Article as Published in Worship Facilities Magazine
From Issue No.4 , Page #32
Churches on the Move
By Martin Sinderman
They may have gotten too big for their present facility, and either need a new location or are seeking to plant a satellite ministry in a not-too-distant location or two. Sometimes they're splitting off from a larger group; in other instances they're brand new, and are looking for a place to take root and grow. And they're meeting in a variety of locations in communities across the country, including school cafeterias, hotel conference rooms, and movie theaters – as well as some bowling alleys and casinos.
Wherever they're coming from and for whatever reason, portable churches – e.g., churches that meet in rented facilities most often built for some other use – all face a variety of challenges in planting and growing their ministries, with finding a location and getting all the necessary equipment and furnishings in place only the beginning steps of an ongoing process.
Going Portable
The portable church market is growing these days, according to Kendra Malloy, sales and marketing specialist with Portable Church Industries (PCI). This Troy, Michigan-based company, founded in 1994, specializes in assisting portable churches by supplying them with the entire range of equipment, furnishings, and storage necessary to operate a church facility, as well as consultative services that help them get up and running.
"There are many different situations where a church may decide to become portable," says Malloy. "There are new launches, where a pastor either has a call to plant a new church or split off from an existing one," she explains. Other churches may want to set up multi-site campuses, she notes, utilizing a mix of owned and rented facilities.
Money is often a major factor in a new church deciding to "go portable," according to Greg Lindsey, former lead pastor of Lifepointe Church in Raleigh, North Carolina. This independent, non-denominational Christian church with a 550-person congregation that was launched in February 2004, is now led by Donnie Williams and meets at a Raleigh-area six-screen movie theater.
"Staffing well to carry out your ministry – and paying these people – doesn't leave a lot of money for facilities," Lindsey says.
Whatever the reason a church has for opting to be portable, finding the right location is the first order of business – and that's often a difficult task, according to Craig Cabaniss, pastor of Grace Church in Frisco, Texas, one of 60 local Christian churches in the United States, Mexico, Canada, Bolivia, Ethiopia, and the United Kingdom that belong to Sovereign Grace Ministries. Pastor Cabaniss's new (as of July 2005) church meets in the conference facilities of The Westin Stonebriar hotel in this fast-growing area north of Dallas.
"The biggest challenge is finding a suitable location where you can have worship services and provide a children's ministry," says Cabaniss. Finding such a location that is available on a consistent basis can be difficult, he notes, "because there are a lot of places that will rent you a space – but they can't commit to doing it the same time every week."
Up and Running
Thanks to extensive signage, finding Lifepointe Church in Raleigh on a Sunday morning isn't at all difficult, even for those that have never been there before. Early on Sunday morning, church members put out 14 directional road signs in the vicinity of the theater, with banners on all nearby corners also pointing the way. The church also hangs a six-foot by fifteen-foot banner on the front of the theater.
Signage is also used inside the theater to help create a unique atmosphere for Sunday morning, according to Lindsey. Churchgoers and visitors are greeted by an eight-foot by fifteen-foot "Welcome to Lifepointe" sign in the main lobby above the theater's two concession stands, which are used by the church as the information booth and coffee-service areas.
In what Lindsey calls "the kid's rooms," signage with pictures of the children "creates a very nice visual feel when you first walk in." Lifepointe uses the theater's various screening rooms to house its children's ministries. The church purchased three-foot high portable fencing to fence-in the approximately 10-foot by 35-foot area in between the screen and the first row of seats, he explains, "which kind of corrals them all in there with kitchen playsets, chairs, toys, baby beds – the whole deal."
Lifepointe purchased many of the supplies and furnishings for its facility from a now-defunct church that had been a client of PCI. As a result, the church has a seven-foot by 24-foot cargo trailer it is allowed (as negotiated with theater ownership) to keep in the theater parking lot. The trailer houses rollout container cases into which church items can be packed up and stored after Sunday services each week. Lifepointe also stores items in theater closets and underneath the movie screens, according to Lindsey, who adds "We've never had any problems, and we've yet to lose anything."
Soup-to-Nuts
Rather than round up its own furnishings and supplies, Grace Church in Frisco, Texas ordered everything it needed to get going from PCI. As part of its "soup-to-nuts" approach to outfitting a portable church, the company sent a consultant on-site to assess the church's needs and come up with a list of equipment that Malloy says "is everything a church needs to 'do church' exactly the way they want to."
In its role as a distributor, PCI assembles all of the necessary equipment. It also constructs container cases with diagrams showing to what area of the church the equipment inside needs to be delivered prior to setup; and supplies a seven-foot by twenty-four-foot cargo trailer for storing the cases. And then, well before the first service, several PCI staff members deliver the goods to the church, doing a complete unload/set-up/run-through with every piece of equipment in order to orient the church on how to use its system – and follows this up with a complete teardown and pack-up.
"A lot needs to happen to successfully start up a new church," says Cabaniss. By using a well-thought-out equipment and storage system, "We were able to start on our first Sunday with a nursery, children's ministry classroom, bookstore, sound and video systems, with everything from coffeemakers to communion cups."
That's important, Cabaniss says, because when starting a new church, "A pastor is thinking about how to reach out with the Gospel to people – not about the sound system. And by having someone else provide us with exactly what we need to start, we can put a lot more focus on our people."
Insurance Considerations
No matter the way in which it's started, a "church-in-a-box" has to be aware of multiple concerns when it comes to insurance for their stored property, according to Thomas J. Rozema, CPCU, CIC, Vice President of Underwriting for Fort Wayne, Indiana-based Brotherhood Mutual Insurance Company, which specializes in insuring churches and religious facilities.
One concern for portable churches is insurance coverage for the trailer that contains all their supplies and equipment, something which is not covered property under the typical commercial property-casualty insurance policy. "They need to make sure they have a commercial automobile-type policy for the trailer," says Rozema.
Where the trailer is parked and equipment is stored can also be a cause for concern, especially if that location isn't the same as that of the church, and particularly if that location changes. "The church needs to make sure their insurance company not only knows where they are meeting, but where the trailer is being stored, making sure the insurance company is kept informed if that location changes," Rozema adds.
If the church isn't sure that the trailer will be in a certain location at all times, "They can put the entire contents of the trailer into an Inland Marine policy," that covers goods in transit, Rozema states, "but the premiums will be higher, and not all insurance companies will do this." The best course of action in all instances, he adds, is to "Talk to your insurance agent about these issues."
Martin Sinderman is an Atlanta-based freelance writer.
Quick Links Portable Church Industries (800) 939-7722 or (248) 585-9540 www.portablechurch.com
Brotherhood Mutual Insurance Co. Church insurance specialists (800) 333-3735 or (260) 482-8668 www.brotherhoodmutual.com
Grace Church (469) 633-9104 www.gracechurchfrisco.org
Lifepointe Church (919) 855-9107 www.lifepointechurch.org
Copyright 2005 Worship Facilities.
Friday, February 24, 2006
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Harvest Renewal Church: Delivery Weekend
Church Plant: Harvest Renewal Church - Richmond, VAPastors: Doug Watson & Chip Payne
Delivery Weekend: 02/19/06
Type: Church Leaving a Permanent Building
Rented Venue: High School
Purchased: Full System - Consultation through Delivery Team
Delivery Notes of Interest: Harvest Renewal Church (HRC) was planted 5 years ago, and met in a permanent facility. When they first contacted PCI a few months ago, HRC was experiencing some constraints, having outgrown their current location with attendance at 350 at three different services. HRC is a member of Every Nation Churches and is multi-congregational in their approach. "We feel God calling us to implement a multi-site vision for the greater metropolitan area. " said Associate Pastor Chip Payne. "We are a regional church." Their mission "is to reach, to renew and to reproduce"
Delivery Weekend Quotables:
"I believe God is moving geographically, calling people to specific areas even within their own city. We have found people have a heart or a call to different parts of Metro Richmond... We want to respond as one church with many locations maintaining the same core values, mission and vision, but each site reflecting its unique expression of the same. Each site will have its own personality but will be Harvest Renewal." -
Assoc. Pastor Chip Payne
Worship Sound Check In Auditorium
(only pic before camera died)
More Pictures coming w/o February 27
Harvest Renewal Church service begins at 10:30am at Atlee High School. Visit their website for more information!
Monday, February 20, 2006
Church at the Bridgelands: Delivery Weekend
Church Plant: Church at the Bridgelands - Houston, TX
Pastor: Kevin McGown
Delivery Weekend: 02/19/06
Type: Re-Launch
Rented Venue:YMCA
Purchased: Full System - Consultation through Delivery
Notes of Interest: Originally launched on September 11, 2005 in a coffeeshop in Northwest Houston. Pastor McGown decided to move their church to a new location when the membership soared past 100 members. Their Mission statement is simple, yet beautiful: "To know God and to Make Him Known."
Delivery Weekend Quotables:
"I am looking forward to our new growth potential, and just having space!" laughed Head Pastor Kevin McGown. Particularly, McGown is excited to "get into the community, and push the outreach portion of our ministry even harder. (I am excited) to see the growth."
Setting up the Main Worship Area
Worship Team Sound Check
Pastor McGown Leads First Service in YMCA
Portable Churches Gain in Popularity (article)
Article published Feb 18, 2006 ( Herald Tribune - Sarasota, FL)
PORTABLE CHURCHES GAIN POPULARITY
By Kevin Dale
Over the past couple of Sundays, the leaders of Fellowship Bible Church performed an unusual pre-service ritual: removing two pairs of lacy bloomers.
The 3-year-old evangelical church leases the Venice Little Theatre, which featured a January run of the “The Underpants.”
The “laugh-out-loud farce” centers around a woman who loses her knickers during a parade for the king of Germany. To promote the play, the theater displayed the antique lingerie in the lobby.
“Of course, that’s not real church-oriented,” said Fellowship’s Pastor John Meyer, “so you kindly put them behind the counter.”
While most congregations don’t confront such worldly intrusions, Fellowship’s members join in a weekly ritual with churches nationwide. Unable to afford their own sanctuary, religious groups are worshipping in leased and less-than-holy sites.
The landscape of rented churches is explained by two trends: the steady growth in the number of evangelical Christian churches and a booming real estate markets that force congregations to rent instead of buy.
And many newer churches avoid strip-mall shopping centers, deterred by increasing rents and the landlords’ preference for high-traffic, retail tenants.
As a result, for several hours on Sunday, churches occupy the area’s secular spaces.
Congregants sing hymns in public-school cafeterias. Pastors recite scripture in civic condo clubhouses. And in the Venice Little Theatre, members take Communion under the house lights and the disco ball.
“It happens all over the place,” Meyer said. “People stick a sign outside Sunday mornings, and it’s no longer a hardware store. It’s no longer a high-school auditorium. It’s a church.”
A growing model
New churches are not limited to evangelical Christians or isolated to areas where their numbers are growing, said Bill Leonard, dean of the Divinity School at Wake Forest University.
“It’s more prevalent in the south and west from what I can tell, but you find these groups all around the country — New England, too,” said Leonard. “It’s a model that’s being used by a variety of religious groups.”
But the majority of the “church starts” appear to be launched by the country’s estimated 100 million evangelicals, many of them independent and non-denominational and difficult to track, said Larry Eskridge, associate director of the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals at Wheaton College in Illinois.
Still, there are enough start-ups, known as “church plantings,” to support such companies as Startchurch.com, which sells how-to books on incorporating a church and applying for federal tax-exempt status.
Consulting groups specializing in plantings speak at a growing number of conferences devoted to the subject. In April, the 2006 National New Church Conference will be held in Orlando.
Organizers expect around 800 people to attend what is being touted as the largest gathering for the “purpose of focusing national attention on church planting.” Workshop topics include “Beyond the Call: New Church Planning” and “‘The Nomadic Church’: Doing Church in Rented Facilities.”
The latter workshop is being led by Portable Church Industries, a Michigan company that consults with churches on “making the most of a rented facility.” The company customizes and delivers packages of sound and lighting equipment, music instruments and even toys for the nursery.
“Basically, our business is a function of land value,” said owner Pete van der Harst. “North Dakota — we haven’t done any churches.”
Since its founding in 1994, the company has helped start more than 500 churches in 44 states, including Hawaii. This year alone, PCI expects to work with more than 100 churches.
The overwhelming number of PCI’s clients are evangelical churches renting school gymnasiums or cafeterias.
“We’ve probably been in more school buildings than a textbook salesman,” van der Harst said.
He estimated 80 percent of PCI’s clients rent space in schools. About 15 percent rent space in movie theaters, and PCI has worked with churches that met in a bowling alley and a comedy club.
Van der Harst admits there are “some really incongruent things” when sacred practices occur in borrowed spaces. He once designed a backdrop to obscure a rotating, illuminated slushy machine that was distracting services.
The sentiment is shared by Pastor Garry Clark of Englewood’s Fellowship Church, a growing evangelical congregation that has been meeting in the auditorium at Lemon Bay High School.
“Where there are God’s people, you are going to have God’s presence,” Clark said.
When the church started more than three years ago, purchasing a building in Englewood’s rising commercial market wasn’t even an option.
“When we started, we had nothing,” Clark said. “We don’t have a denomination or a fat cat that is bank rolling.”
The church’s portable status hasn’t hampered its growth. Attendance has grown from less than 100 to more than 500 attending two Sunday services. The church has raised nearly $1 million toward land and a new building in Rotonda while paying about $700 a week to rent the auditorium.
Fellowship also rents space at the Englewood Sports Complex for Communion and senior fellowship services. Prayer breakfasts are held in parks or on the beach. “We’re all over the place,” Clark said.
Many portable churches spread their ministry across multiple venues. Sunday services might be held in a school, but weeknight Bible study is conducted in a condo clubhouse.
The lack of a fixed location can eventually doom a new church, especially given the competition from other evangelical churches, whose worship styles run the gamut from rock ‘n’ roll to black-Bible fundamentalism.
Church starts have an extremely high failure rate, but many evangelical congregations are encouraged by the pioneering example of “mega churches” that once gathered in schools or movie theaters.
“So you have this mythology: ‘Today, we’re 100 people, and one day, we’ll be 3,000,” said Leonard, of Wake Forest.
Transforming spaces
Given the cost and energy required to start a church, the number of newer congregations in the area signals a healthy demand for new and varied worship options.
Churches are renting space in nearly a third of the roughly 100 public schools in Charlotte, Manatee and Sarasota counties.
Fellowship Church, at Lemon Bay High, sits across the street from Foundation Church, an evangelical church that leases a former fitness center. Before relocating to the gym last year, its members met at Englewood Elementary School.
The church has adapted its unconventional space to meet its needs: The sanctuary was the aerobics room and the hot tub is used for baptisms.
This transformation from secular to sanctuary didn’t always take place in gyms and community centers, but the idea is nothing new, Leonard said.
“The sort of ‘creating your own sacred space’ is very Protestant, very revivalistic,” he said. He cited the early-20th century camp revivals, where pastors were equipped with nothing more than a stoop and a Bible in their attempts to save souls.
Of course, some churches have a tougher job when it comes to making rented spaces sacred, “to make it look as churchy as you can,” said Meyer, who leads services at the theater.
On a recent Sunday, Meyer was trying to lead Bible study on a theater stage set for “Cabaret,” which details the passionate affair between a cabaret singer and a writer in decadent, pre-World War II Berlin.
Meyer decided the set, with its nude male statutes, wasn’t appropriate backdrop to study scripture. “You know, I’m not going to do this,” Meyer said before moving to an upstairs rehearsal theater.
But despite the odd theatrical distraction, Meyer said the space, at the rate of $175 a week, is ideal.
Youth Bible study is held in the rehearsal theaters, and the Green Room doubles as the nursery. The theater allows the church to scroll its sermon on the lighted marquee, and the acoustics are hard to beat.
Meyer said the theater will be Fellowship’s leased home until members can afford a permanent one.
“In the next five years, I want to be in our own building,” Meyer told 80 members as he stood before the set for “The Underpants.” Meyer was speaking during a recent business meeting, which he had to cut short.
“We’ve got to be out of here in the next few minutes,” he announced. It was minutes before noon, and the cast and crew would soon arrive to prepare for the 2 o’clock matinee.
PORTABLE CHURCHES GAIN POPULARITY
By Kevin Dale
Over the past couple of Sundays, the leaders of Fellowship Bible Church performed an unusual pre-service ritual: removing two pairs of lacy bloomers.
The 3-year-old evangelical church leases the Venice Little Theatre, which featured a January run of the “The Underpants.”
The “laugh-out-loud farce” centers around a woman who loses her knickers during a parade for the king of Germany. To promote the play, the theater displayed the antique lingerie in the lobby.
“Of course, that’s not real church-oriented,” said Fellowship’s Pastor John Meyer, “so you kindly put them behind the counter.”
While most congregations don’t confront such worldly intrusions, Fellowship’s members join in a weekly ritual with churches nationwide. Unable to afford their own sanctuary, religious groups are worshipping in leased and less-than-holy sites.
The landscape of rented churches is explained by two trends: the steady growth in the number of evangelical Christian churches and a booming real estate markets that force congregations to rent instead of buy.
And many newer churches avoid strip-mall shopping centers, deterred by increasing rents and the landlords’ preference for high-traffic, retail tenants.
As a result, for several hours on Sunday, churches occupy the area’s secular spaces.
Congregants sing hymns in public-school cafeterias. Pastors recite scripture in civic condo clubhouses. And in the Venice Little Theatre, members take Communion under the house lights and the disco ball.
“It happens all over the place,” Meyer said. “People stick a sign outside Sunday mornings, and it’s no longer a hardware store. It’s no longer a high-school auditorium. It’s a church.”
A growing model
New churches are not limited to evangelical Christians or isolated to areas where their numbers are growing, said Bill Leonard, dean of the Divinity School at Wake Forest University.
“It’s more prevalent in the south and west from what I can tell, but you find these groups all around the country — New England, too,” said Leonard. “It’s a model that’s being used by a variety of religious groups.”
But the majority of the “church starts” appear to be launched by the country’s estimated 100 million evangelicals, many of them independent and non-denominational and difficult to track, said Larry Eskridge, associate director of the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals at Wheaton College in Illinois.
Still, there are enough start-ups, known as “church plantings,” to support such companies as Startchurch.com, which sells how-to books on incorporating a church and applying for federal tax-exempt status.
Consulting groups specializing in plantings speak at a growing number of conferences devoted to the subject. In April, the 2006 National New Church Conference will be held in Orlando.
Organizers expect around 800 people to attend what is being touted as the largest gathering for the “purpose of focusing national attention on church planting.” Workshop topics include “Beyond the Call: New Church Planning” and “‘The Nomadic Church’: Doing Church in Rented Facilities.”
The latter workshop is being led by Portable Church Industries, a Michigan company that consults with churches on “making the most of a rented facility.” The company customizes and delivers packages of sound and lighting equipment, music instruments and even toys for the nursery.
“Basically, our business is a function of land value,” said owner Pete van der Harst. “North Dakota — we haven’t done any churches.”
Since its founding in 1994, the company has helped start more than 500 churches in 44 states, including Hawaii. This year alone, PCI expects to work with more than 100 churches.
The overwhelming number of PCI’s clients are evangelical churches renting school gymnasiums or cafeterias.
“We’ve probably been in more school buildings than a textbook salesman,” van der Harst said.
He estimated 80 percent of PCI’s clients rent space in schools. About 15 percent rent space in movie theaters, and PCI has worked with churches that met in a bowling alley and a comedy club.
Van der Harst admits there are “some really incongruent things” when sacred practices occur in borrowed spaces. He once designed a backdrop to obscure a rotating, illuminated slushy machine that was distracting services.
“But it’s the people that matter,” he said. “Churches are life-changing operations, and the trappings aren’t really that critical.”
The sentiment is shared by Pastor Garry Clark of Englewood’s Fellowship Church, a growing evangelical congregation that has been meeting in the auditorium at Lemon Bay High School.
“Where there are God’s people, you are going to have God’s presence,” Clark said.
When the church started more than three years ago, purchasing a building in Englewood’s rising commercial market wasn’t even an option.
“When we started, we had nothing,” Clark said. “We don’t have a denomination or a fat cat that is bank rolling.”
The church’s portable status hasn’t hampered its growth. Attendance has grown from less than 100 to more than 500 attending two Sunday services. The church has raised nearly $1 million toward land and a new building in Rotonda while paying about $700 a week to rent the auditorium.
Fellowship also rents space at the Englewood Sports Complex for Communion and senior fellowship services. Prayer breakfasts are held in parks or on the beach. “We’re all over the place,” Clark said.
Many portable churches spread their ministry across multiple venues. Sunday services might be held in a school, but weeknight Bible study is conducted in a condo clubhouse.
The lack of a fixed location can eventually doom a new church, especially given the competition from other evangelical churches, whose worship styles run the gamut from rock ‘n’ roll to black-Bible fundamentalism.
Church starts have an extremely high failure rate, but many evangelical congregations are encouraged by the pioneering example of “mega churches” that once gathered in schools or movie theaters.
Saddleback Church in Southern California began with a seven-person Bible Study and rented out high-school gyms. The church now occupies a 120-acre campus and
attendance averages more than 20,000.
“So you have this mythology: ‘Today, we’re 100 people, and one day, we’ll be 3,000,” said Leonard, of Wake Forest.
Transforming spaces
Given the cost and energy required to start a church, the number of newer congregations in the area signals a healthy demand for new and varied worship options.
Churches are renting space in nearly a third of the roughly 100 public schools in Charlotte, Manatee and Sarasota counties.
Fellowship Church, at Lemon Bay High, sits across the street from Foundation Church, an evangelical church that leases a former fitness center. Before relocating to the gym last year, its members met at Englewood Elementary School.
The church has adapted its unconventional space to meet its needs: The sanctuary was the aerobics room and the hot tub is used for baptisms.
This transformation from secular to sanctuary didn’t always take place in gyms and community centers, but the idea is nothing new, Leonard said.
“The sort of ‘creating your own sacred space’ is very Protestant, very revivalistic,” he said. He cited the early-20th century camp revivals, where pastors were equipped with nothing more than a stoop and a Bible in their attempts to save souls.
Of course, some churches have a tougher job when it comes to making rented spaces sacred, “to make it look as churchy as you can,” said Meyer, who leads services at the theater.
On a recent Sunday, Meyer was trying to lead Bible study on a theater stage set for “Cabaret,” which details the passionate affair between a cabaret singer and a writer in decadent, pre-World War II Berlin.
Meyer decided the set, with its nude male statutes, wasn’t appropriate backdrop to study scripture. “You know, I’m not going to do this,” Meyer said before moving to an upstairs rehearsal theater.
But despite the odd theatrical distraction, Meyer said the space, at the rate of $175 a week, is ideal.
Youth Bible study is held in the rehearsal theaters, and the Green Room doubles as the nursery. The theater allows the church to scroll its sermon on the lighted marquee, and the acoustics are hard to beat.
Meyer said the theater will be Fellowship’s leased home until members can afford a permanent one.
“In the next five years, I want to be in our own building,” Meyer told 80 members as he stood before the set for “The Underpants.” Meyer was speaking during a recent business meeting, which he had to cut short.
“We’ve got to be out of here in the next few minutes,” he announced. It was minutes before noon, and the cast and crew would soon arrive to prepare for the 2 o’clock matinee.
Thursday, February 16, 2006
Church Planters.com Conference - Atlanta, GA
The PCI trailer is set to hit the road next week, traveling to the "Church Planters.com Conference", hosted by Mountain Lake Church. Kevin (Sales) and Pete (Founder & President) will be meeting with pastors, touting our products and lending their expertise to a workshop.
The workshop is entitled Leveraging Rented Facilities, and will go over all of the different factors to consider when choosing a venue for your ministry. We will include different experiences we've had as a company and all of the different facilities wherein we've helped "build" churches.
The workshop is entitled Leveraging Rented Facilities, and will go over all of the different factors to consider when choosing a venue for your ministry. We will include different experiences we've had as a company and all of the different facilities wherein we've helped "build" churches.
- Choosing the Venue to Fit Your Needs
- Types of Venues, Pro's and Con's
- Owning vs. Renting
- Negotiating The Best Deal For Your Church
- Keeping the Venue Happy For the Long Haul
- Things to look for and beware of
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Launching a Purpose Driven Church - Ocala, FL
I just returned from a trip to Ocala, FL where we (Kevin, Daniel & I) met more than 500 pastors from all over the country who were looking to learn how to "Launch a Purpose Driven Church". It was an incredible time of rejuvenation as we met with and talked to a lot of these visionary pastors.
Over the course of two days, conference founders Ron Sylvia and Nelson Searcy work through an original cirriculum designed to inspire and coach hopeful church planters. The program takes the church planters from dream stage to launch phase to development phase, and ends with an urgent call to get into "Coaching Networks". These coaching networks allow pastors to fellowship with one another, encourage one another and share best practices as they undertake the somewhat daunting task of launching a church.
We (PCI) had the chance to set up a sales station in the lobby with examples of our equipment, free DVD's and a staff of three. During the session breaks, we were able to talk with pastors about their dreams and visions for their upcoming ministries. It was inspiring to say the least.
During lunch, we led a workshop called "Optimizing the Portable Church". I walked the church through the PCI process (from the dream to the delivered system) and then brought Kevin up to answer a series of interesting questions during a Q & A session.
We met quite a few of our recent pastors (for some, it was our first face-to-face meeting, as I don't often "deliver" the systems). The Bridge Fellowship, Blount Community Church and Springs at Westport were there, just to name a few. These are pastors that are not only clients of PCI, but are also heavily involved in a coaching network.
I am always so overjoyed to attend these conferences (we're heading into year three), and always leave the conferences with such a sense of purpose, and a renewed sense of motivation. Nothing brings more clarity or more of a sense of eternal value than meeting face-to-face with these pastors!
© Kendra Malloy, Portable Church Industries
Monday, February 13, 2006
Robust Option for Video Venues
We "rolled" out the new and improved video production case today. I continue to be amazed by the skills and talents of our design & production staffs. Together, they conceptualized and designed the best solution yet. This is for a new video venue, launching in FL.
The switcher, dual DVD rack, monitors and distribution amp are all racked in one case, allowing them to switch between video feeds seamlessly. The table-top is a new addition, allowing the team to sit and work the controls at a comfortable height. The plug-n-play options still exist as per previous designs.
This design is perfect for multi-site churches and video venues. Go team!
Monday, February 06, 2006
Great Ideas
Sometimes the best part about my job here at Portable Church Industries is hearing the visions of pastors and church planters all over North America and getting to design a system around it. Here are a few of the more interesting ones we're working with:
- New church plant: A pastor in Orlando, FL is holding "raves" to promote his new Easter church-launch. The new church launch will have a DJ-based worship service, and a wireless sanctuary, so congregants can type their notes directly onto their laptops and email questions to the pastor... all during the service. He has visions (and we're going to help him) of taking the wireless era to the "next level" in a portable church setting.
- New church plant: A church in Chicago, IL feels called to live out a holistic lifestyle & holistic presentation. Among their ideas are serving organic and "whole foods"at their refreshment table, as well as a fresh-juice bar instead of a coffee bar!
- New church plants: A church in Texas has goals of planting 35 campuses all over the States in the next three years. The first one in Colorado will be launched by September! PCI is excited to help them take these campuses portable!
PCI Blog Introduction
Welcome to the new "blog" of Portable Church Industries. Since our business began in 1994, we have had the experience of working with over 600 churches in North America. Twelve years later, the age of technology has made it possible for us to share information in real time and connect our clients with one another.
The long term vision for this blog is to work in tandem with our website (new website rolling out April 15), and provide a soure for networking, idea sharing, best practices, product announcements, press releases and conference announcements.
In the future, look for
The long term vision for this blog is to work in tandem with our website (new website rolling out April 15), and provide a soure for networking, idea sharing, best practices, product announcements, press releases and conference announcements.
In the future, look for
- Relevant Article Postings from Recognized Leadership Sources
- Guest Columns from Influential Pastors
- Conference Information for the Church Planting Movement / Portable Church Market
- Product Announcements from PCI and other Vendors
- Articles from Staff Members re: Church Planting & Church Planting Trends
- Articles from Staff Members re: Audio, Video & Technology for Worship
- A Log of Delivery Weekends, Spotlighting Churches all over North America (late Feb)
- General Announcements from PCI
- Musings & Meanderings from Staff Members
Let us know what you think using the comments section. Leave your email addresses if you'd like to connect outside of the blog! If ever you know of anything "blog-worthy", be sure to submit it to kendra@portablechurch.com.
In Him,
The PCI Staff
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