Beyond Convention: Pastor, Motivational Speaker Fuses Technology With Faith.
By ERIC SIPOS
Staff Writer
11/02/2001

Few may know that a Frisco pastor not only helps serve the spiritual needs of about 500 of the faithful in the city, but also serves as a motivational speaker to such high-profile figures as former Presidents George Bush Sr. and Bill Clinton, former Soviet President Minister Mikhail Gorbachev and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

But then Pastor Keith A. Craft is not your typical pastor, and his local church goes beyond convention. Craft's church makes liberal use of video technology, letting parishioners see beyond the walls of their worship center through a multimedia church service.

The non-denominational Celebration Covenant Church has been holding evening meetings from 6 to 8 on Sundays at Noel Smith Elementary School, 15300 Preston Road. The church has provided parishioners with video presentations of music, drama and church news.

But Celebration Covenant will be moving its congregation and its video equipment to a new location this Sunday, where it will offer Sunday morning worship services for the first time. The church will hold services in the Wilma Fisher Elementary School, located at 2500 Old Orchard Drive. Service time will be at 10 a.m.

Craft combines long-cherished Bible verses with modern technology, piquing the interest of his 21st century audience living in a high-tech, video age.

"It is very different for Frisco and very different for America," Craft said of his church's services. "It is what we call a creative presentation of the Gospel, like this Sunday there will be music videos playing on two huge screens before the service, and there will be a video introduction."

There will also be "video bumpers" to announce such things as the beginning of the children's program and the time for the offering.

"We just believe we live in a day where people respond to quality and excellence," Craft said. "What we've done is take the best of multimedia and integrated it that into the church."

"We live in such a visual generation that we wanted to present visually, on the screens, the Gospel," Craft said. "We have a strong belief that the church at large is way behind in that area, and that is why we're trying to do something different."

Celebration Covenant Youth Pastor Ted Tomaseski is helping to develop a teen multimedia department within the church.

"We have two main people who are in charge of production for adult service, and their sons are also into production, and they are just now starting up a teen multimedia department," Tomaseski said.

"My emphasis is to get the teens involved in what we do, rather than just show up; they're involved in music, drama, multimedia, and some of the official speaking," he added.

Twice a month, Craft leaves his media-adept church in Frisco to speak among others, including world leaders from politics and business, at what are called "Success Events." A recent Success Event was held at Reunion Arena in Dallas.

"One of the main things I talk about at Success Events is the Biblical keys to success," Craft said. "The theme of our church is 'Success begins on Sunday.'

"Our desire is to help people understand that true success - both inward and outward - begins with a relationship with God, so there is very much a corporate feel in our church."

At both his Success Events appearances and at his local church, Craft carries the message of aspiring for the highest goals in life, while staying spiritually grounded. People in the Frisco business community, as well as those in neighboring communities hear his message.

"A lot times we've seen that the traditional church has nothing to offer a guy who is a mover and a shaker, and he wonders how does religion fit into his life, and what we try to do is to not just reach the down and outers, but the up and outers too," Craft said.

"(The latter) may be people who don't know the Lord, that have all the money they need, and wonder, 'What does God have to offer me in my life.'

"So the reason we present the gospel as we do, with this multimedia approach and through just having very high-quality impact video, is because people are going to movies today, and our goal is to really use the big screens to present what people are used to seeing in their homes, in the movie theater, with quality, 3-D animation, and it's just powerful," Craft said.

ES