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Grand Scale, High Tech and Intimate

    Added March 30, 2010

As published in Worship Facilities, Mar/Apr 2010

Five years ago, Trinity Fellowship, a budding megachurch in Amarillo, Texas, served its growing congregation by offering multiple services. There were two services on Saturday night—one live and another tivoed. On Sunday, there were two more services held in the sanctuary that sat 1,700 people and another service in between, also tivoed.

“We needed a new sanctuary,” says Scott Rosenbach, executive pastor of administration with Trinity Fellowship, where he has been on staff for the past 24 years. “But of course if you’re going to build for a big enough size, what you have to do is make sure you have all of the different supporting ministries.”

Today, Trinity’s new worship facility is a 4,000-seat sanctuary built “in the round” with eight video cameras that display the service on four giant video screens. There is a new 68,000-square-foot children’s ministry center located just off the main foyer, and a coffee shop and bookstore that cater to the church’s many ministries. Including furnishings and costs for audio and video equipment, the total price tag for the expansion is close to $43 million.

HH Architects, based in Dallas, designed the entire project, which opened a year ago in February. From the outside, a visitor might perceive the 230,736 square-foot building as a big box structure¾as more of a convention center than a traditional church with a steeple. However, on the inside, the facility comes alive with functionality.

“Economically, we decided it needed to be a big box kind of a building, tilt-wall construction,” explains Jerry Halcomb, principal of HH Architects. “We put the money mostly on the inside with technology and the things that were needed.”

Stan Cotgreave, president of Amarillo, Texas-based Page and Associates Contractors Inc., general contractor on the project, reports that value-engineering efforts helped save money and direct it back into the budget. “We went through a value engineering stage and knocked off $4.7 million,” he says.

The success of the new space is easily measured by two yardsticks: 1.) children’s attendance has increased by more than 25% and 2.) “When the parents come, the kids don’t want to leave,” says Rosenbach. In addition, the formerly large congregation of 6,000-8,000 now is closer to 10,000 and weekend attendance is up to roughly 4,000 adults and 1,200 kids.

One of the ministry objectives for the new building was to build the children and youth programs, according to Rosenbach. As such, the new, completely themed children’s area includes an indoor playground.

Striking a mood

Acoustic Dimensions worked closely with HH Architects “throughout the design process to accommodate and integrate the technical systems while providing a path for future growth,” explains Ryan Knox, a senior consultant with the Addison, Texas-based audio-visual and lighting (A/V/L) design firm.

The A/V/L technology helps the church connect with visitors and its congregation by creating a more natural worship experience. “Instead of generated graphic notes on the prompter screens, an overhead camera focuses on the message notes/Bible on a center podium to display the pastor’s own notes,” Knox says. “Band members face toward center; to the opposite side of the stage to help build that connectivity and unity with the audience.”

Elements of the new technology can be found throughout the building in the form of digital signage, distributed speakers, and infrastructure to support portable kiosks. Digital signage is located on columns within the sanctuary to provide announcements and point out the locations for giving boxes.

A/V/L elements and well thought out production provides an immersive and involving experience utilizing all of the elements to “speak” more clearly to the congregation. Prompter screens are built into the platform floor and eight cameras are located around the perimeter to ensure that video provides facial interaction for those people that are currently behind the action, Knox says.

The tech team’s understanding of the church’s vision and dedication to the project was a benefit, especially when challenges arose, Knox reports. “A number of equipment failures were dealt with during the few days before opening services, including stage lifts refusing the move from an unfortunate height and the monitor console being quite uncooperative,” he recalls. “I did not hear a single harsh word or see unleashed frustrations even though these problems had to be creating stress and anxiety for many.”

Coffee and a good book

During master planning, Trinity Fellowship did a little window-shopping in Michigan, Minnesota, Chicago and Dallas to look at other churches. “One of the things we really liked was the community that Willow Creek had,” says Rosenbach. “It was a culture we were going after.”

Part of that culture was an environment that encouraged the congregation to stay before and after services. The bookstore provides an even closer connection as well as a service, offering books recommended by Trinity and supporting the education process.

Design Identity, based in Carson City, Nev., was brought in as the interior designer of the bookstore and café, which seats 80-100 people. The coffee shop’s café opens for lunch on Monday through Thursday. The coffee shop alone, however, is open 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on the weekends, especially during service times.

“We wanted the bookstore and café to kind of be considered as one through flow, so if you’re meandering through the bookstore or going from the café to meander to the bookstore or vice versa, that you just felt at ease and comforted,” explains Barney Paradise, owner of Design Identity.

The experience, however, was not necessarily based on a design for a Christian congregation but rather on the idea that the users of the bookstore and coffee shop are consumers, says Paradise. “They have Christian backgrounds and beliefs but they’re still consumers, so why wouldn’t retail be up-to-date and modern within the church?”

As the consumer has grown accustomed to the third-place concept, the Starbucks feel and the Barnes & Noble model for books, Design Identity created a similar, familiar space. The firm also worked with the Trinity staff to determine the right menu mix that would help nourish and grow the congregation.

Pulling it all together

Although HH Architects has been designing worship facilities for the past 38 years, Halcomb admits that each church has its own personality and ministry goals. Therefore the firm was able to draw on its past experience designing churches that incorporated sanctuaries in the round but cater the final product to meet the specific needs of Trinity Fellowship.

Indeed, HH Architects was uniquely qualified for the job, given it has worked with the church on other expansions for more than 10 years. And Halcomb is pleased with the outcome of this most recent job. The worship experience is “very exciting,” he says. “You walk in and you know it’s going to be a happening place there.”

Trinity Fellowship At A Glance

Average Weekly Attendance: 5,200

Location: Amarillo, Texas

Denomination: Non-denominational

Style: Contemporary

Events: Healing Room Ministry; Mon.-Thurs. lunch at Press Café & Bookstore; podcasts of previous sermons

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