Joel and Victoria Osteen, pastors of the largest and fastest growing church in the US, kicked off the UK leg of their international tour at the Odyssey Arena Belfast in Northern Ireland, headed onto Wembley and closed in the NEC Arena in Birmingham, in July.

‘A Night of Hope’ featured praise, worship and prayer with electrifying music from Dove, Award-winning Cindy Cruse Ratcliff and the Lakewood band and ensemble. Lakewood Church of Houston, Texas, is the largest and fastest growing church in the US with nearly 40,000 attendees.

According to Nielsen Media Research, Joel Osteen is the most watched minister in the US and reaches 95 per cent of all US television households. Joel Osteen has been named the “Most Influential Christian in America of 2006” by the readers of The Church Report magazine.

Lite Alternative supplied the lighting for the UK tour, which included MAC 700 Profiles, MAC 2000 Profiles, and a Grand MA full lighting console for control.

Tom Stanziano, Lighting Director for the tour explains the brief, “The lighting was used to enhance the 5 video screens. 3 screens as a background used for video content and 2 screens wide for Image, the MAC 700 Profiles for backlight and the MAC 2Ks for background vocals and band wash.”

Tom goes on to explain his choice of lighting, “I choose the Martin MAC 700 and MAC 2K's because I am using the 2K’s on our US shows and they hold up great, have great colour saturation and the lamp source looks great on camera with little colour correction.”

“I chose the MAC 700s because I have rented them several times and they are extremely bright and that was the biggest advantage.” Colours and dependability were also reasons why Tom chose the MAC 700s. When asked how they held up for the tour, he was happy to reply, “Great, as I expected!”

The guys at Lite Alternative were “amazing” according to Tom who has been Lakewood Church’s lighting designer for 5 years, “and thanks go out to Jon Greaves, Paul Burke, Danny Spratt and Chris Cooper, without them the shows wouldn't have gone as smoothly as they did.”

Lakewood's weekly television program can now be seen in nearly 200 million households in the US and in over 100 nations around the world including major network coverage in Canada, Australia, India, Korea, Africa and throughout Europe.

Photograph courtesy of Tom Stanziano.