on the other side of the house, in the dining room, sits Sarah, the last member of our live studio congregation, and occasional liturgical contributor. She’s far enough away she’s in a different county, but her voice and presence are greatly appreciated. I should add that she makes the coffee every morning, which may actually be the most critical ingredient to our service actually happening!

And that’s it! The rest you see and hear on the live stream. Though it’s an adventure every week, we count it a privilege to serve all of you in this way. We usually have breakfast treats made by Samantha or Becky and generally have a pretty good time each Sunday. Hopefully all of you are as blessed by our efforts, as we are in making them.