Besides having the right audio system and musical instruments, a church requires excellent stage lighting. This helps enhance the entire spiritual experience, and it’s even more crucial if you’ll be streaming the service to capture everyone on stage.
But what is the best stage lighting equipment? Well, we'll be sharing our top 5 recommendations and later giving you a few tips on shopping for the right equipment.
Let’s get started!
Top Church Stage Lighting Equipment
We hope this list will save you hours of browsing trying to figure out what brand is the best for your church.
Here are our top picks.
1. Clay Paky Show-Batten 100 LED Moving Bar
The Clay Paky Show-Batten 100 LED Moving Bar is an excellent choice for huge churches that want to elevate the worship experience for their members. They also come in handy when holding events such as weddings.
These lights have ten high-power Osram Ostar RGBW LEDs placed in 39, 100 cm cylindrical aluminum bars. The best part is that each of these LED lights can be controlled individually. Their colors are generated via R, G, B, and W channels, and you can also choose from a wide palette with over sixty macros.
The color temperature can be adjusted from 2500K to 8000K through a dedicated CTO channel.
You can arrange several bars in a matrix or a line for excellent lighting – just ensure the distance between the LED lights is the same.
Benefits
- They’re lightweight
- They zoom in very fast (0.3 seconds to 1 minute from minimum to maximum)
- A wide palette of colors
Drawbacks
- Setting up the lights can be challenging.
2. Vari-Lite VL3015 Spot
A Vari-Lite VL3015 Spot is a fantastic option for big churches because they’re so powerful and effective. It comes with so many features, including CYM color mixing, 6:1 zoom optics, a beam size iris, just to mention a few effects.
The control panel is easy to use and it gives you options such as quick dimming of lights and smooth timed fades. You can also operate the stage light in three different wattages through a lamp menu option or control channel setting. By making a single adjustment, the fixture can operate in 1650W, 1200W, and 900W.
Benefits
- You can operate the lamp at three different wattages
- It comes in a variety of colors and effects
- It’s sized similar to the VL3015
Drawbacks
- It’s very pricey
3. Leprecon LP-624-MPX-DA Lighting Console
If you’re shopping for church lights and our previous recommendation is too small, you’ll love this option. The Leprecon LP-624-MPX-DA Lighting Console lights were designed for huge events.
The company is known for designing amazing touring consoles. And they used the same travel fades and aluminum chassis to design these lights.
The big LEDs, fader knobs, and bump buttons make the lights great for huge church events. They’re durable and made to survive even the most demanding situations.
The lights come with a two-scene preset mode with 24 channels, 24 preset faders, and 96 preset memories.
Lastly, the lights feature allows you to check cues without bringing the scene to the audience.
Benefits
- They’re easy to program
- They’re lightweight
- The LEDs are huge and bright
- They can survive even in demanding conditions
Drawbacks
- They’re a bit pricey.
4. GLP GT-1 FL Spot Beam
If your church is modern and you use contemporary instruments for your worship sessions, you’ll really love these lights because of their wide array of features.
Some of its common features include 14 fixed pattern gobos, eight rotating gobos, CMY color mixing, just to mention a few. The lights also come with a fixed color wheel with color correlation filters and three rotating prisms, so you’ll have a wide range of colors to choose from.
Lastly, the unit comes with an in-built battery which makes the setup very easy and fast. Additionally, its auto-sensing power supply is compatible with any power supply.
Benefits
- They’re lightweight
- High versatility
- It comes with a built-in battery for fixture setup
- Its functionality is instantly available
Drawbacks
- Nothing significant
5. Ayrton MagicBlade-FX 210W RGBW LED 3.6-53
If you love holding evening worship sessions or going on tours to spread the gospel, the Ayrton MagicBlade-FX 210W RGBW LED 3.6-53 is your best option.
These stage lights led to the award-winning of the company. And have since been used by musicians in thousands of tours. One of the most special features of these stage lights is the FX optical zoom system that has a fixed transmitting lens and no moving parts.
The unit has a zoom ratio of 15:1, and the beam ranges from 3.6-53 degrees. It also features several 65 mm transmitting lenses, all with ultra-powerful LED emitter and low-etendue, enabling the system to take 3D volumetric effects.
Benefits
- It has very many popular reviews
- It has a high zoom ratio
- It’s very reliable for huge setups
- It’s easy to set it up
Drawbacks
- It’s a bit costly for developing churches
Wrapping Up
Now that you’ve seen our recommendations for the best church stage lighting, it’s time to teach you how to make an even better decision for your church.
Here are some factors to consider when shopping for stage lights.
- Size. If you’re shopping for stage lights for a huge church, you’ll need a large lighting system. However, if your church is small, you can even go for a moving beam.
- Installation. This depends on the church’s structure. For instance, if you want to mount the lights, ensure you buy lights with brackets. Similarly, if you rent spaces, buy portable lights that are easy to set up.
- LED lifetime. This is important because it determines how fast you’ll be replacing the lights. Premium lights last for up to 50000 hours, while cheap lights last for even 15000 hours.
If you’re a beginner at shopping for stage lighting equipment, you can check our detailed stage light equipment guide.
You can also learn a bit more about church stage lighting design in particular with a video from our friends at Churchfront!
Do you still have questions on the best church stage lighting? If so, ask us in the comment section!
