Answer honestly (and comment below!): How do you view the House of Worship market? Is it a key part of your business? A market you service, but don’t see as ‘vital’? Or is it the market you’ve learned to avoid? We really do want to hear your answers, because we think this discussion will lead […]

I attend a lot of church conferences and I hear a lot of the same lamenting from smaller churches and church planters: “I wish we had the level of (A/V/L) technology that this church has…” as they stand inside a mega- or giga-church auditorium enjoying the tremendous time, talent and technology accumulated over years. Technology, […]

I want to start with an explanation and end with an apology. As a veteran of the A/V/L industry and the house of worship market as a former pastor, I wanted to express my thoughts on how a very small group of the overall church community has been lacking in attitude and actions towards the […]

We do our best to help you sell into the house of worship market, but sometimes you have to know which churches you shouldn’t try to sell. Chances are, you’ve experienced this: the “cheap church.” Understanding the church buyer sentiment is one of the new columns written expressly for those in the A/V/L industry who […]

It’s obvious that I love helping churches. The columns here in rAVe provide years of insight and experience in the hopes of helping manufacturers, systems integrators, rep firms and A/V/L dealers understand — and profit in — the house of worship market. I’ve shared about the future of the church space in previous articles about […]

There’s a booming segment of the house of worship market that is led by young, tech-saavy pastors looking to leverage audio, video and lighting in creative ways. This group is made up of new churches starting from scratch or new churches launched by either a “sending” church or denomination, with some funding to help kick […]

You made the sale to a church, then you moved on to the next sale. Hey, that’s the sales cycle, right? Yes, but it’s not the customer experience cycle, which is the real paradigm that affects your ability to make future sales. The importance of taking care of customers who have invested into your brand […]

Shiny things get our attention, but usually more as a distraction than as a valuable use of our time. Marketing, it seems, often leans towards this bent with the promise of “better, faster, cheaper.” But what if the point of marketing was for serving the user instead of just pandering to the user? Two articles […]

It’s safe to say that just about everyone researching a product or company likes a good case study. The story. The context. The technology. Oh yeah: the marketing spin. Have you noticed that the majority of “case studies”  covered in today’s trade publications are more hype and pull quotes than meaningful examples of need/challenge/solution? Surely […]

In the not-too-distant past, I knew of a systems integrator that boldly listed their “Top 10” clients on the back of their sales sheets. They were 10 churches that most pastors in the house of worship market would know. All were previous clients of this firm. The implied assertion of listing these ten churches was […]

Who do you sell to at a church? Who are the influencers and who makes the final budget decisions? From senior pastors to tech directors to volunteer leaders, churches have a wide range of influencers, recommenders and decision-makers. It’s important to understand when you’re talking to a buyer — or not — when working with […]

The forward march of technology has usually meant faster, better, cheaper. In addition to this axiom is a near-future trend for the house of worship market: immersive venues. When was the last time you sat with a close friend, in close proximity, for a very personal conversation? As your mind recalls this moment, chances are […]

Did you notice the word “church” in the company name below the person’s name on their InfoComm badge? A lot of churches showed up at InfoComm to see what’s next on the technology horizon that they can fit into their budgets for the next fiscal year. And a lot of them left with the Post-Infocomm […]

A presenter. A presentation. Audio. Video. Lights. Control. This is the staple scenario for corporate, education, government and military applications in our industry. In the house of worship market, it looks identical. A pastor. A sermon. Audio. Video. Lights. But no control. In any other market, giving the presenter a control solution — from a […]

In today’s rANts and rAVe’s, Gary Kayye interviews rAVe HOW [House of Worship] columnist Anthony Coppedge to get an update on where the house of worship market is. And, he not only offers tools and tips for selling systems to churches and other houses of worship, but also explains the value proposition pitch to the […]

It’s been said that video without lighting is just radio. The point being that it takes great lighting to make great video and a story isn’t complete without compelling audio (most of the time, at least). With YouTube stats setting records every year, we’re clearly a video-obsessed culture here in North America. It is no […]

By Anthony D. Coppedge House of Worship Technology Consultant The traditional sales pipeline and funnel effect says that the bigger the funnel at the top, the bigger the pipeline of leads. I’m not going to argue “sales physics,” but I will say that there is a unique dynamic in the house of worship market when […]

The terms “simple” and “technology” are often viewed as antonyms. From the intricate mechanisms of an analog wristwatch to the control of electrons to a light bulb, the point of most technology is to make operation so simplified that no effort is required on the part of the user to make it function correctly. In […]

One of the best things about the exponential advancement in technology is the steady march towards placing high-quality tools in the hands of more users. One of the worst things about the exponential advancement in technology is the steady march towards placing high-quality tools in the hands of more users. I have two decades of […]

Manufacturers, rep firms, consultants, integration firms and freelancers all attend the same shows, year after year with the differences between exhibit floors all a similar blur. Orlando. Las Vegas. Long Beach. Dallas. Atlanta. The cities change, but the conferences begin to take on a one-ness to those who regularly attend either as an exhibitor or […]

I’ve written about growth churches and mega churches in the past because they offer a lot of sales potential for Audio/Video/Lighting manufacturers and systems integrators. Fast growth = frequent sales opportunities. I’d put the majority of my marketing and sales resources there, no doubt. However, there’s something to be said for the other 90 percent-plus […]

By Anthony Coppedge The perfect church service, technically speaking, happens when no one says anything at all to the tech team after the service ends. That’s because when they do their job seamlessly, the technology both supported and enhanced the service in a way that did not draw attention to the technology. Things just worked and […]

By Anthony Coppedge Two is better than one, especially when it comes to mission-critical technology in churches. From the pastor’s mic beltpack to the projectors in each of the large venues to extra dimming modules for the architectural and stage lighting, having an active reserve of technology can mean the difference between a seamless service or […]

A pastor, reverend and priest. No, this isn’t the setup line for a joke, but the actual titles used across multiple church denominations for clergy. Before your marketing or sales teams try to sell into the house of worship market, it’s helpful to know who today’s — and tomorrow’s — influencers and decision-makers will be. […]

Panic. When a major equipment failure happens at a church during a service, it’s a natural reaction for both the operator and pastors to feel a sense of panic. As with any venue during a live event, major technical failures are a worst-case scenario. And like other venues, churches feel the pain just as acutely […]

By Anthony Coppedge As the multi-site church movement continues to expand like wildfire, another trend has quietly happened simultaneously, albeit with much less fanfare: multi-venue churches. Whereas the multi-site model has seen the most growth with large, well-funded churches, offering multiple services — or even multiple service styles — simultaneously has gained traction in even […]

By Anthony Coppedge Logically speaking, the prioritization of audio, video and lighting technologies in churches would be 1) audio; 2) lighting; 3) video. Interestingly, this is not always the case, and as integrators and manufacturers, it’s helpful to understand how churches prioritize technology (and why). Budgets and Priorities Considering the fact that nearly 95 percent […]

By Anthony Coppedge The use of a “sermon series” — typically denoting a themed topical study or a book of the Bible study — has grown in popularity across the majority of evangelical and Protestant churches. The idea is to bring up topics or book studies to bring people into the church. They’ve become so popular […]

By Anthony Coppedge There may not be any other vertical markets that use volunteers for mission-critical technical operations as much as churches. These well-intentioned, good-hearted volunteers are often put in charge of entire weekend service audio, video or lighting with often-minimal training and zero professional experience. The systems that are being installed into local churches are […]

By Anthony Coppedge The promise of ‘The Cloud,’ Internet-based software access and storage, has firmly taken root in both the desktop and mobile spaces. Even if people can’t easily articulate what ‘The Cloud’ means, they do know that their favorite companies, such as Google, Amazon and Apple, have made cloud-based services a big deal and an everyday occurrence. Churches, too, […]

By Anthony Coppedge There are entire industries that revolve around bid work. RFPs (request for proposals), submittals, revised bids, bid scope documents and bid contracts are all a part of this ecosystem and the A/V/L manufacturers, integrators and contractors are all well-familiar with the hassle of the bid. Bid work is not my favorite because it […]

Written by Anthony Coppedge Volunteers are the lifeblood of local churches. This is a permanent truth in the house of worship market, which places servant-leadership as a core part of their belief system. And while volunteers will always be an important part of churches, the technical demands of creating quality, distraction-free services and events will […]