Horizon Church: On the Move
First, tell us a little bit about Horizon Church and its history.
Horizon Church began in September of 1996 with a small group of visionaries who met in a living room. One by one, more people got involved and on Easter Sunday 1997 we held our first public meeting at a rented Seventh Day Baptist Church. We were quickly filling the sanctuary to capacity (120 people) and in the winter of 1998, we added a second Sunday morning service.
By March 2000, we were renting a local high school for our services. Having the high school gave us more room to grow, but with it came some new challenges as we became a portable church. Each Sunday we get to the school at 7:00 AM and set up classrooms, nursery, sound equipment, video equipment, all the instruments, and more. At the end of service, we took everything down and put it in storage containers until the following week. Our faithful volunteers have worked tirelessly to accomplish these tasks week after week.
r After a successful fundraising campaign to purchase land and develop a building plan we began construction in late 2002. We are now only weeks away from occupying our brand new facility. We're excited to be moving into a home of our own.
What about your sound crew? How large is it and what kind of training do your crew members have?
Our sound team currently consists of four volunteers. Each have had varying levels of past experience through work and through working in a church setting, but none of them have had formal sound technician training. We have had a few crash courses that were provided by the local sound store, but other than that it has been on the job training.
At the present time, with building plans for the future, you are literally a 'church on the move'. Maybe you can share with our readers the kinds of challenges that this presents to the audio staff. Or Horizon' staff, generally.
One of our biggest challenges is consistent sound system performance. We're more like a touring band that sets up and tears down for every gig than a church band. There seems to be some new quirk to fix every time we turn around. With the constant setting up and tearing down there is a lot of strain on equipment; worn cables, loose connections, and so on.
Let's back up for a minute. How did you get involved?
In the beginning we didn't have a band or even a keyboard player in the church. I actually got involved by being one of a handful of singers that sang along with CDs that we used to lead the congregation in worship. Our sound system consisted of a six channel mixing board, a few mics and a CD player. Finally a friend who happened to be a keyboard player got involved with our church. I had been taking guitar lessons for less than a year, but we were all so eager to have our own musicians that I told him if he'd play keyboard, I'd play guitar and simply not strum if we came across a chord I didn't know. It was a humble beginning but piece by piece musicians and singers have joined together to form the team we have today.
You have a number of different ministries. What impact does that have on your audio requirements? r
All of our audio challenges occur on Sunday mornings. We use drama, skits, audio and visual aids, personal interviews and even movie clips. All this adds to our weekly challenge for sound reinforcement because mike and audio needs quickly fill our 16-channel board. Sometimes we are forced to use a single input for more than on instrument or even unplug one component midway through the service to plug in a different one.
Have you ventured into the world of wireless mics yet?
We currently use two headset wireless mikes for most services and another lapel mike for skits and such. They are a tremendous asset and offer freedom to move around the stage and even the congregation as needed.
I use a wireless pickup on my acoustic guitar. We received some good coaching from our music equipment supplier as we purchased wireless mics, and made sure that there weren't any frequency conflicts. Early on, we were having an occasional phantom noise that we just couldn't seem to track down. Turns out that we had our CD player located too closely to the wireless receiver and it was picking up some kind of interference. We also were having some problems with the vocals becoming distorted on with the headset mics. We found out that we simply needed to adjust the gain on the wireless units.
As you move ahead with plans for a permanent facility, you're probably working with a sound contractor, right? What has that experience been like? What have you learned?
Yes we are working with a Sound Contractor. We've learned that the time spend finding the right company was well worth it. We've been able to make revisions along the way as we fine tuned our needs and wants versus our finances, but they designed a system that gave us all that we needed within our budget. Our contractor will give us several training sessions once the system is installed and follow up training as needed. They also will be setting in on the first two or three services to give us hands on advice in an actual worship environment.
In our last issue, we talked to three sound engineers from Willow Creek, a house of worship in Barrington, Illinois that has over 17,000 members. We asked them to offer advice to folks just getting started in church audio. They all agreed that the best way to learn is to find a patient practitioner and just absorb as much as possible by watching, learning, participating. And of course, to get the best equipment possible, under any kind of budget constraints. Agree with that?
It's true that you do want to get as much great equipment as you can possibly afford. Also true that it's great to have someone that can train your team. Truth is, we didn't have anyone like that in the church or the funds to pay for a sound technician on a weekly basis.. We found that it's a good idea to simply ask around for help. A local music store became a valuable free resource to us. We could call them or go in for help in selecting equipment and in working out problems that we were facing. One of the music store employees had a lot of experience with sound as a member of a local rock band. He came to a few of our services and worked with the system and the sound guys to resolve a few problems were having. In just a few services, he was able to give us some very helpful training
Any other words of advice for our readers?
A sound system is much more than just mics, amps, speakers, and cables. In my opinion, your system is as much an instrument of worship as the keyboard, the guitars, drums, etc. You really have to determine early on that your sound system is a vital part of your ministry. With that in mind, invest the money and time needed into purchase a good system, and encourage those who will operate it to get the training they need to make the most of it.
We thank Duane Adams and the team at Horizon Church for participating in this issue and sharing the challenges of a growing and mobile congregation. We're also pleased to report that in its new facility, all Horizon Church wireless mics are Shure. ULX handheld and lavalier mics. Duane Adams can be reached at duane@Horizonchurch.net.
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