The title of this column is somewhat fitting, not just because I live “in the loop” of Chicago, but because I also live in the world of worship loops. I’ve been using loops and multitracks in worship for almost 10 years, with no looking back.
A few weeks ago, my band and I were leading worship at a nearby local church. Afterwards, someone came up to me and said, “Wow! I’ve never heard so much sound come from just four people!” As much as I wanted to take credit for the band members and myself, I knew that our secret weapon was sitting only a few feet away on the stage behind me.
Four Humans And A Computer
It’s becoming more and more common to see a computer on stage, sitting “humbly and quietly” with its soft, soothing glow coming from the screen. But don’t be fooled by its seeming passivity – that motionless band member has become a critical part of the modern worship sound.
Not only does the computer help keep everyone in sync with each other by providing a click track/metronome, it is also playing the role of band director by giving vocal cues and instruction to everyone in the band on where to go next in the song (Verse, 2, 3, 4!).
If you’re a worship leader, you probably understand the problem this solves. We’ve all been in that train-wreck moment when you’re going to the verse, but the drummer is going to the chorus and the electric guitar is going to the solo … oh wait, they are always on the solo. Anyone with me? By using vocal cues and a click track, everyone knows where they’re collectively going next without question. This helps keep everyone tight.
However, this is just one side of the computer’s many talents. While everyone in the band is rocking out to a click track and band cues, the computer is playing back loops and multitracks that enhance and supplement the sound coming from stage. For example, loops and multitracks may contain sounds like shakers, tambourines, synth lead lines, or pads. Unfortunately, we can’t all have a full orchestra, percussion kit, analog synth, or mandolin every weekend at church.
Also, a church may lack in the quantity or quality of available musicians. If you’re missing a keyboard player one weekend, your computer is always ready and willing to fill in. Want to add those cool delayed “beeps"and “glitch” noises you hear on a recording? Play a long with a loop or multitrack. It’s also an easy way to add fresh and creative sounds to your worship experience.
So, How Do I Get In The Loop?
“Okay” you say, “I have a computer, but how do I get it from just browsing Facebook to becoming a key player on stage?”
The Software: You can use iTunes or any music software, but the preferred software choice among electronic worship leaders is Ableton Live. You can create your own loops and tracks in Live and then use them to perform on stage.
You also can build a set list and quickly change the key or tempo of your Loops and MultiTracks. At first it may look intimidating, but once you put the “training wheels” on and go for a spin, I promise you’ll never want to stop. It’s also very affordable.
The Sounds:A few years ago, I was preparing a worship set for Willow Creek and thought, “Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a website where worship leaders could download and share worship loops and multitracks?” LoopCommunity.com was born, and now provides practical resources for worship leaders around the world.
If you’re brand new, get free training on how to use Ableton Live and other technology in worship. If you need a loop or multitrack, search for a song and download one. If you create your own loops, upload and share your work with other worship leaders. We are a vanguard of electronic worship musicians. You can even join for free - everyone is more than willing to help you get going.
So the next time you play and someone says, “Wow, I’ve never heard so much sound come from just four people,” just tell them you’ve decided to add a fifth member to the band.
Matt McCoy is a worship leader and songwriter from Chicago, IL. He is the founder of Loop Community and an Ableton Certified Trainer. Find out more at www.loopcommunity.com, and follow Matt’s Twitter feed at www.twitter.com/mattmccoy.
We are living in a time of change. Cultural trends like sustainability, population diversification, and personal use of technology are aligning with church trends like virtual and multi-site campuses creating momentum that will radically morph the type of buildings in which we worship over the next 10 years.
How can you be sure that the building ideas you’re considering today are ‘future proof’ in this time of radical change?
In this video, session leaders share the results of a year-long exploration into the future church. With concepts developed in collaborative sessions with church strategists, leaders and pastors across the country, this session goes beyond current design trends to ideas designed to engage a generation raised in a digital world.
With a look at cultural trends, new building concepts and bleeding-edge technology, this session presents prototypes of what is possible for the church in 2020. And we can assure you, it looks nothing like the present.
Session leaders include Tom Greenwood, principal of the Beck Group; Michael Kaiser, senior designer of the Beck Group; Steve Reed, senior consultant at Acoustic Dimensions; and Toby Slough, senior pastor at Cross Timbers Community Church.
This is one of those “thinking out loud” posts for me, regarding a topic of conversation at our church for the past several months, particularly as budgets have been cut (again).
Actually, I’ve been thinking about it on and off since 2007 when I first encountered paid musicians and techs at my previous church in Minneapolis. Prior to that, all of the musicians and techs I’d worked with had been volunteers.
Honestly, it’s one of those topics that has left me still working on a position. Before I dive into my still-forming conclusions, let’s consider both sides of the debate.
The Case for Paying
Those that support paying musicians in church are likely to point out that the church has a long history of supporting the arts and should continue.
Paying the band—that is, artists who make their living playing or teaching music—is a continuation of that tradition. Supporters would also agree that the musical worship time of the service is important, and paying for professional musicians will deliver better results with less rehearsal time.
It’s also important to note that a band that’s paid is under a little tighter control of the worship leader or music director. They tend to show up closer to the call time (or they don’t work as often), and it’s easier set and enforce expectations.
As a general rule, the quality of musicianship tends to be higher with a paid band, and that even makes it a lot more fun for the sound engineer (who may be paid or volunteer).
I’m sure there are other reasons to pay musicians, and the ones I just mentioned are all good ones. Honestly, I don’t really disagree with any of them.
On the other hand, where does it stop? Surely the house and monitor sound mixer position requires just as much skill and training as does a band member, so should we pay those positions?
Over the history of my current employer, CoastHills CommunityChurch, that’s been the tradition. However, based on my budget for the year, that tradition is coming to an end.
When I was at my previous church in Minneapolis, I always found it odd that the musicians were paid but the house sound engineer was not. But what about the guy who helps out doing graphic design for the church?
If he’s a freelancer, he’s an artist making his living doing design; if we want to support the arts, do we pay him as well? What about the teacher who leads Sunday School classes? Do we pay him/her also? Or the carpenter who helps out building sets for the Christmas production?
I’m not trying to be overly dramatic, but at some level, you can make the case for paying almost everyone who volunteers their time at a church.
Might we get friendlier ushers if we paid them? Maybe, but at what point does paying people to “serve” turn church into an attraction to be visited rather than a body that serves?
Part of the equation that further muddies the water is the distinction between bringing in outside musicians and contractors and people from the body. In our case, we have both serving every weekend.
Actually, we often have three classes of musicians; outside contractors who don’t call Coast Hills their home; professional musicians that are part of our body and are paid; and volunteers who may be project managers or firemen but also play a mean instrument.
This strange mix has never been a source of consternation (at least that I’ve seen), which is a testament to our team’s leadership. However, it is interesting.
What is more interesting is seeing what happens when budgets get cut and people who used to be paid can’t be paid any longer. Some keep on playing, others sit out.
The Case for Volunteers
The other side of this coin is to use all volunteers—that’s been my experience for most of my church life. In fact, I’ve been a volunteer tech director far longer than I’ve been a paid one.
I made my living working in the professional production world and gave my time at church. The way I saw it, I’m not good with kids, I don’t like to greet people and I can’t sing. But I am a good tech, so that’s where I served.
I’m sure I’ve given thousands of hours to the churches I’ve been a part of over the years, and loved (almost) every minute of it.
We talk a lot about putting ministry back in the hands of the people at my church. When I use that phrase, I mean trying to find people who are gifted in various areas (in my case, tech) and empowering them to serve.
For me, it’s not about saving the church money (though that is a nice side benefit) it’s about giving people the opportunity to serve. It’s like giving of our finances; when we give, we benefit more than the church does.
There is no better way to grow in our walk with Christ than to serve, and a big part of me thinks that when we bring in paid people from the outside, we deprive those in our midst of growing in their walk with Christ.
So where do I land on all this? Honestly, I don’t know yet. I see the case for paying musicians, especially the ones in our midst. I love those guys and I know how hard it is to make a living as a musician; I want to support them.
I also know that the positions we’re talking about (musicians & sound engineers) take highly specialized skill sets. You can’t just cut a budget and say, “The band and sound engineer have to be volunteers from now on.”
I figure it takes a solid year to train someone to mix sound at the level we expect at our church (unless the volunteer is committed to doing it every week, then it goes faster). And truthfully, few are cut out for it.
At the same time, some of my greatest experiences in life happened when I was volunteering at church. I want to open as many doors for that to happen as possible.
On the other hand (I told you this was a complex issue…), everyone—and I do mean everyone—has to be willing to accept the compromises that come with non-professional talent on stage and behind the board.
It’s not going to be perfect. Notes will be missed, microphones will be muted when they should be on, and so on. We all have to be willing to live with that.
Mike Sessler is the Technical Director at CoastHillsCommunityChurch in Aliso Viejo, CA. He has been involved in live production for over 20 years and is the author of the blog, Church Tech Arts.
The average tenure of a pastor after a significant building project is 22 months. Over half of the churches in the U.S. have a set of plans (stuck behind the pastor’s door) that will never be built. To top it off, construction is the second most litigated industry in the U.S., behind medical.
Some pastors will deal with these statistics by never building. Some will forge ahead alone and often become one of these statistics. The good news is that others will seek out those who have built to gain counsel and wisdom.
In this video, Kurt Williams, a project development specialist with T&W Church Solutions, sharesd iscussions with hundreds of pastors about the good, the bad, and the ugly of building projects has produced a “Top 11” list of advice and wisdom that may keep your church from becoming one of those unfortunate statistics. Without further ado, let’s take in the wisdom of those who have already survived the adventure of designing and building a new facility.
Over the years that I’ve worked with churches, the problems I find often have foundation in basic communication, organization and administrative skills - or lack thereof.
Quite often I will visit with a church that is complaining of a lack of consistency in the technical aream and the explanation goes something like: “When Jim is here everything works, but when he’s not, it’s a disaster.”
I know at that point that while Jim may be a great tech operator and may understand the system very well, he is most likely not a good delegator, administrator or teacher.
When I’m at a church that is suffering from the “Jim’s the man” syndrome I can almost guarantee that the mixing board/patching is either not labeled, labeled incorrectly or just poorly labeled. The poor guys who are working tech on the weeks Jim is not there end up scrambling just to get things properly connected and working.
Also, because they are volunteers and “Jim the man” is the golden child in the eyes of the worship leader, people are afraid to step in and to try to organize and logically lay out the board. Other things that end up happening usually relate back to clear organization, such as:
• Batteries failing in the middle of the service because everybody thought someone else had changed them.
• Trying four microphone cables until you find one that works, because nobody throws out or labels the bad cables.
• The last minute scramble to find a mic (or stand, or direct box) that is missing because somebody used it during the week in another room at the church.
• Nobody shows up to mix on a Sunday morning. Bob traded with Steve who traded with George and now nobody really knows who on for the next month.
• The sound operator who is “on” for a given week shows up late because “Jim the man” never told him the worship leader was bringing in a mini-orchestra of 10 players and utilizing six vocalists. The poor guy was actually on-time for a typical Sunday not knowing he had an hour of setup to do.
I’m sure you can add your own list of frustrationsm but rather than moan over them, let’s look at how to prevent them.
1) Get together as a group and agree to a consistent layout of the mixing board and create a channel/patch list that sits next to the board. Also, commit to each other that if for some reason you need to deviate from the standard layout, immediately following the service you will reset the boars to the standard layout.
2) Make a rule that first thing every Sunday new batteries go in the wireless mics. This takes the guess work out of the equation and also lets you use the mics during the week without wondering when the batteries will die.
Wireless mics usually last 6—10 hours on a fresh set of batteries. To be precise, check the specs of your system. So, you can simply do the math: rehearsal/first service/second service = 4 hours plus evening service = 1 hour, and then decide if you need to put in fresh batteries for a midweek event.
3) Throw away bad cables. I know that this is not eco-friendly and everyone likes to occasionally get out the soldering iron. However, in my experience, the repair never happens, or the cable accidentally gets placed back with the good ones, or a repair ends up being rather poorly done.
4) Organize mics, cables and all accessories and put a sign out sheet that details who took the item and to what room they took it to. This way everyone knows where that missing equipment should be located.
5) Hand out or post online a schedule for 6 months of who is on for a given Sunday. In the sound booth (or online) keep a master schedule with the rule being if your name is on for that day you better be there. This doesn’t mean that you can’t trade dates, what it means is that if you do trade it has to be immediately updated on the master schedule.
6) Put the burden on the worship leader to communicate with the actual person that is on for that Sunday ahead of time.
A simple email with a stage layout and instrument list will give the soundman for that week the information he needs to plan on what time he should arrive to setup.
These may sound like simple suggestions, but may churches are simply negligent in these fairly basic tasks.
If there is a no leader of the crew, volunteer to be the coordinator or facilitator that will facilitate the items above. If there is a clear leader, offer to help with organization of the ministry. And if you’re a leader and don’t think you need the help that is being offered, at the minimum it’s time to step aside for awhile, as you’re likely doing your ministry more harm than good.
Gary Zandstra is a professional AV systems integrator with Parkway Electric and has been involved with church tech for more than 30 years.
In an environment of planned obsolescence which requires manufacturers to constantly upgrade existing technology and research the development of new hardware and software tools, the ability to recognize authentic innovations has never been more important. Costly investments in “buzzword” gear that ends up infringing on valuable rack space can negatively impact budgets and tech consultant credibility.
In this video session, Joe Cortese, senior pastor at Crossroads Tabernacle, and John Storyk, co-principal architect/acoustician at Walters-Storyk Design Group share how to recognize the difference between a great sales pitch and a bona fide “must have” that will provide measureable performance enhancements and production/cost efficiencies. The presentation includes simple formulas for assessing gear investment potential, tips on cutting through the hype, real-world examples of gear that has and has not produced meaningful return on investment (ROI), and more.
There’s also an assessment of current trends in affordable, technology for church environments, new analysis and design techniques, green materials, and innovative installation techniques. A particular emphasis is placed on creative and economic solutions.
Question from Jake Glover, serving in Hays, KS:How do you discern which songs and what types of music your congregation longs to hear? And, what advice would you give me as we try to reach both seekers and congregation members in one service?
Rick Muchow: Song choice is a very important decision and can also be very difficult.
Always put the Purposes before the personal preferences of the people. It’s not about what kind of music our members want to hear but rather what is the most effective way to support and communicate the purpose of the service.
Here are some tips:
1. Support the theme. The song after the message should be thematic. The Congregational songs can gently emphasize the theme. The style should be appropriate for the theme.
2. Match your music with your target. What kind of music do they like best?
3. Know your speaking pastor’s philosophy of ministry. What kind of music supports his ministry?
4. Choose music that fits the singer. Don’t try to be something that you are not.
5. Use words that are understandable to your target.
6. Avoid choosing songs that are simply popular to the church culture when planning a seeker-sensitive service.
7. Vary the tempos and style to keep interest.
8. Choose songs that are singable for the congregation.
9. Avoid extreme vocal ranges.
10. Add one new song a week or mix up the selections to keep your presentation fresh.
Reaching seekers and believers in one service is not that difficult. We do it every week at Saddleback. Keeping your service Seeker sensitive is like having a guest in your home. Treat the seeker as a guest and both believer and seeker can enjoy the same service. The seeker can’t worship, but he can watch worship.
Deep subject matter can be seeker sensitive if it is presented in a clear and appropriate way. The believers need to buy into this strategy. They need to be willing to give up some of their freedom so the world can find God.
When finally selecting the style of music that is going to be used during a service, two thoughts must be kept in mind: 1) The songs chosen — both lyrically and stylistically — should relax unbelievers, not intimidate them; and 2) the praise/worship music should inspire church members to invite their unchurched friends to a service.
As the Worship Pastor at Saddleback Church, serving alongside Pastor Rick Warren for nearly 25 years, Rick Muchow has lead worship for 20,000 attendees weekly, and has coached over 150,000 pastors and church leaders from 60 denominations from over 100 countries. Find out more, and submit your own questions for “Ask Rick” at his website, www.rickmuchow.com.
Learn secrets to increasing production value without increasing the production budget. Some of the topics will include controlling depth of field, camera support and movement, audio tips, and lighting tricks. Plus learn how to best use the little budget you do have.
It’s getting on 4 years ago that I stepped in my current role as the technical director at Christ Community Church. I spent a lot of time before that working with churches from the business side, but I still remember well my first day as a full time TD. I was so excited to begin full time ministry.
It’s been an absolute whirlwind since that first day. The first staff member I hired, one of my close friends, died of a rare heart condition only three months into the job. The team I took over was incredibly unhealthy and failing. Our equipment was pieced together from multiple botched contractors and some Radio Shack adapters. Organizational structure needed to be
fixed, communication was poor, and I was new. At that time, my knowledge of audio compressors and wave form monitors seemed a bit trivial.
These days we’re on the other side of all that. By God’s grace (and only by His grace) we’ve been able to upgrade equipment, hire some great assistant TDs, and bring great stability to the situation. As we approached the summer I found myself in an intriguing spot. I had been in triage mode for so long, I needed to redefine my focus.
Specifically, I needed to work on our team. Not just adding bodies, but really developing and cultivating an excellent team. Of course the natural question is, “how exactly might one do that”? It’s a complex topic because we have teams of complex people. Just in case you’re in a similar spot though, here are a few tips I’ve landed on for developing great teams:
BE BOLD: When it comes to the success of your team, your people resources trump everything else. Simply put, you need the best people playing on your team. This is something team leaders should never overlook. Be bold about asking rock star level talent to come work with you because, in the end, teams are only as good as the people on them.
BE CLEAR: High performing teams have clear expectations. This may be one of the greatest tools for effective team leadership, especially in a collaborative or decentralized type working environment. Never let meetings end without knowing that accountabilities are clear. Don’t fall victim to increased complexity. Fight for simplicity and clarity in your direction and individual accountability. Action often gets lost in ambiguity.
BE AUTHENTIC: Getting team leaders and members on the same page is critical. Unfortunately, this is often an elusive task due to muddy relationships and lack of unity. Great teams need trust, a sense of common values, and unified direction. As a team leader, be open with your team whenever it is appropriate so they feel connected and “in the loop”. Keeping information from your team is keeping buy-in from your team. Transparency puts the team in common step and drives alignment throughout the group. Great teams have a culture that promotes authenticity.
DEVELOP: Great leaders add value to those they lead. Your team’s effectiveness will increase as you take on the responsibility of helping them develop in their skills. Never shirk on your responsibility as a team leader to develop your members. Teams grow
in proportion to the development of the people within them. To grow your team, you must grow your people. It’s important that team leaders focus on providing opportunities not only for training, but also for broadening the horizons of members.
SET GOALS: If there is only one thing you do as a team leader to ensure success, be sure there is a clear goal or vision to run after. The success of teamwork is incredibly dependent on clearly defined purpose that unifies and clarifies. Without concrete vision our teams may run hard, but in varying directions. Great team goals clarify the working direction but don’t put the blinders on too tight. They allow team members to make links between their strengths and the overall direction of the team.
INQUIRE: Leaders have many roles, but when it comes to team leadership asking the right questions is critical. Great team leaders have an incredible ability to ask guiding questions and steer conversation. When done correctly, I truly believe that teams of quality, motivated, people will arrive at the right place on their own. Listen to the conversations taking place and work hard at guiding discussion and discovery. This is a hallmark of effective team leaders.
Micah Yost is the technical director of Christ Community Church in Omaha, NE. He also works as the chief technology innovator at Thrive Development Group and Adjunct Professor of Worship at Nebraska Christian College. He has a BS in Music Business from UNK and a MS in Organizational Performance from Bellevue University.
Today there are more options than ever to expand your church facilities. The possibilities range from on-site video venues to total relocation, and everything in between.
Two experts on church expansion, Jim Couchenour of Cogun and Brad Eisenmann of Aspen Group share how churches across the country are expanding their facilities. From this landmark research you will learn about the opportunities for expansion that are now available and how they affect other areas of ministry, including staffing, outreach, and costs.
Session presented by Christianity Today International
In this dynamic address entitled “Missional Ministry In A Spectator World,” Ed Stetzer of LifeWay Research talks about how church leaders can help move people from being passive spectators to active participants in the mission of God.
Stetzer has trained pastors and church planters on five continents, holds two masters degrees and two doctorates, and has written dozens of articles and books. His primary role is President of LifeWay Research and LifeWay’s Missiologist in Residence. For more information about the topic, visit his website at http://www.edstetzer.com/the-meanings-of-missional.html.
A couple of years ago, I took a look at the way we were doing communications at Calvary Church as part of my ongoing assessment of our effectiveness as an organization.
I determined after a long process of analysis and conversations, and based on some convictions I have about communication philosophy that some of the things we were doing—processes that I mostly had put in place—didn’t make much sense.
So,working with our senior leadership team, I put in motion a new strategy, which in this post I will begin to share. Hopefully it will help, and maybe challenge you to think about your strategy.
Churches Do Communication Backwards
Churches (for the most part) do communications backwards (compared to businesses). Businesses, with the exception of an in-house newsletter or the periodic board report or something similar, do not have regularly recurring publications. When they need to communicate something like a new product launch, they determine the best way to communicate it and then they’re done with that method until next time they need to communicate something.
Churches, on the other hand, often have lots of recurring communications pieces: weekly bulletins, monthly newsletters, platform announcements, email newsletter, etc. Most of the time, these pieces get produced whether or not they are they best way to say what needs to be said and whether or not there is anything truly important to communicate.
Creating Noise and Shouting at People
In my research, I was finding that the existence of our recurring publications was creating noise and clutter in our communication that was causing people to tune us out. We were saying “something” for the sake of saying something regardless of whether we had anything important to say.
The people we were trying to communicate to often didn’t know what we were trying to say, didn’t know which parts of what we were saying was important, and most of the time didn’t care (if we were completely honest with ourselves). It wasn’t worth the effort for them to sift through what we were saying to find the valuable parts.
Ultimately, we were using our pre-existing recurring platform(s) to shout at our people. We were not interested in having a conversation with them. We were more interested in getting every event and ministry detail in front of them than (from a communications standpoint) in helping them discover what they needed to know to help them take their spiritual next step (although some would probably contend that the two go hand-in-hand).
A New Goal
So, we decided to shift our focus from filling up brochures and newsletters with information to thinking first about what most needs to be communicated to help people take their next step. It resulted in a drastic change in the amount (quantity) of information we communicated.
The goal, however, wasn’t to communicate less (per se) nor to be more simple (as an end) but to communicate what’s most important as clearly as possible. The ultimate goal in church communications is to release a response and get people to take their spiritual next step.
In the next post, I’ll begin discussing some steps we took to change our communication strategy. I’ll also give some specific examples of our communications pieces that we found to be really effective. Until then, here are some key questions:
—Does your church/organization create communications pieces each week whether you need them or not?
—What responses are your communications releasing for your people?
—Are they helping your people take their (most important) next step in their journey?
Chuck Scoggins served as communications director at Calvary Church in St. Peters, MO, where he was responsible for web, print, video, social media, general communication strategy, and serving on the creative service planning team. He is also senior partner at the 374 Design Agency, a creative agency providing design solutions for small(er) organizations. And, he runs Motion Design Media, a division of the 374 Design Agency that designs motion animation videos. Find more insightful articles at chuckscoggins.com, and be sure to check out his book, Getting Started In Church Communications, available for download here.
ORLANDO, Fla., Christian Newswire—This Easter, hundreds of millions of people worldwide attended church. But not everyone came through the front doors. A growing number of believers worship where they are using their laptops, tablets, smartphones and other streaming devices.
“More and more houses of worship are starting to explore the idea of live church streaming,” says Chris Gerrish, founder of Stream Monkey. “In fact, the fastest growing segment in many churches today are those who have never set foot in the building.”
Gerrish is something of a legend in church streaming. In 2009, he built one of the first Web apps for live streaming services on the iPhone. In 2010, he created the first-ever live church streaming channel for the Roku media player—which gave rise to the now-ubiquitous “religion-and-spirituality” category in Roku’s channel store. He even helped LifeChurch.TV launch their channel on Roku and has helped other churches do the same.
Over the last several years, he has traveled the world helping set up live streaming at churches in Ukraine, Brazil, China and Egypt.
He started Stream Monkey in 2011 while working at one of the largest churches in America. You might say he had a monkey on his back:
“Over and over again, our CDN kept failing. So we decided to create a backup system, and it worked! Eventually, we began to realize we’re spending a lot of money on a primary CDN that’s significantly less reliable than our much-cheaper backup system. So after repeated failures, we decided to flip the equation—make the backup the primary. Low and behold, it didn’t fail.”
Gerrish began hearing from other churches about their CDNs failing and having to constantly apologize to their online worshipers for technical difficulties. What initially began as a homegrown solution for his own congregation became a means to help other churches experience the same freedom from failure.
Stream Monkey delivers ultra-reliable live streaming to PCs and across multiple platforms, including all major mobile and streaming devices—iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Roku and iPad.
Along with live church streaming, Stream Monkey offers simple video on demand that will enable churches to deliver content throughout the week, along with the ability to track viewership and identify trends.
Stream Monkey can be tried for service for free, no credit card required, at www.streammonkey.com.
Build Your Production Team Up and Multiply your Impact
Justin Firesheets, Church of the Highands speaks directly into the role of the tech leader and other leaders in church on how to create an effective tech ministry. How you recruit, develop and manage your volunteers and staff is a key success factor in ministry.
Justin’s perspectives and teaching style will be a great help to any tech or creative arts leader.
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This panel discussion consists the leading tech directors from prominent multi-site churches. The tech directors, with a heart for sharing the message and their experiences to help other churches who are considering multi-site strategies.
This panel is a rare glimpse into the world of multi-site. You’ll gain knowledge and save money from their experiences.
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Find a Way to Say Yes in Your Ministry
Jud Wilhyte, Senior Pastor, Central Christian Church
Jud Wilhyte, Senior Pastor, Central Christian Church shares advice and encouragement for churches with a heart to serve with limited resources.
Sharing his experience at Central Christian Church, Jud describes his and his staff’s challenge to keep pushing forward in the midst of economic challenges. This short clip will be an encouragement to you and your staff.
“Every Knee Shall Bow,” a keynote address delivered by Stoval Weems to a packed house at WFX 2012 in Atlanta, stressed that the greater your understanding of who Jesus is, the greater your worship experience will be. He unpacks key truths about who Jesus is that can transform how you encounter the presence of God.
Weems, founder and lead pastor of Celebration Church in Jacksonville, FL. Celebration Church is a global, diverse, multisite church that reaches people from all walks of life that began with just seven people in 1998. He is also the leader of Awakening, a twenty-one-day spiritual campaign of prayer, fasting and personal devotion that takes place each January.
As pastor, teacher, and conference speaker, his ministry focuses on building the local church, reaching people with the gospel, and developing passionate followers of Christ
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April showers bring May flowers. But melting snow packs and heavy rains can bring much more -– they can bring flooding. We’ve all seen pictures of people stranded on top of their homes or someone paddling down the street in a fishing boat. What we don’t see is how businesses and individuals deal with the financial impact of a flood.
Whether you’re a pastor of a church or a facilities manager, the congregation looks to you to protect their church. You work with the board and an insurance specialist to design an insurance program that helps reach that goal. However, most insurance policies covering your buildings and contents don’t provide coverage for damage by flooding. In fact, flood is specifically excluded in most insurance contracts. So, what do you do?
The first thing to know is what constitutes a flood. In its simplest definition, a flood is rising water or flowing mud on land that is normally dry. It must include two or more properties, or two or more acres. It can also include collapse of land along the shore of a lake or similar body of water as a result of erosion caused by waves or currents of water. (Coverage subject to NFIP policy terms, conditions and exclusions.)
In spite of the common belief, a flood is not water from a broken pipe or water that comes in from a hole in your roof. Normally a backup of sewer or drain pipes is not be considered a flood, either.
Another common misconception is that your building/property must be located near a body of water such as a river, stream or lake to risk suffering a flood. However, the determination of a flood zone has more to do with the path water takes in flooding situations. A street, wash or gully that is normally dry can become a raging torrent with little or no warning during a heavy rain or if a river or canal overflows its banks or breaks a levy.
How do you determine your faclity’s risk of suffering a flood loss? Working with the Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA), communities have developed flood maps to help estimate how often a location is likely to suffer a flood loss. These maps indicate whether a property is located in a flood zone. The zone number assigns a value to the flood potential.
If you own a building that has a bank-held mortgage and that building is located in a flood zone “A” or “V,” it’s likely that you’ve already had to purchase flood insurance. However, if your facility is not in one of these zones, or if your church has no mortgage, you may never have had to address the need for flood insurance. Unless your facility is located in an area that has recently experienced a flood, your insurance agent may never point out that flood is specifically excluded from your property insurance policy.
So, you understand there may be a potential for damage from a flood. How do you deal with this potential for a loss?
Armed with the age of your buildings, the replacement value of your building and the replacement value of your contents, contact a flood insurance specialist. These are insurance agents who have been trained by the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) to review your situation and provide insurance quotes through NFIP-authorized flood insurance companies.
The U.S. federal government provides the financial backing for the NFIP programs. The policies can provide up to $500,000 coverage on a building and/or $500,000 coverage on contents provided the location meets NFIP guidelines. The polices can have deductibles ranging from $1,000 per claim to $10,000 per claim. Working with your agent, you can select the appropriate coverage level and deductible to meet your needs.
Frequently the NFIP policies cannot provide the total coverage limit needed. In this situation, insurance may be available in the commercial marketplace to provide additional limits for building, contents and to include loss of income or other specialized coverage (not available from NFIP). In some instances, a commercial insurance company may be able to include coverage for the flood exposure in your normal business insurance package.
Working with a flood insurance professional can provide you with options and risk assessment information to help you make an educated risk management decision for your facility. Don’t be caught unprepared this flood season.
Betty J. Meier (CPCU, CIC, ARM, CRM, ASLI, CSRM) and Robert L. Meier (CRM, CSRM) are the owners of Adaptive Insurance Agency, LLC located in Scottsdale, Arizona. Betty has been in the insurance industry as an agent and risk manager for over 35 years, while Robert joined the industry in 2000 after retiring from a career in education. For more information, visit www.AdaptiveIns.com.
Worship Facilities Conference and Expo (WFX) announced the theme for the 2013 event is “Ever-Changing Methods, Never-Changing Message.” WFX 2013 will be held October 2-4, 2013 at the Dallas (Texas) Convention Center.
Facing dramatic technological and societal changes, churches today seek to apply the innovative ideas and concepts reflected in the educational program at WFX 2013. The 2013 educational program consists of over 100 conference sessions and 50 hands on training workshops on the latest technology.
Featuring four carefully crafted tracks, the comprehensive agenda draws from leading churches, prominent figures and experts on leadership, facilities, technology and worship. Each track reflects a critical investment and development area and together defines the priorities for leadership in most churches today.
“Uniquely WFX, the 2013 event is a team-based learning event, starting with the pastor,” states Jim Wagner, managing director for WFX. “The positive dynamic created when teams attend together is powerful and continues to deliver results to attendees long after they return home. Unlike other events, WFX prepares the entire leadership team to return home better prepared and with more skills so they can sustain the effort needed for transformation.
“We know churches make better decisions, implement more successful plans and develop more effective teams as a result of attending. That’s the power and the impact WFX has on ministries.”
Returning in 2013 are the Pastor’s Leadership Conference, Tech Leader’s Retreat and the Unite Worship Team Track. Each popular feature will be headlined by prominent leaders and experts devoted and passionate about helping churches to grow strong and healthy ministries.
Here’s a glimpse into what I think are some significant changes that will be coming over the next 5-10 years that will effect what we as church techs in large contemporary or modern churches do every week.
First let me say that I in no way think our current model is necessarily bad. And by current model I mean the highly produced services that can often resemble rock concerts.
Big, well played music, lots of haze and moving lights, a loud PA, video backgrounds, IMAG; those are all tools we use to engage our audience. And as long as the audience is engaged, they are a good thing. To be sure, there is still a large audience that wants to experience that during their weekend service. This is good.
On the other hand, it’s important to recognize that there is also a growing number of people who don’t want that in their service. They don’t want a “hip” experience, they prefer people to come as they are, be who they are and if the singer hits a wrong note from time to time, oh well.
To them moving lights are a distraction and they are less concerned about the audio mix sounding exactly like it does on the album. They come to church to be with other believers, both cool and uncool, to connect with
God and to serve others. This is also good.
Again note that I’m not making value judgements. One is not better than the other, and I don’t want to pit one side against the other. Both are equally valid and both have their place. The problem arises when we want to force one into the other’s mold.
Our church is a great example of this. For many years, Coast Hills has been the place to come if you want to experience a great worship service. We hired the best musicians, employed professional technicians and spent thousands of dollars on sets to make the experience amazing.
And it was! People came, lives were changed and the church grew. And then the church changed.
Slowly, over time—partially driven by economic realities, but only partially—the congregation began to realize they didn’t need that level of production each week. In fact, it started to become a distraction.
What they really wanted was to see people they knew on stage leading worship. They wanted more time in the scripture, and more time to spend together. And so, our production has scaled back considerably.
I believe we’re seeing this happen in more churches, and at some point, this “less produced’’ style of weekend will become the norm. To be sure, this will be a gradual change, probably taking 5-10 years, but I think it will happen.
And it will happen because many in the next generation doesn’t care that much about high level production in their church service. They come for different reasons now. And in some cases, high production turns them off.
Now I don’t think this means that we’re headed back to crappy sound and overhead transparencies (thankfully!). In fact, I think we as church techs will develop more fully in our roles, becoming truly invisible and non-distracting.
The sound will still have to be good, but it won’t be the main reason people are there. The words still need to be on the screen at the right time, but no one will get fired if they make a mistake. We still need lights to see, but I think we’ll see a lot less ballyhoo and color chases.
I suspect there will still need to be a minimum standard that is met each week with regards to production, but that standard may be lower than it is now.
Instead, I think what we’ll see is tech doing what tech really does best—creating an atmosphere where people can connect with God. The trick will be doing it in such a way that it doesn’t appear that we’re using a lot of technology.
I believe we will get to a point where sound, lighting and video will just be there, like microwaves and wi-fi. Yes technology is important, but it’s not the point. It will still need to work, but it will be background.
Mike Sessler is the technical director at Coast Hills
Community Church in Aliso Viejo, CA. He has been involved in live
production for over 20 years and is the author of the blog Church Tech Arts.
How can your church create an environment that engages your audience and leaves an imprint of the message? This panel discussion will tackle how technology can be used to create moods, communicate and transmit content; how that content is created; how you can support or tank the message with content decisions; and how architecture and theming can add value to or distract from the message and/or content.
Presenters include Penny Peavler, director of brand development at Weber Group Inc.; Richard Mosqueda, associate pastor of Adventure Christian Church; and Ben Mankin, president of Mankin Media Systems
Churches have unique insurance needs that require the services of a specialist.
On the property side, buildings are often uniquely constructed facilities with hard to- replace ornamentation, such as stained-glass windows. And inside, they tend to contain specialized furnishings, such as pews, pulpits, organs, and (increasingly) audio-visual equipment—all of which insurers unfamiliar with churches can have difficulties in valuing and underwriting.
Getting the right kind of insurance for your church is largely a matter of doing business with a company that specializes in dealing with issues associated with worship facilities. And once you find the company and the policy you want, there are several steps you can take to lower the cost of the coverage you need.
Learn more about this vital topic by downloading our free white paper, Ten Risk-Reducing Steps For Church Leaders.
I was recently asked to give a presentation to our Leadership Team about social media. They wanted to know the definition of social media and how we (Calvary Church) are using it as an organization.
I hardly consider myself an expert on the topic and am constantly things about it, but as a resident communications guy on staff, it falls on me to the teacher in this situation. Here are some of my notes (gathered from various spots around the internet) that I shared in that meeting:
Defining social media is a tricky job. There are so many varieties – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Digg, LinkedIn, Delicious, MySpace, blogs, and more – each with a differing purpose. So, I tried to keep with wide concepts and “rules of play” rather than getting into the nuts and bolts of all the various social media streams that are available.
The Main Concept—A Conversation
The main thing to know about all of the social media tools is that they were not created or intended to be a way for one party to bombard another party with a message. They were meant to be a conversation (for lack of a better metaphor). This makes sense with services where words and dialog are the main medium, such as Blogs, Twitter, and Facebook.
But, it’s also true for YouTube, Digg, and Delicious where the point of posting videos and links is to share in the conversation. The minute that advertising enters in and businesses see it as a way to tell people things, especially things that they aren’t interested in hearing about, the tool begins to lose effectiveness.
In other words, the louder you try to shout with social media, the fewer the number of people who will be around to hear what you’re shouting.
The Main Rule—Add Value
It goes without saying, if social media exists to facilitate people engaging in conversation, that the main goal should be to add value to that conversation. It’s easy to be a “taker.” It’s also easy to try to control what is being said.
I have found, however, that the more I try to give – that is, add value – to my networks, the more I gain. Rather than try to control what is being said (about the organization or myself), I try to put out a good product and trust that the dialog about that product will take care of itself.
Side Note: It’s an interesting concept to think of a church, or even an individual, as “putting out a product.” But, we do exactly that. As a church, our product or service is helping people on their spiritual journey. It’s our job to walk alongside them in their faith…providing tools, events, etc. to help them along the way. As an individual, the product is my character and giftedness. The more I leverage the essence of who I am in order to serve others in their life-journey, the greater the quality of the product.
Other Rules/Things To Consider
A. Listen
Take time to truly hear what other people are saying. Seek to understand. Then respond and add to the conversation. Say “thank you” and give kudos.
B. Don’t do it if you can’t do it well
again. Relieve yourself from the pressure of having to “do” every social media product just because it seems that everyone else is doing it. If it’s not a natural extension of who you are, don’t do it. On the other hand, if you think you might be able to add some value and engage people, these tools have unlimited potential! Don’t be afraid to get in and try it out if you feel like it might be a way for you to engage.How many times have you seen people start a blog or get on Facebook once or open a Twitter account and never check it
C. Don’t spam and self-promote
As mentioned above, these tools are not for self-promotion but for community interaction.
Calvary Church And Social Media
Our philosophy with Calvary’s communications, particularly with social media, is derived from a combination of Seth Godin‘s Permission Marketing and Kem Meyer‘s concept of Less Clutter, Less Noise. We use email newsletters, Facebook, Twitter, and blogs to interact with people and let them know about events, ministries, and serving opportunities that might add value to their life and their spiritual journey.
We try to carefully select what we “promote” and – particularly with Facebook and Twitter – try to make sure we are listening to people’s responses as to what adds value. We are constantly evaluating whether we’re interacting, dialoging, and having a conversation versus spamming, shouting, and bombarding. We also try to use these tools for storytelling and encouraging our circles of friends.
It’s an ongoing, evolving philosophy, but we’re excited about what we’re learning from and about our people and about getting the most out of these new tools.
What about you? What have you learned about social media? How does your organization use these tools to engage your community in conversation?
Chuck Scoggins served as communications director at Calvary Church in St. Peters, MO, where he was responsible for web, print, video, social media, general communication strategy, and serving on the creative service planning team. He is also senior partner at the 374 Design Agency, a creative agency providing design solutions for small(er) organizations. And, he runs Motion Design Media, a division of the 374 Design Agency that designs motion animation videos. Find more insightful articles at chuckscoggins.com, and be sure to check out his book, Getting Started In Church Communications, available for download here.
Have you ever seen the HUGE, almost wall-to-wall, screens on stage behind performers?
The big image isn’t just made up of one simple video on one projector—its made up of multiple projectors being edge-blended on a screen to create a digital canvas.
It’s more popular than ever before and is being used on the sets of the CBS Evening News, the NFL Today, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer set as well as churches like Northland Church outside Orlando or Hillsong in Australia.
Edge blending is a great tool for churches to tell the greatest story ever told in an immersive fashion, with a “digital wallpaper.” But how do you do it? It takes three things: projectors and processing, a big screen, and great compelling content.
Where To Begin?
First, decide how big your image needs to be—are you trying to fill the proscenium? Take over the whole stage area? Is the projection surface going to be a backdrop behind the performers, or designed to ceate a digital wallpaper behind the communicator? Get a measuring tape and take some measurements and see what size you will be happy with.
Next, before you do anything else, you’ll need to do some math to determine how much overlap each projector will have.
The Math Behind Edge-Blending
In this step, you’re determining if the size of image you want can actually be achieved by the projectors on the market. Here is a simple calculation for you: let’s say you have one projector with an image size of 16 feet wide by 9 feet high, that’s pretty easy right?
It gets more complicated when you say you want two projectors, and a blend or overlap between the two projectors at 20 percent. If you do the math, then you’ll find that your total canvas size is then roughly 25.6 feet wide and 9 feet high. This gets more mathintensive when you have more projectors!
Once you have locked in your screen size, you need to work on projectors and processing-projectors. Projectors come in all shapes and sizes. Work with a projectorpro to make sure you have projectors that have all the features for your specific application: correct input type, native pixel depth, proper lensing for your throw distance, mounting hardware etc.
With processing, the more money you spend, the more features you have, the more inputs you have, the more outputs you have.
Compelling Content
What are you going to put on this big screen? Is it graphical content? Video content? Live content like image-magnification? This determines how you are going to build the content, what the device is that gets the content to the screens, and who in your team is going to be the blending pro… the video guy or the graphics guy?
Remember the blended image is like high-definition on steroids; a 45-foot-wide screen could easily have a pixel depth of over 5,000 native pixels wide, a native HD signal only has 1,920 pixels.
Your screen is a modern marvel of engineering. A 40-foot wide rear projection screen that has no vertical bracing (otherwise you would see a shadow), that doesn’t have a visible seam is like the 8th wonder of the world. It may take eight weeks to manufacture, so be patient and have your epiphany of a big blended image on your stage with plenty of time to pull it off.
Bottom Line:
Blended images, digital canvas, whatever you call it is an architectural piece built from technology and will be one of the definitions of your church service. Edge-blending is not for the faint of heart as it takes time every week to build custom content, big money to implement, and perhaps a totally different content work-flow than what you are using today.
But when it works…wow…I mean WOW!
I heard a layperson say the Sunday that a blended image was put on stage, “The pastor’s message today was the best I have ever heard!” I thought to myself, the pastor has been here 20 years and his teaching style probably has not changed much; I think the message today was the best not because of the pastor’s teaching, but rather the 30-foot digital canvas reinforcing his sermon points throughout the lesson.
Stephen Roberts is managing director of Mankin Media.
A few weeks ago, Tim Cool from Visioneering posted a thought-provoking post of the same name (The Cost Of Getting It Wrong).
It’s very good, and I suggest you go read the whole thing. He asks several questions related to staffing, building and designing.
As I thought about what he wrote, one particular question resonated with me:
What will it cost to have the wrong audio and acoustics in your worship center? Again, this is not just the cost to fix the issue, but the frustration quotient and emotional capital. What are they worth?
This is one of the things I see churches missing regularly. How many churches have to build multi-million dollar buildings that sound terrible because they didn’t want to spend $20,000 on an acoustician? How many churches have to install hundreds of thousands of dollars of AVL (audio-video-lighting) gear that doesn’t work properly because they didn’t want to spend any money on design?
As someone who’s mission in life seems to be helping churches undo the bad tech decisions they’ve made (I’m sort of like a Mike Holmes of the church world), I can tell you the cost of getting it wrong is pretty high.
In my current church, for example, I’ve spent the last three years pulling out tens of thousands of dollars worth of equipment that wasn’t thought through, and thus didn’t work. And of course, in addition to shelving all that old gear, we’ve had to spend money to buy new stuff.
It’s easy to see how churches fall into this trap. Most times, senior leadership has no idea how any of that AVL technology works, so they rely on either their staff—if they have them—or well-meaning volunteers when they have needs in the tech department. One of three things usually happen at this point.
Potential Outcomes
First Possibility: The staff or volunteers don’t know what they’re doing and ask for the budget to hire someone who does. Money is tight, so that request is denied, with the comment, “Just find a good deal and make it work.”
Second Possibility: The staff or volunteers don’t know what they are doing but don’t want anyone to know that, so they just try to figure it out. With the knowledge that money is tight, they look for a great deal and try to make it work.
Third Possibility: The staff or volunteers don’t know what they’re doing and ask for the budget to hire someone who does.
That request is approved, a knowledgeable consultant or integrator is brought in, and a well-designed system is implemented correctly.
Sadly, this seems rare.
I supposed there is a fourth possibility: The staff members or volunteers actually know what they are doing and put together a great system.
That does happen, though it’s mostly in larger churches with highly qualified technical staff. But as more churches are jettisoning their tech staff, this will happen less and less.
In the first two scenarios, you can guess that the results are not going to be good. Those are the “systems” (and I use that term loosely) that I end up tearing out.
Those systems are very expensive because they are paid for twice; once for the first attempt, and once again for the proper fix. Of course that assumes it only gets “fixed” once.
We Have To Fix This
Look, the resistance churches have to paying for good design has to end. We’ve all seen it, and we all know it’s a big problem. There is no savings to paying for something twice. It’s just math; and while I don’t expect senior leadership of the average church to be math wizards, it should be pretty easy to explain that 2x is more than 1x.
This also means we as technical artists—both paid and volunteer—have to take the lead here. I’m not saying you need to bring in a specialist every time you want to buy a vocal mic; but if you’re looking to install an IMAG system, know your limits. If you haven’t designed a well-functioning system or three, bring in someone who has. We have to stop just connecting a bunch of equipment together, hoping it will work.
For us in the technical world, this means holding our ground when we say we need design help. We simply must be willing to say, “I don’t know enough about this to be confident in designing a system. I need to bring in some help.” And we must hold to that position even when they say no. If you don’t think you can properly do the project, don’t do the project. Stop wasting your churches money.
Those in senior leadership have to get over wanting everything for free. Because guess, what, it’s not free. When you try to pinch every penny in the design process, you cost yourself and your church thousands, tens of thousands or maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars. Don’t be that leader.
Get it done right, not cheap. Believe me, it actually will be less expensive in the long run.
Mike Sessler is the technical director at Coast Hills Community Church in Aliso Viejo, CA. He has been involved in live production for over 20 years and is the author of the blog, Church Tech Arts.
Ed Stetzer, president of Life Way Research, shares observations and research on the church, specifically addressing the “80/20” rule, where 80 percent of the work in an organization is done by just 20 percent of the people.
The goal is getting parishioners engaged and active with the mission of the church, rather than simply attending services and considering themselves followers of Jesus. Churches are constructing beautiful buildings and offering increasingly sophisticated production value, which is great, but beyond the surface, what is this really achieving.
We blinked and the world around us changed. We haven’t lost our passion for souls or discipleship—far from it. The culture of the world around us has created marvelous new opportunities for ministry, and we are faced again with a new frontier. What now? How do we take what is precious from our heritage and position ourselves to deliver it effectively today and beyond?
This webinar session is led by Scott Allen, a pastor, blogger, Grammy-award winning artist, creative leader and veteran of 30+ years in creative ministry. Scott is also a returning member of the WFX teaching faculty.
Session highlights include: defining the playing field; addressing cultural gaps; re-packaging your timeless message without losing your core values; leveraging cutting-edge technology for ministry; mentoring and passing the baton to developing leaders; defining your legacy, and more.
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A lot of technical church staff and volunteers have strained relationships with their pastors. I see it every week in Twitter updates and blog posts; techs are struggling to build trust and camaraderie with their pastors.
One manifestation of this dysfunction occurs when the pastor comes up with an idea he would like to execute that would require some technical support. This request might be anywhere on a spectrum of difficulty from, “could I preach in a different spot this week?” to “I want to float in from a spaceship during the worship set.”
How a tech responds to these questions can go a long way toward bridging the gap and fostering a team spirit. What is your immediate reaction when presented with a technical request?
Ideas are precious things. Most ideas are bad, many of them are average, a few of them are good, and a very small percentage are absolutely, fantastically, amazingly wonderful.
But no matter the quality of the idea your pastor has, it is his idea. His baby. Any rejection is painful. Even if you think it is a bad idea, he doesn’t want your immediate reaction to be to shoot it down. Nobody wants that.
If you know that without a doubt there is no way you can pull off the request, enter into the discussion and start suggesting alternative ideas that accomplish the same vision.
If the pastor is passionately set on his idea, again don’t say no immediately. Offer to do some research and get back to him in an hour.
At that point he will be much less vulnerable to rejection, especially knowing that you gave it a good solid hour of figuring out how to pull it off. If you say “it can’t be done” at that point, he is going to believe you.
Clarify expectations. Sometimes, as techs, we have runaway imaginations. When the pastor comes to us with an idea to watch the football game at a church potluck, our brains leap into tech mode and start plotting where we’ll hang the truss and calculating how many LED walls need to be rented to provide adequate sight lines.
Your level of technological expectations may be a little higher than your pastor’s and this turns into a “no” because the event can’t afford your plan. Be sure you have a conversation with your pastor that defines what the technological expectations of the request are because you may find out that all he was imagining was a projector, a small screen on a tripod, and a couple of speakers on sticks. When your expectations are matched with your pastor’s expectations, everybody wins.
{pagebreak}We are one. Five years ago we had a new initiative among our staff, called Somos Uno. There’s a very short song in Spanish that goes like this:
Somos uno, en Cristo somos uno
Somos uno, uno solo
Roughly translated it means:
We are one, in Christ we are one
We are one, one alone.
Applied to our staff and volunteers, this brought a spirit of unity that has stuck with us and become part of our daily vernacular. We are all one body in Christ, not separate individuals with independent agendas.
When the facility team helps put together the new scenic design, it’s a somos uno moment. When the staff come in on their day off to help set up for an event, it’s a somos uno moment. And when your pastor comes to you seeking tech support, it’s a somos uno moment. You say “yes” or “yes, but” because we are one in Christ; we’re all on the same team. You rarely say “no”. You offer alternatives.
This article came about because my pastor recently told me “You are adaptable and make anything work. That creates a team spirit of mutual support. When you say it can’t be done, I really believe you because you never say that.” I’ve tried to figure out what it is that I do that helps him to feel that degree of mutual support. Hopefully I have articulated that well and shared it with you.
For further reading on the subject of creating a team spirit of mutual support, check out Territorial by Todd Elliott and Let Me Think About That by Mike Sessler.
Justin Geoghegan is the technical arts director for Lakeland Community Church in Lee’s Summit, MO. Justin has been serving in various capacities at Lakeland as a volunteer, part-time help, and full-time staff since 1996. To read more excellent articles like this, go to Church Technical Leaders.
WFX has announced that Clark, a leading-edge company that transforms venues of every shape and size into highly relevant communication platforms, will present the prominent and popular expo feature called The Hub on the WFX Expo floor this coming October (2-4) in Dallas.
The Hub in 2013 will feature a custom design and build education, entertainment and networking experience created and presented by the design team at Clark.
“I'm delighted and excited by the opportunity to create something new and highly interactive with the team at Clark,” says Jim Wagner, managing director of WFX. “I've admired the creativity of the Clark team for several years and when the opportunity to collaborate came together and I was thrilled.
“It was obvious when we started discussing the concept for the Hub that we shared a common view on the potential to expand upon the current concept into something even more engaging.”
Clark co-founder Houston Clark, pictured above, states, “We're very excited to be expanding our relationship with WFX. Over the life of our company we have touched almost a thousand churches. This partnership will allow us to begin sharing much of what we've learned.”
Early registration, which provides a considerable discount, is currently available for WFX. Go here to find out more and to pre-register.
Leadership Network’s most recent report, The Economic Outlook of Very Large Churches: Trends Driving the Budgets and Staffing Activities of North America’s Biggest Congregations, is now available as a free download (here).
The organization notes that “despite 50 percent of large churches being slowed by the Great Recession that has marked North America since 2008, a majority of large congregations met or exceeded their budgets in 2012, and most have seen offerings increase over that same time period.
“Church staffing trends, giving patterns of worship attenders and the role of e-giving are also part of this year’s findings, which draw from two Leadership Network surveys of more than 700 large churches.”
It’s always interesting when old technology becomes new again. We see it daily in our lives, but I’m referring to a specific type of old tech: hearing loops.
The technology, which is correctly known by the name of inductive loops, has been in existence for decades. Based on Faraday's law of induction, a magnetic field is created and individuals that have a Telecoil (t-coil) equipped hearing aid, can receive audio signals directly in their hearing aid.
A “loop” is a relatively low-tech solution. In simple terms an area is surrounded “looped” with a piece of copper wire. An amplifier drives signal down that wire creating a magnetic field inside the “loop.” To receive the magnetic signal, a person inside of the field simply has to switch their hearing aid to the “T” (t-coil) position.
With the current ADA (American Disabilities Act) requirements and an aging population, providing a loop-based hearing assistance system can be beneficial not only for compliance, but also for the convenience and benefit of parishioners.
With 36 million of Americans reporting hearing loss and over 8 million already outfitted with hearing aids, the need for hearing loops continues to grow. And, there has been no stronger advocate than David G. Myers, PhD, professor and social psychologist at Hope College in Holland, MI.
Several years ago, while visiting Europe and attending a service at an old cathedral, Myers noticed a “Hearing Loop Installed” sign on the wall, and it triggered a memory. Specifically, he recalled the advice of the audiologist from whom he had purchased his hearing aid. Seeing the sign, he flipped a switch on his hearing aid, and suddenly, he was he tapping directly into the house audio.
From that moment, Myers has been, and continues to be, a huge supporter of the technology. He is the creator of hearingloop.org, a website that provides education and information on hearing loops.
“I activate my T-Coils and instantly the speaker’s voice comes to me not from some distant loudspeaker but seemingly from the center of my head,” says Myers. “My hearing aids now serve me as customized wireless loudspeakers.”
There can, of course, be challenges when installing a loop system. The most obvious being how to route the cable in an existing space, although this usually isn't an insurmountable problem.
“In all of the existing buildings in which I have designed and installed loops, including very old churches, airport terminals and sporting venues, like the Michigan State Breslin Center, I've always found somewhere to hide the wire for the loop system,” says Tim Vander Meer of Hearing Loop Systems, which, as the name implies, is a company that specializes in designing and implementing this technology.
A loop can cause a high pitched noise through some instruments pickups such as guitar, piano, strings. Generally speaking, this usually happens on older pickups or installations where there is not a solid ground present. Spillover into adjacent rooms can also be an issue; this also can be overcome by using a properly designed phased array system.
The advantage of a loop is that there is no need for portable receivers and batteries, because the T-coil in the hearing aid requires no power. Additionally, the hygiene issue goes away as earphones do not need to be cleaned and shared.
There is also a cost/benefit savings compared to traditional RF and Infrared systems, as the only limit on users of loop systems is physically how many people can fit inside of a loop.
As you face what could be an increased demand for assisted listening systems for parishioners, loop systems are something to keep in mind.
Gary Zandstra is a professional AV systems integrator with Parkway Electric and has been involved with sound at his church for more than 25 years.
Mankin Media is partnering with Willow Creek once again to present the next Gurus of Tech church tech conference this upcoming May 21-22 in the Chicagoland area.
Gurus of Tech 13 will present vital technical training as well as the ability for church tech personnel to connect with more like-minded tech gurus and industry experts working for churches all over the nation.
Last year, the event sold out due to space limitations at the Willow Creek Crystal Lake campus, so the event is moving to Willow Creek’s main campus in South Barrington, IL.
Gurus of Tech is free to attend. Space is limited, so it's vital to register as early as possible. Register HERE.
As usual, this year's program will be unique, entertaining, informative, and hands-on. Anyone working in church tech audio, video, lighting, post-production, scenic stage design, or leadership at any capacity, will greatly benefit from attending.
Find out more about Gurus of Tech HERE. And, again, register HERE.
Ed Bahler, president and CEO of the Aspen Group, leads a thought-provoking discussion.
Sociologist Ray Oldenburg coined the phrase “3rd Place” when he identified the deep need every culture has for a sense of connection on several levels. That was the genius behind the success of the Starbucks empire and the reason so many identified with the sitcom “Cheers,” where everyone knew your name. The church has always been about connecting people to God and the restoration and healing of Christ. So 3rd Places seemed like a natural step.
Some churches were able to create true 3rd Places where the churched/unchurched felt equally welcome. Yet others were unsuccessful in moving from being a propositional place to a relational space. As a result, connecting places are always part of the conversation when we design facilities.
Bahler explores award-winning church “3rd Places” and how they've been used to powerfully enhance connections and drive growth. He also discusses how innovative ministries are moving beyond simply connecting people and are creating a complimentary space he calls “4th Place,” and how it can help ministry to intentionally equip and send people into the community for “Missional Impact.” This 4th Place and Missional effort is vital for your ministry in connecting with the next generation.
The number of new multi-site ministries is difficult to calculate, seeing as the term “multi-site” can mean so many things.
But one thing is clear: the multi-site church model continues to explode. It won’t be long before every community in the United States has at least one church that is part of a multi-site congregation.
This proliferation of multi-site facilities is not only recognized by people looking to plant churches — it’s also being observed by equipment manufacturers. This means that innovative products and solutions will continue to be developed, as well as drop in price.
Internet bandwidth requirements continue to increase for the average consumer, and are increasingly mobile — with 4G speeds rivaling the average household cable modem. Additionally, more fiber lines are being run in cities across America, which allow for tremendous data speeds and large files to be moved consistently from one location to another.
On top of all this, the cost per byte of data is continuing to fall as market forces work to introduce competition and new service providers.
Why Go Multi-Site Anyway?
For many, the decision to move to a multi-site ministry is economic in nature. Perhaps the current campus can no longer support the growth in attendance and the church doesn’t have the funds to build a new, larger facility.
A smaller facility that will supplement the main building and spread out the attendance is a great option.
For those pursuing multi-site, you will be happy to learn that you no longer have to spend a boatload of cash on gear to get a quality experience. Innovative technology and dropping prices across the spectrum have made video venues a viable economic model for almost everyone.
Multi-Site Considerations
There are many items to consider when planning for a multi-site ministry that can inform your production decisions. By carefully considering these on the front end, you will save headache and money in the long run.
Visual continuity is a big issue when taking content from one venue and transporting it to another. For example, if the acquisition venue (where you are filming) has a beach ball theme, and the receiving venue does not, then it can definitely destroy the illusion.
To combat this, you can create a projection backdrop of the pastor in the acquisition venue that can be changed when needed, or you can plan on getting a tighter shot with the camera to reduce the amount of background that is seen.
Keep in mind that the content in video venues has to be duplicable. If your first church can accept content in real-time via a T1 Internet circuit, and your next venue is in a more remote location without a T1, you will now have two standards and systems to work with. It’s not impossible to do, but it does make things more complicated.
It gets hard to juggle if you have one facility that is live, another that is almost live, and another a week behind. Keep in mind that the solutions increase in price and complexity the closer you get to “real-time” streaming.
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The “Week Behind” Facility
If you are a “week behind” facility, then you have several options for new technology that can simplify your workflow.
Many of the newer production cameras can record directly to an SD card in a H.264 or Quicktime format, so you can take your content right to an editing station, or send the file to a remote campus. JVC has a GY line of cameras that record directly to SD cards and some with FTP protocols — so you can transfer the file directly from the camera to a remote venue. You could also buy a stand-alone recorder that will compress your file and place it on a hard drive for easy transfer.
Two options to look at are the AJA KiPro line (they pioneered much of this space with their original KiPro recorder) and the Blackmagic Design Hyperdeck — its rock bottom cost makes it affordable to most everyone.
Ten years ago the ability to record a high definition signal would have cost over $20,000 and it would have been a much bulkier system.
The “Almost Live” Facility
“Almost” live is definitely a great option for those that can alter their programming to make it work. For instance, if the acquisition venue has a service at 9:00 am that can be recorded, that file can potentially be transferred to a playback venue for a 10:30 am service.
Or, the video can be streamed live to the playback venue, where it can be recorded and played back at the 10:30 am service. This gives you greater flexibility for when to start the service. This way, you can replay that segment and incorporate it into the service without the expense of a production video server, which would give you the DVR capability to start and stop the video segment while it is still recording.
The Live Facility
Live is definitely the most complex multi-site scenario, from a technological perspective. But it does offer the ease of programming, and once you get it right, the process should run like clockwork.
For those in metropolitan areas, fiber Internet is definitely a great choice. It offers high bandwidth, so you can send the best picture quality to your playback venues.
If you have campuses in more rural areas or over great distances, then satellite transmission can be best.
Satellite is daunting at first financially, but the cost improves with the more venues you have. The reliability is rock solid. Satellite and fiber lines are the top-tier when considering data transmission. Still, churches make multi-site work all the time over the public Internet and even old-fashioned “sneaker” net.
Streaming Options
Streaming options used to be pretty limited, but as the quality has increased and video compression has improved, the cost has also decreased. Basic streaming requires that you have an encoder at the acquisition venue and a decoder at each playback venue to stream the video.
Encoder Options
Encoder/Decoders that stream two channels of content in one piece of gear are becoming more prevalent. These models benefit those working in the “virtual pastor” model, meaning the pastor wishes to have back and forth contact with the remote venues. Encoders are generally divided into hardware pieces that stand alone and perform one function, and software decoders that are run on a standard PC.
One software encoder that has specific solutions for churches is Kulabyte by HaiVision, which offers a range of solutions including transcoding in the cloud and a DVR server.
This range of options makes it pretty flexible for a variety of playback venues that may have different download speeds. The transcoding part allows for a number of different file sizes — the higher the file size the higher the quality — so each individual playback venue can take advantage of their Internet download speed.
Hardware encoders have also exploded on the market with a new range of options, including the openGear platform that has many manufacturing partners that all create cards for the same frame. This gives you the option of picking an encoder from one manufacturer and a decoder from another while still having a similar platform and interface.
What does your audience want?
All the new gear aside, it is good practice to assess feedback from your local community to determine if pursuing a video venue (multi-site) strategy is right for you.
From those discussions, you will be able to better determine what delivery method you should choose. Receiving expert advice from talking with others that have already walked this road goes a long way to saving you from making expensive mistakes.
Stephen Roberts is managing director of Mankin Media.
A presentation by Steve Fridsma, principal architect at Elevate Studio in Grand Rapids, MI. In our down economy, empty existing buildings dot the landscape. Some of them may actually be perfect for re-purposing as ministry centers for communities of faith, usually for a fraction of the cost of building new. But how does a church go about selecting the right building?
This presentation outlines both the opportunities and challenges created when churches consider the adaptive re-use of an existing building for ministry, including reduced cost, abbreviated schedule, cultural familiarity, sustainability, structural limitations, zoning challenges, and code compliance. Case studies will include an office building that was turned into a children's and youth ministry center, a semi-conductor manufacturing facility that was turned into a church, and the 2011 Solomon Award-winning 3 Mile Project: a factory/warehouse that was turned into a thriving teen center on a shoestring budget.
Churches will take away an understanding of the real benefits of buying and renovating vs. building new, and how to discern whether a particular building might be a good candidate for adaptive re-use.
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) sounds like a highly abstract concept. But it’s really not. It’s also something that churches — sadly — tend to miss out on.
TCO is simply a calculation of what a particular product or service is going to cost you during it’s life. TCO has become popular in automotive circles, with some manufacturers boasting about the fact that while their car might cost a little more to buy, it will cost less to own. At least in theory.
Missing TCO Calcuations
TCO can be missed in several ways. Sometimes, a church will buy a particular piece of gear—sometimes a very expensive piece—that will dig into their cash reserves pretty significantly. Projectors are a great example of this. A really bright, say 15K, projector can cost well over $20,000-50,000. That’s a lot of money. However, it will also cost somewhere between $2,000 and $6,000 to re-lamp it. And at that brightness level, re-lamping is going to happen every 500-800 hours of use, which is right around a year (at least for us).
So not only did you spend, let’s call it $30K, on a projector, you can figure on another $20K in lamps over the next 5-7 years of life. And we haven’t even talked about filter replacements, electricity costs or service. Costs on this imaginary projector (that’s not that imaginary) will easily exceed $60K over the life of the unit. Did anyone think about that or did the initial purchase price double as a complete surprise?
Other times, a church will buy the cheapest piece of gear they can find, thinking they are saving money. However, what they find out is that the consumeables cost of that gear is far more expensive than a slightly more expensive piece of gear. Ink jet printers are a classic example here. But I’ve also seen churches replace older, heavy duty color laser printers with newer “cheaper” ones because the toner cartridges are half the cost of the old ones. What no one noticed was that the new cartridges last about one-eighth as many pages, which about quadruples the per page costs and aggravates the users who find the printers always out of toner.
Do The Homework
Sometimes, it’s hard to choose between two seemingly comparable pieces of equipment. What you need to look at, besides initial cost, is total operating costs. I’ve compared projectors based on bulb and filter life plus electricity and found brand A to be almost 50 percent less expensive over a 5 year period than brand B. And these are projectors who’s output and picture quality are close enough to being called “the same.”
Rechargeable batteries are another great example. Yes it might cost you a few hundred dollars to get into the game once you figure chargers and the initial stock of batteries. But from that point on, your annual battery costs drop to under $100 to handle replacements. For us, we went from spending over $1500/year to about $200; and the only reason I spend that much is because we now have 5 rooms using rechargeable cells, and the ones in the student rooms go missing more regularly.
It’s Real Stewardship
If you want to win friends and influence people, especially your senior leadership, continually present them with plans that demonstrate you know how to make purchases that represent an excellent value over time. Showing them that you’ve done TCO calculations, and have chosen equipment with that in mind will show them you’re serious about leading your department well.
Of course, TCO doesn’t tell the whole story; it’s just one data point. But it’s an important one. You still have to consider usability, whether the product fits your needs and if the volunteers can use it. Still, TCO can often be the tipping point between brand A and brand B. Choosing the one with the lower overall lifetime cost will pay off in more ways that one. Trust me.
Mike Sessler has been involved with live production for more than 20 years and is the technical director at Coast Hills Community Church in Aliso Viejo, CA. Read more from Mike at his Church Tech Arts blog.
Ross relates a leaky message to your team's relationship. Everything on stage “leaks” into the community over time. So all that is good or that which is not so much leaks into your church in ways you need to be aware of. Investing in other doesn't mean you have to be best friends. The family model is used to describe discipleship within this team.
While church can be messy, investing in mutual discipleship is very fulfilling.
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Church Is Like Family, by Pastor Ross Parsley
Ross shares insights into how the church and particularly the pastor, tech and worship team relationships are more like family than corporate structure.
Sometimes the best lessons we learn are those which we draw from parallel situations.
Having said that, I’d like to tell you a little story. Stay with me, because I promise this all comes full circle in the end.
About five years ago, as I was planning a city-wide event to honor World War II veterans, our city mayor shared with me a concept which has been rumbling around in my head ever since.
Of course, there’s a lot of room for it to rumble…so take that for what it’s worth…
The concept is simple, but significantly changed the planning for the event and made a tremendous impact on its success.
This event was being held because the company I work for opened right after World War II. To commemorate the 60th anniversary of the end of the war, the owner of our parent company asked me to throw a party for the city as a celebration.
It didn’t take but a few seconds for me to start to honor those of the “greatest generation” that served our country.
Early in the process, I asked the mayor to be on an informal committee for the event. He is a retired high school history teacher, so I knew he would be not only a great advocate for the event, but would also have a great historical perspective.
The mayor not only provided that, but also suggested and recruited some WWII veterans as wellas local people who experienced the end of the war (Victory in Japan or “VJ” Day) here in town.
Those “eyewitnesses” helped shape the three-day event, which included many of the same elements of the original celebration.
The mayor influenced the event in other ways as well. In our first meeting, he said to me, “Gary, you need to go where the people are.”
I thought, “OK, great—but where are they?”
It just so happened that our celebration coincided with several other events, and the mayor suggested we take advantage. For instance, there was already an event scheduled for downtown on the opening night of out celebration, so we planned a “dancing in the streets” event (just like it happened in 1945) complete with a swing band playing period music, which took advantage of the “pre-existing crowd.”
Also, on the celebration’s closing night, the local American Legion Band was scheduled to perform their final outdoor concert of the season. So we asked them to play period music and let us “sponsor” their concert, and then provided a fireworks display at the conclusion. This was obviously a big “win-win.”
The event was great fun, with thousands of people participated in the events over the course of three days. However, had I not received such sage advice early in the planing process, I don’t know that the event would have been nearly as successful.
Over the course of the event planning I learned several valuable lessons, which I feel can be applied to your technical ministry.
You see, I did say this would eventually come full circle…
Here are some key lessons I’d take away from this story:
1) Get the right people involved!
2) Go where the people are!
3) Listen to others around you, drawing upon all ideas. You may be surprised of the results…
Not only did I learn “to go where the people are.” I learned that there are outside influences that can make a bigger impact than you alone can create.
It’s easy in retrospect to see the great wisdom in the suggestion “go where the people are.” However, that suggestion applies just as much to planning your next worship outreach or searching for new technical staff as it does to planning a celebration.
Most importantly, it’s critical to listen to those people with whom you’ve surrounded yourself. You never know what great idea or solution may come from the most surprising place.
Gary Zandstra is a professional AV systems integrator with Parkway Electric and has been involved with sound at his church for more than 25 years.
Rick Muchow, pastor of worship at Saddleback Church, leads a discussion of the basics of worship: what God says worship is and how we are to worship Him according to the Bible. It is absolutely critical that a worshipper’s theology be rooted in the bible. While there are different styles of music there is no such thing as a style of theology. Learn the difference between relevant methodology and never changing biblical theology and how to use them both for the Glory of God.
David Ashcraft, Senior Pastor at LCBC Church (Lives Changed By Christ), talks about how every weekend, your worship gathering tells a story. From the first note to the final lighting cue, the stories you tell have the potential to inspire people and change lives. But a fragmented service with disjointed elements leaves you frustrated and your church unmoved and unmotivated. So when the weekend comes, what story are you telling?
Over the past several years, I’ve had the privilege of being a musical performer and worship leader, as well as a church sound engineer and technician. This has provided unique perspective from both sides of the platform; what I’ve learned on one side has helped me do better on the other side, and vice versa.
Through this process, I’ve noted several problems and solutions that apply to the technical side, the creative side, and both. I’ve refined these observations and practices into what I call the “Seven Deadly Sins,” and share the first four “sins” here. The remainder will be covered in my next article.
Deadly Sin #1: Messing with the stage mix. Few things are more frustrating for a musician than a bad mix on stage. We’re a picky lot, and further, when an acceptable stage mix is achieved, we don’t want it to change. Therefore, the first rule for the sound mixer is avoid adjusting input gain once a service has started. Even a slight adjustment can be a HUGE detriment.
Also, please don’t mess with monitor sends during a service. Certainly there have been times when the stage is too loud - often, we musicians tend to play louder when the adrenaline starts flowing. (Of course, others actually get timid and play/sing softer.)
Resist the temptation of making major changes mid-stream; not only will this distract the musicians, but also in all likelihood, changes will serve to make things even worse from a sonic perspective. Instead, work on preparation that will eliminate these problems before they start. Pay close attention to how things sound during rehearsal, how sound is reacting with the room, and project what will happen when the room is full for services.
And, pay even closer attention during services, making observations and notes about what’s happening at “crunch time,” when true performance characteristics are being exhibited and an audience is on hand.
Of course, this is easiest to do when you’re using the same system in the same room with the same musicians. In most cases, the first two variables don’t change, and with respect to the third, note the techniques and mix approaches that result in the most consistency, regardless of who’s playing or a particular style.
Observe, experiment, formulate and then act - in advance.
Deadly Sin #2: Trusting untrained “critics.” While serving as director of technical ministries at a large church, I had the privilege of working with a talented director of worship. However, he had an annoying trait of trusting an elderly lady of the congregation to provide critiques of my house mix and overall sound quality.
She would wander through the sanctuary during rehearsals, listen and then report back to him. My goodness - this is an individual who had no experience with sound or music and who couldn’t even make the cut during choir tryouts! Talk about demoralizing… The bottom line is that this person’s opinion mattered just like any other member of the congregation, but in no way was she qualified to serve as a reference. Her suggestions were useless, and actually would have been detrimental had I chosen to follow them
The lesson? Sometimes musicians and worship leaders find it difficult to trust the sound people. But please, let logic prevail. In most cases, leaders of a church technical staff have the necessary experience to do their jobs correctly.
If sound people seem to be lacking in ability and knowledge, they must pursue proper training. If it seems that they lack the “ear” to provide a properly musical mix, then they need to fill another role while others who do have this particular talent should be encouraged to put it to use. And church sound staff members must always be honest with themselves and constantly seek to improve their skills any way possible.
Deadly Sin #3: The word “no.” Musicians often possess a certain confidence that sometimes can border on arrogance. We get an idea or vision and we’re quite sure it can come to life, and with excellent results. This is simply a part of the creative process.
It’s up to the sound team to foster this creative spirit, not squash it. Therefore, the word “no” should fall toward the bottom of the response list. For example, if a musician asks for an additional drum microphone, the answer should not automatically be “no.” This suggests that the sound person has no care about the creative vision, no care about striving for improvement.
Instead, how about a response along the lines of, “I’ll see what I can do. And, if you don’t mind my asking, what do we want to achieve with this extra mic?” This is a positive, can-do attitude that’s supportive and can be infectious. Also, by inquiring further, the sound person may be able to help deliver a solution better suited to achieve the new creative vision. Maybe it’s not an extra drum mic that’s needed but another approach, like additional drum isolation.
The point is to ask, which begets learning, which begets support and collaboration, which begets a better performance.
Deadly Sin #4: Unqualified knob “twiddlers.” Musicians like knobs and blinking lights, so naturally, they want to fiddle with the sound system. The confidence/arrogance mentioned previously plays into this as well - we believe there’s no task we can’t be great at, regardless of lack of training and experience.
But the reality is that musicians usually know just enough to be dangerous when it comes to operating a sound system. The same goes for house and monitor mixing. The irony is that musicians indeed can be among the best “sound” people in the congregation, perhaps better than many sound technicians, due to their musical ear.
However, too many cooks spoil the broth. The solution is fairly simple and straightforward: someone is either a musician or a sound tech/mixer for a given service.
If you’re a musician, this means hands off the sound gear. If you’re the mixer, do the best job possible, and support the musician. One individual does one thing, the other does the other thing, and you meet in the middle with mutual respect and collaboration, striving together to make everything better.
It’s all about both sides functioning as one. Next time we’ll share information that can help take this concept even further.
In the meantime, let’s all listen to each other and encourage each other – that is the true spirit of worship!
The Rev. Mitch Hescox, president and CEO of the Evangelical Environmental Network (EEN), ministry that seeks to inspire, equip, and mobilize Christians in their effort to care for God’s creation, and be faithful stewards, discusses how facilities management is a critical stewardship ministry for today. The GIVER Initiative, which saves energy costs, provides more funds for mission, and empowers a healthier world.
The emotional attachment to music that we humans have amazes me.
I can hear a song that I listened to in junior high school, and boom—my mind goes back there. I can remember where I was, see who was with me, and sometimes even relive the emotion that I experienced almost 30 years ago.
Recently I interview Gary Matthews, Pastor of Worship at Christ Memorial Church in Holland, MI, and we talked about this attachment to music.
Gary made some points that I think are very valid—one of them is, “when we eliminate a style or genre of music, we eliminate memories.” The me, at least, he’s right on with that statement!
Recently I was in a worship service where we sang the 1980s chorus “All Hail King Jesus” and I was “transported” to 20 years ago, standing in the sound booth at the church I served at that time, praising God for the blessings he had given me, in particular our first child that was born the week before. What a great and powerful memory.
Gary talked about the hymn sings that he led at Christ Memorial, noting that a highlight was “request time.” I attended a number of those hymn sings with my family, and request time was also the highlight for us. The key was that Gary asked each person requesting a song to share why it was important to them. To hear “older” saints talk about an event that happened almost a half century earlier was deeply moving.
So if music is so powerful, how does it apply to the technical side?
1) It calls each of us, TnT (Tech and Talent), to bring our “A game” to the table every time.
2) It calls us to be prepared, rehearsed and ready to go.
3) It gives us the opportunity to participate in the worship in a way that also ministers to us, the technicians and musicians.
4) It allows us to be involved in something way bigger than we actually are.
5) It allows us to be a part of something that touches people and may very well bring them to a place, a memory, and in doing so, it strengthen our faith.
6) The opportunity is there for someone who has “strayed from the church” to be called back to a time when they were involved and connected to God, helping call them to that place again.
Do you replace production/system equipment based on it being worn out or for new features and functionality?
When we get a new system or new piece of gear, often the last thing on our minds is repairs or the life cycle of the system.
In my view, churches are getting better at understanding professional A/V systems. I find that in general the market is more aware of the cost versus the expectation of the system, along with the willingness to spend the dollars to get it right (or at least as right as they can afford). I’m grateful for the improvement.
However an area where I see little or no improvement is in operation, maintenance and lifecycle replacement expectations.
It’s not uncommon for a church to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a great sound system and then never think about who is going to operate it, and just as importantly, who is going to be responsible for maintaining it. In fact, too often I see churches balk when one of the sound techs asks for a few hundred dollars to attend a tech training conference.
Another factor is the short(er) lifecycle of today’s equipment I don’t mean that stuff fails sooner; it’s more that technology keeps surpassing itself.
The church that I serve has been in a new sanctuary for only seven years. When the technical systems were designed and installed, digital consoles were in the early (and generally pricey) stage. HD video was being discussed but not widely adopted. Line arrays for permanent installations had just recently come into fashion.
All that said, my church has a great-sounding left-center-right main loudspeaker system, a premium 56-channel analog console, and a 12 x 16 rear-projection system that works well. Even so, we’ve started discussions on replacing some of our equipment. (Well, actually “repurposing” is more accurate, because the current stuff will be utilized elsewhere in the church.)
Part of the push to replace is based on age. The console is starting to have some minor issues (although nothing yet that can’t easily be repaired).
But in reality, the big push is based on changes in both technology and expectations. We’ve started hosting concerts in the space, and the main system has a hard time getting over 100 dBA.
So with technology moving so quickly, what should you expect when purchasing a new system?
1) Don’t expect it to perform at its best without having qualified and trained personnel operating it.
2) Do expect it to deteriorate without regular maintenance. I suggest having systems checked annually by a professional contractor, even if there are not any apparent problems.
3) Don’t expect it to last forever. Be realistic about the life expectancy of the equipment, and more importantly, recognize that the technology in most cases will become obsolete before it fails. I’ve read that the average life expectancy of an A/V system is as little as three to five years (especially when you’re talking about video projectors).
4) Do expect to need to educate the leadership at your church as to how and why the technology needs to be updated. Actually, this is an activity that needs to happen on a consistent basis - no one likes to be surprised with a big ticket purchase that was not anticipated.
How can you go about it?
1) Upgrade as you go, a piece or two at a time. This can be a great way to keep a system current. As new, beneficial technology becomes available, cycle out the older stuff.
For example, the system is working fine and sounds good, but the mixing console is coming up on 10 years old. So it could be replaced with a newer model, and at the same time, you can be planning similar transitions for loudspeakers, amplifiers and so on.
The main problem I see with this approach is that if the leader of the technical area is not the same person for a number of years, the upgrade process can suffer from lack of consistency.
2) Take the “big leap” and do an overhaul every 7 to 10 years. I’m currently working with a large church on a significant upgrade that has taken almost five years to come to fruition. Over that time span, the design has changed and the cost estimate has increased, but what has stayed consistent is the accumulation of money to do the project.
The key thing in making a significant upgrade happen is to have a vision, backed by a concrete plan to have the money available to do it. By outlining the project at the outset and then accruing a bite-sized chunk of the cost, year after year, the church has been able to do steadily accomplish its vision without having to do the typical fund raising, committee meetings and deacon approval.
To me, both ways work - it’s just very important that the discussion gets started early and that people are onboard in their commitment to technical system excellence.
Gary Zandstra is a professional AV systems integrator with Parkway Electric and has been involved with sound at his church for more than 25 years.
I could write a book on the subject of sound for churches. Unfortunately, it would have to start with stories about bad sound, and two good friends of mine published this very thing a few years ago.
The book is titled “If Bad Sound Were Fatal, Audio Would Be The Leading Cause Of Death,” by Don and Carolyn Davis, founders of one of the world’s leading audio education organizations, SynAudCon.
The book is entertaining and offers a host of true stories, including many of which are historical in nature, taken directly from the lives of these two extraordinary people.
The sad truth is that while bad sound in churches is not literally killing people (thank goodness!), it does put them to sleep. In psychological education, there is the study of what has come to be known as psychoacoustics.
It delves into the way the ear works in conjunction with the brain – not only how sounds that enter the ear canal get to the brain, but also, how the brain then processes these (now) electrical signals into meaningful “data” that a person can understand.
An even more detailed study of the science of psychoacoustics reveals how the brain works its way around hearing deficiencies, background noise and other audible annoyances. While the brain is very forgiving of bad sound, enough of it in high doses eventually forces the brain to ignore the input or even shut down.
How many times have you heard a pastor or other person speaking say, “I see someone snoozing?” Of course, for the person in the pulpit, this is a truly annoying thing, and it conjures up all sorts of subconscious thoughts: “Am I that boring? Is my message over their heads? What’s wrong with them? I’ve prepared well and am delivering well, but there they go, nodding off again.”
But the cause of sleeping in church (or other public gatherings) doesn’t have much if anything to do with the person speaking. Nor does it mean that many in the audience were out way too late the night before, or that they didn’t drink enough coffee that morning.
Nope - many times the sleeping can be directly attributed to the quality of the sound system being used to amplify the voices. A lousy system triggers an outward portrayal of the confusion that is being caused in the brain by material that is being poorly delivered to the ears of the listeners.
When a high enough level of psychoacoustic confusion has been met, the mind simply moves elsewhere, likely to daydreaming or sleep.
Just One Year In
Not so long ago, I attended a Sunday worship service held in a classic church sanctuary, in order to evaluate the room’s sound system at the request of a church member. Within just one year of opening, there were far too many complaints about audio quality to ignore.
Turns out that the building’s architect had recommended a local “not-so-good” (and now out of business) sound contracting firm to work with the facility’s electrical contractor and the church committee to implement the sanctuary sound system. It is what we shall now term “Sound System Number 1.”
Some of you might know where this is going…
This system was compromised from the outset due to the location of a large, beautiful cross, lovingly built by a parishioner. The cross location was deemed unchangeable, and thus, the only saving grace would have been for a quality sound contracting firm to stand firm and argue for a different sound system design to work around the obstacle.
Unfortunately, this didn’t happen, because the contractor was only interested in turning a quick and highly profitable job.
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After sitting through a service, I must say it was truly one of the worst sounding systems I’ve ever heard. As Don and Carolyn might say, it should have killed me on the spot.
I left with virtually no memory of what the pastor had said.
In preparing my written evaluation, I waited until mid-week and finally composed a detailed analysis of the system, and sent this along with a two-page cover letter, the gist of which said, “the only correction to your system that will work is to tear it out, throw it away, and start over, using a competent sound contractor.” And I recommended three.
Did they follow my recommendation, which, by the way, they paid me to provide? The answer, sadly, was no.
Instead, they went back to the original contractor and told him of my concerns. He confidently replied that he could fix the system, and at a price of “just” $35,000. Of course they took him up on his “generous” offer – the classic good money after bad scenario.
Cobbled Together
Several years later, I ended up becoming a member of this particular church. By then, they had moved on to “Sound System Number 2” – a truly cobbled together thing, done with the help of a different contractor and the “input” of several church members.
Just to complicate matters a bit further, an audio equipment manufacturer was also directly in the mix.
You guessed it - another bad system design. In most of the seats, one can either hear the loudspeakers before they hear the person speaking, or vice versa. Add in some regular doses of feedback, distortion and other quirks, and it’s a fine mess. One that cost more than $80,000, by the way.
You probably know the rest of the story.
Currently, the church is in the evaluation process for “Sound System Number 3.” While that process continues, the only thing I can tell you for sure is that my wife and I are always certain to arrive very early, in order to sit in the few seats where sound is delivered without the “bonus” of psychoacoustic fatigue.
When we look around during services, we see at least a dozen folks sitting in the “worst seats,” and invariably, they’re dozing off.
Pastors, friends, sound system operators – can you now better understand why so many people are taking a nap during worship services? It rarely has anything to do with what’s being said, but everything to do with how it’s being heard.
Or not.
Charlie Moore has been involved in management positions at various professional audio manufacturers and large installation contractors for more than 40 years. He also has first-hand experience in live mixing, system design and installation and has been active as a volunteer in a number of church sound system operations.
Each and every weekend churches want to make the most their service times, making sure to communicate effectively and creatively. Everything from music, announcements, message and beyond deserve to be well thought through and done with excellence. Too often great service ideas are left on the cutting room floor due to a lack of planning or execution.
Join in this conversation and learn new ways on how to make the most of every moment in your services. The process of planning a service is a big one. Taking ideas from brainstorming, planning, designing and executing in order to have a great service experience each and every week is a big task. We want people to walk away having had an experience with Jesus and remembering the biblical principals that were taught. Join this talk and we will walk through the 4D process of Dream, Define, Design and Develop. Come and talk about how to navigate your teams through this process and create memorable and impacting services each and every week.
At the Unite 2012 conference in Atlanta, an expert panel discusses how to select members of a worship band and how to help polish their performance. Learn effective rehearsal techniques, musical exercises, and how to release your musicians into their calling. “It’s not just a job!”
Presenters include:
Ed Kerr—worship pastor at Newlife Church (Port Orchard, WA). Ed has a Master’s Degree in piano performance and years of experience as a worship musician and songwriter. More than 100 of his songs have been recorded by Integrity Music used by churches around the world.
Carl Albrecht—professional drummer & percussionist (Nashville). Carl has a Bachelors of Music Degree in Composition and Arranging with an emphasis in percussion studies from Webster University in St. Louis. He has played on over 80 Integrity Music projects; Maranatha Praise Band recordings, and numerous other projects.
Ben Gowell—music director, Christ’s Church of the Valley (Phoenix). Ben is a session guitarist and producer, and has played on many studio recordings, including projects by Paul Baloche, Michael W. Smith, Sara Groves, and many others.
Norm Stockton—bassist/clinician, Coast Hills Community Church (Aliso Viejo, CA). As featured in Bass Player magazine, Norm is recognized by many as one of the premier bassists today. In addition to touring and recording with chart-topping worship artist Lincoln Brewster, he is known for his acclaimed Grooving for Heaven bass instructional DVD series.
The multi-site model has proven to be an extremely effective strategy, allowing churches to reach out into their communities and impact lives on a much larger scale. However, many churches still see it as an unreachable dream. This session will be a conversation on methods churches can employ to move into the multi-site world, without spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to get there. We’ll discuss video capture/distribution/playback, as well as talk through building cost-effective portable A/V/L systems for portable venues. The goal for this session is to show church leaders that multi-site can be done with excellence across a wide range of budget scenarios.
This session covers the different methods of hiring design and installation services, from the traditional design-bid-build, design-build, and teaming approaches. It also explains how to issue an RFP for design services, what to look for in selecting a designer, and how to hire a contractor.
The acoustical characteristics of any room are determined by its architecture. Room architecture consists of room size, room shape and room finishes.
The first factor affecting room acoustics, room size, is usually determined by the number of seats needed for the room and the layout of those seats. The aspect ratio (ratio of the ceiling height to room width to the room length) is also a critical factor in the room’s acoustic functionality.
Each of these factors should be carefully planned early in the design process to minimize potential acoustical problems.
The second factor in determining the room acoustics is the room shape. Frequently, rooms are designed in a fan shape with a curved back wall and wrap-around seating. This type of room design generally creates a dramatic and inherent problem when it comes to focusing sound.
When designing a room, plan a room shape that does not include concave or focusing wall or ceiling shapes, parallel wall surfaces, or extremely large continuous surfaces. The room shape should reflect sound into areas that will not create acoustical problems.
With regard to room shape and how sound behaves as it bounces around the room, we want to provide early reflected sound energy to the seating areas and eliminate late reflections that are perceived as an echo.
Whether sound arrives early or late in time is relative to how long after the direct sound it arrives. In general, the larger the room, the farther sound has to travel to be reflected, and the later it arrives back at a listener. The later it arrives back at the listener, the more it sounds like an echo and the more it distracts the listener and causes intelligibility problems.
The third element that determines the room acoustics is the room finishes. Whether a surface will reflect sound, absorb sound, or reflect it in all different directions (diffuse sound) are all contributing factors to the acoustics.
Since we’re looking for early energy, not late energy, we will generally want the surfaces close to listeners to be hard or reflective and the surfaces far from listeners to be soft or absorptive. This is just the opposite of what happens in most rooms.
A typical room is designed so absorptive surfaces, such as carpeting and padded pews or chairs, are closest to listeners, while reflective surfaces, such as walls and ceilings, are farthest from listeners. This creates an environment where there is little early reflected sound energy and excessive late sound energy.
Ideally, we want the surfaces close to the listener to be reflective (for example, hard flooring instead of carpet beneath seats) and the surfaces far away to be more absorptive. This will create a more acoustically balanced room.
As sound bounces around a room, it is perceived as either reverberation (diffuse sound traveling in all directions) or as discrete reflections. The level of reverberation and time it takes the reverberation to decay is one factor in measuring the room acoustics. Another is the level and arrival time of the reflections.
All of these are determined by the room size, shape, and finishes. From this information, it’s apparent that the room architecture really determines the room acoustics. You can’t fix the acoustics without making changes to the architecture.
Another important piece of puzzle in attaining quality sound at your church is how the sound system interacts with the acoustics of the sanctuary. These are two somewhat separate issues, but are directly interrelated in that each one affects the other.
Ideally, both the acoustics and sound system design take place at the same time and are carefully coordinated. This approach will minimize the number and severity of unforeseen problems.
There are several sound system design approaches. While some may be better than others, the chosen path should be driven by the program and the room design.
A newer technique for the main sound system involves multi-channel (left-center-right, or LCR for short) loudspeaker arrangement, which can produce an excellent sound experience. Note that these systems can be very complex to design and set up, but once they’re up and running are fairly easy to operate and can produce stunning results.
The bottom line is that the sound system design is equally as important as the room acoustics. Each one affects the other, mostly in negative ways. Even the best loudspeaker system in the world will still sound bad in a room with poor acoustics.
Vance Breshears has worked for decades as a system designer and consultant in the professional AV industry, and heads up the California offices of Acoustic Dimensions.
The power of the Internet cannot be ignored, as this story from Courageous Church in Atlanta makes this ever so clear. Learn about the grassroots methods that pastor Shaun King used to create and build his ministry with a limited budget, from Facebook connections to Twitter to his personal blog.
Church planning isn’t what it used to be! How does one take the typical drivers for master planning: vision, time, attendance and cost, and translate those to a multi-site ministry strategy? How does a church maintain its “brand” over multiple locations? How does it fund expansion on multiple campuses simultaneously? How does a multi-site church learn to leverage buildings instead of letting building issues overwhelm its mission? Whether a church is just dreaming of or knee-deep in multi-site ministry, this session will be a lively discussion and exploration into real life examples. (From WFX 2011, Dallas)
Over the years I’ve worked with churches, the problems I find often have foundation in basic communication, organization and administrative skills -- or more precisely, the lack thereof.
My primary field of interest and experience is with the technical side of ministry, so the discussion here will reflect that. However, I offer that many of these same approaches and ideas can be applied to many areas of a ministry.
Quite often I visit with a church where there are numerouscomplaints about a lack of consistently in the technical area, and the explanation goes something like: “When Jim is here everything works, but when he is not it is a disaster."
I know at that point that while Jim may be a great operator and may understand the system very well, he's most likely not a good delegator, administrator or teacher. When a church is suffering from the “Jim’s the man” syndrome, I can almost guarantee that the mixing board/patching is either not labeled, labeled incorrectly or just poorly labeled. The poor folks who are mixing on the weeks Jim is not there end up scrambling just to get things properly connected and working.
Also, because they're volunteers and “Jim the man” is the golden boy in the eyes of the Worship Leader, people are afraid to step in and to try to organize and logically lay out the board.
Other things that end up happening usually relate back to clear organization, things like:
• Batteries failing in the middle of the service because everybody thought someone else had changed them.
• Trying four mic cables until you find one that works, because nobody throws out or labels the bad cables.
• The last minute scramble to find a mic (or stand, or direct box) that is missing because somebody used it during the week in another room at the church.
• Nobody shows up to mix on a Sunday morning. Bob traded with Steve who traded with George and now nobody really knows who on for the next month.
• The sound person "on" for a given week shows up “late” because “Jim the man” never told him/her the Worship Leader was bringing in a mini-orchestra of 10 players, along with six vocalists. The poor sound person was actually on-time for a typical Sunday, but did now know an extra hour or so was needed for additional setup.
I'm sure you can add your own list of frustrations but rather than moan over them, let’s look at how to prevent them.
1) Get together as a group and agree to a consistent layout of the mixing board and create a channel/patch list that sits next to the board. Also, commit to each other that if for some reason you need to deviate from the standard layout, immediately following the service you will reset the boars to the standard layout.
2) Make a rule that first thing every Sunday new batteries go in the wireless mics. This takes the guess work out of the equation and also lets you use the mics during the week without wondering when the batteries will die. Wireless mics usually last up to 10 hours on a fresh set of batteries. To be precise, check the specs of your system, and then simply do the math.
3) Throw away bad cables. I know that this is not eco-friendly and everyone likes to occasionally get out the soldering iron. However, my experience shows that either the repair never happens and the cable accidentally gets placed back with the good ones, or a repair ends up being poorly done.
4) Organize mics, cables and all accessories and put a sign out sheet that details who took the item and to what room they took it to. This way everyone will know where that missing equipment should be located.
5) Hand out or post online a schedule for six months of who is "on" every Sunday. In the sound booth (or online), keep a master schedule with this rule: "if your name is on for that day, you'd better be there." This doesn’t mean that dates can't be traded; rather, if dates are traded, this should be immediately noted on the master schedule.
6) Put the burden on the Worship Leader to communicate -- ahead of time -- with the actual person that is on for that Sunday. A simple email with a stage layout and instrument list will provide the information needed to plan for special needs and configurations, as well as the time to do them right.
These may sound like simple suggestions, but may churches are simply negligent in these fairly basic tasks. If there is a no leader of the crew, volunteer to be the coordinator, or facilitator that will facilitate the items above. If there is a clear leader, offer to help them with the organization. In a respectful manner, of course.
Gary Zandstra is a professional AV systems integrator with Parkway Electric and has been involved with sound at his church for more than 25 years.
