Anthony Coppedge is an audio/visual specialist with a mission. While his interests and expertise include projector bulbs, lighting plans and sound boards, he is also concerned about the broader interests of churches using multi-media. He doesn't want to help churches be hip with the latest screens, video and strobes. Instead he wants to use multi-media to help churches fulfill their purposes — so they can grow and be healthy.

"Unlike other church media consultants, people who do designs for church audio, etc., I want church leadership to understand the value of media as a ministry and more than a support tool," Coppedge said.

Coppedge can do the same A/V work as other A/V consultants. He is a certified technology specialist. "In the A/V industry I’m a CTS," Coppedge said, a designation that indicates education and experience.

Coppedge worked in audio/visual integration firms and media ministry for years and continues to serve as a volunteer in one of the largest media ministries in the world at his home church, Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas.

But he wants to do more for churches. Coppedge has been sharing his skills and knowledge of the industry with others through speaking and writing about audio and visual technologies since 1995. But it was in June 2003 that he became a full-time consultant.

Coppedge said he wanted to become a church consultant to fill what he saw as a void in the industry and in churches not large enough to have their own technology department or ministry.

"I decided there’s just not enough support for people who want to do media. [Churches] see the mega churches with broadcast ministries, but that doesn’t really apply to 300-member churches," he said.

Coppedge said for churches to be effective, and for their technology to be effective, the reasoning behind its implementation must be considered first.

"I can help people understand the application of the technology. That’s easy. The hardest part is the 'why.'"

In today’s church culture that "why" may not even be a question, since so many churches have jumped on the bandwagon to add slides, stage lighting and screens.

One recent estimate suggests some 60 percent of all North American churches now use screens during worship services. Considering that the size of the average church hovers around 100, the number of screens seems particularly high.

Coppedge said the biggest mistake he sees now is with image magnification, or I-mag screens. "Churches want to put their pastor on the screen because that’s what they do at the big church. For smaller churches that becomes distracting rather than enhancing."

He cautions churches against copying mega churches. "There are several flaws with that," he said.

Coppedge consults with churches to find the best multi-media solutions for their particular vision and needs. That’s about technology, he said, but so much more. "We’ve got to get the pastors to understand the value."

"When we turn it around from being equipment focused to being purpose focused, that gives [churches] an opportunity to be good stewards in how they are spending that money."

And it is a lot of money. Coppedge estimates 8 percent to 12 percent of a building budget is for the basic A/V system. "Some spend more," he said, but again, he wants to know why. Why, however, is a foreign question to many churches.

While smaller churches may be inspired by the multi-media at mega churches, church media consultant, Anthony Coppedge cautions them to consider their own purposes.

So Coppedge consults with pastors about the vision for the church in order to provide a solution to integrate media into the fabric of who the church is.

"I want to know what a pastor wants to do," he said. "Rather than an ‘I need a new projector,’ mentality, this is about using media to support the role of the church."

Coppedge said there is a big demand for A/V consulting. But as an A/V consultant with an eye toward church health, he said, "I’m very unique in that role. I literally am the only person doing what I’m doing." Ideally, however, multi-media should not be separated from the church's purposes.

"There’s plenty of work for church media," he said. Church leaders are interested in A/V for preaching and for music but are "clueless about technology." Coppedge said most often church leaders must also be educated to consider the using church health considerations in their multi-media decisions. Often multi-media can become a solution to a church health problem.

"The media goes well beyond the tech team," he said. He tries to implement a complete approach with media, to accommodate the pastor’s message, worship and music, and the bulletin or printed materials, etc. "That takes it beyond how to make technology better, to what is the weekend experience. I look at the entire implementation of media."

Coppedge said the power of media in that way is conspicuously missing in church. He compares multi-media to contemporary language and argues that using screens, lights and sound to communicate today is the equivalent of speaking the language of the common people, as Jesus did in his day. "We have to be able to engage people where they are," he said.

Multi-media is "inarguably the format of our culture." Coppedge said that idea is usually not a difficult sell.

Establishing a name

Coppedge is working to establish his name so that more churches will approach him with technical questions. Typically volunteers contact him.

He tends to work primarily with 350-800-member churches, because he said at that size churches are growing and working to implement changes in their equipment. He also works with larger churches of 750 to 1,500 members.

"I’m passionate about this. This is my God-called mission. He’s blessed it."

Editor's note: Anthony Coppedge may be reached at anthony@anthonycoppedge.com.