This is the first of three parts on LED house lights for houses of worship, with the second and third parts to run Friday, June 28 and Monday, July 1.
LED lighting has literally brought a whole new world to lighting. What facilities can do with LED house lights and stage lights these days … well, it’s just amazing.
Don’t just go out and purchase the latest fad.
Sometimes, churches lock on to the newest and the greatest, though, forgetting that they need to weigh all the options, while understanding the pros and cons, making sure the lighting instrument or house light fits an actual need.
Before we get into the pros and cons of LED lighting, I wanted to discuss how we should approach lighting at your worship facility.
What should our mindset be, before making our decisions?
To help answer this question, I sat down with Josh Holowicki, the founder of E2i Design, based in Brighton, Michigan, to delve further into understanding this decision-making process, relating to potential upgrades for your worship space.
E2i Design has worked with a number of churches, including Life.Church in Edmond, Oklahoma, Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, Church of the Highlands in Birmingham, Alabama, and Granger Community Church in Granger, Indiana, among others over the years.
For churches that are looking to make a significant change, such as determining what type of lighting would be right for their church, Holowicki offered some valuable insight into how best to proceed.
“People have opinions about what type of fixtures to use, which lighting console is best, how to lay out the system, LED versus incandescent, moving versus nonmoving,” said Holowicki. “There truly is no one-size-fits-all approach that will work for every ministry. If you can get help from experts who aren’t there to sell you something, but rather to help you put together a long-term plan (i.e., five to seven years), based on who you are as a ministry; that is something you can really benefit from.”
Even for churches that invest the time to research what type of equipment would best suit their church, or seek out comparable churches as examples, it is not a fail-safe solution, according to Holowicki.
“It’s fine to look at what other ministries are doing and how they approach lighting, but all the research has to pass through the filter of ‘How do we make this work for us?’” explained Holowicki. “If you find yourself saying, or hearing from leadership, the words: ‘We want it just like so and so,’ you may be walking a dangerous path.” This is a dangerous path because that other church is different from your facility. What may work for that particular church, may not work in your environment. Meaning you may purchase items that you may end up not using.
This is why it’s important to ask questions when deciding what equipment to invest in, such as, “Do we need the ‘latest and greatest,’” or is there a more cost-effective way to achieve the intended goal of making an amazing difference in our services?
Don’t just go out and purchase the latest fad. Essentially buying the latest technology, just because it’s the latest being advertised will be a philosophy that will rarely lead to success. Instead, understand the “why” behind your lighting needs.
The “why” would be making sure there is a need for the lighting instrument. Your purchase is resolving an issue or establishing a purpose for the fixture. You also want to make sure you are inside the DNA of your church. This means that you are matching the style of your worship service.
If the goal is to change the DNA or to expand your style, know that in advance and talk about it with the church’s leadership.
Just adding a bunch of moving lights to your worship space, for example, when your DNA is more static fixtures, would be a big change … talk about that change. Understand the “why” behind the change, and make sure everyone is on board.
When I visit and assist churches with the goal of figuring out their needs, I need to be mindful of their budget and what gives the biggest bang for the buck.
The budget gamechanger in this area of lighting has been RGBW LED house lights. Not only do they provide facilities with the ability to instantly change the mood of the room, but they are pretty much a universal fit to almost every style of worship.
Why?
Being able to take your entire room and change it to a nice blue for your softer worship set provides plenty of flexibility. That will easily provide an atmosphere change that draws people into what is happening on the platform, no matter what your style of music.
Sounds amazing right? Hold that thought.
To continue reading to the second portion of this piece, go to: "Transform With LED House Lights: Avoiding Technical Issues."