“We Pulled Together to Make It Happen”
written by: Frank Etheridge
“Holy Week last year was the greatest challenge,” First Presbyterian Church Media Coordinator, Garry Cook, recalled during a recent conversation in the Fellowship Hall just outside his office on how the church continued our weekly worship service broadcast.
“There were a couple of Sunday broadcasts during the lockdown with no one else in the building except the pastor and parish associate,” he continues, referring to Rev. Danny Dieth and Rev. Connie Happell. “It was challenging. Not a dull moment. It was more challenging than I would like it to have been [laughs] but we managed to get through it and make the Holy Week services available to the congregation that they would not have experienced otherwise.”
Garry joined the FPC staff in August 2013 with a background in videography, A/V event production and Information Technology. His duties now primarily consist of documenting worship services and directing video shoots.
“I wouldn’t say it’s talent necessarily,” he humbly states, “but I do have a knack for it, an instinct for how to do it and make it professionally presentable.”
Despite pulling off Easter and other broadcasts during the lockdown, Garry says, “It takes teamwork to do this correctly. When even one person is missing, it isn’t pretty. I would not be able to do this without the help of our sound technicians and camera operators.”
He gives a shout out to FPC audio/video technicians working on the live service productions: Ed Adams III, Boon Bickerstaff, Caleb Corbin, Jarrett Cudd, Miki Mahadeo, LisaKay Matchen and Stacy Welch.
The church has produced these TV broadcasts since 1956, aside from a few years in between when it was radio only. “We have a particular tradition here of ways we produce our broadcast,” Garry explains, who now has a few hundred services under his belt. “We’re not going to do 100 shots a second, dazzle and blitz the viewer, in the contemporary style of some other churches. The history here and the way we do it seems to be home for the folks who have been watching the broadcast for many years, attending church here for many years.”
However, there’s been a opportunity to “push boundaries” in ways such as the use of a sanctuary video projector (installed during the quarantine) and the podcast, which people may subscribe to for direct receipt of audio or video versions of Sunday worship.
During the lockdown, Garry worked tirelessly to retrieve from the archive (and then splice into the broadcast) prior performances of songs that matched the sermon’s message as selected by Organist Tom George. Garry gives credit to Administrative Assistant Jennifer McKinstry, who provided advance bulletins so he could prepare for displaying text for lyrics, prayers, and Scripture readings. Garry also thanks Director of Educational Ministries, Vickie Dieth, and Communications Coordinator, Kylie Grilla, for handling Vacation Bible School duties during the summer, “When my hands were so full.”
Soon after services with worshippers returned, praise for Garry’s work during the quarantine was acknowledged with a “card shower” from FPC staff and members.
“I’ve gotten a lot of outpouring of appreciation,” he says. “I just feel humble and grateful to do it.”
“It was necessary—we didn’t have a choice in the matter,” Garry explains of the effort to keep moving forward during COVID. “We pulled together to make it happen. I give the glory to God and don’t pat myself on the back. I’m doing my job and I’m doing it for the Lord and for this church. Even if I had to have worked 100 hours a week, I would have done it.”
