At Passion City Church,Alexis Leon (above) serves as a gathering producer, helping coordinate everything from Sunday worship gatherings to large-scale ministry events and conferences.
Long before she was producing worship gatherings and large-scale ministry events at Passion City Church in Atlanta, Alexis Leon was learning live production in sports broadcasting. She interned in the sports production department at the University of Connecticut before eventually joining ESPN as part of the network’s production assistant program. The long-term goal was to become a producer — someone helping shape programming, coordinate teams, and guide the flow of live broadcasts. But ministry eventually changed the direction of her career. While living in Connecticut, Leon became involved at Vox Church, a rapidly growing multi-site church planting campuses throughout New England. What started as volunteer involvement eventually became a full-time ministry role helping lead production and creative video workflows across multiple campuses. “It was very much church planting church and figuring out how to build a system that was able to be reproduced as a new location was launched,” Leon says.
That experience introduced her to one of the defining realities of modern church production: building systems that can scale while still remaining functional for volunteers and staff. But Leon still felt drawn toward the producer role she had originally envisioned during her ESPN years. That opportunity eventually appeared at Passion City Church, where she now serves as a Gar producer. The role itself sits somewhere between live-event producer, project manager, and show caller. At Passion, producers help bridge communication between departments while coordinating the overall flow of services and events. During gatherings, producers often sit at front of house alongside department leads for audio, lighting, video, and staging, calling cues and helping synchronize the experience in real time. “The producer’s calling everything,” Leon explains. “They’re calling when all the leads are setting up their team, and the producer just says when.” But much of the work happens long before Sunday morning arrives. “What they mostly do is the advance process,” she says. “You advance up into the event and you’re the one planning everything. ”That planning process becomes particularly important inside Passion’s multi-campus environment. Today, Passion City Church operates multiple locations across the Atlanta area along with a Washington D.C. campus. Depending on the weekend, Pastor Louie Giglio may teach live from different campuses while other locations receive the message remotely. That creates a production culture built heavily around flexibility and anticipation. “We always function under the expectation that things could change,” Leon says. “One of the biggest things that we function in is flexibility and anticipation — anticipating what could happen and making sure we’re prepared for it. ”That mindset extends far beyond weekend services. Whether producing conferences, ministry events, or Sundays, Leon says the Passion production culture revolves around creating intentional environments where people can focus on encountering Jesus without unnecessary distractions. “We really try to be intentional about everything,” she explains. “We want people to come in and just be able to focus on God.”
As a gathering producer at Passion City Church, Alexis Leon helps call services and live events, cueing transitions while keeping audio, lighting, video, staging, and worship teams moving together.
That intentionality can show up in surprisingly small details — from parking flow to signage to transitions happening inside the room itself. “We think down to the minuscule detail,” Leon says. “Making it as easy and simple as possible.” And while Passion is known for large-scale events and high production values, Leon is quick to point out that much of the ministry still depends heavily on volunteers — or as Passion calls them, “door holders.” Camera operators, stage managers, shaders, and many other production positions are volunteer-driven, even during major conferences and events. “A lot of our door holders have never stepped into production,” Leon says. “They’ve been trained by us, and now they go on to do things at the conference level and big live-event level.” That reality shapes how Passion approaches systems and training. Rather than forcing volunteers to adapt to chaotic environments, Leon says the production team works to build repeatable systems first and then develops training around those systems. “We build a system based on the need of our church and what we want to do on a Sunday,” she explains. “Then based on that system, we create positions and train people within those systems.” For Leon, success is not simply whether a service executes flawlessly. A successful Sunday is one where volunteers leave energized rather than overwhelmed. “I want our volunteers to enjoy serving,” she says. “As long as they continue to enjoy serving, I’m usually pretty okay.” That perspective also shapes how she thinks about pressure inside production ministry. Production environments naturally carry intensity. Timelines are tight. Expectations are high. Live events rarely slow down for mistakes. But Leon believes the healthiest production environments balance excellence with grace, trust, and perspective. “We shoot to be perfect knowing that we’re not perfect and we’re never going to be,” she says. “Once you understand that, you’re able to create the space to have fun.”
During services and live events, Alexis Leon helps coordinate the communication and timing that allow complex worship gatherings to feel seamless for the congregation.
Looking back, Leon says one of the most surprising parts of her journey has been discovering how much her voice now contributes creatively inside the organization. Early in her career, much of her work involved execution — carrying out plans developed by others. Today, she regularly participates in conversations helping shape programming and experiences themselves. “There’s moments where we’re trying to decide something programmatically and I throw an idea in there and we go with my idea,” she says. “I never really thought I’d be in a place where I have a voice at the table like that.” For Leon, that growth reflects something bigger than production itself. It reflects leadership development, trust, and learning to step confidently into opportunities even when they initially feel intimidating. And for women considering church production as a calling or career path, that is exactly the encouragement she hopes to offer. “It can look intimidating from the outside,” she says. “But you’ll be surprised how many people want you to succeed.”
