First Baptist Church of Fillmore
Fillmore, CA
Summary
First Baptist Church of Fillmore is a church with a long tradition and history that saw significant attendance decline in the past decade. It is now a church in transition and rebirthing itself under new leadership, building back attendance and budget. The new leadership quickly embraced the benefits of using Risen Media as their worship service planning and presentation platform because of its affordability, accessibility to volunteers, and the rich libraries of creative images and music.
THE CHURCH
First Baptist Church of Fillmore is located in Fillmore, California, a rural community outside of Los Angeles. It is a member of the Southern Baptist Conference.Due to many factors, including the pandemic, the attendance dwindled to five faithful seniors who “would not quit.” After years of faithful leadership from Senior Pastor George Golden, the decision was made to transfer the leadership of the church to a younger Senior Pastor. Pastor Ken Castellanos became the Senior Pastor in April 2024. The average Sunday morning attendance has steadily increased to an average of 50 people per Sunday, and is growing.
THE PROBLEM
Like many smaller and struggling churches, First Baptist Church of Fillmore does not have the staff or budget to invest in the software and technology needed to plan and present a professional quality Sunday worship services program. Katie Harrold has served as the Volunteer Technology Coordinator for about 2 ½ years. It has been her sole responsibility to put together and present the worship service, including projecting worship and sermon slides. To accomplish this weekly task, Katie had to use a complicated software program and computer that were at the church, significantly hindering her flexibility. She had to arrive at the church early on Sunday morning to get everything loaded into the computer and prepared for the service. This created weekly anxiety and tension.
THE RISEN MEDIA RESPONSE
Katie was introduced to the Risen Media software by Associate Pastor Ken Castellanos. Pastor Castellanos attended a presentation about Risen Media software and immediately saw the advantages it offered. He asked Katie to learn the program so it could be used as the regular platform for Sunday morning services. Risen Media became their platform in January 2024.
Risen Media developers, Michael-Paul Terranova and Arbi Stepanian met with her at the church and quickly set-up the program. Katie immediately saw that the Risen Media interface was similar to other programs and quickly learned how to use the software by “just playing in the program.” She took advantage of the video tutorials and participated in the weekly webinars provided by Risen Media.
Katie was especially appreciative that the Risen Media staff were available to her “day or night” to answer questions. When she was under pressure to provide a video for an unexpected memorial service, the Risen staff helped her solve the problem immediately.
THE RISEN MEDIA IMPACT
Risen Media Provided Accessibility: Katie no longer had to go to the church during the week to prepare and load the program. The cloud based accessibility offer by Risen Media allowed her to develop the program from any location. That dramatically reduced her stress and tension on Sunday mornings.
Risen Media Helped Volunteers Serve: Katie has trained church volunteers to run the program each Sunday. She shared that her volunteer “tech guy” is a construction worker who is “not good with computers”, but was able to quickly learn how to use Risen Media. Because Risen Media is easy to learn and use, she is training other volunteers so she no longer has the sole responsibility to run the program on Sunday mornings. Thanks to Risen Media, she could miss a Sunday if necessary. This has all made her responsibilities much easier every week.
Risen Media Saved the Church Money: Using Risen Media also saved the church money. The Risen Media subscription program was affordable because the church did not have to purchase expensive software or hardware. Being able to develop and present a professional quality worship service at the fraction of the price of other programs, is an important factor as this church rebuilds and welcomes a younger, more media savvy congregation.
Risen Media Features are Improving the Sunday Morning Presentation: Katie and Pastor Castellanos immediately recognized the amazing features offered in the Risen Media program. They have already utilized the count-down clock, the variety of worship slide backgrounds, the worship and image libraries. As they expand their technology, they look forward to using the video features, the green screen feature for streaming, and the side-slide feature.
The Risen Media Staff is Accessible and Helpful: Katie and Pastor Castellanos felt very supported by the Risen Media staff, who were extremely responsive to their needs and questions.
CONCLUSION
First Baptist Church of Fillmore is a great example of how Risen Media can help a church transition during a time of rebuilding. As younger leadership utilizes the technology and features provided by Risen Media, they are quickly becoming more efficient in planning and more effective in their presentations. They demonstrate how easy it is to transition from programs that were used for years, to the new and better Risen Media software. The responsiveness of the Risen staff, the tutorials, and the webinars all made this process easy and seamless.