This week we opened the Building Fund to receive contributions for a 'Lighting, Video & Stained Glass Capital Campaign.' This campaign will be open through July 31st.
Here are more details for your consideration.
Lighting/Video
Coming into 2020 we knew that adding video was an important step for us. Video serves as Norkenzie’s ‘front door’ on the website. In December we began live streaming our services using Facebook Live and discovered that it met a real need for some in our church family.
The current COVID-19 pandemic has added more weight to the idea, showing the need and the opportunity. We began the process with Rain Pro Media in March 2020. These are the people who installed our sound system back in 2007. The result will be streaming Norkenzie worship services online with integrated lighting and sound.
In the past 3 months we have developed Norkenzie Online to gather the church together for worship and teaching. As we begin returning to Sunday morning in-person worship gatherings in the next few weeks, there will be many who benefit from the church continuing to offer Norkenzie Online. These digital tools are needed for outreach in this culture and, if used correctly, will lead people to the beautiful and powerful analog expression of the local church. The digital culture creates people's need for the real, analog relationships of God’s family more than ever.
Stained Glass
In the livestream to come, the stained glass will be the background. Currently it is bright and broken in its symmetry. Fixing the glass will turn it from a distraction into a piece of beautiful art.
Two years ago we updated the stage, revealing the stained glass at the front of the sanctuary. For 30+ years the glass was hidden behind 2 curtains and the projection screen. Exposing the glass was wonderful, but there was a downside. At some point prior to 1970, a section of the glass was broken by a rock or BB gun and not replaced with the same kind or color of glass, making the stained glass window unsymmetrical. (If you haven’t noticed, sorry to point this out to you. Once you have noticed, you can’t un-see it!) It is easy to understand how covering the window those many years ago was not a difficult decision to make.
This capital campaign will, at a minimum, make the stained glass window symmetrical again. What we dream of is to make the glass a beautiful piece of art that draws people into the worship of Jesus. Think rivers, trees, mountains, the nations, the heavens… not all of these, necessarily. We have met with a local stained glass artisan who will work with us to create the piece. The stained glass window is above the baptistry, so there’s a natural tie in with water, so that is promising. We do have two beautiful rivers where we live.
Thank you for considering this worthy project. Here's the direct link to donate.
