Cross Point Church: Streaming Through The Unexpected

To say that the events of March 2020 took many churches by surprise is, of course, an understatement. However, for Cross Point Church in Nashville, TN, March 2020 brought uncertainty at a whole different level.

Before the pandemic shut down, well, everything, Cross Point Church was already dealing with a disaster of epic proportions. A severe storm ravaged Nashville and, with it, a massive tornado. The twister delivered a direct hit to Cross Point’s main broadcast campus, tearing off the roof, flooding the space, and leaving the building uninhabitable for the foreseeable future.

The very next weekend was the one we all remember with vivid clarity. Yet, for the team at Cross Point, things were just progressing from bad to worse. Already without a facility, they needed to salvage any usable gear from the wreckage and piece together a streaming rig.

As you can imagine, this was a tall task. But, as Technical Coordinator Daniel Gossage puts it,

“Seeing the things our team has been forced into doing at this point, they’ve taken the lessons they’ve learned and tried to push their online (experience) even further.”

Like nearly every other live production team, the team at Cross Point shifted focus to pre-production and delivering that experience to its community. And now, with in-person gatherings back on the table, plus the broadcast location getting closer to reopening, things are shifting once again.

As the Live Experience Director Seth Thiesen states,

“It’s really allowed us to think differently about what is that online experience, how do we not just stream what’s happening in this room, but how do we create things that are unique to the online community.”

Perhaps the lesson here is that the unexpected is inevitable, yet with perseverance and teamwork, the sun truly does shine brighter after the storm.