Christian Faith Center is one of the fastest growing multi-site churches in the Seattle area. In addition to its live worship experiences, the church also produces “Successful Living with Casey Treat” that airs weekly on the Hillsong Channel. The show features a mix of weekend messages and in-studio segments featuring its lead pastor and special guests.
Chris Cook has been involved with the media and broadcast teams at the church for 18 years, beginning as a volunteer camera operator and eventually taking over leadership as the director of media, marketing and television. The church recently made the critical transition from standard definition to HD video and broadcast systems, and CPM took the opportunity to catch up with him and hear some of what he’s learned along the way.
“I love knowing that what we do together asa team actually affects people’s eternities.”
CPM: Tell us about the journey into your role at Christian Faith.
Cook: Back when I began volunteering I’d really never touched a camera or edited at all. But once I started learning, I just couldn’t get enough. Six months later they had an open position and I jumped on it. It was a pay cut at the beginning, but I felt it had a real purpose. At the beginning I was a grunt editor, and we had a guy who we subcontracted to do the TV show who really helped me learn a lot of the technical side of the role. So I started doing that for a number of years, as well as directing our live services. A couple of years ago, we had a number of employees move on for good reasons. But it meant I ended up taking over the media, marketing and the television program.
CPM: What do you find most rewarding about being in ministry?
Cook: I love knowing that what we do together as a team actually affects people’s eternities. We don’t see the actual person who watches our TV program, but we do get to hear the stories of how our program has helped them. We may not know how many people saw our last commercial, but when they come to church, make this their home, and give their lives to the Lord—that’s something eternal.
At Christian Faith our team has been able to create an atmosphere that I haven’t seen anywhere else, in that every Sunday we have 60-80 nations represented in the people who are here. These are people who have families from other countries or who were born outside of America and have moved here, and they make up almost half our congregation. Often you hear that Sunday morning can be the most segregated hours of the week in our culture, so we purposely strive to reach every pocket of society with what we do.
CPM: Tell us about the driving factors that prompted Christian Faith to upgrade its broadcast video system last year.
Cook: When Hillsong took over the Church Channel we felt like it was the right time to take a big step forward in our quality. At the time, we were doing about two thirds of our TV show in-studio and about one third of it from the weekend teaching, which was an SD signal up-scaled. The quality of the two did not match at all. Delivering to the Hillsong Channel gave us a chance to align the quality all the way through the process.
CPM: Talk about the process of planning and getting leadership on board with the new direction.
Cook: We first started by visiting another church that had done the same thing. We did a tour, visited their control room, and just took a lot of pictures and notes. After that we started researching systems integrators, which is how we met Chad Rose from Rose Media. He came in and took a look at what we were doing. Chad turned out to be a great guy to work with, and although he’s not local, he’s always available by phone. He’s even flown out twice since the install to make sure everything’s working well—and he’s coming out again this month.
Fortunately, our senior pastors Casey and Wendy Treat were totally onboard the whole time, so it was basically a matter of finding the resources we needed. In order to find those resources we ended up doing a campaign to educate the congregation and let them know what we needed. That campaign got us a long way towards getting us where we needed to go.
CPM: What are some of the main components you and your team selected for the upgrade?
Cook: In working with Rose Media it became pretty clear that Blackmagic Design gear was going to hit that sweet spot of value and quality. For cameras, we went with the Blackmagic URSA Broadcast 4K cameras, which we felt were so close to what you could get from other manufacturers, for a great price. They also worked seamlessly with so much of the support gear we already had. We paired the cameras with Fujinon XA55x9.5 box lenses, which are just amazing. The 55x zoom allows us to get just as close as we want with cameras that are 75 feet away. We saw the lenses at another church we visited, and after comparing them to the other lenses that were out there we were convinced they were the best value. We love what we’re getting with them, and the clarity and details are fantastic. The images are just so much clearer, especially when they’re in focus. Sometimes we’ll actually back off the sharpness slightly just to help make people’s skin look a little better.
“We paired the Blackmagic URSA Broadcast 4Kcameras with Fujinon XA55x9.5 box lenses, which are just amazing. The 55x zoom allows us to get just as close as we want with cameras that are 75 feet away.”
Another thing we are coming to realize with the Fujinon box lenses is how important the build quality is. We have to tear down our cameras every Sunday afternoon since we share the space with a school. With that kind of weekly wear and tear, we’ve really noticed how much the overall build quality matters.Based on Rose Media’s suggestion, we selected the Blackmagic ATEM 4 M/E Production Studio 4K live production switcher with the Broad Panel for control. At Christian Faith we have a number of different signals that go to our main screens, our back screens, our campuses, and our lobbies, and we needed a switcher that could handle all of that seamlessly. It’s just worked really well for what we need from it.
CPM: With churches gearing up for Easter, can you tell us what programming for Easter looks like at Christian Faith?
Cook: When it comes to Easter programming, every year is a little different. For us, it’s all about getting people here. In the past we’d do an extra-long set of worship, three special videos focused on the Cross, and a 15-minute message. We’d run ads on Christian radio and try to get the word out about our amazing show. Ultimately, people would come and check it out, but then go back to their normal churches. That’s what prompted us to go a different direction this year—we’re really trying to reach people who aren’t at a church right now. Instead of advertising on Christian radio we’re advertising on Country and Soft Rock radio stations, as well as NBC, CBS, and ABC. We’re doing direct mailers and targeted geo-fencing to really connect with people who aren’t going to churches at all. From the moment visitors walk into the foyer all five senses will be bombarded in ways that support the overall experience. Our plan is to put on a full 90-minute show with laser lights, special staging throughout the room for performances, aerial performances and wireless gimbal cameras to help people connect to the experience. We’re not looking to be churchy—we’re going for something special that will make them want to come back. And it’s only possible because of so many volunteers that are giving their time and talent.
“We’re not looking to be churchy—we’re going for something special that will make them want to come back. And it’s only possible because of so many volunteers that are giving their time and talent.”
CPM: What are your dreams for the media, marketing, and television ministries moving into the future?
Cook: Thinking outside the box is so important, especially when reaching the lost. This region is one of the most unchurched in the country, and connecting with those people means being creative and getting outside the box. We have some great young leaders that have been really stepping out and helping us get to leverage that kind of creativity.
Ultimately, our goal for Christian Faith is to continue growing our church to reach the entire Pacific Northwest and to really have a presence in all of the great cities of Washington. We’re keeping our eyes open for those opportunities to share the Gospel—and the media, marketing, and television ministries are going to be a big part of helping deliver that message.
