BACKGROUND

The challenge of founding a new church can be overwhelming. Yet in a year, Pastor Joshua Shank and his wife Aimee have grown Youngstown Metro Church in Boardman, Ohio to nearly 80 attendees for their primary Sunday night service. Youngstown Metro Church and Pastor Shank’s mission is worship outreach to the 104,000 18-34 year-olds in the greater Youngstown area. Pastor Shank’s experience includes a Masters degree in Biblical Studies and four years of student ministry with Summit Church in Durham, North Carolina.

THE CHALLENGE

Joshua knew he would need to go beyond traditional services to attract the younger audience to Youngstown Metro Church, so he incorporated a variety of multi-media into his sermons including audio and video. To a congregation consisting primarily of college students and young professional this nontraditional approach held appeal. However, even with more inventive materials and a high-level of technology integration, Pastor Shank still felt that the services were too static. There was always some loss of attention throughout the services.

Joshua thought that the one-way services were “about as interactive as a movie” with little to no congregation participation. He wanted a new approach. “I wanted to turn the worship experience into an interactive worship experience,” Joshua said.

THE SOLUTION

Pastor Steve Fortenberry from another local church, Common Ground Community Church, had experience with audience response systems and recommended Turning Technologies to Pastor Shank. After Joshua spoke with a Turning Technologies staff member he felt the wireless response pads and TurningPoint 2006, interactive PowerPoint^® software, could help him meet his goal of creating an interactive worship experience. With 75 IR (infrared) ResponseCards^® and a copy of TurningPoint 2006, Joshua began planning how to incorporate an audience response system into his services.

As an intermediate PowerPoint user, Pastor Shank was already familiar with presentation development. Yet the possibilities with TurningPoint encouraged him to re-think how he delivered sermons. Instead of a testing approach, Joshua uses questions to understand how his congregation is feeling. Pastor Shank said, “The key is to craft good questions.”

In developing each week’s sermon, Joshua considers what his congregation is interpreting, creates a unique question and anticipates both the expected and unexpected responses. For example, using a TurningPoint 2006 interactive slide, he may ask the congregation “How often do you feel guilty?” The questions and answers are subjective, focused on each individual. However, the TurningPoint results create a sense of community through the congregation. Using this audience response system to deliver key questions allows all of the church members to see that “they are not the only person going through something.” Pastor Shank feels that the Turning Technologies’ system, “helped to deal with some of the isolation people feel.”

THE RESULTS

Pastor Shank’s incorporation of Turning Technologies’ audience response system is breaking new ground in worship services. He felt its use increased communication with the congregation. Even getting response to event planning and bible study meeting dates became simple with TurningPoint 2006.

Turning Technologies’ audience response system proved to be a tool that could help Pastor Shank “turn the worship experience into an interactive worship experience.” Working with TurningPoint 2006 changed Joshua’s approach to his sermons. He stated, “I have to think interactively.”

Not only did TurningPoint change how Joshua approached his sermons, it changed how his congregation responded to his message. Joshua feels that TurningPoint 2006 interactive slides “pull you back into everything that’s going on.” When he asked his members how they felt about their experience with the clickers, “They all loved it.” Participation was close to 100% and “even the chronic sleepers stayed with the interactive questions. Throw in an interactive slide and everyone comes alive!”

For more information about purchasing or renting Turning Technologies’ audience response systems for your organization, contact us at 866-746-3015.