City Church is coming up on its fourth year hosting Easter services at San Francisco’s Davies Symphony Hall. What is, for most of the year, a place for Brahms and Beethoven becomes, for one day, holy ground. Two thousand people stream in through the doors, and over the course of the weekend, we have 54 communion servers, 36 ushers and greeters, 42 wine trays, three thousand wafers, and two cases of wine for communion. We take our celebration of Easter seriously at City Church, but the celebration doesn’t come together without a lot of work behind the scenes. We talked with ushers Anne Kinderman and Bob Patterson about their experience over the last few years to give you a better idea of what this day looks like.

How long have you been ushering at City Church’s Easter service?

Anne: Since it started [at Davies]—so I think this is going to be my fourth year.

Bob: I think as long as we’ve had services there, and I think we’re going on four years. At first it was exciting just to think about ushering at Davies Symphony Hall because it’s such a magnificent building, so it puts a different spin on ushering than you get at our other sites. I’ve been doing it ever since [we] started there.

What is the day of Easter like in your role as an usher?

Anne: It’s really interesting, walking into Davies Symphony Hall and feeling like you have a role that’s helping things run. It’s such a professional, world-class venue, and it’s different [from a typical Sunday] because, first of all, you’re aware of the venue and I think that adds to the feeling that this is a really special day.

Bob: At Davies, you get a lot of families that don’t normally attend at one of our regular sites. It’s either extended families or folks like I used to be—I considered myself a holiday Catholic—that are there for the service. It puts a different spin on it; there’s opportunity to introduce City Church to new people, to engage some new faces that may not have considered worshiping in the past, so it’s a different audience.

What kinds of things do you do to prepare for this day?

Bob: They’ve done a great job managing that process up front, and I can see how that’s turned into more of a science as we’ve gotten familiar with the operations of the day. I’ve got to admit the first time we did it we were all a little bit nervous—this is new ground and new territory for all of us. When you’re in the hallway there, talking with a group of 15 or so ushers and getting instructions, and you walk into the room it’s like, “Oh my gosh, what have we done,” because it’s huge! But the leaders have done a good job of organizing the sections, and up front there’s been a lot of communication with regards to the order of the day, what to wear, when to show up for orientation, getting your assigned area, and so on.

Anne: As Poppy Dere, who spearheaded our ushering team the last three years, has said, Easter is the Super Bowl of ushering. There are maps of each of the floors and things highlighted and information about where you go and what level you’re on, and there’s a captain who tells you how it will all work so that you feel comfortable in the logistics.

What are some of your favorite things about the service itself?

Anne: I really love that it’s the biggest day for us as Christians, out of the entire year, and it certainly has that feeling at City Church. You’re in this amazing, beautiful space, and we get to worship all together. We never get to do that as a church any other time, and all of the pieces that you see throughout the year at different points at City Church all come together: You have the choir and a bigger group of musicians that are playing and you see a lot of the pastors. And I love the feeling of the music and people singing all together and what that sounds like when it’s Davies filled up.

Bob: I like being helpful to people. I’m a real people person, so I prefer to be closer to the doors and have initial contact with folks to give them directions. There are usually a lot of questions, and there’s more time for interaction. I find value in being able to be helpful to people when they come in.

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