Over the years, Churchfront has tasked itself with touring and interviewing some of the most influential churches of our age, giving our audience a behind-the-scenes look at how the technology of these churches enables their ministries.
Now, it’s time to approach these tech tours with more space to breathe and think about why specific systems, philosophies, and approaches are adopted by churches. And we think the best way to do this is by breaking down tech tours into a series of episodes. So, this is post one of many to come in which we will break down the technology ministries of churches.
In this series, we will be jumping into the life and ministry of The Belonging Co. in Nashville, Tennessee.
Who is The Belonging Co.?
Presence over presentation. Intimacy over industry. People over position. Encounter over entertainment. Jesus over everything.
This is The Belonging Co.’s heartbeat.
The church began with their lead pastors, Henry and Alex Seeley, opening up their home for worship in 2012 after taking a leap of faith and moving from their home of Melbourne, Australia to Nashville, Tennessee. Their hearts were drawn to those who didn’t have a church home because of the fluid schedule of so many whose lives revolved around a touring schedule. By the Lord’s grace, he drew a people together, and The Belonging Co. began.
Now, The Belonging Co. holds services at two campuses along with its online ministry, has a thriving worship ministry, and even offers college degree programs for students.
For the purposes of this blog, The Belonging Co. also prides itself with a unique approach to how they steward their technology uses. From their building design to their philosophies, their tech approach has paved the path for all of their other ministries to thrive.
Who is Sean Loche?
Before diving in, meet Sean Loche.
Sean is the Executive Creative Pastor at The Belonging Co., and his role is to oversee the worship, music, production, communication, and events to ensure each team is cared for and functioning at their highest capacities.
Sean’s highest goal as he leads his team is to create space in the church for a clear and undistracted encounter with Jesus. This means intentionality and an attitude of constant heart-checking to ensure the focus is on Jesus instead of any person or thing.
Although much of the content of this post is re-written to be more readable, this content comes from an interview between Jake and Sean, and the entire interview can be watched above.
The Vision
At the most basic level, the goal of The Belonging Co. is to foster an encounter with Jesus without distraction. It’s not about production for the sake of production, but what is produced is the result of intentionality and a Spirit-centered philosophy.
The room doesn’t hold the highest-end tech gear across the board. Instead, the focus is on stewardship, intentionality, and efficiency. Some gear is entry-level. Some is not. But it’s not about the latest and greatest tech; it’s about helping people to encounter Jesus.
The Building
Before acquiring the building The Belonging Co. currently uses, the space was used as a medical distribution center. After purchasing the space, The Belonging Co. brought in an integration company named Diversified, and they helped design the space in a way that would remove distractions and keep things minimalistic.
The result of their work is staggering.
Every element of the building is simple, yet artistically intentional. Loche likened the approach to that of church designs hundreds of years ago where stained glass windows, architecture, and other artistic elements of churches worshipped God and pointed to God through its art.
Although technology has changed how art is portrayed, The Belonging Co. sought to embody a similar approach to its own design. One example is the way one specific back hallway of the church building was designed, a hallway that most will never even see. This hallway holds photographs taken by a church member that tell the story of Psalm 23 through photos. It’s subtle, yet intentional.
The Architecture of the space itself is intentional, too, lending itself to fostering the dream scenario for a worship tech nerd. The production, worship and creative departments weren't an afterthought in the building and design process. Instead, it was a core part of their strategy.
The floor plan is laid out with great care. The worship auditorium is right next to the post-production suite where the broadcast studio is held for mixing audio. There is also a separate studio for cutting the broadcast video. There are a few other offices, and one of them is even dedicated to editing photos and videos that for social media.
Strategy in Using Technology
The Belonging Co.’s strategy for using their technology in worship is to track absolutely everything. This means using multiple cameras and recording multi-tracks in Pro Tools for every single service.
The reason for capturing everything in every service is so that, at any moment, the production team can choose a cut they like, mix it, and produce it. This is how every live album is made, like The Belonging Co.’s new “See the Light.” Capturing and producing this way eliminates any effort to manufacture true and authentic worship. Instead, the authentic worship is captured all the time, and the reactions and emotions are real.
The Belonging Co. runs 8 cameras, all capturing in 4K, so that is a massive amount of data. In order to process and access the data quickly, they run Synology servers. This provides seamless integration. No importing required. All of the mixing is done in Pro Tools so that all of the processing can be done quickly without extra steps.
All of this technology is integrated into the church building with great care, and it provides not just those in the room with an encounter with Jesus, but also with those viewing the services around the world.
Wrapping up
This wraps up this first post in The Belonging Co. Worship Tech Tour series! Keep an eye out for future posts in this series, and remember to check out The Belonging Co. for yourself, including their newest live worship album, “See The Light.”
As always, we hope this post brings fruit to your worship tech ministry at your church and, ultimately, that Jesus is made big in your church because of it.