Speaking Frank about Church Software
By Christina BottigliaSPECIAL WRITER
Thursday, July 8, 2004
What do Milford, goats and church software have in common? One man. Frank Meyer.
For many Milford locals, keeping a small farm, raising six children and running a software company might seem a little out of the ordinary, but for Frank Meyer it's everyday living. Born in Germany and raised in New Zealand, Meyer first began his journey into computer programming long before he settled here in the United States. Receiving his degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Surrey in England, Meyer then went on to earn his master of science decree. He then began a company called Integral Vision out of Bedford, England, which designed and manufactured quality control systems. After the company had sufficiently grown, another company bought it and kept on Frank as well as the name.
Meyer and his family moved to the United States when Integral Vision transferred him to Michigan for the purpose of gaining the knowledge that could be found here. Meyer settled in Milford. He and his wife, Amira, began a small farm which consists of goats and chickens. The goats are raised for their milk and meat, while their chickens are free to roam about as they choose as it produces healthier, richer eggs. Their goal is to raise their family on healthy, organic meats and produce. Visitors coming to see Frank's software have said they find the environment, "serene and compelling."
After one year in the U.S., the company restructured and laid off many of its employees. Frank included. Frank then decided to start a new company which he called Creative Lifestyles, Inc. This company makes two types of software.
Automation Manager is a program that runs machines used locally and abroad for part inspection, gauging, motion control and the like. Another local business, Livonia-based IQS Wheel Systems, is just one of the many businesses that have discovered and use Automation Manager. IQS uses the software to control machines used in wheel gauging.
Presentation Manager is a program he designed for use in church multimedia projection. Meyer decided to take the route of church software programming when a friend of his saw a need within in his own church and asked for Frank's help. They created a program churches could use in their worship services which was more dynamic than the options currently available.
The software was developed at Milford Assembly of God. They needed something to fit their dynamic, and sometimes spontaneous, charismatic style of worship. They needed software that would allow for quick changes to the program in the middle of the service. Consequently, Presentation Manager was designed with the ability to take advantage of dual display technology. This allows the program operator to make changes to the program on his monitor while controlling separately what the congregation sees on the projector. In addition, a Bible and song database was added to Presentation Manager. This made it possible to look up a song and display it quickly if the worship leader deviated from what he had prepared.
Milford Assembly of God was not the only local congregation to notice the advantages of using Frank’s software. Faith House Ministries, a faith-based congregation in New Hudson, chose the software because they would be able to display Scriptures from the database on the fly. They also appreciated the ability of the software to display multiple Bible translations at one time allowing for more in-depth study during services. Presentation Manager comes preloaded with multiple Bible translations. Churches like Faith House Ministries no longer have to spend time typing verses before a service. With just a few clicks any scripture can be located, displayed and even compared with other versions of the Bible.
Grace Maxfield from Highland United Methodist Church said she is very satisfied with how the program has worked for her church. She said she initially chose it “because of the ease of training technicians how to operate it… when working with volunteers, too many details bog down the spirit. However, for those techs who enjoy digging deeper, the software has plenty of substance to encourage their creative gifts.”
Grace said that what her church particularly enjoys about the software at this point are the "movie backgrounds and the ability to play mpegs (video files) that we create from Pinnacle moviemaking software."
Even the members of her congregation have noticed the difference.
"One member of our church came back after a 20 year absence once she saw the projected sermon notes and related graphics," said Maxfield. "She admitted that she never got much out of Sunday morning because she was too easily distracted with the lecture style of previous pastors' sermons. She is now able to "stay tuned' to the sermons, with the interactive approach of listening, seeing, filling in the blanks, and connecting with the various forms of media we use to illustrate the message."
Frank's program, Presentation Manager, is currently the fastest-selling church software in the United Kingdom and is well on its way in the United States. Many other churches around the globe have started implementing the software into their services as well. In addition to all of this, Presentation Manager is half the price of its competitors making it easy for big and small churches to get in on all it has to offer.
Meyer and his family have been living in the State's for about seven years. During this time he has become the founder of his second successful business as well as the head of a blossoming, prosperous family. He and his wife are expecting their seventh child at the end of August.
For more information e-mail
info@creativelifestyles.com.
call (248) 685-8179 or visit online at
www.presentationmanager.info
© Creative Lifestyles, Inc. 2006, 2007, 2008
