On Sunday mornings, most of us don’t think much about what it takes to make the worship service run smoothly. The music starts on time. The pastor’s microphone is clear. During congregational singing, the lyrics appear on the screen at just the right time. For those watching from home, the livestream sounds almost as good as being there in person.
As long as it all goes off without a hitch, no one notices.
But behind the scenes, a lot’s happening. One person adjusts the sound. Someone else advances slides. Lights frame the stage, and cameras capture every angle. All of it works together to keep distractions away.
One of those working behind the scenes at First Baptist Church-Mebane is Director of Production Dakoda Black, and he’s one of the busiest people in the house on Sunday mornings.
Even when you don’t see him, he’s responsible for nearly every technical aspect of the service—from audio and lighting to video, visuals, and livestream. If it involves production, he’s running it himself or coordinating the volunteers who’ve stepped in to help.
A Musical Beginning
Although he didn’t grow up with a dream of producing recorded and live events, Black has always loved music. Raised in church, his introduction to music came early. “My grandparents actually started me out at a really young age taking piano lessons,” he says. “I was five or six years old when I started taking lessons.”
That early start turned into lasting interest. By the time he reached his teenage years, Black had developed a serious passion for music. “One of my dreams was being in a band,” he explains, “It was typical teenage stuff. I was just really into music.”
But playing music wasn’t the only thing that interested him. He also wanted to understand how music was made. “As a teenager, I didn’t really have money to go into a recording studio or anything like that,” he adds. “So, I decided to start teaching myself how to record my own music at home. And that’s really the gateway of how I got into production.”
Where Passion Meets Opportunity
Before stepping into his current role at First Baptist Church-Mebane, Black was already serving in church ministry through music. “I was working as the paid pianist at Moore’s Chapel Baptist Church. And I was looking for a full-time opportunity where I could get more into production because that’s where I felt my interests were headed.”
The door opened at just the right time. “I called Pastor Sammy, and we talked about it,” Black recalls. “It turned out to be a really good fit for what I was looking for. It’s been a really good growing experience for me.”
A Studio Mindset for Live Sound
Black’s hands-on, self-taught education has set him apart from other sound technicians. Because he learned to record and mix at home in a studio environment, he learned basic principles he can bring to live production settings such as worship services.
“Learning those principles of how it works in the studio and carrying that over to the live world helped me,” he adds.
Of course, live performances have their own challenges. “Sound—especially live—by its very nature tends not to sound good on its own,” explains Black. “Someone has to know how to manipulate the frequency spectrum to get it to sound nice and clean and crisp.”
The most interesting part of his job is simply the challenge of trying to get to that nice, clean, crisp sound, so it’s as good as it can be. “When I can listen back and know I was able to do the band justice and really bring out their full potential by putting that extra polish and shine on the music, that’s something I really enjoy,” he says.
“If you have a good band and good music, and the message is positive, and then if you can make the sonic aspect of that sound pleasing to the human ear as well, I feel like that’s a magical combination.”
The Art of Removing Distractions
Although he loves those magical combinations, the goal of production ministry is not just clear, crisp sound. It’s the ruthless elimination of distractions.
“If there are a lot of distractions and things going wrong, and maybe you can’t hear the pastor or the pastor sounds really muffled or everything’s feeding back like crazy, those are distractions,” Black explains. “And they take people’s attention away from whatever God is trying to do. A big part of what we do in church is trying to remove and prevent distractions so that people can sense and feel and hear what the Holy Spirit is trying to do.”
That mindset guides everything the production team does behind the scenes. Cameras, livestream equipment, lighting, and presentation software all work together to support the worship service.
The creative side of the work plays a role in that effort, too. “I enjoy trying to be creative with camera angles and the visual presentation software,” he says. “A lot of people probably don’t realize there’s a lot of creative thought that goes behind that—the font of the words we choose to use, the motion graphics going on behind the words.”
When all those pieces come together well, the technology fades into the background. Distractions slip away, and what God is trying to do takes center stage.
Most people never see what’s happening in the production booth. And that’s usually a sign that things are going well. Week after week, a small team works quietly behind the scenes so the music, the message, and other elements of the worship service can happen without distraction.
If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like behind the scenes, the production team would love to have you join them. Volunteers are trained to do things like run lyrics and sermon slides, adjust camera angles, and help with basic sound. If you’re interested in learning more, reach out to Dakoda Black.
