Congregational Report on Vision Trip to Prairie Lakes Church

I took a trip with four members of the Leadership Board to Prairie Lakes Church in Cedar Falls, IA. The goal was to experience some of the creative ways they do church.



We arrived on Saturday night to watch them set up their night service, video record it, process the video and prepare it for presentation at their satellite church locations on Sunday morning.

Welcome to the Connection Station. A location similar to our resource table.




Opposite the sanctuary entrance is the eating and cafe area. Good news! They serve pizza on Saturday night! It smelled good but we kept ourselves under control and didn't eat it.




This is a panoramic shot of their sanctuary. It was an experience on the cutting edge of church worship technology.




It wasn't just a great service but we especially enjoyed the time we spent with Pastor Chris Rygh. He is their executive pastor. After the service, he spent a few hours answering our questions and sharing ideas.




After a late night of Q&A with Pastor Chris, we hit the Texas Road House for dinner and enjoyed double onion blossoms... also known as heart attack on a plate.




The next morning we traveled to one of their satellite locations in Waterloo, IA to watch how they set up and operate a satellite location via video. It was an early morning. The truck hitched to the trailer at 5:45 AM.




In little over an hour, they unloaded and set up a complete church with a children's ministry and full signage in the local high school!

Watch it unfold!






All church equipment is stored in rolling boxes on the trailers.




They transformed the local high school stage into a cutting edge worship environment.




The sound geeks among us enjoyed the technology!




50 questions for Pastor Chris on how things operate.




We were surprised to see a complete children's ministry as part of their satellite program.




Here is a panoramic shot of the children's center as it is assembled.





We were amazed at the attention to detail and professionalism that went into a satellite location.




Imagine a computerized child check in system for the children and security detail!






This is the location of their energetic youth program for children 5th grade and under. 6th grade and up joined the service.




Church was assembled and ready to go. Robert and I gave it a thumbs up and headed for breakfast!




33 seconds till church begins...




We exercised our critical thinking skills!




This was our first experience watching the preaching done by video. Surprisingly, it was better than we expected.




Ready to head back to Spirit Lake. We are tired after an early morning.




But before we came home, we had a chance to enjoy a little Dairy Queen. Nothing like something sweet to bring a great weekend to a close.

Thanks for allowing me the weekend away on this vision trip. This coming weekend, the Leadership Board will spent Friday night and Saturday morning on our Master Planning Retreat for the year. Our experience at Prairie Lake Church will help us think outside the box to reach our region with the gospel of Christ.

I look forward to seeing you on March 13th as we begin our new series in James!

Tags: Satellite Campus

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