TurningPoint^® Case Study

Common Ground Church Community

BACKGROUND

Common Ground Church Community in North Lima, Ohio is a recently established community of faith that seeks "to reach out to the next generation of believers." For the last two years, Pastor Steve Fortenberry has led the charge to build the Common Ground Church Community.

Pastor Fortenberry, a graduate of Taylor University in Indiana and Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, spent seven years in youth ministry before becoming pastor of Westfield Presbyterian Church in New Castle, Pennsylvania. Steve has been with Common Ground Church Community since early 2004.

THE CHALLENGE

Pastor Steve Fortenberry wanted to increase interaction during his Sunday message and encourage the congregation members to give more thought to the points of the sermon. Since Common Ground Church Community is still in its early stages of development, they hold services at a local high school auditorium. Therefore any presentation tools could not be difficult to transport or set up. In addition, with a congregation of nearly 75 members ranging in age from 18—65 years old, Steve needed a solution that would be simple for all members to use.

THE SOLUTION

In January 2005, Pastor Fortenberry read an online article about a Florida church that used audience response technology. Steve had never used an audience response system but thought the concept of instant congregation feedback sounded interesting. Several months later, a Turning Technologies' staff member attending services suggested using TurningPoint and wireless ResponseCards^® during worship services.

Already an organization with a high level of technology integration including PowerPoint^® and a variety of multi-media, Steve and Common Ground Church Community began to incorporate a 64-seat IR ResponseCard audience response system into Sunday services. Being an intermediate PowerPoint user, Pastor Fortenberry was able to easily put together interactive TurningPoint slides. TurningPoint's seamless integration with Microsoft^® Office products nearly eliminates the learning curve for users already knowledgeable in PowerPoint, Excel^® and Word^®. To incorporate the response pad system into the current hardware configuration, Steve worked with the production company managing the worship services' technology.

THE RESULTS

Since integrating Turning Technologies' audience response system into Common Ground Church Community, Pastor Fortenberry uses TurningPoint several times a month with his congregation. At an ice cream social, a TurningPoint interactive quiz on ice cream trivia provided fun-filled entertainment. Yet, TurningPoint's primary value has been as a tool to create a more effective Sunday message.

Steve uses a variety of interactive slides to engage his congregation in his sermon including Likert slides and standard multiple choice slides. To gauge his congregation's response to targeted topics, Pastor Fortenberry includes a Likert slide. Recently during a message related to death, he used a TurningPoint interactive slide and asked, "Rate the following statement, ‘You have no anxiety about death.'" The Likert slide gave the participants choices such as Strongly Agree, Agree, Neutral, Disagree, and Strongly Disagree. Steve feels that each question he poses to his congregation should provide each individual with an opportunity to reflect. The TurningPoint results to these emotional questions allow the congregation to "better understand where each other is at." Steve said, "The charts show everyone that they aren't alone in this."

At the conclusion of the Sunday message Pastor Fortenberry adds an interactive multiple choice slide that summarizes the sermon's key points. In the summary slide he asks the congregation which point struck with them the most. These results allow Steve to understand the impact his message had and to plan for future messages.

The variety of slide types assists all types of presentations. Steve stated, "It's all in the quality of the question." He feels it is very important that each question is approached with "a lot of care," since worship topics are often personal and not academic in nature.

When asked how using Turning Technologies' audience response system effected his congregation, Pastor Fortenberry stated, "[It] definitely increased participation." Another positive result became apparent the third time he used the response pads when one of the congregation members responded, "Oh! He's going to make us think again!"

Pastor Fortenberry feels that TurningPoint adds value to each of his sermons because congregation members have the opportunity to reflect and engage more. He stated, "With the anonymity and the safety factor, members are more honest." That honesty helps bring the group together and allows church leaders to know where congregation members stand. Pastor Fortenberry plans to continue using an audience response system with his congregation, and in the future he hopes to incorporate the response pads with Youth Ministry meetings and events.

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