The Kirk, based in Tulsa, OK, is an evangelical church with a large focus on local and international outreach. The Kirk was founded 50 years ago and has two campuses, Kirk of the Hills and Kirk Crossing.  Construction was recently completed on Kirk Crossing, which is in Jenks, OK, a suburb of Tulsa.  The Kirk’s mission statement is ‘Transformed by Christ to Transform the World.’  We believe that in order to fulfill this we must follow Biblical teachings and first transform ourselves before effecting change without.

The Kirk is unique in the way worship is presented. At the Hills Campus, we have both a traditional and a contemporary worship space, and we run both concurrently.  Each offer different music presentations (choir vs. a worship band), and also a different pastor in each venue.  Our Crossing Campus offers contemporary worship, also with a live pastor. We have four pastors on staff; our Senior pastor who oversees everything for both campuses, a campus pastor for both the Hills and Crossing locations, and a fourth associate pastor responsible for small groups, bible studies, etc.

I believe that we have a great story to tell, and the duty to tell that story to the best of our abilities, so quality AVL is important to me.  Our pastors need to be heard and they also need to be seen, which means lighting is paramount.

At our Hills campus, we replaced all of our older tungsten lighting with LEDs about four years ago.  We decided to do this after looking at our cost of ownership, taking into account maintenance and bulb replacement, HVAC costs to keep the heat down in the facility, and overall energy costs. Before making the move, we tested out a Martin MAC 101 WRM, hanging it beside our old PARs.  Even running the MAC 101 WRM at 25% brightness, it was hands-down far superior to the PARS it quickly replaced.  Coupling that performance with the cost savings in ownership, the decision to change to all LED fixtures was an easy one.

It wasn’t difficult to introduce the Martin lights into our traditional space at The Hills campus. We had to retrofit a little bit and add a couple of circuits, but because the amount of power needed for the system was so much less, not many changes were needed.  Because our contemporary space at The Hills campus was newer and the power infrastructure had been designed differently, it was very easy to add the Martin LEDs to our system.

Our Crossing facility is a modern “performance” style space where technology is used heavily to support our ministry vision.  When we started discussing lighting, we knew LEDs were the only option.  Because we were already familiar – and very happy – with the Martin LEDs we were using at our Hills campus, we decided to implement a lighting package that was 100% LED for the stage.

The benefits to running LED fixtures across all campuses are apparent: the lights run cooler, which is a plus to our worship team and pastors, they are very bright, while consuming very little power, and Martin Professional Lighting by HARMAN provides us with the best possible way to ensure the message is seen as well as heard with stage lighting that helps create a impactful and dynamic atmosphere for worship.

Chris Pyron is Technical Director and FOH Audio Engineer for The Kirk in Tulsa, OK  www.thekirk.com