We live in a world that oftentimes sends us the message that the little things don’t really matter.
Yet you, as a church architect, AVL designer, consultant or systems integrator, know that nothing is further from the truth. The little things do matter-first and foremost because they make the big things (the building and even the church as a brand and a whole) work and excel at their purposes. As a journalist and editor, I understand this, too.
Your architectural, infrastructural and systems designs must work together in a seamless and cohesive way, both visually and operationally, with a myriad of infinitesimal details. You can’t just slap them together and call it a day, unless you want a very unhappy client that has a space and systems that are unusable or at least very difficult to use. Similarly I can’t slap together a magazine that’s not cohesive, well thought out, with clear road maps and associations to help you digest and enjoy the information-and its got to be solid information that’s factually accurate to the best of my ability. The information has to fulfill our editorial mission of helping you understand and design churches better for your clients, including very heavily those technology-filled “Worship Spaces” that many of you ranked in our 2016 Reader Survey as No. 1 on the list of components you were attending to in your current and most recent church projects. The No. 2 item you reported was “AVL Design Upgrades.”
It’s the little things, all working hand-in-hand, that make the world of a worship space go round-and-round. This May/June 2017 issue of Church Designer is devoted to looking at a number of crucial cogs in the overall issue’s wheel of “Church Technical Upgrades.” You’ll find a technology update on the use and industry movement of LED theatrical and architectural lighting in “The LED Continuum” by reporter/writer Jim Kumorek. You’ll encounter a feature on specifying microphones as part of a larger sound system design in journalist Dan Danley’s “Don’t Drop the Mic." And you’ll encounter a wealth of knowledge and advice on selecting loudspeakers for church clients in writer/reporter Rachel Hayes’s “Sound Advice on Specifying Loudspeakers.” These are just a few of the stories you won’t want to miss this issue.
Soak it all in, or read just the stories and snippets you find use for and have time for. Bit by bit, piece by piece, tiny little detail by tiny little detail, we’re working side by side-sometimes literally but oftentimes figuratively-to make churches work as a larger whole. And this is a noble endeavor worth every split second.
Blessings,
Carol Badaracco Padgett
