I’ve always known the importance of details, but working with the production team at The Austin Stone has made the knowledge more concrete. More than that. The knowledge has been etched in sharp relief. Every detail matters, from the background visuals for a song to the timing of the words.
The details aren’t for details’ sake. The painstaking attention given them is meant to create an atmosphere conducive to worship. The worshippers should never know that the venue producer is frantically searching for the beginning of the sermon in the live stream. They should never know that the system has a glitch.
If they do, they can be ejected from the experience. They get caught up in the details—details that simultaneously do and don’t matter. The details can get people to focus on God and others. At the same time, the details, be they mistakes or excessiveness, can steal glory from God. They can capture the mind’s attention and heart’s affection.
The people lose sight of why they came to church in the first place. The murmuring starts, much like the Israelites wandering in the desert. They lost sight of why they were out there, too. They found their attention drifting to how hungry and tired they were. They wanted to go back to Egypt. They forgot that God had called them to serve and worship Him. They got caught up in the details of their lives, details that both mattered and didn’t.
The details matter—God cares for the sparrows—but He doesn’t want me to lose sight of the larger picture. The details are in service of it. They are meant to be the means by which God gets the glory and people are blessed.
Image: U.S. Army (Creative Commons)