The Lord Builds

One of our story statements (and our next “Super Series” by the way…) at First Trinity is “Rooted and Relevant”. We like to think of ourselves as being rooted—both in God’s Word and in the Lutheran Christian Tradition (We’re celebrating 170 years this year)—while still being relevant to the world today. This means that the Scriptures and Christian church throughout history influences our ministry today. We are not a “traditional” or “contemporary” church. We are both.

With this key story statement in mind, we set out to look at improving the projection system in the Worship Center. Here are some of the issues that people have raised to us:

1. The screen is too high for those sitting in the front of the church.
2. It blocks the view of the cross when it’s down.
3. It’s not bright enough (especially since restoring the stained glass).
4. It doesn’t integrate well with the existing architecture.

So we knew what the basic issues were, and we agreed that all were important. But how do we be “rooted and relevant” in this area? Our first step was to find out how the projection system is currently being used, but more importantly, how will it be used in the future. We asked the Executive Ministry Team (Known as the EMT, composed of Pastor Chuck, the four ministry directors, namely Jim Brese [Attract], Mary Lou Hartnett [Care] Sue Steege [Transformation] and Dick McKie [Serve], plus our Ministry Operations Manager, Tim Hartnett) to give us their vision for technology in Worship and other areas of the facility for the coming years.

After reviewing the strategy, we started discussing some options, keeping “rooted and relevant” in our minds as we sought to find the best solution. Here were some of the options we looked at:

• Leave the screen “as-is” and simply get a new projector. This would solve only item 3 above.
• Install large LCD televisions on the side wall. This would solve 1-3 above, but we felt it would still not look “right” in our Worship Center.
• Install multiple screens on the side walls and buy two new projectors. This would address 1-3 and was a better solution for item 4, but we still felt it wasn’t quite right.
• Use the side walls as the projection surface and buy two new projectors. We felt like this would best meet all the needs because when the system is off, you can’t tell it’s there. When it’s on, it’s not detracting from the cross or the architecture of the church while still being visible from everywhere. It’s also farther from any direct light sources which wash out the image.

We debated the merits of LCD vs. projection and decided projection was the obvious choice. It allows us to use 100% of the wall space and looked the best when off. We then explored rear projection vs. front, but after consulting the building blueprints, there’s not room to use rear projection. We also felt it was important to consult with Eric Fesmire, our Contemporary Worship Director, about our proposed solution.

Confident we were on to a possible solution, we scheduled an appointment with Gary Krauss of A/V Solutions to see what was possible and get a quote for the project. We are currently looking for other companies to provide a quote as well.

We’ll also be setting up a test rig that involves ladders, projectors and laptops to see how it would actually look in our building.