Mom and I visited Buckhead Church tonight. For those that don’t know, it’s a satellite of North Point. As one person described it, “Definition of a mega-church? 3,000 people show up to a church where they watch the pastor deliver his sermon via video because the main church is 30 minutes away and full”.

Yup.

Awesome experience though. Really inspiring as a church planter to see young churches that are doing so well. North Point is less than 15 years old, and they have two (yeah, 2) sanctuaries (3 services in each) at their main campus in Alpharetta, plus Buckhead Church in Atlanta and Browns Bridge in Cumming. I could go on and on about everything there, but you really have to experience it for yourself. Even though it is huge, it feels as intimate as my church. The people are all friendly and I caught myself conversing with people without even knowing their names. So it is possible to have a mega-church where you are more than “just a number”. And I gotta give props to worship leader Carlos Whittaker (look in my blogroll for Ragamuffin Soul). First off, dude has sleeves. I love that! But, as the production guy at my church, I rarely get a chance to just stand back and worship. I mean, I love what I do, and I believe God has called me to production and music ministry, but every now and then it is nice to go to a place and not have to worry about the sound or video or whatever, and just worship. And Carlos and his band came with their A game. They were prayed up and ready to lead us in worship.

Then they had two baptisms, which was really cool. Each person gave a video testimony and they was baptised.

Finally, we got to see part three of “Letters to the Next President”.
Yup, Andy Stanley on a giant, HD screen, center stage.
Really good message too.

But there is one thing I can’t leave out: they opened service with a Beatles cover band. Full-on “mop top” costumes and wigs, even down to matching suits and the bass player even had a lefty bass shaped like a stand up bass, just like Paul McCartney! Anyways, they performed “Revolution” and nailed it. And the camera shots were projected in black and white on the screens; little things like that are what make it special.

Anyways, all-in-all, great service.

J

P.S.
Added two pics from Buckhead I found online to give you guys an idea of what it looks like. Looks huge (it is), but the seating is really intimate. You don’t realize you’re sitting amongst 3,000 people. And, as a geek, I love that the FOH booth is on the main floor, so the FOH engineer hears exactly what the majority of the congregation hears.

I just read a post on the Collide Magazine website titled Know Your Role. Great article, especially because I have gone through similar experiences. I’ve handled media design for two lead pastors and three youth pastors and I must say, I love where I am at now. I have received the phone call asking for a microphone to be set up for a function that begins in 15 minutes – and I was 20 miles away. It was not unusual to get sermon notes (not completed presentations like Brent provides – which is amazing) 15 minutes before service began. And I have been given the task of creating a “jaw-dropping, eye-catching” presentation, only to be told hours (and sometimes even minutes) before going live that it might offend some people because it could be misconstrued as irreverent, or even dare I say blasphemous. So yes, I am glad to be in an environment where I can be free to be creative. Alas, that is one major advantage of a church plant: we get to define the boundaries. Anyways, here are the articles:

Know Your Role: Pastor’s Perspective

Know Your Role: Artist’s Perspective

Enjoy!
J

For those who’ve been living under a rock the past two months, Louie Giglio and Chris Tomlin announced in May that they are going to plant a church in downtown Atlanta. And since that announcement I’ve heard nothing but worry from people in this area. From friends (from my church and from other churches), other pastors and even on blogs written by area pastors. The recurring theme seems to be, “Great. How are we supposed to compete with that?”.

YOU DON’T.

I believe that every church should seek the will of God so they may find their own identity, but not to set themselves apart from the pack. Church isn’t about making your service and atmosphere unique so that you attract Christians to your church. I don’t want more “Christians” joining churches!

Don’t misunderstand that last statement; being part of a church plant, I totally understand you need Christians in church to lead and for structure. But the primary responsibility of the church is to reach out to the lost. If your biggest concerns are centered around keeping the current members happy and having the coolest services so you can impress other “church people”, you are shooting yourself in the foot. I’ll say it right now: if you come to Four Points expecting a North Point, Fellowship, Gateway, Mars Hill, etc., atmosphere, you will be disappointed. Not that I have anything against those churches. They are all doing great work in their communities and are great churches to admire, and to some degree emulate. However, we don’t have the budget or resources of any of those churches. But if you visit Four Points I can guarantee this: you will see us using what we do have to the best of our abilities, you will see us doing everything with excellence, you will experience genuine worship, you will hear a Biblically sound message and most importantly, you will be loved.

To wrap things up, here’s the point: do what God has called you to do and do it with excellence. Four Points has a different calling on it than the churches I listed above, just as they each have different callings than each other. If you’re worried about competition from the church next door, you should rethink things a bit. We’re all on the same team; no one church can do this on their own.

J

Shocking, ain’t it?

I’m currently sitting at the library (thank God they have free WiFi, even if it blocks facebook and MySpace) because our internet is still down. Comcast better prorate the next bill since our internet has been down for three days now.

I digress.

Started working for Ryla yesterday. Will be in training until the 25th, assuming Ryla’s client activates the project. Can’t say much more than that until the call center goes live.

So, I’m sitting here at the library taking care of all my internet needs; except, of course, for checking facebook and MySpace, but I can do that on my phone. So drop by and leave a comment or write on my wall (for the facebook fans).

J