Facility Tour: North Coast Church

In 2005 I went to the Video Venue Conference at North Coast Church. North Coast was the church that pioneered the video venue church, now a part of quite a number of large churches that are multi-site. I was part of a church that was starting a video venue so we went down to check it out.

The first impression of a church is often its entrance or parking signs. North Coast had clear signage.

Then we headed to the main building. I was prepared ahead of time as someone told me to prepare to be underwhelmed. It was a bunch of business park buildings.

But at least the signage was clear as to where to go!

We headed into the entrance.

And in the lobby there was a resource center.

A closer look at the resource center.

Here’s the hallway. The entrances had clear signage.

Example of signage.

The live venue is where they record and broadcasting the video to all the venues. It’s the largest room they have.

We actually checked it out earlier for the conference. It was all dark so I used my night setting mode. This was the stage.

And here’s the room before the chairs were all stacked. As you can see, it’s not a very large room… thus their need to expand through use of video venues.

I’m always fascinating by lighting. Here’s the lighting they had. Wow, that’s just about as many lights as we have!

Another area was the activity center, where there were other venues.

The venues had different types of music. The Edge was a little more cutting edge in terms of music.

Awnings marked the entrances.

There were booths that marked the children’s ministry entrances.

The resource center was outdoors.

These were cool portable carts for books and resources.

Information booth was clearly marked.

Refreshment booth.

Entrance to the video cafe.

Inside of the video care.

Coffee inside.

Video camera in the back.

This was an interesting and useful feature. They installed a curtain on a track that could be pulled over once the service began. This prevented distraction from the door opening and closing and light flashing in and out.

There was also a Traditions venue that sang hymns. I didn’t take any pictures though.

This was the inside of the Edge service.

Here’s the stage.

I think the rigging on the right was for speakers but I can’t remember.

Here’s a photo during the service. The place was packed!

There was a stoplight at the back for the worship leader to know when to end. When the light went red it meant the video was about to start. Having led worship for a video venue, I know how tricky timing can be. As a worship leader, you have to end by a certain time if the video is streaming live! The stoplight must be a very handy tool.

This was what was up on the walls.

It was kind of dim so here was a shot in night mode. I can’t remember what the tables were for. The facility appeared to be used for many different purposes.

There were sofas on the side.

I think this was the same area but now I can’t remember.

I think this was another venue.

Children’s ministry room.

The entrance to the children’s ministry had nametags hung up.

We went down to visit one of the offsite campuses, Roosevelt Campus. I noticed online that they no longer have a Roosevelt Campus. Back then I believe it was in start-up mode and meeting at a school.

There was a station for people who took the shuttle. I can’t remember where the shuttle was from though.

This was the entrance.

Inside was a check-in area for the kids. Everything had to be set up every week because they were at a school. You can see the portable nature of everything at this site.

Refreshment stand.

Refreshment table.

I took a picture of the sign because we were going to use the same types of boxes.

A sign showed who the teacher and worship leader was for the day.

There were stands nearby the entrances where the ushers stood.

Here’s a random picture. I can’t remember what premier north meant but if you took the shuttle, they would give you a shuttle sticker. (I think. Or maybe that was at another church later. This is the problem with writing blogs 6 years later!)

North Coast’s philosophy is that their bar is 80%. They don’t go for 100% excellence in everything because they have such a wide volunteer base that leads all the services. They have defined 80% as their bar (or did back then… no idea if this is true now). It’s a philosophy that works well, as they have not only developed many venues, but also had a low staff ratio considering all the venues they were running. I was really impressed by the simplicity of their philosophy and the health and strength of the church!

Advertisement

~ by Angela Yee on February 23, 2011.