So where would they use...?
Sure, there's often village halls - but they're frequently booked on a Sunday morning for other events, often block-booked. Does the church take priority over those? Even if they're habitually better attended?
What about where development isn't practicable or profitable? There's frequently old chapels for sale around these parts, often very cheap - and they usually hang around for ages, since they're just not easily developable.
Churches don't just function on Sundays.
Indeed. Weddings, christenings, funerals.
All bigger than the village hall will stand, and - in the case of weddings, particularly - the traditional church is what's being sold most of the time, in competition with pubs/hotels/statelies/etc etc.
I was thinking more of the things like Alpha, Mother's Union, Men's Christian Fellowship, Youth Clubs, etyc.
A well run church these days can be more of a community centre used for a lot more than religion. And in older parts of a town there may be no other suitable buildings. Of course they may have to get additional income to survive.
Quite.
Move to a smaller church?
Sell the existing to sympathetic developers?
It's all in the quotes above.
They're the kind of thing that could easily be moved to the village hall
- and, even where there is a church, often is to make them less "intimidating".
It's the church I attended when a kid - and Sunday school filled the hall.
This Sunday, I'm told, there were two at Sunday School. Mother and daughter - mother being the 'teacher'.
The Youth Fellowship was popular too. Dunno when it closed.
why should the church, which has it's own premises, have to pay for somewhere else?
This may depend on the Vicar/Rector/Minister.
FWIW a noise cancelling mic should make a real difference to feedback
NT
Swallowing a mic doesn't go well with the image of a minister. Especially with an elderly congregation. It also requires skill to use, whereas clipping on a personal radio mic is convenient.
what is, of course, even better is a headset mic which stays in front the mouth. Clip-on ones can suffer when the speaker turns his/her head.
The real issue with religion in this country is simply that most people don't believe there's a god. The church as a community centre is a great idea, as there's lots of good work to be done. But what the church really needs is a whole lot more belief.
That's probably more important than a new sound system. :)
A megaphone might be simpler.
might make conducting a christening rather difficult.
If there was a "church of mostly being nice and pooling resources to do a few things for the community" I'd join. Sounds like an excellent idea.
We must be thinking of different things. A handheld noise cancelling mic is very easy to use.
NT
Have you considered the kind of portable systems commonly used by street performers? They look pretty simple and effective.
e.g.
or even
Neither of those actual units might be suitable but a portable system using rechargeable batteries would provide you with a lot of flexibility for a very small outlay. Also you might be able to borrow/hire a set to try it out.
In message , "Dave Plowman (News)" writes
SWMBO is a church goer and, luckily, has helped protect me from getting too deeply involved in the last 3 complete replacements of their sound system.
Follow my lead and stay away.
The local church here has fixed pews still and has side aisles. I was not involved when the first system was installed, but it turned out that I knew and had worked with the contractor. He installed the loop, and put line source speakers firing sideways into the church from the side aisles. This seemed to work well, but there were some blank spots behind pillars etc.. He told me he had been ordered to put the speakers there for aesthetic reasons. Some problems were caused by the accessible mixer that allowed sneaky adjustment of mic levels of people who were loved/hated by anyone with access.
About 10 years on I was asked about a replacement, and recommended a local company that I'd worked with and also seen their installations in clubs etc. They installed a new system with more, slightly smaller speakers in similar positions, plus speakers in the large porch, and a locked box for the mixer. When I asked why they had not put the speakers in the main body of the church, I was told that that was the original plan, but the speakers had to be hidden. I heard this system a few times at weddings etc, and it was good.
About 3 years ago I was again asked about a replacement, and recommended a different installer that I knew. I saw his estimate, which seemed sensible and appropriately priced. He was going to bring the speakers into the main body of the church, again using directional line source units. His turned out to be the middle of the 3 estimates, and a "Church Elder" forced through the lowest estimate. The speakers are now in the main body of the church, but are just square boxes pointing across the church. I am told the sound is poor and sound in the porch has gone from good to awful. This was work by a professional company, sign written van and all. The radio mic is now dire and frequently has to be turned off, although this might be because the council (regular stars of Private Eye who "forgot to post the letter that informed about the refusal of permission") allowed a mobile phone base station to be built about 7 yards from the church.
The mixer is now out of the locked cabinet again, and I am following instructions to avoid, avoid, avoid..
I'm not sure that portable systems under the control of random members of the congregation would be feasible.
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