New Life Community Church in Elk Grove, Calif., a suburb of Sacramento, calls itself multi-functional. One of those functions includes hosting theatrical and musical performances from community members, youth groups and area bands.

To host these live-performance events, New Life needed a lighting solution that would allow the existing facility—with its low ceiling—to house a good deal of light from relatively few fixtures. The solution? The church opted for nine LED lights from Chauvet, a designer and manufacturer of professional lighting that specializes in intelligent and LED lights.

For installation, lighting design and programming, New Life turned to Chris Miller, a professional audio manager for Sacramento-based Skip’s Music Inc. “I was involved in every aspect of the installation, including mounting fixtures,” Miller says, “Because the church’s ceilings were low, it was key that the beams be strategically placed to achieve maximum coverage.”

Bright Choices
Miller reports that the installation included four COLORdash Quad, three LED PAR 38 TRI and two COLORstrip fixtures. “We were able to throw a lot of light by using just a few fixtures,” he adds.

COLORdash Quad wash light offers 3-, 4-, 10- or 12-channel operating modes and rich, saturated colors induced by RGB color mixing from 36 high powered LEDs. The LED PAR 38 TRI features seven 3W tri-colored LEDs, which allow color mixing in each diode to produce a more vibrant and even color without multi-colored shadows. The COLORstrip is an LED-fitted strip fixture featuring built-in programs with automatic and sound-active triggers, and preset RGB mixed colors: yellow, purple, cyan and white.

All nine fixtures were linked via DMX to a Stage Designer 50 controller, programmed with scenes. “I’ve used the Stage Designer 50 a number of times,” Miller says. “I’m a fan of the controller because it’s the easiest for someone to grasp and figure out how to use. Plenty of faders and programming can be done without jumping through pages.”

The Stage Designer 50 reportedly has eight pages, with 12 scenes each page, yielding 96 total playback faders. The six-space, rack-mount controller has 3- and 5-pin DMX connections and features a 48-channel DMX-512 dimming console with 96,000 programmable steps.

Vivid Results
“Chauvet has been our preferred vendor for years,” Miller closes. “Their LEDs are rock solid and I knew they were guaranteed to work. The church [is] amazed with the brightness and coverage of the lights—especially the three LED PAR 38 TRI fixtures lighting the center of the stage.”

For more on the organizations in this story:
http://tinyurl.com/27yapmf
www.chauvetlighting.com
www.skipsmusic.com

Worship Facilities Magazine recently caught up with David Hatton, founder and CEO of Churchworx Inc., with offices in Dallas and Houston. WFM learned that First Baptist Church of Dallas (FBCD) retained Churchworx Inc. as project manager-owner’s representative for its latest building addition, with a groundbreaking ceremony held on July 11, 2010.

“The FBCD development scope represents the largest urban, single-site church construction project in contemporary modern history,” Hatton reports. "Along with a new worship center that will radically redefine the worship experience, [as well as] highly interactive educational spaces, First Baptist is also adding an outdoor plaza with almost an acre of green space, which will include an incredible community-drawing fountain-water feature.

"The fountain-water feature will speak to the heart of Dallas, as if to say, ‘Come here and be refreshed,’” Hatton adds.

Watch Worship Facilities Magazine and Newsbyte for updates as the project progresses.

For more on the organizations in this story:
www.firstdallas.org
www.churchworx.com

Gilbert, Ariz.’s Advantage Rigging has created a patent-pending slip- and wear-resistant nylon sling, recently approved by a power company in the Southwest for use in material handling. In addition, several other major power companies are testing the sling for potential use in the lifting of tapered steel power poles.

Representatives for Advantage Rigging report that materials like the tapered steel power poles are often difficult to handle. Their slip-resistant nylon lifting sling may prove helpful in moving other objects and staging elements that churches use, as well. The company is now performing testing on the product to realize all its potential. To find out more about the Advantage Rigging Nylon Sling, chains, hoists and other lifting equipment visit the company’s website.

For more on the products and company in this story:
www.advantagerigging.com

The sound of the Vintage Hammond organ has returned to baseball in Houston’s Minute Maid Park. Jim Connors, the organist at local Christ Church United Methodist’s sanctuary, designed by Paul Lodholz, principal of the Worship Place Studio at Ziegler Cooper, has been reunited with the Houston Astros for weekend games.

Connors plays the organ for more than just a hobby. His interest in the instrument started at an early age, when he began to play the piano at age 5. Connors played the organ for the Astrodome in 1984 for three years. His first return game on Mother’s Day, the live organist made the spirit of the game come alive with the Astros defeat. With the best seat in the house, next to the dugout, Connors only has a split second to decide when and what he is going to play. On the other hand, to play during Sunday services at Christ Church United Methodist, Connors quickly adjusts his impromptu style to a more staid atmosphere.

For more information about the company in this story:
www.zieglercooper.com

Ardent Giving Solutions, based in Keller, Texas, has an admirable mission: to strengthen ministries by offering tools to raise overall giving and reduce expenses. The company offers electronic payment tools designed to help make giving easy for the giver and cost-effective for the church.

Worship Facilities Magazine queried Ardent Giving Solutions’ founder and CEO, Bryce Collman, to learn more about its payment tools and why churches should take note.

WFM: Ardent Giving Solutions provides debit card-only giving for online, kiosk and wireless transactions. How is this type of giving resonating with churches, and how is it helping them “even out” or increase giving overall?
Collman: This service was developed at the request of churches that are not comfortable with their members using a debt instrument (credit card) to support their ministry. We added “Debit Card Only Giving” to our current credit, debit card and ACH processing services in June and the response has been tremendous. This technology simply filters credit cards, gives a gentle reminder to the donor of the church’s policy and asks the donor to try again using a debit card. Debit-only giving allows more churches to take advantage of the proven benefits of online and recurrent giving. Online and recurrent giving allows members to be more faithful stewards, increases overall giving and helps stabilize monthly giving trends.

WFM: What makes Ardent’s services stand out from other companies that offer similar services?
Collman: Ardent Giving Solutions serves only churches and faith-based nonprofits. We listen to their needs and develop technology to address those needs. Online “Debit Card Only Giving” is a great example of our dedication to providing solutions that fill needs specific to ministries.

Our singular focus gives us a deep understanding of the various platforms and systems used by churches, ensuring seamless integration. Finally, our pricing policy has saved most of our churches 35% or more on their payment processing expenses.

WFM: The church has embraced technology in so many respects, from green building design to incredible A/V/L technologies for worship. Why is it that it seems the church market is slow to adopt new and more technologically savvy and promising ways of collecting tithes, offerings and other monies from its congregants?
Collman: Electronic giving methods are considered a cultural change by some churches. This is particularly true of kiosks. As a population we have embraced electronic transactions for everything from paying our utility bills and taxes to simply flashing our debit card in front of [a] reader at the local drive through. Studies have shown that the majority of all age ranges under 65 prefer to give online.

Cost is also a common concern by those that may not have weighed all of their options. With the right partners, upfront and ongoing expenses for electronic giving are minimal. No church would adopt electronic giving if it did not help them advance their ministry. Ardent Giving Solutions is about advancing ministry and we can provide information and options that allow the church to make a sound decision.

WFM: How secure are your services for the giver?
Collman: The payment processing industry has strict codes for protecting cardholder information. Ardent Giving Solutions meets or exceeds all of these requirements. No cardholder information is saved on the ministry’s website or our systems.

WFM: How easy and reliable are your services for the church administrators?
Collman: We believe that saving administration time is as important as saving money. Ardent works to do both for our customers. We have free online reporting that downloads to Excel with the click of a button.

Ardent also has the ability to feed directly into or data transfer to most enterprise software systems and donation solutions. If a church uses a proprietary system we can normally develop a method of effortless data transfer.

WFM: Are you seeing any trends in the Southwest that pertain to your business that are either indicative of trends or movements across the nation or that appear to be solely regional?
Collman: It has been our experience that churches in this region are routinely looking for new and creative ways to advance their ministry. I would consider this group to be leaders in establishing nationwide trends. In the Southwest, we work with more church’s that have already embraced electronic giving and are interested in lowering their expenses than churches considering it for the first time.

WFM: Do you have any parting words of wisdom to share?
Collman: After 15 years as an executive in the payment processing industry, I became aware of how poorly the industry as a whole has served the faith-based market. Lack of product development and, in my view, unreasonable pricing practices are what my research uncovered. We established Ardent Giving Solutions to be the church’s partner and voice in payments processing. Our passion is advancing the mission of ministries through solutions that drive more giving and reduce expenses.

For more on the company in this story:
www.ardentgivingsolutions.com

Ideal for church use, Guard Dog Low Profile is reportedly the industry’s widest variety of compact, heavy-duty, top-loading cable protectors. Available with 1, 2, 3, or 5 channels, these protectors are just 1.25 inches high with a .75-inch channel height. They feature Dog-Bone connectors and either standard ramps or low angle ADA-Compliant ramps.
www.cableprotector.com

High-Lites introduces its Weathergard Series of AC and emergency LED exit signs for use in severe environments such as cold, damp or wet installations as well as areas where accidental damage or vandalism may be a concern.

Weathergard Series LED exit signs offer rugged, wrap-around clear polycarbonate sign enclosures affixed to a sturdy, die-cast aluminum frame. The LED-illuminated, high-intensity, long-life signs are also corrosion-resistant, offering neoprene-gasketed construction with stainless steel tamper-proof hardware. The signs also come with universal directional, removable chevrons and are available in black, white, gray or brushed finishes with matching canopies.

www.highliteslighting.com

Teradek, a manufacturer of network video encoders, introduces Cube, reportedly the world’s first camera-top HD video encoder that encodes HD video up to 1080p30 using advanced compression, H.264 High Profile Level 4.1. The company reports that Cube will revolutionize the distribution of live video by providing a high definition video channel over the Internet. Cube is housed in a miniaturized, rugged, milled aluminum enclosure and weighs just seven ounces. Cube has no moving parts, ensuring quiet operation, and uses only 2.5 watts of power. The unit also accepts Power over Ethernet (PoE) or 9-24V DC input.

www.teradek.com/cube.html
www.teradek.com

Worship Facilities Magazine, Church Production Magazine, and WFX–Worship Facilities Conference & Expo are divisions of Production Media Inc., 2610 Wycliff Road, Suite 405, Raleigh, NC 27607. Visit www.pmipub.com for more information.

Carol Badaracco Padgett, Editor
Chris Pernell, Associate Publisher

Copyright (c) 2010 Production Media, Inc.