The data from BridgeWay is that women have been critical parts of the setup team in all of its existence. I didn’t always benefit from that healthy stance. I grew up in a church environment where my gravitating towards helping out in church building maintenance was odd. In my little over two years at BridgeWay, when I am in the band and we need to setup the church, I show up. Even when it is my day off from the band, I am there for teardown (when it happens). Why? What is it about Setup and Teardown that motivates me to show up?
Setup as Nostalgia
Setup and Teardown is the closest thing to volunteering in building maintenance tasks with the handymen of the church I was at in Puerto Rico between late 2018 and early 2020. It was a season that I hold in high regard because of how it started my journey to learning what healthy living and healthy community is. Setup and Teardown has the same vibe that I saw back then. Same coming together to complete a task.
Setup and Teardown as a way to bond with others
There is a bond that is formed during Setup and Teardown that is centered around going and doing. Conversation is not at the center of it. Conversation happens as we do this part of life together. We can also work in silence and enjoy each others presence as we serve the Lord and serve others. There are no accusations of being too quiet or worry about saying the wrong thing because this is a moment where the main mission is go and do. That unique circumstance for some creates an intangible bond that few understand.
Setup and Teardown is socially ordered, structured, and consistent
Setup and Teardown has structure and order. Everyone knows their role. We all leverage who we are, what we know, and what we have in service to each other and the world around us… well… the section of the body of Christ that we see. It is easy for me as a neurodivergent to navigate this social situation once I learn that structure and order. It is easy to look around and detect what others are doing and what is needed from me at that time. I don’t have to worry about going the wrong place because the structure and the order dictates where to go and what to do. Setup and Teardown is consistent. Well… it is consistent for those of us who serve more often. There is a routine that is mainly the same every Sunday and there are few deviations from that.
Setup and Teardown allows everyone to serve somewhere
Setup and Teardown is a place where anybody can serve without the need for any technical or social skill set. All that is needed is a willingness to learn and a heart to serve in any way that the moment requires. Because there is a low technical and social skill set required, it is a second place where both young and old can serve together. Setup and Teardown is a place where both foreigner and native can serve together speaking one… language? Code?
Setup and Teardown as a way to test strength and resiliency
Setup and Teardown allows me to see my strength and my toughness without having to resort to challenging someone to a sparring match. Yes. I am that type. There has always been an aggressive, conquer everything energy that needs a place to go that is edifying to the world around me. I need a place where this part of me is in full display in an unapologetic way and it is allowed to thrive. When that place doesn’t exist, it will come out in unhealthy ways. Setup and Teardown has been the place where that has been the most at home, and it is seen as good and healthy.
Setup and Teardown exposes where my resiliency lies and allows me to work on motivating myself to get better. It also trains me on when to ask others for help in a way that it is balanced. Because it is a place where all people with all skill levels are welcomed, included, and accommodated for, I can focus on learning and improving instead of having to get it right all the time.
Setup and Teardown satisfies the desire to build and create… and then put away
Setup and Teardown is a place where I use my hands to build and create. It is a place where we work towards something tangible. When the work is finished, we look on as people come in and get to enjoy the fruits of our labor. There is great satisfaction in seeing something come to life (and then be put away) because I used my strength and my know how to help the group get it there.
Setup and Teardown as a way to focus on others
Setup and Teardown is a moment to focus on serving others. It allows me to think of who am I doing this for. It allows me to see my brothers and sisters under a humbler perspective. When I set up the chairs, I take time to pray for the people that will sit in the chairs and for the moment we are about to go into.
Setup and Teardown is a place where I get to serve in ways that are less known to others. There is no compliment for setting up and tearing down. There is no look of awe and admiration. It is serving in something mundane. As someone who has the privilege to serve God in several public ministries, I see the health in serving God in ways that few people know. Whether it is setting up the chairs, setting up the projection screen, or getting batteries and communion elements for the rest of the band, I feel like I am embodying the posture that Jesus’ washing his disciples’ feet is meant to represent.
Setup and Teardown as an ideal training-ground for me
Setup and Teardown is a low-risk environment that allows me to struggle and learn skills that I wouldn’t be able to learn otherwise. It is a training ground that God has provided for me to learn when and how to lead. It allows me to learn what it is like to lead when I am not left to be relegated to lead when there are no other options (and out of perceived rebellion). It allows me to retrain my mind to see my stepping up to lead the way that God sees it and not the way that forces from the past saw it.
It is an environment where I don’t have to deal with the social nuances of most social situations because of the nature of the moment. This allows me to be free to be myself, as I don’t have to allocate energy to the background task of navigating less than ideal situations for someone like me. In these moments, I can focus fully to receive the training God has in store because my mind is not worried about anything else.
Just like in these moments I feel safety to be my full self, I find a unique space where I can strive to be better at making sure that the people around me, their marriages, and their families are safe in my presence even when their families are not in the room. I hope that I am getting and A for effort.
Setup and Teardown draws in a specific type of person
Setup and Teardown is a type of thing that some of us in the congregation need. I am not the only person drawn to it in the last two years. Jeremiah was minding his own business last year until he saw tear down happen, contributed to it, and felt the draw to volunteer. Francis’ main way of serving in the church is through Setup and Teardown. Nathan saw what Setup and Teardown was and decided to show up for setup one day and serve. Everyone has been welcomed and we have evolved as the body of Christ to make space for those willing and able to serve.
Why we shouldn’t lose It?
The data says that Setup and Teardown is perceived as an inconvenience that we (boy “we” is a lot of people) wish to be done with one day. That will happen some day, even if it is when we get to be with Jesus after this life is over. To me, Setup and Teardown is a blessing. And when I look at the data, I think of what we might lose out on if we are not careful of being intentional about how we go about having a space where we can leave our setup in place and no longer needing to tear things down each week. As someone who looks like this (imagine that I am looking down), I navigate this part of life with the impression that once Setup at Teardown goes away there is no guarantee that I will be included in what replaces it. That is what I learned about how society works and if we are not careful, we will miss something important that we have gotten right that I sense that God wants us to preserve. We miss out on showcasing something important that the world needs to see about how God’s kingdom works.