How to run a stress free soundcheck

I've been in a variety of church music teams and seen many ways of running a soundcheck.  The last church I was involved with had an excellent team and a great way of running a soundcheck.  To me the quickest and best way to run a soundcheck is as follows:

Have a time when the soundcheck is to start.  If an instrument requires setting up, e.g drums, electric guitars etc these musicians need to be set up and ready to go at this time.

Start the soundcheck with the rhythm section.  If you have mic'd drums start with the kick drum.  Each member is to stand in front of their foldback speaker or 'in ears' if available and while the kick is played simply point up if they want more of that instruments volume or down if they want less.  

Once each person is happy with the kick drum, the process should be completed with the snare drum, then toms, hi-hats, ride and overheads.  If there are minimal mic's on the drums carry out the same process with what mic's you have available.  

Following the drums have the drummer play the chorus of the first song and bring in the bass guitar.  Carry out the same process as above.  

Once this is completed this bring in the electric guitars, one by one if there are two.  Have them play the same chorus and all musicians continue to signal up or down with the sound person adjusting the volumes as required.  

After this run the acoustic guitar, keys, any other instruments and then the same process with the vocals.  If everyone is organised this process should only take around 20-30 minutes and every person should have their own well balanced mix.

Once this has been completed run through the first song top to bottom and then quickly go around the musicians asking if anyone wants any volume changes.

Finally, a couple of key things to remember include:

1. Always ensure the sound person has a mic and can be heard clearly by all musicians/singers.
2. The sound person can do a quick eq if necessary during the above process but this will usually happen during the rehearsal.
3. It is essential everyone has an as good as possible mix to ensure all are playing not as individuals but together as one team.
4. If it is a pre-service rehearsal always finish by running the first verse and chorus of the first song so the sound person is ready to go for the beginning of the service.