The Last Five Percent

We helped unload a shipment of ten 4x4 crates containing donations for needy families. Since they had no further need for the crates, the Central American Mission Projects (CAMP) leaders said we could have them. With my help, the three youth I had brought along began disassembling them. Each crate was made of about 80 screws, six 4x4 sheets of 3/4-inch plywood, and other assorted support lumber.

As someone who loves building things from reclaimed wood, I was ecstatic! We loaded the equivalent of 28 sheets of plywood and the other lumber in and on top of our van. For those of you at home doing the math, that’s about a literal ton (2000 pounds) of weight. Relax, we made it home just fine.

My mind was spinning with ideas for what we could do with the wood…make the floor of a new house, build furniture, or anything I could imagine. The real energy was in the possibilities of what could be done. That kind of quality plywood is difficult, if not impossible, to find in Costa Rica, so it felt like a real treasure.

The first thing I built was a set of corn hole boards for our youth group. It was a fun experience for them to learn a foreign game.

Next, I needed to build a storage cabinet for all of our homeschool supplies. I went to work designing, cutting, assembling, and painting the behemoth. (That thing weighs about 175 pounds!) It took about a week to finish and three of us to bring it inside.

I was building it on the ground up by our storage shed that houses all my tools. The ground was a bit uneven, so when I put the doors on, they were a little misaligned. I figured they’d straighten out once I had them on the level floor in our house. Well, I was wrong.

And that’s when my Achilles heel showed up once again.

What am I talking about? It’s so often that I build something for us to use that is excellent… except for that last five percent. I’ve worked so hard to do all the measuring, all the drilling, all the gluing and screwing, and then…I get sloppy, and there’s a little imperfection in the final product.

And I’m not trying to be a perfectionist. I’m simply referring to doing the best I can with what I have.

For example, I was serving as a guest worship leader and was excited because I would be able to play the church’s Nord keyboard. Its quintessential red body and physical sound mixing knobs (including my favorite tap-tempo delay) are something I don’t get to play very often.

The sound guy asked me to play something during the input check, and I noticed it wasn’t plugged into the system yet. I let him know, and he scurried over to finish what he’d forgotten. When I turned to see where he had plugged it in, to my horror, he had used a Planet Waves cannon adapter instead of a DI.

Without getting too technical, the difference is huge. An XLR-to-¼" adapter (which he used) is just a mechanical wiring change, while a direct box (DI) is an electronic device that changes the signal electrically. The adapter can cause the keyboard signal to be weak, noisy, distorted, or prone to hum. It might look like you’re getting the same thing done, but you’re not.

Let me translate this. You’re playing a $4,000 keyboard and choosing to run it through a $10 adapter rather than an $80 direct box. It’s the classic “last five percent.”

And it matters. During the second service, what happened? The keyboard suddenly crackled and cut out entirely for about 15 seconds while I just kept playing in silence. It’s usually not demons in the sound system. It’s messing up that last five percent.

The same is true for the rest of the worship ministry. Making small choices that violate the spirit of worship ultimately sabotage your worship ministry. Let’s be excellent all the way to the end.

-Dave Helmuth
Author of the Five Faders and Founder of Ad Lib Music

The Last Five Percent (Nº 470)