Notes from the Editor

by Carol Padgett

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I'm relatively new to blogging. But I like the relative immediacy. I feel like I can take you along on my journey through the day at WFX. Let me tell you about Day #1 -- the conferences and keynote sessions.

One of my first stops of the day was to presenter Jerry Halcomb's (HH Architects) session entitled "Moving on Up in Considerations for Church Relocation." The session had just wrapped up when I got there, but several church members who're right at the start of relocating into a new church building were sitting one-on-one with Halcomb telling him about their situation and asking him questions. It was a joyful little grouping, and they were clearly glad to be sharing information with each other. I sat down with one member of the relocating church's team, Larry Nichols with Sunrise UMC in Colorado Springs, Colo. Nichols was excited to tell me that the session was right on target with what they needed to learn -- and with why they made the trek to WFX.  He especially liked the pairing of Senior Pastor John Speight of Christ UMC in Fairfax, Va., with Halcomb as a presenter. "It's very helpful having the perspective of an architect at the same time with a pastor," Nichols told me. "I would like to have more than two of us come. Next time we'll bring more if the location is good for us."

My next stop was the session of Scott Rolfs with Ziegler Capital Markets, entitled "The Credit Crunch -- How to Get Your Project Funded." At the start of the session, Rolfs asked how many attendees were at their first WFX, and the majority of the well-attended room raised their hands. He then asked how many needed funding for a new building project, and again the show of hands was nearly everyone in the room. It's amazing to me the resilience God gives churches in tough economic times, and all of us for that matter. There were several key caveats that stuck with me from this session: The reality that there is less credit available. Followed by the good news that "Solid Credits will still get projects funded."

From here I ran into Cathy Hutchison with Acoustic Dimensions. And she eagerly shared the news with me that Vance Breshears of Sound Technology Consultants (STC) and Acoustic Dimensions' Craig Janssen have teamed up to merge companies and share expertise. Just this month, STC became Acoustic Dimensions - San Diego. I plan to sit down with Cathy for a talk during the week -- catching up  in person is a great thing for this editor -- an experience I'm blessed to have.

Approaching the noon hour I attended the Pastor's Lunch Series alongside Editor-in-Chief and Publisher Brian Blackmore, also editor of Church Production Magazine, our sister publication. Here I enjoyed lunch with a roomful of pastors and listened in on an excellent discussion led by Dr. David Fletcher of Xpastor.org on how churches are coping in the current economy. I could write a whole story about this. And I wish that each and every reader of Worship Facilities could've been there.

There's so much more, it's just hard to tell you everything. I heard an engaging keynote presentation by Larry Osborne, senior pastor with North Coast Church in Vista, Calif. The topic was "The Death of the One-Size-Fits-All Ministry." It was a culture-driven talk that will help church leaders move confidently into the future with their ministries and the technology needed to reach more people for Christ.

In the late afternoon I had the pleasure of moderating a discussion with panelists Trevor Bron of TAG Consulting and Barry Brown of National Cinemedia. The topic was "Low-Cost Ways to Accommodate Overflow." Can you imagine a more timely topic? I learned that seating capacity goes down with pews, because people take up more real estate there than in an individual chair. I learned that if a church chooses to use another room for overflow, they need to create an environment, in low cost ways, with perhaps couch seating or comforts that draw people into the new space, rather than making them feel like they're "sitting at the kids' table at Thanksgiving dinner." Probably a third of the attendees of this discussion have multi-site venues, and so lots of questions were pointed in that direction. Movie theatres space, too, is another viable way to create overflow space, and an extension of your mother church.

I'll share more tonight. Today the expo hall opens and a new flurry of activity begins. I wish you were here, but I'll do my best to be your eyes.

Blessings,
Carol

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