At a time when churchgoing worldwide is on the decline, the stratospheric rise in attendance at Resurrection Life Church in Grandville, Mich., makes for a real study in contrasts.
Under the leadership of senior pastor Duane Vander Clok since 1984, this nondenominational Christian church has gone from 400 or so parishioners to serving thousands each weekend in every demographic–adults, children, teens, college-age, the elderly, as well as Spanish-speaking members from one main church campus and two satellite campuses. At present, weekend attendance hovers around 8,000 people, which puts them into the top 100 churches in the nation for attendance. In response to this kind of growth, the church walls had to expand as well. After mulling over growth plans for years, and really getting down the nitty-gritty for three–this newly-finished church expansion added 212,000 square feet of new space, features a 4,200-seat Worship Center with broadcast capabilities, a new 40,000-squarefoot, two-story structure that will serve as a nursery for babies and children up to 5 years old, as well as a bookstore and café. The Resurrection Life Church facilities now total 332,000 square feet of space.
This congregation views music as a very important part of their worship service. With a greater attention toward quality of sound, the church debuted their new Worship Center replete with a new million-dollar sound system on March 25 and 26 during what was termed a "soft opening" weekend. Over the course of event, more than 14,000 people came to attend services. The church dedication weekend is scheduled for April 29 and 30.
"Our pastor here has a vision and gave us the go-ahead to get in and get it done and make the sound the best we could make it," said Ken Reynolds, director of the Worship and Creative Arts Department. "Our music is pretty aggressive–probably more than most churches–and we needed a sound system that could handle that," Reynolds said. By "aggressive," he basically means that the church performs contemporary religious music in a church setting rather than traditional hymns accompanied by piano and organ. "We have full keyboards, a full brass section, guitar–the whole spectrum, we needed to be able to reproduce that," he said. They also have a 250-member choir.
Reynolds remarked that when the debut weekend was over, people commented on how "crystal clear" everything sounded. "It's like they could hear everything, every little detail," he said.
And if you've got the idea that it's only about music, you're not thinking big enough. "We have pretty diverse services," Reynolds said, telling a story about one service where an artist was positioned onstage with easel and brush, painting a picture. "We expanded the scope of this department, to include music, dance, even art," he said. "Our reasoning for that is that some people are touched by music, others are touched by movement and dance while others are moved artistically– so why couldn't that also be an expression of worship?"
"This church has grown so much in the last few years, it's just amazing," said Cliff Rosenberg, technical director. He, along with assistant Israel Ruiz and about 20 key volunteers, is what ensures sound as well as quality at the church and two satellite campuses where church services are held. "I'm basically the audio leader, but there are many volunteers working every weekend," he said, quick to emphasize that it takes many to get the entire job done. "I don't do all the nuts and bolts myself. I'm more of the 'vision' guy; there are many people other than myself who are clearly dedicated to making the church a better place."
Rosenberg, himself a musician, was one of several key people to help this church form its audio identity. After he and his wife, Lori, moved to the area from Texas, Rosenberg did a careful job of shopping around for a church that suited them, finding Resurrection Life Church. He started as a part-time drummer in the church band, and slowly got involved in other duties in 2001. At that point, just a couple of guys helped with audio at the church. Rosenberg volunteered on projects here and there until finally, in 2003, he was asked to take a paid position. Lori now works at the church as an assistant to Ken Reynolds.
Rosenberg served as the main audio coordinator for the expansion project and, with help from Acoustic Dimensions, Texas, was given the very daunting task of selecting all the audio equipment for the church expansion project.
"Acoustic Dimensions is one of the best consultants in the business for churches, it's a big part of what they do." Rosenberg said. "We really felt that when CEO Craig Janssen came to give a presentation, he really took time to really listen to our people on the leadership team. It's very difficult to make people feel like you're their only customer, but that's the way they made us feel. They caught a vision of the way we wanted to do things, and they ran with it."
When it came to making choices, "I wanted to stay in line with the vision of the church, but when it came to the equipment selection, I really wanted to look at things with the future in mind, along with the amount of finances that we had," to get the best possible system, he said.
Acoustic Dimensions' Robert Rose served as project manager on the job. "People who work in audio have opinions–and many of them have strong opinions–but we saw very eye-to-eye with Cliff, which made things work out really well," Rose said. "He was looking for a very straightforward, reliable but very robust system. He's extremely technically competent, but at the same time, he didn't want–or doesn't get lost in–the need to have the latest and greatest 'gee-whiz' gadget. He knows he's going to spend as much time on system upkeep and setup and just mundane things. So the system was designed with a bit more of a 'road' mentality than some of the permanent installations that we've done."
The main sanctuary originally had an analog console and basic speaker system, and that was about it. "They have some extremely talented musicians at the church. And those kind of people are the type who push systems to the very edge, and they demand a certain level of quality. They simply outgrew the system," Rose said. Add to it that this church does several services with music a week.
One of several customized designs crafted by Acoustic Dimensions' Ryan Knox, who did all the audio design and detail work on the project, the setup onstage–from a connectivity standpoint–is more like a touring setup. The platform has a lot of multi-conductor snakes, stage boxes, things that road shows use. "Permanent installs don't use these kinds of things as often," Rose said. So Rosenberg now is able to set up multiple bands without unpatching or disconnecting anything. "He can set up his midweek service and a completely separate set of inputs and not disrupt what he's got set up for a Sunday service," he said.
Rosenberg was very keen on acquiring DiGiCo consoles, one for Front of House, another for monitors and another in the production room. And any one console can run the entire system. "DiGiCo has a very interesting product, and it's the only one I thought really had the capability to do what we wanted it to–serve us in every room– and feel like I wasn't making a big compromise in one part," Rosenberg said.
Each console is a different size and makeup, geared to its individual space, but, said Rose, "From a user standpoint, they operate in a very similar manner, so training on them is pretty straightforward." Because these machines run on a MADI system, an AES standard digital format with 56 channels of audio on a single coax cable, at Front of House and in the studio, Cliff is able to take MADI and go into a single recording device. "So, from an infrastructure and termination standpoint, that made things really simple," Rose said. And, they can use DiGiCo stuff with other third-party, MADI-compatible equipment.
The consoles are capable of 160 channels of mix down and are interconnected with CobraNet, a fiberoptic ring, as opposed to traditional copper snakes. They have two full Pro Tools HD accel rigs and 96 tracks of Votari hard disc in the broadcast room that Rosenberg uses just to catch the worship services. "When we bought those machines, we knew we could bounce all those sessions all out to Pro Tools and after that, remix everything in Pro Tools or move them out in the opposite direction and not lose anything," Rosenberg said. "I'm getting to the point where I'm ready to test out some of this bidirectionality!"
Interestingly, Front of House is centrally located in Worship Center room. Literally. "I'm actually standing at the same level as the audience and mixing from among them," Rosenberg said. "And I really want to be a part of it, right there."
Another key element Acoustic Dimensions pushed for was an acoustical change in the room itself. "The room was pretty dead; it just wouldn't respond," Rose said. "There was no ceiling, per se, so there was concern that people wouldn't even be able to hear each other sing." Now, acoustical panels hang from the roof deck to help provide some sound return to the congregation.
"There are a surprising number of musicians in this church," Rosenberg said. "You can't do a big audio upgrade in a church that doesn't have, as a part of its vision, to reach people through music, specifically church music." As an audience member, or when someone's playing on stage, "it's an incredible moment between you and God," he added. "People are trying to give something back to God, here's what I've trying to convey to my guys: We may be back here pushing buttons, but we're also a part of all that as well. It's a completely symbiotic relationship."
