TheMinistryCafe

I just finished day 2 of this convention and I would say that in general the architects have the most exciting things to present and are the worst presenters. The first session I attended this morning dealt with the design of youth spaces. The graphics and designs were quite interesting but the presentation was very boring. The entire class was done as a Q & A session with no initial presentation, and therefore no catalyst for decent questions. I did find some of the questions from the audience quite interesting, however. One question in particular got me thinking about the future of one of our own web sites, www.churchplanning.net. The question was: Are there any design resource web sites for churches who are trying to develop the style of design for youth spaces? Of course churchplanning.com was intended as an information resource for churches, but maybe it should also serve as a graphic design catalogue of spaces that feature, not just our own work but the best work to be found in church design. Just another thing for my to do list. The keynote message was delivered by Pastor Ed Young from Fellowship Church in Grapevine TX. The message was geared toward their own experiences in growth which has involved numerous satellite (multi-venue site) churches which accommodates over 20,000 each weekend. Multi-site is a subject that seems to be gaining a great deal of attention at this convention. I sat next to a pastor of a local “emerging” church who was reading my interview in the July/August issue of Worship Facilities magazine. That, of course, sparked an interesting conversation over the growth struggles in their church. One attitude I love in the emerging church is there is rarely any controversy over change and innovation. In speaking with this pastor he feels that the only thing holding them back is facility and finances. Compared to many churches which are struggling with pride and personality conflicts that is a pretty good problem to have.

The first afternoon session was a technical presentation on Audio and acoustics for contemporary worship. There was an in depth discussion on speaker cluster arrangements, line arrays, surround sound, reverberation, absorption, diffusion, etc. And some fascinating new technologies involving electronically controlled line arrays, and artificial reverberation, if you can imagine that. I will definitely be doing a more in depth blog on that subject.

Finally I attended a panel discussion of the Willow Creek design team of Architect, AV Consultant, church manager, vendor, and volunteer coordinator that worked on the Willow Creek facility. The focus of the panel was Willow’s decision to do the AV install with volunteer labor from the church. This was no small project. It involved over 600 volunteers with an eight million dollar AV budget. It was a frank discussion of the pros and cons of using volunteer labor in a construction project. In an extremely over simplistic summary there are some very good reasons and some very bad reasons to do this, and you better be realistic and honest with yourself before you make that decision. Again that is a future blog. The exhibit hall was open today, and since there is such a strong technical/ AV theatrical bias at this convention, you can imagine that the quality of the exhibit booths are remarkable. One even had its own waterfall with images projected onto the waterfall. Well it’s been a long day and I am signing off. Tomorrow I will conclude this series with the close of the convention.