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May 2012

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Technical Director Profile: Daryl Cripe, Grace Community Church, Nobelsville, Ind.

by Deidra Blackmore

If you heard that Grace Community Church in Noblesville, Indiana, has a technical director who used to work for Universal Studios, you might be impressed. The funny part of this story is that Daryl Cripe was not a technological wizard with Universal, he was a project manager. But you never know where God may be leading you and this is the story of a church technical director who never dreamed he would work in ministry at all....much less a technical ministry.

Cripe grew up in a very traditional church with no technology and although he dabbled in theatrical production in high school and college, he majored in marketing and management. During college, he started attending a little church that needed some volunteers to help with the audio. Within a few years, he was leading the small technical ministry and on the leadership team helping to design a new facility. The worship pastor at the church told Cripe he should start planning for a career in ministry. It's a good thing he did.

Five years later Cripe left a very successful position with Universal for a staff position at Grace Community Church. As senior director of production at Grace, Cripe recently served as project manager for a $4.5 million A/V expansion and currently manages team leaders who organize over 100 production volunteers. Church Production Magazine talks with Cripe about his current position and the road that led him there.

CPM: Tell us about your church, its worship style and how that affects choices about technology.

Cripe: I love our church! I know I am supposed to say that, but I truly do. Grace began 17 years ago as a church plant and today has a staff of 90-plus, six weekend services, and 5,500 attendees. But most important, and what I am most proud of, is the "nature" of our church. Through phenomenal leadership, our church truly lives up to its name. It is a place of grace, both to the staff and to the congregation.

We completed a $28 million expansion last year that included the addition of another weekend worship auditorium as well as eight fully equipped smaller auditoriums for our kids and students. With this expansion, my staff and volunteer teams now support 13 auditorium spaces, each having significant audio/video/lighting capabilities. We don't often get bored!

Our new "GraceMain" venue has four services and seats 1,650. We also have a second, much more intimate venue, "Sojourn," which has two services and seats 300. In the fall, we are planning to open a third venue, "Sanctuary," which will be more contemplative in nature and will seat 500. These are not music-based venues but actually planned as completely different services sharing only a message theme. In addition, we feature musical worship and live teaching starting with two-year-olds through fifth grade in the above mentioned smaller auditoriums.

Overall, our services are all highly artistic in nature. We start five weeks in advance and begin with a message theme and create from there. We strive to use various forms of the creative arts in all of our venues. Did I mention my team doesn't get bored?

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