Media Technician Celebrates 50 Years, Local Wesleyan Church Ponders Future.

MARION, IN-- For Jared Wilkins, this coming Sunday’s worship service is not just an ordinary Sunday. It marks the 50th anniversary of service as Media Technician at Free Life Wesleyan Church. On April 8, 1956, Wilkins moved the first fader in what was then a fledgling congregation. Now, 50 years later, he is still at it, and has only missed two Sundays due to health complications.

“I absolutely love this church,” Wilkins exclaimed. “When I first came here there was absolutely no sound system, no equipment of any kind. For the first three months it was okay. Then the church grew to 150, and I just couldn’t hear the preacher anymore from the back. It was then I knew it was time to change.”

True to his word, change came, and rapidly at that. Wilkins used his vacation time to completely overhaul the sanctuary to accommodate then state-of-the-art sound equipment. Within two weeks, he had installed a sound system that was wired into the existing power.

Retired Pastor Bill Newman commented on those days in the church:

“It was really an incredible time. People walked into the sanctuary that week, and saw speakers hanging from the rafters, microphones by the piano for the vocalist, and a podium microphone in front of me. There was no more pushing and shoving so people could sit up front and hear. In fact, many people commented that they were happy about the sound system because they could now sit in the back and still hear.”

The change wasn’t without controversy, however.

“Some people felt we were capitulating to the culture,” Newman continues. “I mean, you have hippies walking around with guitars and little amps strapped to their waist, and some believed we were representing that mindset. For the most part, however, it was accepted pretty readily.”

Fifty years later, not much has changed. You can still come in and see Jared at his post, ready for another service. Despite the occasion, not all church-goers are thrilled with the current state of things. Worship Pastor Phil Dowman expressed his concerns recently:

“When I first came here, I was pretty shocked. The sound system looked as if it was installed in the 50’s. We still use old Radio Shack mics that Jared picked up for five dollars 47 years ago, and all we have for speakers are those drabby looking EV’s. I have served here for three years, and have desperately asked for money to upgrade. The board seems to feel, however, that what we have is good enough, since Jared is there running it. I have been attempting to move our congregation towards a more contemporary style of worship, but it’s hard when we are projecting lyrics from a 35mm projector.”

Despite criticism, Wilkins remains undeterred.

“I come from a generation that believes if you take care of something, it will last forever. I don’t see why we need fancy mics like Shure SM57s and speakers made by Yamaha when what we have works. Personally, I feel that a Chris Tomlin lyric on a 35mm slide gives a vintage feel to the service, and vintage seems to be all the rage these days.”

While denying rumors that the Creative Arts Team is secretly hoping for Wilkins to die soon, Dowman reiterated his concerns:

“You just can’t have a quality worship presentation with the equipment we have. The Bible says that God is doing a new thing, so I think we need new equipment so the Holy Spirit can better flow through it. I don’t want the Spirit constrained by a 100 watt amp that is currently powering everything.”

In the end, Wilkins sees himself sliding faders until the day he dies.

“When most guys get to be my age, they want to retire and go golfing on Sundays. Not me. I have a place here, and until my legs stop kicking I’m gonna be ‘cranking out the jams,’ as the kids like to say. It’s a challenge, definitely, especially when you can’t get David Crowder on cassette tape. But when you are serving God, you just do the best you can.”