While many churches continually attack the challenges of operating contemporary services in the confines of their existing structures, the number of churches that rent space once a week in order to conduct worship is significant. Pete van der Harst, president of Portable Church Industries in Troy, Mich., estimates that there are currently 24,000 such churches in the United States. These organizations -- the majority of which are new, evangelical churches without sufficient funding to move into a dedicated building -- may approach worship differently than their more established counterparts, but face many of the same challenges; in order to attract modern congregations, they must deliver their messages the way modern people are accustomed to receiving them. As we all know, audio, video and lighting technologies are key components in achieving this goal.
Because these "portable churches" are without a permanent home, they must set up and tear down on a weekly basis. For the A/V and lighting crews, it's almost like being part of a road show, except that you never leave town.
Such is the case for the members of Crosspointe Church in Cary, North Carolina. The congregation spent its first four years conducting worship in a theater. When the theater changed hands a year ago, Crosspointe was forced to find a new, albeit temporary, home in a middle school. Each week, Crosspointe runs three services for 800-900 people. In September, the church will revoke its "portable" status when it moves its own building.
Mark Kitts, Crosspointe's membership and technology pastor, explained that Portable Church Industries (PCI) assisted the church in establishing its operations. Founded in 1994, the company specializes in providing portable churches with launch planning, post-launch reviews, efficiency upgrades, audio, video, lighting, and musical instrument equipment, portable children's areas, décor, and trailers -- essentially, everything that is required for easy set-up and teardown. PCI serves new churches as well as those that have outgrown their existing facilities, and are awaiting the construction of a new building. Reflecting on his five years of experience as a pastor at a portable church, Kitts says that he is glad Crosspointe enlisted professional help.
"For churches that are thinking about going portable, they should use a professional," Kitts emphasizes. "They shouldn't even think about it without at least getting consulting. They need to spend hours doing detailed planning on how they are going to set up and tear down the church every week. A great deal of time must be spent constructing the system so that it is easily assembled."
Each week, Crosspointe has three technical crewmembers operating audio, video and multimedia presentations, and lighting. The light show at Crosspointe is modest, enabling the lighting operator to assist the soundperson when required. Four different technical crews rotate on a monthly basis.
"Whether you are portable or stationary, your people matter, and you have to get good people no matter how good your equipment is in order to run things," Kitts advises.
Pete van der Harst agrees. "Most of this is done by volunteers," he says. "In a portable church, the trick is the effective use of volunteers in terms of communications -- who is on, who is off, and valuing days off. A portable church is no different than a fixed site in that talented people are your scarcest resource. Using that resource wisely is the difference between the churches that sink and the ones that really fly."
Regardless of how careful your technical crew may be, wear and tear on A/V equipment is significant in a portable setting. "You are setting up and tearing down every week, so that introduces the possibility of things breaking and wiring giving out," says Kitts. "People are constantly walking over your equipment -- video projectors get bumped and lighting trees get unplugged."
Technical crews at portable churches must also grow accustomed to working in an environment where there is little opportunity to adjust the system. "You don't have the opportunity to test your equipment in a live setting during the week because it is stored in a trailer," Kitts relays. At Crosspointe, the crew arrives early and remains after the services are over to work through any issues.
Martin E. Massinger is the audio ministry director at Watermark Community Church, a portable church that is currently housed in the auditorium at Lake Highlands High School in Dallas, Texas. Although Watermark does have an on-site storage facility, all of its audio, video and lighting equipment must be torn down and packed away each week.
| Photos of the portable setup used by Watermark Community Church in Dallas, TX. |
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"So much of our resources and manpower are directed at making this operation continue in a portable setting," Massinger acknowledges. Sixty volunteers are divided into four 15-person teams that rotate every four weeks. Set-up is conducted on Saturday, and teardown is performed on Sunday, when the services are over. "A lot of our investments have been made specifically to streamline our set-up and teardown, making it faster, better, and providing less opportunity for error."
When Watermark does move into a permanent facility, Massinger hopes to redirect those resources into staging more elaborate productions. "A lot more could go into things like stage design, media during services, and more creative dramas," he says. "Much of the effort that goes into making sure that the week-to-week things work could go into other areas."
Most portable churches rehearse in one space and worship in another. "The rehearsal environment is different than the live environment -- there are things that can be done in the rehearsal space that may not translate well into the live environment," Massinger points out. "I am definitely looking forward to the day when we are able to rehearse in the same space where we worship because it would give me much more time to be able to work with the musicians as a band."
At the same time, the environment within a dedicated worship center is altered as soon as the congregation is present, van der Harst argues. "When you have your own building and fill it with people, the level of adrenaline changes, the room acoustics change, and it's not the same room," he says. In order to accommodate for this, musicians and soloists must adapt quickly, and be up on their chops.
To decrease the time spent on mic checks, Watermark's instrumentalists use Furman HDS-16/HRM-16 personal monitor mixing stations. "It has definitely cut down on our rehearsal time and our sound check time," Massinger says. "We used to easily spend 45 minutes each week just tweaking the monitor mixes."
The installation of multi-pin connectors onto all of Watermark's outboard mixing gear also proved to be a timesaver for Watermark's A/V crew. "What took 45 minutes to an hour now takes just under 15 minutes," says Massinger. "All of our compression racks, wireless racks, front-of-house (FOH) racks and recording racks had been using individual snakes and cables. One of our members is an electrical engineer who had done sound work before, and he volunteered to put it all together."
Duffle bags, as simple as it may sound, have also alleviated stress. A different bag is assigned to each "instrument position," and contains all of the equipment necessary for that position to properly function. "It has helped the volunteers a lot," Massinger says.
Although the facilities in which portable churches meet aren't dedicated worship centers, it's necessary for technical staff to get to know their space. "You must learn the building that you are in, and figure out how much electricity one circuit can handle," Kitts notes. "We had circuits breaking all of the time when we were in the theater because we were trying to get too much power out of the circuit. It was designed to handle a vacuum cleaner, not projection and lighting systems."
One of the biggest mistakes some portable churches make is attempting to stage too elaborate a production. "At some points we have tried to do too much without enough experience," Kitts admits, adding that the Crosspointe technical crew has learned about production by "taking baby steps." "You may not be able to have a full production facility when you are portable, but you can still do amazing things. You just have to be realistic about it."
Massinger is eager to move into a permanent facility, but at the same time he acknowledges that operating as a portable church has forced Watermark's A/V crew to remain on their toes. "When we don't have to do this weekly, I am going to feel a certain amount of loss," he admits. "This has really kept me sharp."
Carolyn Heinze works from her office in Vancouver, Canada. She
can be reached through editorial@churchproduction.com.
