Alexis Leon wants to encourage women to take the leap in the male-dominated world of AV production. She says, “I just encourage women to not be intimidated and lean into their calling.”
"Church Production Hero of the Month” is a collaboration between Church Production Magazine and Ross Video. We’re looking to highlight the men and women who consistently exceed expectations for your local church. So tell us—who looks like a church production hero to you? Nominate your hero here.
Growing up in Texas and studying digital media production in college, Alexis Leon thought sports broadcasting was her future. But when she got a job as a video production assistant at the University of Connecticut, she went church shopping and found Vox Church. One of the fastest growing multisite churches in new England, with nine and soon to be ten locations, Alexis started volunteering in production and remembers the moment she knew this was her future.
“I remember it was Christmas 2017,” she says. “And I know exactly where I was sitting in our venue and the Lord said, ‘Hey you’re gonna do this,’ and I’m thinking really? Because I’m ready to go back home! (laughing) So, I kinda just kept volunteering and it came time for me to leave my UConn job. I started applying back in Texas and was praying into what comes next and I really felt like the Lord was asking me to stay.”
Stay she did. At first, she landed a job at ESPN in Bristol, Connecticut cutting highlights for SportsCenter and the Scott Van Pelt Show. But as glamorous as that sounds, she says it was just a place holder for her real calling. “The following week one of our production leads at the church left and I got the phone call that they would like me to start volunteering and going through the interview process to take over. I was at ESPN for about 90 days before the Lord called me out of sports broadcasting and really into church production and full-time ministry.”
April 9th marked her two years in that position and everyone now knows what kind of a production firestorm awaited Leon in those first two years. Because she handled the storm so well, she was nominated as a Church Production Hero of the Month by Vox Church Communications Director, Dave Bruno. He explains, “As we’ve gone through these last 12 months, the amount of times I have seen her and her team transition on the fly as we’ve moved from – a year ago having to reinvent church online and to now we’re doing church online and producing in person services – just the amount of creativity and flexibility and problem solving that’s had to take place is astronomical. And every time we encounter a problem or a challenge comes up, I’ve always seen her respond with grace and creativity and we are so proud of our production team here at Vox Church.”
So tell us—who is your church production hero? Nominate your hero here.
“I’ve always just loved video and loved telling stories through this avenue..." says Alexis Leon at Vox Church, where she leads the video production team.
Vox has a broadcast campus that live streams to eight (soon to be nine) locations. The pastor preaches live in New Haven, Connecticut and the sermon is streamed to the other campuses. Leon says live streaming was hard in the beginning, but has come incredibly far. Since then, the church has developed a solid production team and has begun using the Resi (formerly Living As One) streaming platform.
Little did anyone know how important live streaming would become and how challenging production would prove over the next year. But Leon says God has used it for good. “Really, it’s grace, God’s given us so much grace just in our roles in our team,” she says. “We just got out of creative meeting and really it was just a celebration of all we’ve been able to accomplish through COVID, and into now Easter, and to be able to do what we’ve had to do. There was so much unknown the last year and adjusting and throwing things at the wall and really trying to see what sticks. Now that we are kind of on the other end, we’ve started to regather, and things are kind of starting to look normal again. To see how we’ve grown and all we’ve gone through and really how much grace we’ve had from the Lord to really grow and grow together and really just develop relationship and community with each other --- it’s just been beautiful.”
Leon co-leads a team with another tech who oversees audio and she oversees video, which has allowed her to focus more on the creative world. “I tell him how it looks and what it needs to do and he executes it. It’s this perfect balance like two sides of a coin back and forth where I’m like, ‘This is the big picture’ and he’s like ‘Hey this is the wiring that needs to happen,’” she says.
“She and her counterpart they really make a fantastic team,” says Bruno. “and they really give such excellent leadership to the rest of the production team. But it’s just fantastic having multiple talented people helping lead what we’re doing.”
What motivates this excellence? Leon says it’s Jesus. “I’ve always just loved video and loved telling stories through this avenue, whatever that story may be and when I came to know the Lord and he mixed into that and really just started speaking to me about how I can use this love or passion to tell people about Jesus --- that’s what lit a fire in my soul for production,” she says. “I really felt the Lord speaking to me saying, ‘Hey I’m really calling you to this and you have an ability to really preach the gospel through this avenue.' Cause that’s what production is. We are a support system that the pastors and worship team can call on in order to reach people and tell people about Jesus. He really just gave me the passion to be that support and so people can come to know the Lord and lives can be transformed, And hopefully, through this mission and vision we are all on here at Vox, the a whole region can be changed.”
With a background in sports production and moving into church production --- both of which can tend to be male dominated --- Leon recently participated in a FILO cohort of women in church production. She says 12 women participated from all different size churches but each had similar experiences to share. “I think as a woman in production, you don’t see it all the time. It was so encouraging for me to be networking and communicating and brainstorming with other women and finding common ground --- women who understand where I come from.”
Leon says she wants women in production to not be afraid to take that leap. She says, “God has a calling for every single one of us and I believe there are women who he has called who feel issues in this male dominated area. I just encourage women to not be intimidated and lean into that calling.” She says women in production need to find their voice. “I went from being this timid girl saying, ‘maybe we should… I don’t know,’ to standing on a box truck and yelling directions --- telling people where to put things and people listening! But that didn’t happen overnight.” Leon says it can be a struggle, but that shouldn’t stop you. “I shouldn’t have to fight for my voice to be heard, but sometimes you have to and a side of this is relying on your purpose, your God given purpose - the calling and grace he’s given you in this role and knowing you’re made for this and this where you’re supposed to be. I just want women to be confident that they are supposed to be there and stand steady and find your voice and it will be heard!”
Bruno says she’s been a fantastic addition to a production team that is really making all the difference in this ministry. He concludes, “We are one of the fastest growing multisite churches in New England and our production team is a huge part of that. Every time we launch a new location, every time we stream across different campuses, our production team has to step up again and make all that happen again and just to see them do that is always super impressive.”
Who consistently goes above and beyond at your church? Nominate a church production hero from your team here.
