SAN FRANCISCO – The 2018 “church theme” for the Bay Area Chinese Bible Church Is “Growing Young.” The words are well-chosen. Started in an Oakland apartment 62 years ago, the church has grown into a thriving multi-campus house of worship, offering eight Sunday services in English, Cantonese and Mandarin. Although there are many reasons for the church’s success, at the heart of its growth is an eagerness to “think young” and explore new ways to reach worshippers.

Along with its variety of services, Bay Area Chinese Bible Church hosts a wide range of events, including concerts and plays. Looking to increase the flexibility of the lighting system at its main campus, the church replaced its old incandescent lights with a new LED rig made up of CHAUVET fixtures, supplied by Island Creative Management.

“The people from the church wanted to upgrade to LED and automated fixtures, partly because they were tired of changing light bulbs and wanted to save energy, but beyond that, they were really interested in having more flexibility when lighting the space,” said Cat Bever of Island Creative. “We were a bit surprised that they wanted moving fixtures like the Mavericks, given their lack of experience, but they really wanted to learn. They were committed to pushing the envelope and having fun with the movers.”

Island Creative installed four Maverick MK2 Spot fixtures and two Rogue R2 Wash units. These moving fixtures are used for wall washing and audience lighting, as well as specials and pattern breakups during services, concerts and theatrical productions.

The new rig, which is controlled by a ChamSys MagicQ MQ60 console, also features 16 Ovation 165WW Fresnels that are used for stage washing and four Ovation B-2805FC batten-style wash lights. Utilizing an RGBA-Lime color mixing system, the batten fixture allows the church to create a wide variety of backdrops, from deeply saturated hues to soft pastels.

Providing house lighting for the church are 11 Ovation H-605FC fixtures. Also featuring an RGBA-Lime color mixing system, these fixtures, which are located throughout the room, are used for both conventional house lighting and for immersing the entire space in color to coordinate with the look on stage.

“The colors that the updated lighting system can produce are beautiful and are giving the church way more flexibility to create a more interesting atmosphere for sermons, school plays, assemblies and concerts,” said Bever. “With the help of an Island Creative board operator and the simplicity of the ChamSys MagicQ MQ60, we were able to create a variety of palettes that are easy for the end-user to operate.”

Being able to coordinate colors throughout its entire worship area and create an endless variety of specials on stage has enabled the Bay Area Chinese Bible Church to come up with looks that mirror the sensibilities of modern-day worshippers. It is another example of how this vibrant church is “Growing Young.”