Photo courtesy of The Life Christian Church, West Orange, NJ.
“We pick one flow/thought for the entire day and let that inform the lighting, video, songs picked out, and everything else. Often this thought or flow is centered around the pastor's message,” shares Ben Stapley, Executive Pastor, The Life Christian Church, West Orange, NJ.
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Easter is about an epic new beginning—the resurrection of Jesus. But it’s also a time when the church technical world must look backward to past holiday services to learn how to plan more efficiently for this one. It’s a time to review past successes and past set-backs.
Is there anything learned at Christmas 2021 that can be applied to Easter 2022?
Church Production Magazine sat down with three church technical leaders to find out their answers to this question, and how they plan to make this year’s Easter services—in-person, online, and hybrid—more impactful, immersive, and life-changing than the last.
Here’s what our panel, Ben Stapley, executive pastor at The Life Christian Church in West Orange, New Jersey; Michael Cowey, technical director at University Baptist Church in Houston; and Matt Powell, technical director at Double Oak Community Church in Birmingham, Alabama, had to share.
CP: What’s your approach to your churches’ Easter services in 2022?
Stapley: Our church is outreach-focused. We use about eight times the energy on Easter that we would a typical service. We want Easter to feel like a celebration. We have a unique dynamic because we are right outside of Manhattan, so we have both an expectation of doing things from a high production level, and we have a lot of people who serve in those areas. That makes a huge difference for us.
If you aren't doing something different on the most attended days of the year for your church, I would just ask, “Why?”
Cowey: We typically choose to have a normal service with a couple of extra elements, but what makes our church unique is that we have a strictly traditional service and a contemporary service within the same sanctuary. So, everything that goes into our Easter service must be portable for both contexts. We only have 20-30 minutes to change the stage out. This includes backdrops, chairs, and gear. So, we want to add some extra elements in both the traditional and contemporary services.
“Everything that goes into our Easter service must be portable for both contexts [contemporary and traditional]. We only have 20-30 minutes to change the stage out.”
Michael Cowey, Technical Director, University Baptist Church, Houston, TX
Powell: We have really special Maunday Thursday services, then we have a very different Good Friday service with dark lighting and Gregorian chants, and then we completely change everything for a celebratory Easter service. All three of these services within a week require completely different technical needs.
CP: If you made planning for Easter more efficient this year, how did you do it?
Stapley: The difficult part about Easter, versus Christmas, is that we have more time for Christmas. When Christmas is over, we take time off. But then we only have a few more weeks until Easter. But when Easter is over, we have over half a year to plan. So, starting to plan as quickly as possible is key. The second thing I would say is pick one flow/thought for the entire day and let that inform the lighting, video, songs picked out, and everything else. Often this thought or flow is centered around the pastor's message. This makes everything clearer.
Powell: Keeping track of the workload is important, but it is [also] important to remember that we don't have to do the work alone. We have people on our teams that, like us at one time, get excited when they are asked to help. They can help take an all-day project and get it done in just a couple of hours.
CP: Think back to Christmas. What did you learn at your church’s December service that can help your team at Easter service time?
Stapley: When I think about Christmas this past year, I think about knowing how to read my pastor. It's important to spend time learning to read your pastor. Whatever pastor you serve under, know how to read them. Sometimes they have a specific vision, and you need to dig and know exactly what they want—and sometimes they just want you to be creative and make something happen. Knowing the difference changes everything.
“It is important to remember that we don't have to do the work alone. We have people on our teams that, like us at one time, get excited when they are asked to help. They can help take an all-day project and get it done in just a couple of hours.”
Matt Powell, Technical Director, Double Oak Community Church, Birmingham, AL
Cowey: Pursue the vision of the pastor for what he wants for the service. When we don't know how to read the person we serve, we often can put a lot of work in that doesn't meet the standard or goal they are attempting to achieve. Know how to read your pastor.
[Thinking back to Christmas] reminds me to take time to completely test out all cables, direct boxes, projectors, and anything else needed for Easter. With all of the moving parts we have, we have to make sure everything is in a healthy, working order so we can serve our church with excellence.
