Churches across the world are very diverse with style, setups, and even their lighting rigs.
Whether a congregation has newer equipment, older equipment, or even no equipment at some point they’re going to face the question of how to choose what lights they need for their church.
Regardless of the setup or even no setup you are working with now, we want to focus in on what next steps you should take when considering purchasing lights for the church.
Most churches will likely introduce a budget for the beginning of a new year (or fiscal year) and your goal is to make the very most of that budget when purchasing new equipment. In this article, we’re going to walkthrough on how to approach this and how to choose lights for your church.
Get The Essentials Right First
When working with a church, the very first step is making sure we get the essentials right, but what does that mean?
By the essentials, we mean that you want to make sure that you get the front lighting and the back lighting right for the stage.
You may have a speaker that stands generally in one area or you may have one that likes to walk around the stage when speaking.
Almost everyone has a camera on their phone and most likely there is some type of video being recorded of your service. You want to make sure that the stage is evenly washed with lighting.
I go more into how to create an even wash of lights in this article: How to Create an Awesome, Even Wash of Stage Light?
Have Some Fun!
Once you have the essentials of creating an even wash, you then want to have some fun with your lighting! So what does having fun actually mean to you?
What we mean by this is first deciding what this actually looks like to you. This could mean a variety of things and also depends on the type of budgeting you’re working with.
There are different types of lights that are moving, add gobos, effects, uplighting, or downlighting the stage.
This step is really going to vary from church to church. With endless amounts of stage setups, style, and so on. But with so many different looks and variations, your options are endless.
To help you focus on exactly what you want to accomplish, start writing down and considering what your goals are for lighting. What’s important for production?
Is the focus of the message more towards videos, speakers, or testimonials? What is the direction your church is wanting to take in the near future?
What are the goals a year from now or even 5 years from now? Once you have a better picture then you can start considering what equipment you can purchase now to work towards those goals.
The Biggest Mistake
Many times, there are churches that will purchase a console or even lighting fixtures that don’t work for them.
This then means working backwards to try to make the equipment work for their setup instead of purchasing what is actually needed. That’s what we want to help you avoid here!
It’s so important to seriously consider the previous two points of first making sure you have an even wash on your stage.
Then deciding the future approach to lighting and what equipment you can purchase now to contribute to that. This does even include making sure you are working with the right console or software for your lighting rig.
We go even more into this with our free guide, 3 Steps to Begin with Lighting at Your Church. Be sure to sign up and check it out.
Having a solid foundation for your lighting is everything and then you can have some fun with your lighting!