Being on staff at FOTP for 12 years I’ve seen a lot of changes. Going from a single site church to multisite church, being one of them. Within my first four years we grew to 3 campuses. During that time I had the privilege of growing and learning how to lead teams and design systems at each of our campuses. There have been many opportunities to learn and experience growing pains. I don’t think a lot of people in our own church know that our team have designed and installed (with LOTS of help) each of our auditoriums.
North Ft. Worth / Keller Campus
My first major learning experience came when we expanded our auditorium at our Keller/North Ft. Campus. We expanded from about 300 seats to about 550. It involved the stage being pushed back/ recessed, adding a stereo sound system with digital Yamaha M7 console with in-ear monitors, and adding, LED color lighting and upgraded projectors.
In 2013 we opened a new larger auditorium (which would later become our North auditorium) at our Keller/N. Ft Worth Campus. This auditorium has been my biggest project to date. It can seat about 1100 people. The big component was being able to do IMAG (Image magnification). This also help spearhead us to being able to do an online campus. It was a fun project that a lot of was mimicked our Grapevine campus from a stage designed & media room.
In early 2018 (January) we redesigned our “old” auditorium (which would be renamed as the South Auditorium) in Keller/N. Ft. Worth Campus. We added some video LED (pixel bars) and robotic cameras, and the ability to record and produce our services.
Grapevine Campus
With our Grapevine launch we had to be portable so I designed a sound system (parts of this system still being used now at our Justin Campus!). It had to be easy to set up and be tech-ed by volunteers. We had a three screen / projector set up with the content being driven by ProPresenter. We would have to set up and tear down for about 4 years.
In 2012 our Grapevine campus was able to purchase land and build a building. So I got to design our auditorium. This was a HUGE learning experience for me. All the way from designing infrastructure (conduit), lighting, audio, video & media room(where video is in a separate room). We had some late nights, and ate a lot of pizza!
Now in 2019 we are expanding our Grapevine auditorium. We are going from around 365 seats to about 550ish. This will involve a complete media refurbish, and adding a huge video component. I’m very excited about how this will help us reach even more people with the Gospel through technology.
Haslet Campus
Our third campus was launched in Haslet in 2010 inside the Haslet Elementary School cafetria/gym. This system was a little more involved. We had to be portable, but the teaching was done primary with video. So this added a huge and very important component: we had a virtual pastor. Simulating a pastor on stage took some time to perfect First, we would record a message on Thursday, and Saturday at our Keller campus. Then we would play it back in Haslet. The set up took about hour to set up sound and video. We did not do any lighting.
Prior to our Easter launch in Haslet we did two “preview” services with about 80 people in attendance. What followed on Easter Sunday was one of the coolest moments I’ve experienced at our church. Based on the “preview” services we were set up expecting about 80 people and instead God sent us 300! We had pipe and drape set up to help “shape” the room and not make it feel like a cafeteria. We ended up having to tear down to give people a place to sit. It was a goosebump moment seeing God move like that. Sometimes our dreams / expectations are too small.
Once we launched the school district came back and told us they would be remodeling over the summer and we would not have any A/C. Being in Texas that was a HUGE problem… Through God’s provision we found land at our current Haslet Campus location. It had a house and barn on the property. We were given a sprung structure from a church in California that would serve as our auditorium. Basically, a sprung is a big tent. This posed some issues for the media / production. For instance, we couldn’t “fly” or hang things like screens or projectors because the sprung is ALWAYS moving. This is a huge issue so instead we ended up “ground stacking” everything. “Ground stacking” is like it sounds, you put it on the floor and go up. Normally when things are installed they are “flown” down. My goal from day one was to create an experience where you didn’t feel like you were in a tent. I believe we accomplished this. I don’t know how many times I heard people say inside, “where’s the tent?”
In Fall of 2018 we added a 650 seat auditorium at our Haslet campus, This was really fun and I really felt like we found our groove with this project. I really like how this place looks and sounds. Learning from all the other projects I implemented some things with the volunteers that really helped with them “owning” this project.
Justin Campus
In 2017 we launched our Justin Campus, which meets in Justin Elementary school. We again had a portable set up. In complete hindsight, I know why God had me traveling doing production six years before being on staff at the church. To help prepare me for this. This set up was even more involved than previous campuses. We have a two trailer set up!
Listen it sounds like a lot, and it IS! I’m not sure how many people in my position whom has gotten to do this, and be trusted to do this… For that I am very thankful for our church leadership, and my teams couldn’t literally do this with YOU! I also want to thank my family they are very understanding while I’m doing these types of projects that take up a lot of my time. If you have any questions feel free to contact me.
FOTP Media & Worship 