It’s been a few weeks since we wrapped up “Worship at the Cove” with Crossroads Church in Cincinnati, but we couldn’t let that chapter officially close without a spotlight on the amazing customers we got to partner with!
Crossroads, one of the largest and fastest growing churches in the nation, made the decision to halt all in-person services back in March, per official recommendations to keep its community safe. Luckily for them, they already had a well-established format and procedure for online services, which made the initial transition fairly smooth. And as they say, the church was never a building anyway.
However, as the months went by–and other churches began to reopen their doors while Crossroads remained closed due to its size, the daunting logistics of reopening safely, and their capability to produce high quality online services–it became clear that people were missing their communities. All the online services and small group meetings over Zoom will never be able to fully replace true human interaction, so the team at Crossroads began brainstorming how they could safely provide and in-person experience. Thus began an 11 week experiment with a stripped down outdoor church service known as “Worship at the Cove.”
From July through September, Crossroads hosted a single weekly service at Yeatman’s Cove Park in downtown Cincinnati. No coffee, no Kids’ Club, so seats. Just worship and a message, BYO-everything else.
They limited capacity, asks were required by all who attended, and the Crossroads team even set up lawn flags 6 feet apart to ensure social distancing.
Access Audio partnered with Crossroads’ AVL team and Crossroads’ Music Team to create an outdoor worship experience (rain or shine!) that engaged attendees who had previously been staring at a tv or computer screen for the last several months. Access Audio brought in extensive audio support, including two Yamaha CL5 digital mixers, a comprehensive Shure wireless microphone package, and VUE audiotechnik al-8 Line Array Elements. The set up also included two LED video walls on either side of the stage, and of course power, risers, etc. Though the event itself was only one hour each week, Access Audio and Crossroads AVL spent many hours over the course of each weekend setting up gear, rehearsing with the Crossroads Music Team, and packing up when service ended. It was an incredible effort by all three groups coming together to pull off such a large-scale “pop-up” production each week.
To our partners and advocates at Crossroads, thank you. It was a joy serving in ministry with you for all these weeks. We are grateful for this partnership and can’t wait to see where it goes next.
Access Audio is happy to provide AVL support for all types of customers and events–be it a school play, community movie night, or corporate gala. But at the core of our mission for Access Audio we want to partner with churches and ministries who have a vision for engaging their communities in new ways, and help them bring that vision to life. We stick with our partners for the long-haul, whether that looks like 11 weeks in the middle of downtown, or 52 weeks in a middle school; a complete production rental, or finding ways to integrate your existing gear into a larger system; a small budget or no budget at all. We are, and always have been, here to serve. Get in touch with us today to discuss your next big idea!
