Brentwood Baptist: Make the Church Shake

CBN.com  “I was sitting at a traffic light here in the Brentwood area and a teenager pulled up next to me. Their booming car was shaking my car. I sat there and thought, ‘If that car can make my car shake and it’s so loud, surely we can get a building to shake.’”

The Deaf Chapel at Brentwood Baptist Church has a floor that floats on 3,800 rubber tips. Transducers under the chairs and stage allow deaf individuals to feel the music during the service.

Janet Clark, the Deaf Sunday School teacher says, “The vibrations are important. They are loud enough for us to feel the vibration, and many hearing that worship with us enjoy it as well.”

Lighting, acoustic paneling, special projection screens and spacing come into play...

Pastor Brian Sims says, “One of the challenges in building this facility was that there was no building to model it after. Imagine when you are deaf, and your main source of communication is with your eyes, even if you blink, you may miss something that is important. In the chapel there are no cheap seats. Everyone has a direct line of sight to the stage.

“When you are signing, it is very important that you are not hitting the person in front of you or beside you. Here in our chapel the seating is 30 inches apart, so we don’t have to worry about hitting the person next to us. You have lots of room if you wanted to sign big or sign small to the Lord.”

Pastor Brian says that less than two percent of deaf profess Christians.

“If I did not have a deaf church, I would be very isolated,” one member says. “[I would] not be able to participate in hearing the sermon or be a part of the worship service. [Here] I am able to be a part of worship, be Sunday school, and worshipping God because of the language. I am able to be a part of the entire experience of worship, and it is truly awesome.”

We would like to congratulate Brentwood Baptist Deaf Church. You are America’s Church of the Week.