CFX offered something that can be hard to find during a busy week at church: time with people who understand the challenges and are willing to share how they’re addressing them.
There was no shortage of things competing for your attention at CFX 2026.
But some of the most important conversations in Birmingham, Alabama, weren’t about equipment.
Production teams talked about working better with worship leaders. Church leaders compared approaches to communication and decision-making. Filmmakers explained the thinking behind their work. Technical directors traded ideas with people facing many of the same challenges at other churches. And those conversations regularly spilled out of classrooms and onto the show floor, into hallways and across networking areas.
“There was a lot of high energy, a lot of great conversations that were had,” says CFX Event Director Stephanie Lippi. Of those who contacted her after the show, she says, “Pretty much to a T, they all said they had a really great time, really appreciated the programming and gave a lot of compliments on the keynote speakers too.”
Production, worship and leadership may have different responsibilities, but their decisions regularly intersect.
Church Production Associate Editor Deidra Blackmore saw the same energy firsthand.
“All the speakers were energized,” she says. “The classes were full.”
There was plenty to generate that energy. Over three days, CFX offered nearly 110 classes, workshops, demonstrations, keynotes and other learning opportunities, while more than 120 exhibitors and sponsors filled the show floor. But the scale of the event also created opportunities to go deeper.
Going Deeper
For the first time, CFX separated its Leadership Collectives and Masterclasses, scheduling the collectives Monday morning and the Masterclasses that afternoon. Previously, attendees had to choose between the two. The change allowed people to participate in both and helped increase participation.
The four-hour Masterclasses gave attendees an opportunity to dig into topics and skills in considerably greater depth than a typical hour-long conference session.
The Leadership Collectives were built around conversation and problem-solving. Separate groups brought together worship and tech directors, facility and safety directors, and pastors and executive pastors. With coaches in the room, participants discussed challenges, exchanged ideas and considered solutions they could take back to their churches.
“We always get a lot of great feedback that sometimes those are the most valuable opportunities attendees get when they go to CFX,” Lippi says.
Worship and Production in the Same Room
The Worship & Tech Director Leadership Collective offered a particularly good example of what that can look like.
Led by Aaron Wong and Dennis Choy, the session sold out at 50 attendees and ultimately had people standing in the room. Among them were a worship leader and production manager who attended together specifically to work on their relationship and get on the same page.
CFX gave church filmmakers a chance to share not only what they created, but why they created it.
It was a real-world example of something Church Production has explored repeatedly: many production-related problems aren’t really technology problems.
Communication between departments, understanding another ministry’s priorities and involving the right people before decisions are made can be every bit as important as choosing the right console, camera or lighting fixture.
That idea extended beyond worship and production. Another session brought a ministry leader and his senior pastor together to discuss communication between senior leadership and ministry leaders, including how each can better understand the other’s needs, goals and vision. Lippi says the session also generated strong feedback from attendees.
It reinforced one of the larger ideas behind CFX: churches benefit when they bring teams. Production, worship, facilities, safety and senior leadership may have different responsibilities, but their decisions—and their ministries—regularly intersect.
Church Filmmakers Show—and Explain—Their Work
That emphasis on learning from one another wasn’t limited to leadership and production. CFX also gave church filmmakers an opportunity to put their work—and the thinking behind it—in front of their peers.
The Church Filmcraft Festival included a panel featuring WorshipHouse Media’s Luke Miller and Brenton Grimm, a filmmaker from a church in Iowa that won at the previous festival. Several 2026 finalists were also in Birmingham and joined the discussion.
Clips from finalist films were shown before their creators discussed what they were trying to accomplish, how they approached their projects and some of the challenges they encountered.
Filmcraft also moved beyond the classroom. A large video display in the convention center lobby showcased festival entries throughout the event, allowing attendees to stop and watch as they moved between sessions and the exhibit floor. Attendees could also vote for the festival’s People’s Choice Award.
The display found an audience. Lippi says people regularly stopped to watch the films, and when the display temporarily went down Wednesday, attendees were asking about it because they still wanted to watch and vote.
Beyond the Classroom
For all the programming packed into three days, some of the most useful moments at CFX didn’t happen during scheduled sessions.
Attendees continued conversations in hallways, on the exhibit floor and in dedicated networking spaces. The Tuesday networking reception drew attendees into the area outside the exhibit hall, while Networking Central provided another place for speakers and attendees to find each other and continue conversations.
That can be particularly valuable for church production people. A church may have only one technical director, or a small team responsible for audio, video, lighting, streaming and a long list of other responsibilities. An event like CFX provides an opportunity to meet people doing similar work elsewhere—and discover that many of them are wrestling with the same issues.
Those conversations will continue next year in Oklahoma City, where CFX 2027 is scheduled for November 8-10, 2027. Moving the event to different regions helps put it within driving distance for churches that may not have the budget to fly an entire ministry team across the country.
But much of what seemed to resonate most in Birmingham had little to do with a particular piece of gear.
It was a worship leader and production manager showing up together because they wanted to work better together. It was church leaders openly discussing communication problems. It was filmmakers explaining not only what they created, but why they created it. And it was production people meeting others who understand both the technical challenges and ministry responsibilities that come with doing this work every week.
The better measure of CFX 2026 begins now—with what happens when those ideas, conversations and relationships make it back to the local church.
