A New Way to Worship
Tax deductible
Hello and thank you for taking the time to read this. My name is Josh. I'm the Technology Supervisor for Piedmont First United Methodist Church. Our church provides live streaming of services every Sunday along with a YouTube channel where we upload the sermon each week.
Any donations given will receive a receipt for Tax Deductions and information.
I'd like to take a moment and describe each of our tiers for this campaign as well as tell why each tier is necessary.
Tier 1: $1,800
Tier 1 of our campaign is to fix the sound in our church. When our sound system was initially installed, it was done cheaply and without care. Our speakers were not aimed and point over the congregations head. Also, our amps were not crossed over, therefor making the sound very mid and bass heavy, cause our pastors voice to be very difficult to understand. This becomes especially prominent in the elderly of our congregation as well as the hearing impaired. Until we installed a Assistive Listening system 2 weeks ago, many of our members had never actually heard our pastors sermons.
Tier 2: $2,700
Tier 2 of our campaign focuses on our need for a digital sound board. The sound board we currently have was bought in 2006. It is an analog, entry level board, that can neither support the newer condenser microphones on the market today as well as being unable to edit out certain frequencies that may be causing issues for our listeners. The new board would not only allow us to do the above, but also enable us to support live bands. We would be able to finally move into the contemporary culture of worship that is so prominent in today's worship experience. It would also allow us to give quality, HD, sound to our live stream and YouTube viewership.
Tier 3: $15,000
Tier 3 of our campaign is to acquire stage lighting for our sanctuary. Currently, the only form of lighting we have are 90 watt can lights that aim directly down on our floor. This gives the sanctuary a very dark and uninviting feel, as well as causes major problems with cameras. Stage lighting would allow us to not only control the mood of worship, but remove unwanted grain from both the live streams and YouTube videos.
Tier 4: $2,000
Tier 4 of our campaign aims to upgrade the 4:3 screens we currently shoot our projectors on, to 16:9 screens. When initially installed, 4:3 was the standard used in video projection, so the screens were built to support this ratio. After the switch to digital television, 16:9 become the standard and loved aspect that we are used to today. 16:9 is used in every thing from cinema to online videos and expected in today's video viewership. The other issue we run into with our old screens is the massive over-sizing that they hold. The screens were currently have are much too large for a sanctuary of our size and need to be shrunk.
Tier 5: $5,000
Tier 5 of our campaign is to build a new stage in our sanctuary. The stage we currently have is small and short. If we ever want to create the contemporary worship experience that excites and engages the young generations of today, we need to upgrade our stage. We would like to build a stage that is taller and longer so that we may house a full band and choir. To do this, we must raise the height of the stage as well as lengthen the stage.
Tier 6: $7,000
Tier 6 of our campaign is to purchase two more cameras. The reason for these cameras is to smoothen out both the online worhip experience as well as the in church experience. We put the live video feed up on the projectors to enable members seated in the back of the church the ability to see the pastors face. Much of the emotion in a service is expressed through facial expression, and is as much a part of the experience as the word he/she preaches. The extra cameras enable a smooth transition from shot to shot as opposed to rough camera movement from side to side. This movement is difficult to watch and "gives me motion sickness".
Tier 7 (THE BIG ONE): $35,000
Tier 7 of our campaign and by far the most influential and powerful project is to install an environmental projection system in our church. Environmental projection takes worship beyond the "normal" church experience we are so used to. Installing this system will require us to purchase five projectors and a new computer to control them with along with LED accent lighting controlled by a lighting board. Now to the real question "What's the reason for putting this system in?" Worship as we know it is simple, whether it's the traditional hymnal and slides version we are used to or the newer contemporary standard of modern music and louder praise. What environmental projection allows us to do is remove the church walls that surround us, almost literally. With the entire front wall and ceiling covered in motion video of almost anything imaginable, as well as LED accent lighting covering the walls, the church no longer is a building. The church turns into a full experience of emotion, color and scenic beauty that intensifies the message being portrayed. Imagine hearing a sermon of Jesus walking on water and the next moment your are transported to the Sea of Galilee as though you were there at the very moment. This is experience that we want to generate with this environmental projection system.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!
If you've reached this point then we as a congregation cannot thank you enough. To achieve this goal will quite literally Change The Way We Worship. Anything you can give is helpful, no matter how much it is. If you aren't able to give then please Share this campaign on a social network (FaceBook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.) This project is an amazing opportunity both for our church, as well as the online community we are trying to create.
Again, thank you from the bottoms of our hearts.
Piedmont First United Methodist Church
Here are the links to all our accounts:
Website
Facebook
YouTube
Any donations given will receive a receipt for Tax Deductions and information.
I'd like to take a moment and describe each of our tiers for this campaign as well as tell why each tier is necessary.
Tier 1: $1,800
Tier 1 of our campaign is to fix the sound in our church. When our sound system was initially installed, it was done cheaply and without care. Our speakers were not aimed and point over the congregations head. Also, our amps were not crossed over, therefor making the sound very mid and bass heavy, cause our pastors voice to be very difficult to understand. This becomes especially prominent in the elderly of our congregation as well as the hearing impaired. Until we installed a Assistive Listening system 2 weeks ago, many of our members had never actually heard our pastors sermons.
Tier 2: $2,700
Tier 2 of our campaign focuses on our need for a digital sound board. The sound board we currently have was bought in 2006. It is an analog, entry level board, that can neither support the newer condenser microphones on the market today as well as being unable to edit out certain frequencies that may be causing issues for our listeners. The new board would not only allow us to do the above, but also enable us to support live bands. We would be able to finally move into the contemporary culture of worship that is so prominent in today's worship experience. It would also allow us to give quality, HD, sound to our live stream and YouTube viewership.
Tier 3: $15,000
Tier 3 of our campaign is to acquire stage lighting for our sanctuary. Currently, the only form of lighting we have are 90 watt can lights that aim directly down on our floor. This gives the sanctuary a very dark and uninviting feel, as well as causes major problems with cameras. Stage lighting would allow us to not only control the mood of worship, but remove unwanted grain from both the live streams and YouTube videos.
Tier 4: $2,000
Tier 4 of our campaign aims to upgrade the 4:3 screens we currently shoot our projectors on, to 16:9 screens. When initially installed, 4:3 was the standard used in video projection, so the screens were built to support this ratio. After the switch to digital television, 16:9 become the standard and loved aspect that we are used to today. 16:9 is used in every thing from cinema to online videos and expected in today's video viewership. The other issue we run into with our old screens is the massive over-sizing that they hold. The screens were currently have are much too large for a sanctuary of our size and need to be shrunk.
Tier 5: $5,000
Tier 5 of our campaign is to build a new stage in our sanctuary. The stage we currently have is small and short. If we ever want to create the contemporary worship experience that excites and engages the young generations of today, we need to upgrade our stage. We would like to build a stage that is taller and longer so that we may house a full band and choir. To do this, we must raise the height of the stage as well as lengthen the stage.
Tier 6: $7,000
Tier 6 of our campaign is to purchase two more cameras. The reason for these cameras is to smoothen out both the online worhip experience as well as the in church experience. We put the live video feed up on the projectors to enable members seated in the back of the church the ability to see the pastors face. Much of the emotion in a service is expressed through facial expression, and is as much a part of the experience as the word he/she preaches. The extra cameras enable a smooth transition from shot to shot as opposed to rough camera movement from side to side. This movement is difficult to watch and "gives me motion sickness".
Tier 7 (THE BIG ONE): $35,000
Tier 7 of our campaign and by far the most influential and powerful project is to install an environmental projection system in our church. Environmental projection takes worship beyond the "normal" church experience we are so used to. Installing this system will require us to purchase five projectors and a new computer to control them with along with LED accent lighting controlled by a lighting board. Now to the real question "What's the reason for putting this system in?" Worship as we know it is simple, whether it's the traditional hymnal and slides version we are used to or the newer contemporary standard of modern music and louder praise. What environmental projection allows us to do is remove the church walls that surround us, almost literally. With the entire front wall and ceiling covered in motion video of almost anything imaginable, as well as LED accent lighting covering the walls, the church no longer is a building. The church turns into a full experience of emotion, color and scenic beauty that intensifies the message being portrayed. Imagine hearing a sermon of Jesus walking on water and the next moment your are transported to the Sea of Galilee as though you were there at the very moment. This is experience that we want to generate with this environmental projection system.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!
If you've reached this point then we as a congregation cannot thank you enough. To achieve this goal will quite literally Change The Way We Worship. Anything you can give is helpful, no matter how much it is. If you aren't able to give then please Share this campaign on a social network (FaceBook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.) This project is an amazing opportunity both for our church, as well as the online community we are trying to create.
Again, thank you from the bottoms of our hearts.
Piedmont First United Methodist Church
Here are the links to all our accounts:
Website
YouTube
Organizer
Kathy Fleming Brown
Organizer
Piedmont, OK
Piedmont United Methodist Church
Registered nonprofit
Donations are typically 100% tax deductible in the US.
