Staff audio engineer Ron Cook controls the mixing board in the tech booth during a full rehearsal at Willow Creek.
Laura Stoecker/lstoecker@dailyherald.com
What happens behind the scenes during a Sunday service at Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington is much more than one might imagine.
It's a mix of staffers and hundreds of volunteers who make each worship service a success. All told, there are 350 staffers and up to 1,200 volunteers each weekend serving the 19,000 members at the South Barrington campus. There are producers, audio engineers, the video production teams (both live and post production), scenic designers, cameramen, guest hosts, lobby hosts, the traffic team and so many more.
We got to see the extraordinary teamwork it takes to produce a worship service. The images are a mix of the goings-on during a Sunday morning full rehearsal, guest hosts meeting between services as well as the video team at work during the week creating the videos to be used in upcoming services.
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Images: Behind the Scenes at Willow Creek Community Church
Weekend producer Paul Jansen van Rensburg talks directly to the tech booth during a rehearsal at Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington. At any time during a service, he can talk to the booth so adjustments can be made.
Laura Stoecker/lstoecker@dailyherald.com
Executive in charge of video production Jim Sippel shows one section of the tech core area at Willow Creek Community Church. The area is the main distribution point for video and audio for the campus. This also includes all inbound and outbound feeds for external events such as the Leadership Summit.
Laura Stoecker/lstoecker@dailyherald.com
Darren Niesley is the video director at Willow Creek and controls each Sunday morning presentation from a video production room in the basement of the church in South Barrington.
John Starks/jstarks@dailyherald.com
Guest pastor John Ortberg, who is a senior pastor at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church in California and former Willow Creek teaching pastor, waits in a backroom for service to begin May 7. Ortberg was the guest pastor that day.
Laura Stoecker/lstoecker@dailyherald.com
Volunteer guest hosts gather for a quick meeting before a Sunday service at Willow Creek. There can be as many as 60 guest hosts per service, helping out in various ways during a service. There are 180 guest hosts for all three weekend services.
Laura Stoecker/lstoecker@dailyherald.com