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A portable church is difficult enough to set up and tear down before you throw in all the equipment for multimedia. You've already got the chairs, platform, welcoming table, children's reception and sound equipment. Add to that two projectors, two screens, a computer, a switcher, a DVD-player, smart lighting, all the cables... it's enough to make you lose your religion!

Yet GracePoint Church in Wichita, KS opened up two years ago with a mission to draw people to Christ, and they chose media as an important vehicle to do it. Their worship style is pretty edgy, which practically demands good media. "We live in a digital culture, and we have got to use whatever tools are available to connect with people," Creative Director Tim Bonnell says. "There are approximately 70,000 people within a 5-mile radius of where we meet, and hardly any of them even can relate to a church."

GracePoint meets in the auditorium of a fairly new middle school, and their first media equipment was a single screen and projector the school let them use. With such a perfect set-up for a young church, why would they think about messing it up by looking for a new system? "From day one, Lead Pastor Bryson Butts has driven the vision of how multimedia will play a large role in the church," Tim says. "We knew it was time to take that to the next level. We knew there was more that could be done in the multimedia area of our church that would help accomplish our mission of reaching the lost."

Fowler was one of the first companies Tim called. GracePoint was committed to a principle that Fowler shares: doing it right the first time. Tim also found that as their ideas crystallized, Fowler responded quickly with the information they needed. "Throughout the entire decision process, from bids to the board, Fowler was quick to update and give us all of the information we needed; they really guided us in making the best decision for the church," says Tim. "When it comes to the type of equipment involved in projection systems and their costs, you must have a good deal of trust with the people you are working with."

When the subject of 16:9 came up, the church and the company worked together to make it happen. GracePoint knew that being on the leading edge of technology is vital to matching the language of the culture. "Human eyes see in a wide format, so they are more naturally accustomed to the 16:9 format," Tim says. Yet there was one important hurdle: native 16:9 projectors of the brightness they needed were beyond their budget. Fowler's team found a solution in high-quality 4:3 projectors with a 16:9 mode. Just because a projector says it has a 16:9 mode does not mean it will work well. When you use the 16:9 mode on a 4:3 projector, it is even more important that you stick with a high-brightness, high-quality projector, because you will definitely lose a significant amount of brightness.

GracePoint decided on a dual screen system design that looks great and accommodates everyone. For a start-up church, this solution works very well. As they grow it will grow with them, and when they are able to get true 16:9 projectors, these projectors will be fantastic in other areas of ministry.

Has the equipment lived up to GracePoint's expectations? "The new system has really brought an entirely new visual element to the worship experience." They set it all up for a big launch for their Christmas Eve experiences; prior to that they had been running one experience on Sunday that averaged 250 (including children) with spikes to 300. By February, they moved to two Sunday morning experiences. Since that time, they have been consistently running just under 500. It's a good start toward a goal of drawing 2,500 a week in the next 4 years.

Since Easter is the one Sunday that does not require a huge effort to draw the unchurched, GracePoint is focusing on getting people to commit their lives to following Christ. The theme for the day will be "Truth or Dare." They will use video testimonies of what God has done in the lives of people in their church; that's the truth part. This will be meshed with the ultimate dare of the message of the cross. In a nutshell, the message of Jesus taking up his cross becomes: I dare you to live this; I dare you to live courageously, I dare you to live victoriously, I dare you to take up your cross and follow me.

This system is only the first phase for GracePoint. They expect to expand their use of multimedia in the future, and they are already putting together a plan to add a Fowler IMAG (image magnification) system for live camera shots. As they grow, they know it's important to remember that all of this "stuff" is the packaging. "It's about the message," Tim says. "We will not compromise or water down the Gospel to make it attractive. It's about making the strongest impact possible and preparing hearts to receive."

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