The morning started out a little wet as the rain from the day before was just finishing its pass through the upstate.  Our incredible volunteers didn’t seem to mind and welcomed everyone in spite of the weather.  With doors opening and registration beginning at 7:30, Awake coffee was buzzing early.

First main session!

After the first main session, attendees burst out of the auditorium to find the breakout session of their choice.  Breakouts are spread throughout the campus, each focused on a specific area of ministry.

The student facility was home to several breakout sessions – Perry’s “senior pastors only” session…

…Lee’s session for worship leaders/staff, and Trevor’s on discipleship ministry.

Back in KidSpring, our children’s building –  Suzanne, Shua, and Cristin’s session on communication, print, web, and branding.

Chick-Fil-A plays a huge part at Unleash every year by catering lunch for all 3,000ish attendees, volunteers, and staff.  Best fast food and customer service PERIOD!

Lunchtime.

After lunch, breakout set #2 began.  Lucretia, Perry’s wife, held an incredible breakout for pastor’s wives while Shane taught on creativity and service planning.

Karla and Adrienne’s session for ministry assistants was so jam packed that it turned into “teaching in the round” since the only seats left were on stage.

Ken, Will, Adam, Amanda, and Darrin’s session on video and motion graphics was just as packed.

Outside in the tents – Sherry’s session on creating and managing a great volunteer culture, Brad’s on student ministry…

…and Cherie’s on children’s ministry.

Intermission fun with a golf cart in the parking lot.  Huge thanks to my good friend Chandler (who’s driving this golf cart) for helping me out this year.  Not a word of complaint the whole conference – just a pure servant’s heart all day long.

After breakouts were over, everyone headed back to the auditorium for main session #2.  Seriously, the main sessions were incredible.

During the last portion of the second main session, Perry ended with encouragement for senior pastors and asked for their staff/volunteers to pray over them and to be “with them heart and soul”.  One of the best parts of the day.

Perry – Hold faithful to the vision and leadership that God has given you for His church.  You’re worth following, and we’re with you heart and soul.

Check out the video recap of the day…

Recap: Unleash 2011 from NewSpring Media on Vimeo.

This next image is quite unusual.  If you’re a NewSpring member or regular attender, you know that something’s up if Perry is wearing a suit.

My favorite image from the Christmas services.  During the invitation to receive Christ, Perry asked for anybody wanting to give their life to Christ to break their glow stick and walk out to the atrium to speak with a care team volunteer.  After the invitation and during “All Creation Sing/Joy To The World”, everybody was asked to break their glow stick.  Glow sticks all over the auditorium.  Praise be to God!

Perry and Steven leading the senior pastors only breakout.

Lucretia, Perry’s wife, leading a breakout for pastors’ wives.

Lee’s breakout for worship leaders.

NewSpring volunteers absolutely make this thing happen, from greeting to preparing lunch to EVERYTHING else.  If you’re a NewSpring volunteer reading this – thank you.

Sherry Moorhead, Shane Duffey, Lee McDerment, and Brad Cooper all led much smaller lunch discussion sessions.

Clayton’s breakout on protecting your pastor…

B.CooP*’s breakout on youth ministry.  I’d say it was pretty full…

…Cause it’s all for You, it’s all for You, God….

For the first set, we wanted to show someone in their office irritated because his wife is calling and therefore decides to ignore her call…

The second set shows a severe lack of generosity.  He has obviously just finished a very large, expensive meal at a nice restaurant, yet decides to tip only a single penny…

And the final set shows someone stuck in traffic in the exit lane of the church parking lot after leaving a church service.  His anger seems to have gotten the best of him…

Thanks to Andrew, Charles, and Chip for being part of the shoot with us.  We definitely had a blast working on these and I’m excited to finally be able to put these up now that the series has begun!

**Note:  For the actual series opener, Ken edited the entire piece all together in After Effects whereas the photos here on my blog include my own edits.