EssentialChurchPlanting.com

Set Up Pics

Posted on 16. Feb, 2010 by Steve Swisher in Set Up

I remember when I was first starting out, one of the most difficult challenges we faced was figuring out how to set up our school cafeteria.  There aren’t many pictures out there on the internet of school set ups to pull ideas from. Keep in mind that the layout and environment is extremely important for church planters.

I have read studies that say that people decide if they like the church within the first 5-7 minutes of pulling in the parking lot. In other words, while they are sitting there in the room waiting for the service to start, they are deciding whether or not they’ll come back.

For us, we had a lot of stuff we needed to cover up so we had a lot of pipe-n-drape. We had a bunch of used maroon curtains from a previous church plant and added some black curtains up around the stage. Some of the hurdles we had to overcome in the room were:

1. a low ceiling which eliminates the possibility of a center screen over or behind the band.
2. a stage that was high and small.
3. florescent lighting that had three settings: full brightness, third brightness, off.
4. entry to the room was in the front left which meant that people who came in late would be entering the room for all to see
5. narrow room which only allowed for 6-8 seats on either side of the center aisle.

Some of the things we did in the room were to put lighting trees on either side of the room, 9 ft high, with three par 64 cans on each tree stand. We went with rear projection screens on either side of the stage. The reason they aren’t the exact same size is because we got one for free from another church plant. We put some pipe-n-drape up in front of the entrance to make a little bit of a hallway on the left side of the room so that when people came in late, it wasn’t so distracting.

Related posts:

1. One Life Set Up Pics
2. Location Check List
3. Halloween Outreach Ideas
4. Easy Roadside Banner Setup
5. Fishers of “Men”

Tags: Set Up