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The practical implications of this balancing act come when churches move from one service to two. Typically the move splits the congregation along both demographic and worship-style lines; that is, the old guard who founded or have become pillars of the church want to maintain a more traditional approach, while the new arrivals want a more contemporary approach. In the contemporary service, which often occurs first during the weekend, the show is part of the worship experience: lights, bands, singers, and video playback are closely intertwined with the message. The later service, which is more traditional, tends to incorporate technology much more slowly, if at all. It's not that the traditional worship seekers (many of whom are also young) dislike the technology—they believe it distracts from the message. To this group, the spoken word, be it oratory or liturgy, is the medium of choice. So how does a mid-sized church find balance in these "worship wars" between the restlessness of the contemporary service and the staid, stable liturgy of the traditional service? Many do not, veering off to one extreme or the other. But a few examples I've discovered may help shed light on the balance of technology and tradition. The first lesson is to have a plan. This should not be used as a way to force a particular style of worship, but every church—whether it has a media team or not—needs to budget and plan for the growth of media in worship. The great news is that prices continue to fall as quality continues to rise in robust production tools, so those churches thinking they can't afford multiple cameras, a switcher, a streaming system, and a projection system may be pleasantly surprised. This is only possible, though, if they've begun to plan and budget several years in advance and have educated church leaders on the true cost of adding technology to the worship service. The second lesson is that it's OK to proceed slowly. I'm not suggesting you become a Luddite in your worship services; quite the opposite. But try to see each weekend's services through the eyes of both types of congregants. While one type of service may be a full-on production, the other service may eye a Jumbotron or other large-screen projection system with the same amount of angst that they view the empty drum set on the platform while singing the psalmody. Still, given time, even the traditional service will begin to use projection technology, if even just for pre-service announcements and words for songs during the service. In some cases, churches have forgone the installation of projection systems, focusing instead on using video capture the same way they do the audio-augmentation systems; tools such as streaming and DVD recordings of sermons can be quite helpful to traditional congregants who may not be able to attend every service due to health or other constraints. The third lesson is to think beyond the local congregation. Several new tools now combine the capability to mix video, audio, and high-resolution images and send that content throughout the building and across the internet. Study and learn about products from Accordent, Sonic Foundry, and Pictron; these tools that have enjoyed success in corporate training and educational settings are now primed for the worship market. Next month I'll review Newtek's TriCaster Pro, which combines the strengths of the VideoToaster with new hard disk recording and streaming capabilities. A good example of these three lessons is Tecumseh Presbyterian Church in Tecumseh, Michigan. An EventDV reader, Tim Wertz, who also owns Tecumseh Technologies in the same city (population 9,000), wrote to tell us about how his church has slowly grown its technology use to accommodate a traditional, contemporary, and blended worship service. "I am a volunteer layperson, responsible for our church's A/V equipment for the last 20 years (www.tecpres.org)," Tim wrote. "We have gone from a PA system to an upgraded sound system to a video projection system. I now have approval to upgrade the video (presently a consumer VHS camcorder) to a multiple-camera system capable of distributing content to other parts of our building, public access on local cable, and internet streaming. I am treading on new waters here, so I could use all of the opinions I can find." Anyone interested in helping Tim, please drop him a line at twertz@tecumsehtech.com (he gave permission to publish his email address in this column). For those of you who have similar stories to share, feel free to send them to the address listed below for potential inclusion in future columns. As for the final benediction: "May your mid-size house of worship find the common ground to balance the old with the new, knowing where technology distracts and where it enhances." Amen to that.
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