New Creation Los Angeles
Glendale, CA
Summary
New Creation Church was a new church plant, with a very limited budget and few attendees. The founding pastor, Dan Myers, was the only staff member and was solely responsible for planning, developing, and presenting Sunday morning worship each week. This was a task that took many hours and was inefficient because he had to use his wife’s personal computer whenever it was available. The new church could not afford expensive software programs and computers.
Risen Media solved several of his problems at once. Risen Media is a subscription based software that is very affordable. Risen Media is a Cloud based program that has every tool necessary to develop worship and sermons. The program can be accessed and used on any simple device. Risen Media is very simple to set-up and use on Sunday mornings, something essential to a church that was using temporary spaces. Risen Media allowed Pastor Myers to increase collaboration with his worship and tech volunteers. Overall, Risen Media made Pastor Meyer’s Sunday morning planning and presentations easier.
THE CHURCH
New Creation Church is a new church plant in Glendale, California under the Presbyterian Church of America (PCA). It was established in 2016 with just Pastor Myers and his family attending. They were in temporary facilities, requiring Sunday morning set-up and take down. They now have a permanent facility with an average attendance of about 90 attendees each Sunday. For much of their history, the annual budget was about $150,000.
THE PROBLEM
When New Creation Church started in 2016, they were a small church that met in temporary locations. This required significant set-up each Sunday morning, including the complexities of setting up the tech needs for worship and sermons projections. They needed an affordable, simple, and flexible way to develop and present worship each Sunday, but did not have the budget to invest in expensive programs or computer hardware. Pastor Myers was referred to Risen Media by a trusted minister, who felt that their program would fix their problems.
THE RISEN MEDIA RESPONSE
Around 2021, The Risen Media founders and developers, Michael-Paul Terranova and Arbi Stepanian met Pastor Myers at his temporary facility. They explained many advantages of the Risen Media software program, including the accessibility and adaptability of the Cloud based program, the ease of use, and the simple set-up. The Risen Media staff showed him how to connect the Risen Media Software through an Amazon Fire TV Stick to the television in the rental space. He saw that no computers, projectors or screens were needed, According to Pastor Myers, “The minute I saw how easy the set-up was I was hooked.”
THE RISEN MEDIA IMPACT
Risen Media Save Him Valuable Time: Since 2021, Pastor Myers has used Risen Media to plan and present his worship services. For most of the church history, this was something he had to do without the help of others. He had to borrow his wife’s personal computer to develop the Sunday morning program, and use it to project the worship and sermon slides. Because Risen Media is a Cloud based program, it immediately provided him with simplicity and accessibility because he could do everything in just one software, and from any location through a WIFI connection. The Bundle feature made the process of putting the worship service program much faster and easier, because it only required one software and was accessible in one place. The accessibility and features saved him valuable time each week.
Risen Media Made Set-Up Easier: New Creation Church had to set-up and take down their church each Sunday because they were meeting in schools or the Moose Lodge. This is a labor intensive process that includes setting up computers, screens, and projectors, running wires and taping down extension cords. However, Risen only required a television, an Amazon Fire TV Stick and a remote control to use. The ease of set-up and use was instrumental in the years when his church was using temporary locations, saving him and his volunteers many hours in set-up time. Now that he is in a permanent building, he will use the WIFI access and multiple screen features Risen Media offers, further simplifying and improving his worship service presentations.
Risen Media Saved the Church Money: Using Risen Media also saved the church money. The subscription program was affordable and he did not have to purchase expensive hardware. Being able to develop and present a professional quality worship service at the fraction of the price of other programs, was essential for a new church plant with a limited budget.
Risen Media Facilitated Collaboration: Using Risen Media is allowing a more collaborative process working with worship and tech volunteers. Risen Media allows his volunteers and staff to work on the presentation at the same, or at different times, from their own locations. Pastor Myers shared that last minute changes can be made to worship songs and sermon slides in a moment and everyone will see the changes and have access.
The Risen Media Staff is Accessible and Helpful: Pastor Myers found the Risen Media staff extremely responsive to his needs and questions. The Risen Media staff created tutoring videos exclusively for him to help him learn the program. They have shown up at New Creation Sunday services to make sure everything was running smoothly. As he said, “I just like working with these guys.”
CONCLUSION
New Creation Church is a great example of how Risen Media is fulfilling its mission to provide churches with a software program that will make “Sunday Mornings Easier”. Using Risen Media at New Creation Church has improved the process of developing Sunday worship service presentations, save the church many hours of time, has been cost effective, and has increased collaboration. New Creation Church has already experienced these benefits and the benefits will only increase as their church grows and they access the many features offered in Risen Media.