Show Notes
Hosted by Lee Fields, Stephen “Shep” Shepherd, Tyler Kerpsack, and Brad Bramer, the BlackBox Podcast is unfiltered conversation for church production teams, worship leaders, AVL directors, and creative pastors who actually carry the weight of Sunday. This isn’t theory. It’s field-tested leadership, live audio philosophy, system design, and the stuff nobody talks about but everyone feels. In this episode we dig into: • DAW vs. Console Mixing — What actually matters? Where plugins help, where they hurt, and why great gain structure still beats everything.• Leaders Who Do vs. Leaders Who Don’t — When to get your hands dirty, when to step back, and how ego quietly wrecks teams.• Weight Loss, Health & Production Life — What long Sundays, stress, and tech ministry do to your body — and how to lead sustainably.• Nervousness in Production — Why anxiety shows up in high-stakes services and how to handle pressure without spiraling.• Target Curves & Why You Shouldn’t Worship Them — The truth about measurement mics, system tuning, and why your room isn’t a spreadsheet.• New BlackBox Offerings for Churches — On-sites, audits, coaching, long-term partnerships, and how we help churches solve production problems before they cost them money. If you’re a church audio engineer, production director, worship leader, or executive pastor trying to build healthy systems, stronger teams, and better Sundays — this podcast is built for you. BlackBox exists to help churches design better systems, build stronger teams, and solve problems before they ruin momentum. Subscribe, share with your team, and let’s build something that actually lasts.
More from Black Box Podcast
Lee Fields, Stephen “Shep” Sheppard, Brad Bramer, and Tyler Kerpsack are BlackBox—an independent team helping churches strengthen production systems, develop healthy teams, and make wise technical investments. Today, they’re joined by Danielle Iselin, a passionate volunteer equipper inspiring the Church to double down on recruiting, developing, and investing in volunteers. Danielle brings a remarkable perspective on scale, having served as the sole production staff member supporting 20 campuses across eight countries. The conversation covers everything from which movie best represents running a production team to women in production, production gamers, building volunteer culture, and how to leave a church staff role well. Whether you lead church production, serve on a technical arts team, manage volunteers, or work in worship ministry, this episode offers honest perspective on leadership, healthy transitions, and equipping people for meaningful ministry.
What does it take to create content that people actually want to watch? Tyler Kerpsack, Stephen “Shep” Sheppard sit down with Channing Dubbeld—Creative + Worship Production Director at First Naples, audio engineer, production videographer, and one of the most recognizable content creators in the church-tech space. BlackBox is Lee Fields, Brad Bramer, Tyler Kerpsack, and Shep. Channing shares his journey from traveling in full-time music ministry to leading production in Naples, Florida, and building an online audience around the honest, funny, and occasionally chaotic realities of church production. The conversation covers content creation, social-media strategy, authenticity, audio engineering, worship technology, leadership, and plenty of hot takes from Naples’ finest. Whether you lead a church production team, mix live audio, create content, or simply enjoy an unfiltered conversation about the AVL world, this episode of the BlackBox Podcast is for you.
BlackBox is stepping into a new season—with new conversations, fresh collaborators, and guests from across the church & production industry. In this episode, Shep, Brad Bramer & Tyler Kerpsack get back to the fundamentals of production leadership: developing people, building healthy teams, investing in volunteers, and creating technical environments where others can grow. BlackBox exists to equip the local church as an independent advocate, trusted partner, and creative collaborator. From audio, video, lighting, and systems integration to leadership development and production strategy, we help churches make confident decisions, strengthen their teams, and build healthier teams and ministries. Whether you’re a production director, worship leader, technical artist, integrator, or church volunteer, this conversation is about leading people—not just managing equipment.
In this episode, Lee Fields, Shep, Tyler Kerpsack, and Brad Bramer get into what it really looks like to operate at a high level when things go sideways. We talk real stories—from stadium shows to high-pressure environments—where cues get missed, plans change mid-song, and you’re forced to make decisions in real time. There’s some Kanye conversation in here, but more from the lens of what’s actually happening behind the scenes and how teams carry those moments. We also hit on the tension of working in spaces where your values get tested—and what it looks like to stay grounded in the middle of it. This one’s about composure, awareness, and learning how to respond when the pressure’s on.
BlackPod is a no-fluff podcast for church production leaders, live audio engineers, and creatives who care about doing it right. Hosted by Lee Fields, Shep, Tyler Kerpsack, and Brad Bramer, BlackPod dives into real-world conversations around church audio mixing, troubleshooting AVL systems, leadership accountability, and building drum sounds that actually translate in the room. In this episode, we talk Valentine’s Day and life outside the booth, but we also get into practical production topics like: