Don't let a familiar face fool you. Community United Methodist Church is a historic building in Jackson Heights with a wired interior to help people find God in a digital age.

  The church makeover has been going on for six years with a jazz band replacing the organ, large video screens that bring multiple languages and video clips into the programs, and a service that is designed to help people search for God. Songs that were written over 50 years ago have yielded time to songs written within the last 10 years.

  Dr. Ron Tompkins is the Senior Pastor who hired Malcolm McTaggart (Media Director) and Enrique Haneine (former music director for Ricky Martin) to work with Laxman Srikantha (Sound specialist) and other volunteers to bring the new experience. `Dr. Ron' explains that ``we had a choice. Either we could keep running a shrinking Methodist service, or make an experience for people who want to know God but have never been to church." The church leaders supported the plan to make Community Church look like Jackson Heights.

Sundays at 10am

  The 10am service every Sunday is a constant experiment. On Easter Sunday, children dressed as butterflies and danced during the service, while special effects suspended dozens of butterflies in flight at the end of the service. Visitors can participate or sit in the balcony and drink coffee and watch.

  The screens offer translation of the Bible in Telugu, Chinese, and Spanish -- especially for multi-lingual families. The church now produces its own videos to give members an inside glance at programs that happen throughout the week. Recently, members of a Bible discussion and growth group shared on tape how these groups help them. The tape was added to the service and other people promptly joined.

  The worship is frequently celebrative with a vocalists and worship band of keyboards, percussion, sax, bass, and violin. It reaches out to involve worshippers. While it's too `in your face' for some, everyone agrees its not a service where you can fall asleep.