This past weekend, my family and I were in Wichita for a gymnastics meet. Since we were going to be in town, I contacted Kirk Longhofer, director of communications and technology, of First United Methodist Church. I first met Kirk last fall at a conference in Kansas City, so it was great to get back in touch.
We got together and took our families to get pizza and hung out and talked about life and church and technology. After dinner, we went to his church and he gave us a behind the scenes tour and it was really cool! First Wichita broadcasts live to a local network station every Sunday morning, so they are set up to do video in a big way.
Below are some pics and here’s a link to the Flickr set of all the pics I took.
First Wichita has a very unique sanctuary. Most sanctuaries are symmetrical, in other words, the right side of the room is just like the left side and I don’t think I ever considered that until last Saturday night. When I walked into this sanctuary, it immediately struck me as being different and I was looking all over trying to make sense of it. Once Kirk confirmed that everything in the room was symbolic of something, it became totally fascinating. The pictures I took give a taste for how it is but you really have to see it to fully grasp the concept.
It was a great time and I look forward to going back. I definitely want to hang out during a service to experience everything in action.
Interesting thing, I was born in Wichita and lived there until I was 8 and I remember going to a different church, on the other side of town. I e-mailed my parents last Sunday and mentioned all of this and my mom informed me that when I was a baby, we used to go to First Wichita. Of course, I don’t remember that but Kirk confirmed that he was at the church in that same time frame, as a kid, of course, not an employee! Small world.
Thanks for everything, Kirk! I look forward to coming back sometime.
On a side note, I had a great Skype chat with J.C. Jennings of Rock Spring Church late Friday night. We’ve talked on Skype before and IM’d as well and it’s always good stuff.