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Photos courtesy of David McCauley

Working Together for Stronger Worship

by Rachel Allen     Added July 25, 2010

As published in Worship Facilities, Jul/Aug 2010

In 2006, Manheim Brethren in Christ Church (MBIC) didn't know what it would find when it began to look at expansion of its facility on 18 acres in Manheim, Pa. The young, socially diverse congregation of 600 had outgrown its sanctuary five years earlier and had grown by another 10% in a year's time. Various ministries, small groups, and a strong web presence (MBIC uses Facebook as a communication tool and is undergoing a complete website makeover to provide every ministry with its own blog) promised continued growth.

"We had been setting up 400 chairs in the gym every week for five years," says Tony Good, a member of MBIC's leadership board. "It hit home when we realized visitors felt there was no room for them." ditionally, MBIC children were scattered throughout different buildings, adding to the confusion of multiple services and limited circulation space on weekends.

Plans for expansion started simply enough with heads of different ministries, including a 100-student Pre-K program, meeting with the building committee. Then, the committee interviewed architecture firms, selecting Mark Schillaci, owner of Schillaci Architects Ltd. of Ephrata, Pa. Schillaci was presented with MBIC's needs and came back with a preliminary master plan and a number-$15 million.

MBIC did not execute any type of formal fundraising effort. Instead, the leaders agreed on a building cost they knew the church could afford to finance, and they stuck to it. "This was a ministries-driven expansion and we had to expand everywhere. But we had to cap at $10 million," says Ryan Shenk, worship arts pastor at MBIC.

Undaunted by the budgeting challenge, ministry leaders kept seeking and found ways to cut and compromise. They also found a wealth of professionals within the congregation willing to work at cost. When they returned to Schillaci they had squeezed a $15-million expansion into a $10-million one, while still meeting the key needs of the major ministry areas: worship, youth and children.

A Three-Phase Transformation

The unofficial first phase of the master plan was the youth building, a pre-engineered steel building raised and finished out by the church body.

The 28,300-square-foot building was attached to the existing gymnasium and serves 250 young people every week. An open gathering space is part gaming lounge and part café. Oriented Strand Board (or OSB, an engineered wood product), corrugated metal accents, and concrete floors create a rough, utilitarian design complemented by custom graffiti-style wall murals and a full-sized garage door that leads into a 350-seat youth auditorium with concert-quality A/V/L. The café-game space is full of pool tables and seating, and according to Shenk, is frequently rented by MBIC families and community groups.

In the summer of 2009, construction began on the children's portion of the project. Site layout and continued use of the original building's 12 classrooms and 300-seat sanctuary called for a creative approach. The solution adopted by Schillaci and Mark Strunk, MBIC member and project manager from Caldwell, Heckles & Egan Construction Inc. of Lancaster, Pa., was to wrap an eight-classroom children's wing around two walls of the current building. The concrete block and pre-engineered steel joist addition was completed within the summer, in time for the fall Pre-K term.

"The new classrooms provide the square footage needed, but are oriented to make use of the on-site building's support facilities," says Strunk. "[The layout] was ideal and made the most of the site."

In November of 2009, ground broke on the worship leg of the three-part expansion. While children's classrooms surrounded two sides of the original building, the worship space, also concrete block and pre-engineered steel joist, would shoot off a third side for a total of 57,000 added square feet.

The new addition is prominent on the campus, with a covered drop off and high windows running the roofline. Inside is a large gathering space with an adjacent library and welcome center. Opposite the main doors is the entrance to the 720-seat sanctuary, a space designed to unify its occupants. "We actually named the sanctuary ‘The Assembly' based on its Greek translation ‘ekklesia,' a word that puts emphasis on people and actions, not the room itself," shares Shenk. "We wanted to avoid a performance-hall feel, but still have a highly functional space."

To promote congregational connection, Schillaci opted for tiered seating instead of a sloped floor and made the room wider than it is deep. Bleacher-style seats line two walls and the tiered floor seats closely wrap the arched stage.

An earthy color palette contrasts with brushed steel railings around the bleacher seats and walking ramps. "It's a warm place to worship," says Good, owner of Garden Spot Electric Inc., Manheim, Pa, the project's electrical system designer.

The open assembly areas taper into a wide corridor leading into the children's wing. "The true benefits of this layout are the improved grouping of ministries and the improved circulation," says Schillaci. "It's now much easier to navigate the building."

Expert A/V/L

When construction documents were nearly complete, David McCauley, director of design development with Audio Ethics of Charlotte, N.C., arrived and worked in tandem with Good to create a sophisticated audio, video and lighting system for about $500,000. Right away, McCauley discovered ways to increase the future facility's technical capabilities.

"The stage was originally designed square, but when we came on board we suggested changing to the arch," says McCauley. He explains that since the seating was to follow the platform, the square stage's corners created dead space where people would have to turn in their seats to view the stage. Once the stage shape was changed, McCauley chose to hang a custom 9-foot by 28-foot screen (an exact fit for the space above the stage) and two 7-foot by 14-foot side screens unusually low above the platform. He turned the side screens outward to follow the 180-degree path of the seating.

"The screens are placed to focus attention on the stage," McCauley says. Since normal high-definition projectors don't cast 9-foot by 28-foot images, which would require MBIC to purchase specialized equipment, McCauley designed the system to send high-definition content to the outside screens using two 6,000-lumen projectors, while a ProVideoPlayer (PVP) media server for Mac simultaneously divides and blends content to fit the 9-foot by 28-foot screen. That content is then projected by two Panasonic 10,000-lumen projectors for a seamless image.

Thanks to this knowledgeable purchase and design, MBIC is able to display lyrics and image magnification (close up shots of the pastor or speaker) on the side screens, while the center screen displays high-resolution video, or, since the side projectors are also run to a matrix, technical staff can choose to display the same content on all three screens.

"We're still growing into it, but already our graphics team is really getting into it," says Shenk. "This is a whole new dimension for us."

There is also added value in the speaker system. MBIC holds band-driven services and planned to install numerous cost-effective speakers to fill the wide room with sound. After attending a concert (at Audio Ethics' urging) where a d&b audiotechnik system was employed, the team discovered they could switch to this better quality system for the same amount of money.

"These speakers are so efficient that they don't require as much amplification," says Shenk. "In essence, we bought less equipment, but ended up with more power."

Good and McCauley made another change to the stage when Good decided to apply acoustical decking to the front of the platform. The panels are easily removed for under-stage access where all of the A/V/L wiring is neatly organized for maintenance and future changes. It is also where two d&b subwoofers were installed in concrete bunkers. "This contains the energy so the sound is forced out the front instead of vibrating under the stage," says McCauley.

Addressing lighting installation in the pre-engineered building produced challenges outside of cost. "In a conventional building it would have been simpler, but in a pre-engineered building we had to look closely at weight support and connection points," says Good.

Custom lightweight rigging was an option, but Good suggested the lighting be hung from a locally manufactured catwalk. The resulting system is 240 linear feet of catwalk that was economical and is easily lowered for maintenance.

Due to the size of the stage and the amount of illumination needed to accommodate cameras, traditional white lights were installed above the stage and house, and color LEDs were chosen for wash, profile and moving lights. "LED is not cost effective for white light output yet, but for color they are, so the mix provided the best of both worlds," McCauley reports.

Throughout the project, when an option didn't work, the team worked tirelessly to find a creative alternative. "As [church] members and contractors we were able to make decisions as they were set in front of us," shares Good.

"We all worked together," Shenk concludes. "In-house expertise and elbow grease made this [project] possible on a budget."

Rachel Allen is a freelance writer and marketing consultant. She can be reached at racheld_allen@yahoo.com.

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