Mobile Church Lighting and Sound: Done Simply
Modern Lighting and Sound Technics for Light of Christ United Methodist Church
Design Dialogue by Jack Kelly
2008 | Ballantyne YMCA | Charlotte, NC

The ministry is about people; people are about people; techies are about gear. The modern mobile church is run by volunteers who are there to build healthy and rewarding relationships. Very few of the volunteers see themselves pursuing a career in the technical ministry. Most dream about the opportunity to speak on stage, believing God will use them to touch another’s life. The technical minister facilitates that dream for someone else. Unfortunately the lack of glamour in the technician’s ministry has left most churches in need of more electronic shepherds.

After a conference, the churches body gets revved up. Experiencing new levels of praise and worship, the hunger for greater relevance and faith drive them to envision power packed systems integrating video, lighting and sound. But most of the church is there to build relationships, not develop advanced trouble shooting techniques. The primary consideration of every mobile church system needs to be the speed and simplicity of its setup; aka maximizing the potential of the space, and minimizing the work. Consider burnout. For example, baseball players love to play baseball. Most players would be willing to cut the grass or clean the bleachers once a month. Knowing the reward of their labor, the players complete their task with joy. Now make that task every week for an entire day. Most players will start driving 30 minutes to another park that doesn’t require the maintenance. It isn’t a lack of commitment. They want to serve but they want to serve by playing the game not by mowing the grass. Both mowing and playing are important. Both are useless without each other. Returning back to Christ followers, most want to actively minister to people. Even if someone asks a technical minister to say the prayer with them, a good technical minister will immediately call someone else to pray with them. The technical minister knows that if he isn’t actively maintaining the gear; failure of the equipment could provide opportunity for the Deceiver to pull listening ears away from the pastor, evangelist, or teacher. A strong technical team is a speaking minister’s most powerful asset, allowing him to effectively fulfill his purpose, affecting the largest number of people possible.

Before we delve into my three most important considerations for a lighting and sound system, we must discuss power. First count the amps. Power usage is nearly always a problem; counting every amp is essential. Many mobile churches try to use all the circuits available to maximize their experience. Without planned spare circuits, the team cannot adjust to power problems such as bad breakers or GFI failure. Do not max out the circuits. Extra circuits will not only count for backups but also will be needed for special events. Much like living below your means, an effective technical ministry doesn’t gamble the pastor’s message for cool toys.

Designing a mobile church lighting and sound system can be both frustrating and exciting. Unlike production systems for music tours, the mobile church must be able to be setup in record-breaking time by non-technical volunteers. To accomplish this, we created 4 LED systems that attached directly to Altman pipe and base systems. Each system had an Elation wireless DMX receiver and up to 4 Chauvet Colorado 1 LED fixtures. The Colorado fixtures have wires for both power and DMX extending off the back of the unit, easily attaching all the fixtures in series. A female Edison to the proprietary Colorado adapter was created to provide power to the wireless DMX system. A single power cable was plugged into the system to power and DMX all the units. To connect the system to the pipe and base 2 half couplers were attached to the middle of the plate for easy attachment. On the back of the plate, we used a labeler to make notes about focus and other relevant information. After attaching the system and setting it in place, the volunteer could read the back of the plate and focus each light on the person specified.

LED’s make a great low-maintenance choice for several reasons. The first reason is power. Power is usually limited for mobile churches that meet in gyms or movie theatres. The ability to put nearly 30 fixtures on one wall outlet is a huge asset. The second reason is the ability to access powerful programming without having to know how to program. It is difficult to put moving lights in the same place every week. If a mover is twisted a half an inch, it will miss its target. Each week the operator will have to tweak the moving and still commands to get the focus right. This requires active programming knowledge. LEDs can effortlessly journey through the color spectrum at any speed from strobes to an hour long color fade. Once the controller is programmed, the operator can focus on interpreting the worship without worrying about understanding the technical side of programming. Letting the volunteer enjoy the service with light operation will feed his desire to both worship with his gift and be valued as a team member. Adding moving lights into a system with a team of worship minded operators is an easy transition. Introducing green volunteers to moving light operation and programming is daunting.

Most soundmen were musicians or had a brother in a band. To facilitate their dream of playing music, they learned recording and live PA’s in hopes of the perfect sound. Since most technicians are self taught, everyone’s technique is unique. The digital console is a great time saving solution for churches with multiple sound technicians or multiple praise teams. The sound tech can save his personal settings on a thumb drive to use every time he comes in. He can also save different configurations for churches for different praise teams. Although I believe that digital consoles are the best choice for churches, training is required. With analog systems, hordes of knobs, faders, and buttons overwhelm the casual observer, but comfort the soundman. It is easy to find the EQ for the piano players monitor because it is a big piece of machinery properly labeled in a rack in plain view. Learning to find the EQ through the menus of the digital board takes time. No matter how educated or uneducated your sound team is, spending several Sundays with a sound man who is proficient on a specific console is desirable. Due to the unique nature of the industry, some locations of devices may not be intuitive in the digital menu. Once the transition is made, the time saved every week will decrease the burden of time on your tech team and increase their time to fellowship.

An article concerning every decision we made would make a very dull read, but I would like to leave one final consideration. Custom road cases are the mobile church's biggest asset. I don’t believe a single production company in America operates without cases. Between loading, traveling, and installing; gear gets beat up. In a loosely packed case the gear is still protected from outside elements. The jostling of gear on the inside will still scuff and ultimately damage the gear. A custom case will increase the longevity of the gear. Although cases are expensive, they are much less expensive than the gear it houses. For the budget conscience, Road Ready makes many custom cases for commonly used items but they do not provide everything. We designed 2 cases that housed 2 custom LED lighting systems each. Using a case that held the fully assembled lighting system protected the investment and made setup much easier. For the custom sound console, we used a multi-pin connector to split the snake so we didn’t have to connect the console every week. The snake attached to one multi-pin connector and the pre-wired console was ready. The wireless packs, extra external sound processors, and recording gear were underneath the deck in the dual rack system already wired into the console. After plugging in one power cable and connecting the snake, the sound man could focus on the stage.

The mobile church has many unique obstacles to overcome. To prevent burnout setup must be simple, quick and able to be figured out with little to no training. By considering your volunteers, they will have time for the fellowship they need to stay charged and inspired. As a church gears up to reach the multi-media generation, leaders must use training and patience. The art of technology takes time. The rewards of a well planned technical ministry will not only make the church more relevant but also strengthen the volunteer’s faith through fellowship.