Happy Monday, friends! Today is the first day of round three of The AJ Workshop (which we might have an exciting announcement about late this week!) and we are already loving this group of attendees! We’re diving into all things  photography today, which means we’ll be knee-deep in lighting, posing, composition and all our tricks for nailing shots in-camera. We’ve also got a gorgeous styled shoot planned by the wonderful Andrea Leslie and an evening full of post-processing and off-camera flash, so it’s going to be a packed day!  We’d love for you to follow along with us in real time today and tomorrow on Instagram (@amy_demos and @jordan_demos) and you can even see the workshop from our attendees perspective by following the hashtag #ajworkshop! For now though, we wanted to share a little bit about something exciting happening in our lives this Easter! But before we get to that, here’s a little backstory.

When we were planning our wedding during our senior year of college, two things became very obvious very fast: we had a gigantic guest list, which quickly led us to fact number two: it would be very expensive to feed so many people! Bring on the Costco sheet cake! At the time, our small home church wasn’t equipped to handle an almost 300-person guest list, but luckily for us, the church where Jordan’s dad worked (on the other side of town) was. In order to get married there, though, each couple had to take eight weeks of pre-marital classes at the church after Sunday morning services. We’ve shared extensively about how we failed our first pre-marital class, so we won’t go into that here, but if you’re looking for a laugh, that post is definitely worth a read! At the time, the church was a 30-minute drive from our house, so if we were going to class, we figured, we might as well kill two (spiritual) birds with one stone and attend Sunday morning services, too.

One Sunday night after church and classes, we were walking together in Amy’s parents’ neighborhood after dinner. It was a beautiful spring evening. Our fingers were laced together. Jordan’s other hand was in his pocket. Amy’s was swinging from side to side and she always had to put in a little extra effort to keep up with his steps. Jordan’s a fast walker, and a fast talker, you see. He still has to remind himself to slow down even now! But, that evening, we were both quiet. Jordan especially so. Which, if you know Jordan, isn’t normal for him at all! He breaks the men-only-speak-7,000-words-per-day stereotype. He shatters it, actually, and gives most women a run for their money. But this day he didn’t. Definitely not this night.

Nothing was wrong. Know that. Something was really, really right. He was just processing it all until he could articulate it.

“At this new church, I feel like I’m really growing in my relationship with God for the first time in a long time,” he said.

“That’s all I needed hear,” Amy replied.

And ever since, we’ve made Christ’s Church of the Valley (CCV) our church home — and we love it. We love it for its mission. Its vision. Its leadership. Its programs. We love it for all of that and more, we love it for everything it stands for. We love it so much that we even volunteered in the children’s ministry ever week, survived two years as volunteer counselors at summer camp, saw incredible things happen in the lives of those kids, and also lead a neighborhood group on Wednesday nights.

(If you want to read one of our favorite stories about leading Sunday school discussion, and want another good laugh, you’ve got to click here)

We love our church more, though, because it connected us to Christ and challenged us to not just sit on the sidelines of life, but to get in the game, to live and lead and serve with love, and be light in a dark world. We love that we have a church that recognizes that church isn’t something that happens within four walls on Sundays, but that being the church means living our faith every day. We’ve been changed forever because of Jesus and we strive to live a life that reflects that. We know we are far from perfect, but we’re so thankful for the example He lived and the grace He pours on us. We especially love this Easter season when the whole world stops to rejoice that Jesus overcame the world.

This Sunday at 10:30 a.m., if you don’t have Easter plans, we want to invite you to join us for a VERY special, once-in-a-lifetime Easter service. Our church (CCV) is actually one of the ten largest in America, even though it never feels like that. We are split into five separate campuses (ours is only minutes from our home) and even though 25,000 of us actually meet every weekend all over the valley, we always forget that! For the first time ever, we’re all meeting for one Easter service in the only location in the state of Arizona that’s big enough to hold us all — Cardinals Stadium! And the best part? You, and the whole city, are invited to come! And it won’t cost you a dime! It sells out every weekend for sports celebrities, so our goal is to fill it for the most important celebrity: Jesus.

Now, here’s a sentence we’d never thought we’d type: We’re tailgating this Easter!

We mean, what’s a stadium event without a good tailgate?! We’ll be enjoying a coffee, donut and all-things-breakfast tailgate and we’d love for you to join in! We only have one photo of us tailgating ever (Emily Gilmore-style) and even though the weather and attire will be much different this weekend, it felt like the perfect photo for this post! You can head here to see the rest of the photos from this cozy winter trip when we were visiting our dear friends Justin & Mary in Connecticut.

We’ll be leaving from the CCV Scottsdale parking lot at 8:00 a.m. and caravanning together to the stadium for a coffee and donuts tailgate before the service begins. If you’re coming from a different side of town and meeting in Scottsdale first isn’t convenient, join us in the green parking lot for the tailgate (see attached map) or outside Gate 1 at 9:30 a.m. when we head inside. Service begins right at 10:30. Whether you go to church every weekend, haven’t been in years, or don’t even know what you believe but you’re looking for answers, please come join us this Easter! Dress is casual! We’d love to have you join us! Shoot us an email and let us know you’re in!

And if you don’t live in Arizona, but want to experience a service, you can watch all past services online! With our crazy travel schedule, a lot of times we’re out of town on the weekends, and this free resource has been HUGE for us!

Here are a few that made a strong impact on us:

The Light of the World (Heaven > Earth)

The Hunger Games (The Bowl of Stew)

Accept No Substitutes (Boundaries)

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If you liked this post you might also like $10,000: Newlywed Life & a Prayer or A New Demos Family Tradition (FMSC) or Travis and Cory’s Florida Anniversary Session.