Anyone who has spent time in church leadership understands the importance of stewarding resources well. But they also know how crucial it is to stay relevant to changing times. Effective leadership requires church leaders to imagine, reimagine and act on large and small shifts in the modern world.
Restoring the church to the heart of the modern town square requires the willingness to pivot—and to capture the imagination of the next generation. Sometimes, change means making investments in physical gathering spaces. It can be challenging for church leadership teams to decide what to prioritize.
Should you expand your auditorium? Invest in an outdoor playground? Update your kids’ ministry space? Once you decide where to focus, how do you engineer the changes?
For a recent project at one of Saddleback Church’s locations, my team at PlainJoe: A Storyland Studio created a fun and interactive digital transformation. It not only gave the Saddleback Kids’ ministry space a much-needed update, it also created new ways for kids attending the Lake Forest, California, campus to participate.
Time for a Refresh
My team had previously partnered with Saddleback Church to develop detailed concepts for all three floors of the kids’ ministry building. The concepts played off the main floor’s marine theme, expanding into adventurous and exploratory storylines for each level of the building.
Saddleback’s vision morphed and evolved as the leadership team began considering which concepts to set in motion and how to do it. They ultimately decided to focus on the downstairs lobby, which housed a large saltwater aquarium. While the tropical fish were beautiful to look at and fascinating to the young kids (typically ages two through five) who entered the building, the fishes’ upkeep was becoming more challenging and expensive.
The PlainJoe team and Saddleback opted to revamp a narrative we had built into the original concepts: a harbor with an underwater aquarium experience, where visitors feel fully immersed in the space. Instead of moving forward with the existing aquarium, however, we began exploring the idea of creating an interactive space.
What would a digital underwater experience look and feel like to the kids who attended Saddleback Lake Forest?
Creating an Interactive Experience
When Saddleback made the final decision to remove the original aquarium from the lobby, the interactive experience was full steam ahead. The old aquarium and the tropical fish had served their purpose well. Now, it was time to bring the experience into the 21st century.
We wanted to create a memorable and exciting space using advanced technology and a gaming environment that the kids could be a part of. Rather than simply watching the fish, kids would be able to join a gamified experience. We called the interactive aquarium and its surrounding space The Reef, then got to work imagining and creating.
“The fish had been such a staple in that space for so long,” says Shawn Hyde, former children’s pastor at Saddleback Lake Forest and current children’s pastor at Gateway Church’s Dallas, Texas, campus. “Families love coming, and kids love looking at the fish. It’s been a central part of the building for so long that it’s still part of that story.”
The old fish tank had been a wonderful, fun fixture during its time, and we wanted to continue honoring that narrative and aesthetic. However, adding the digital reef experience allowed the kids to truly become a part of the fun by creating their own fish, customizing its color, then naming it before releasing it to swim in the digital tank. Rather than an off-the-shelf tool, The Reef would also allow Saddleback to customize the storyline by layering in lessons from a Christian worldview.
“Each kid would be able to create a fish and watch it swim around the tanks,” says Joshua Smith, executive producer at PlainJoe. “As part of the concept, the church would have tools to update the game, update the fish and put an infused curriculum into the environment.”
Bringing The Reef to Life
Beyond the digital tank, the PlainJoe team worked to make the physical environment that supported the screens more immersive. The first order of business was removing the original fish tanks and rock work.
We then updated the theming in the physical space to help the new digital elements integrate naturally. The ceilings were painted blue, and we added layers of audio and ocean soundscapes to the environment so visitors can feel like they’re underwater.
“The aesthetic is magnificent,” says John Caputo, current children’s pastor at Saddleback Lake Forest. “It’s absolutely gorgeous when you see all the digital fish tanks turned on with the lighting and the water ripple effects, especially at night.”
Saddleback’s team pairs instrumental children’s worship music alongside the synchronized lighting effects and soothing underwater sounds, deepening the transitional effect of moving from everyday life into a sacred space.
“It’s much nicer and cleaner, and it opened up a lot more spaces in the aisleways for people to walk through—just a better-looking environment to greet people in for the first time,” Caputo says.
A Welcoming Environment
Adding digital theming to the space means room for continual updates over time—the digitized space can also be reimagined for special occasions, holidays and general changes over time.
There’s a fluidity to digital environments that allows churches to reimagine their themed spaces time and time again. As a church adapts its children’s program, they’ll be able to take the digital space into account, too.
“In kids’ ministry, we want to be very intentional with our spaces, because that communicates something,” Hyde says. “We want the environment where we do our children’s ministry to be excellent. We want it to look clean and feel inviting, but at the end of the day, we want the kids to grow in their knowledge of and relationship with Jesus.
“When you have the ability and resources to be able to pour a little bit of extra ‘Wow’ into the environment, it speaks volumes.”
