The worship environment - layout
This is really up to you. You need to think of:
- Lines of visibility
- Safety issues of access to exits
- Whether you want chairs, or have people sitting on the floor. (Cold stone floors can be tough going...) Remember that having NO chairs might be a bit age-ist or discriminatory against anyone in a wheelchair.
- What physical points of focus you require besides the screens - you need to take care that the whole service doesn't become an exercise in watching TV.
- What activities people are going to be doing during your service and how they're going to move in the space
- Whether you have any focus on a 'leader' - most alternative worship services don't, so the positioning and numbers of people guiding folk through the service is non-critical.
Common environmental techniques
- Using 'stations' as points of prayer and visual focus: these are small artistic installations, which may have art, poetry, interactive stuff (like writing), symbols (like water/handwashing), or something thematic about them. Usually people are at some point given a chance to visit them and partake in some act of prayer or devotion.
- Static image 'wash' - filling the space with images which don't change much - use your older slide projectors for this. It's arguable that a non-changing image should be very simple so as not to distract from more detailed stuff going up elsewhere. Logos, simple bits of writing, or basic symbols might be good for this, normally light on dark background so as not to affect the ambient lighting of the space.
- Ambient music - to give a mood to the place, without distracting the range of personal internal stuff that people might be processing.
- Coloured cloth or netting hanging from the ceiling - netting is nice because it can be hung across a projector beam and picks up a 'ghost' image of something that's being thrown onto a screen without interfering with the projected beam.
- Worship/Non-worship Space Demarcation - based on the idea that you have to go through a transitionary experience to really focus on worship. Some services guide people through a particular physical route before entering the worship environment, so that the worship space is set apart as 'special'. On the way in, people may remove shoes, wash hands, etc. to physically prepare themselves and focus before worship. This also makes the sense of being 'gathered together' very apparent.
- Ultra-violet light - available from most disco lighting suppliers. These mean that any white cloth (not off-white calico) shines brilliantly, even when the visible light isn't very bright. This can be particularly useful if you need people to be able to read something on white sheets of paper, or suddenly want to make white paper shapes shine out somewhere in the environment.
- A central sculpture - if you need a major point of focus. Can be made from all manner of temporary constructions. Someone in the group will enjoy making this!
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