How crucial is your tech?

Anthony Coppedge recently left this comment:

I expect quite a few pastors will talk about culture, ministry groups, campus pastors and the like, so I'm not gonna go down that path. Instead, I want to chime in on what I think is an undervalued and underestimated part of the equation for making multi-site work seamlessly: technology.

Now before I get flamed for seemingly putting tech on a pedestal, let me quickly assert that I know the message is what matters. My point is to deliver the message so that the person in the audience forgets that technology is involved at all.

To this end, I see a lot of churches making the move to multi-venue (a prelude to multi-site for many) without the understanding of the costs of technology: Time; People; Equipment. Far too often, the technology "budget" is pulled out of thin air, only to result in shaky camera images that are shown on washed out screens with poor lighting and inadequate audio.

In my experience, the end result is what I call "Distraction on Display, where the issues of picture and audio quality do not allow for the full engagement of the audience. This is not to say that the solutions need to be Gold-plated, but it is a realization that without proper planning and a clear understanding of how the technology will be utilized (and by whom), we can have the best message delivered the wrong way.

Even the grand-daddy church of the multi-venue/multi-site, North Coast Church, is taking serious steps towards upgrading their technologies. Dennis Choy, their technical director and a friend of mine, commented to me recently that his church had "forgotten to re-evaluate the technology and have gotten behind the curve."

So, to answer the original question, I think that one of the key elements to making multi-venue and multi-site excellent will be to use technology that fully enables the "suspension of disbelief" so that the audience forgets they're watching video.

So what do you think? How important is technology to the success of a multi-site church? Is Anthony "putting tech on a pedastal" or is this a crucial issue?

Comments

[Jim Walton]

I agree, technology is critical to success of a multi-site church. As Anthony points out, technology done right should not be noticed, it should enable the message to be presented more effectively. The message is what's important, the technology helps deliver the message, but it should not overshadow the message. There is a balance, low quality or faulty technology can distract from the message, as well.

[mike johns]

I agree with Anthony - after having been at many multi-sites around the country so far I have only been to two that have utilized technology to create environments that don't make me feel like I am back in Jr. High summer camp.

1) Northpoint Community Church's Buckhead campus. Talk about doing it right - my brain is constantly fooled into thinking that Andy Stanley is really there.

2) Fellowship Church's Plano Campus (and their Uptown and Alliance Campus' if you want to consider the portable venues). Looks like they hired the same designers as Northpoint. Same type of technology and approach. Every detail designed to make me forget that the whole thing is on video.

You have to wonder how much the technology designs at these locations has to do with the overwhelming success of their multi-site locations?

Fellowship's Uptown campus is still meeting in a High School but has almost 1,000 regular attendees in less than 2 years. What is the average attendance at many other multi-site venues? I have heard approximately 200 per site.

NPCC's Buckhead and Fellowship's Plano campus have 5,000 and 3,000

Later..
Mike

[Geoff Surratt]

Mike writes:
"You have to wonder how much the technology designs at these locations has to do with the overwhelming success of their multi-site locations?"

I would imagine their investment in technology has certainly paid dividends. I would also wonder, however, how much the fact that they have two of the most gifted communicators in America and are in two of the largest cities in the country have to do with their overwhelming success?

Mike goes on to say:

"Fellowship's Uptown campus is still meeting in a High School but has almost 1,000 regular attendees in less than 2 years. What is the average attendance at many other multi-site venues? I have heard approximately 200 per site."

There is no doubt that Fellowship and North Point have had incredible success with, according to Mike's numbers, 5000 people offsite per weekend. That would be about 25% of their total attendance (20,000)and 33% of what they have at their original campuses(15,000)

How does that compare to other multi-site churches? At my church, Seacoast, we currently average 3300 by video and 4000 at the original site for a total of 7300, so 45% of our total attendance and 83% of what we have at the original campus.

Who has seen "overwhelming success"? All three churches. Who has the right technology? All three churches.

So while I agree with Anthony that one key to effective video teaching is the "suspension of disbelief" I don' believe that technology has to be a barrier to a church becoming multi-site. The technology utilized by North Point and Fellowship (via Clark Pro Media out of Atlanta) is awesome, but certainly not one size fits all.

[Dennis Choy]

Here's my two cents.......
Anthony and I have talked about this several times - I still go back to who do you have running your equipment. "your equipment is only as good as the people running it" As Geoff wrote it's not and cannot be one size fits all. A church of 400, 800, 1200, even 2000 might not have the staff and other resources to start a "North Point" or a "Fellowship Church" I know we didn't. So if smaller churches hadn't started there multi-venue or multi-sites then were would we be today? It gets real tough when we try to compare churches with one another. Who's right? I think we all are if we are doing it to further the kingdom....Who are you reaching, what resources do you have, who's going to wake-up thinking about this are the questions we need to ask....probably more than two cents......

[Rich Kirkpatrick]

How crucial?

WOW. Very much a part of todays message is delievered by media. Our listeners will not hear without it. Just a part of the venacular.

I am amazed that very soon the tech will be cheap enough for smaller and smaller churches to expand and utilize the tools that the first-adopters.

Just hold on. What once looked impossible, will be common place!