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

So I just got back from day two of AtlantaFest at Stone Mountain. Wow. First, I have to say thanks to Telitha; not only did she get me free passes to the concert, but the passes she got for me allowed me access to pretty much anywhere I wanted. The only restrictions were that I couldn’t go on the stage itself or in the office without being accompanied by someone with an all access pass.

So day one was pretty cool. We ate dinner in the artist/staff cafe and then wandered around the grounds a bit. Took the cable car ride up to the top of Stone Mountain which was cool and then got back to the concert grounds in time to catch tobyMac’s performance, which was amazing. Especially considering that he is 43. He had more energy than most of the audience. Of course, Ignition and Boomin‘ were awesome live, but for a guy that grew up on dc Talk, getting to hear In the Light and Jesus Freak live was priceless.

Day two we showed up in time for dinner again, but this is where things got interesting. Telitha, Dan and I are eating dinner when a guy asks if he can sit with us. I look over to say yes and it’s Mike from Tenth Avenue North along with his wife. So they joined us and we chatted for awhile. Got to talk about the church plant with him a bit and I gave him an impact card. Not that I expect him to visit, since they live in Nashville, but who knows; networking? Anyways, we’re just talking and then Mark from Sanctus Real comes over and sits down with us. By now I was totally stoked. And both guys were so down to earth. I know that sounds cliched, but there was no attitude or ego from either. Just really genuine, honest, open nice people.

So dinner is over, we say our goodbyes and go our separate ways. Dan and I decide to go back to the car and get the video camera, cause wouldn’t it be cool if we could get someone to do a little Four Points promo on camera? We get back to the cafe area and guess who just happens to be hanging around outside the Chick-Fil-A bus?

Jeremy Camp.

Yes, the Jeremy Camp.

And guess what?

We got the video.

I’ll post it soon enough. I’m gonna edit it a bit so we can display it at church. Then I’ll put it online. But that was just flippin’ awesome.

So after that, we wandered around a bit more. Dan decided he wanted to ride the cable car again, so I went and listened to Barlow Girl for a few minutes before heading to the second stage to check out Day of Fire. Awesome band live. What was really cool was that their front of house mixer was on the floor level, so I was able to go and sit with the engineer and just watch him do his thing. Really cool for a geek like me.

After Day of Fire, it was time to head back to the main stage for Jeremy Camp. What can I say, it was an awesome set. Little bit of new stuff, several classics and even a worship set thrown in. Great show. I was a little skeptical, but I really enjoyed myself the past two days. Really wish I could be there tomorrow (okay, tonight) for Big Daddy Weave, but I’ve got my own band to take care of and I wouldn’t trade them for any band at AtlantaFest.

J

Apple announced that the iPhone 3G will be available beginning July 11.

My birthday is July 27. 

Coincidence? I think not.