So this year, is the first year in several years that Ryan and I have been attached to a church. And this year we find ourselves more than attached but involved, connected, family. It’s a wonderful feeling to have a church family – a group of people you connect with, who have the same beliefs as you, and who you know you could call if you needed anything. I feel so blessed to have found that at Renaissance.

So as part of the Media Team at Renaissance I am in charge of our web presence, some of our design projects, and whenever Laramie wants my help filming (although I think it might be my camera she wants more than me. I kid, I kid!). With Easter service happening at the Civic Center there were a lot of projects to work on so I thought I’d share a little behind the scenes of everything.

THE EASTER FILM
To start, over a month in advance, the media team began work on our Easter film. Laramie is an amazing videographer so I always enjoy working with her to help capture her vision. This was the biggest video I had worked on with her. We had five cameras, four actors, a sound guy and a couple extra helping hands. We were lucky for some warmer and drier weather on the day we selected to film out at South Shores Park. I’m going to share a few glimpses behind the scenes here, but I’ll be sure to add the link to the Easter video as soon as we have it loaded online.

EASTER SERVICE
Of course Easter is completely and utterly about Jesus, his death and resurrection. Our salvation from our sins. Because the church has grown so much and our whole church family won’t fit in one space at one time – Renaissance rented the Decatur Civic Center so we could have one big service on Sunday morning. This way we could all get together once and our volunteers wouldn’t have to come back to church twice on one day. That way everyone would have some time to spend with family.

Because this service was bigger and mapped out a little differently than our standard service, we had set up, prep, and rehearsal the day before to work out all the details. It is such a wonderful blessing that we have so many people at Renaissance who are eager and willing to help spread the word and offer their talents! Ryan ended up being charge of the stage crew and I was in charge of the camera crew. With such a big event and several transitions it took a lot of amazing people working together to put this event together!

And it’s because of all these amazing people that the service went off without a hitch! The Media team’s short film was revealed for the first time, Jeff’s message was fantastic, and the band was on fire! And the Civic Center Theater was filled to capacity! We had between 530-540 people in attendance for our Easter service. With our standard Sunday services having a combined total of about 325 max – this was our largest service EVER! It’s so nice to know that word is spreading and we are reaching more people! (We may be small – but Jesus’ message is mighty!)

FAMILY
And lastly, of course Easter is also about family. After our morning service we headed over to spend some time with Ryan’s family. His parents host Easter every year so we visited for a while and then headed home to prep for my family’s arrival at our house for Easter dinner. It was nice having company over once again! And it’s wonderful to have another opportunity to spend time with family.

I hope you all got to have a wonderful Easter Sunday, remembering the reason for the holiday and spending time with your loved ones! As you read this – I’m probably on the road to St. Louis for a photography conference. I’ll be away from the office through Wednesday and will be in and out of the office on Thursday. See you guys on Wednesday with another What to Wear Wednesday!