By Brandon Lemons
Friedens Church is funded by the generous contributions of the church family. Throughout my twelve years of serving as Friedens’ Senior Pastor, I have taken this seriously. To me, it is very important to use the church’s money wisely, because it is entrusted to the church by the church family, and it is ultimately God’s money.
With this in mind, I’d like to take a few minutes to celebrate our new projector and screen in the sanctuary, along with the behind-the-scenes process that includes major cost-savings.
First, let me make a few comments about the value of this project. The new projector and screen provide a massive improvement in brightness and clarity, which is valuable since the projected image is a key part of our experience in worship services –for music lyrics, sermons, videos, and more. In recent months, we’ve received complaints about people struggling to see lyrics due to the dim image, which highlighted a problem that Friedens’ staff had recognized for quite some time – that our old projector was nearing the end of its life. Like other technology, projectors have life spans. Not only are the new projector and screen brighter and clearer, but they also take advantage of the 16:9 aspect ratio that has become standard for video.
Now, let’s move on to the stewardship aspect of this project. We did the project ourselves, which saved the church lots of money! This excites me nearly as much as the benefits of the new projector and screen! Back in 2019, when we were entering the big building project, we were having some A/V work done. So we requested an estimate for a new projector/screen in the sanctuary. We didn’t pursue that part of the project in 2019 because of budget constraints. But comparing that estimate to what we actually spent here in 2021, we spent 60% less by doing it ourselves! That is thousands of dollars in savings! It feels good to save the church money, because we desire to be good stewards of the money the congregation entrusts to us.
I also enjoy the backstory of this project, which I’ll share now. I am friends with the evangelical pastors in the area. Pastor John Timothy from New Life Church in Grafton has major experience with A/V systems and has offered to help local churches on their A/V projects. John came to Friedens a few months ago to discuss options, and he referred us to a salesperson who gave us a great deal on the projector and screen. John also gave us ideas for cost-savings in other parts of this project. He was planning to help with the installation, but we discovered that we really just needed the direction and confidence John gave us, and we were able to do the installation ourselves. Dane Barber did the vast majority of the installation (which was great since he has a significant A/V background and is a skilled handyman), and I helped out here and there. While it’s not expedient or wise to do all of the church’s projects in-house, this was one that worked out great.
I am thankful for the new projector and screen. It paid dividends on its first Sunday (this past Sunday); we had a missionary talking about his family’s ministry, and he used 20+ graphics and photos to help us understand and envision their ministry. Those graphics and photos would have been useless with the old projector; but with the new one, we could see them well!
Thank you for your faithful and generous support of God’s work through Friedens Church. Your contributions help fund everything from projectors to missionaries, from the Bibles that were distributed to children on Sunday to the ministries that invest in the spiritual growth of our congregation and community. Thank you!