With two campuses in South Florida, a site in Pensacola and two more in Peru, Potential Church is one of the more innovative and influential ministries around today. The church’s production director, Brandon Charlton, went to school for production at Cook University in Daytona Beach and afterward worked in professional broadcasting for years. After moving to Miami, he started volunteering with churches and his sister sent him an ad for the Potential Church job opening. He says it was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up.
“We have lotsof testimonies from viewers and volunteers of the change within them as a resultof seeing and/or volunteering on our projects.”
CPM: How did you get started in production and what led to church work?
CHARLTON: My start began in television, immediately out of college, working for the nationally syndicated morning show, “The Daily Buzz.” Over the years, I acquired more and more knowledge about television production from show directing and everything that comes along with it to producing and program formatting. All [of this is] knowledge that I currently use to help create a solid foundation for the ministry that I lead. Becoming the production director for Potential Church presented the unique opportunity to merge two things that I love: production and church. Using my passion for production to help further the Kingdom and help those in our community gain confidence, spiritual growth and applicable leadership skills that they can use daily is an awesome feeling that fuels my drive.
CPM: Potential Church has five locations, three in the United State and two in Peru. Tell us more about your interaction or coordination with the production teams at the other locations.
CHARLTON: In my role I provide global support to our campuses. Although we've given the campuses freedom to creatively function within our series’ themes and concepts, we [seek] to maintain a consistent look and sound that says "Potential.” Weekly, we have campus representatives as part of our global creative meeting where direction and ideas are given for the upcoming services and events. Onsite training, troubleshooting and stage transitions are available to all the campuses anytime.
CPM: You recently installed line arrays from DAS Audio at your church. Tell us about your experience with them so far.
CHARLTON: The line arrays and fills have added a different dynamic to our Cooper campus, providing great clarity and a clean sound to our musicians, vocalist and speakers. They've provided an amazing foundation to build on moving forward in the future.
CPM: What advice would you give to someone considering going into church production work?
CHARLTON: There are many things that can be said, but a piece of wisdom that was given to me by one of my mentors that still applies to my everyday approach to the ministry I lead is “People, Procedure, Product,” in that order. Your primary focus should be to create a community, facilitate the vision of the house within your ministry and as a leader, [and] utilize the collective giftings of that community to create atmospheres that further the Kingdom of God.
Scripture that I've [personally]applied to each:
- People - (1 Peter 5)—Care for your flock
- Procedure - (Habakkuk 2:3)— Write the vision and make it plain
- Product - (Colossians 3:23-24)— Whatever you do, do it heartily
