I feel like I have been in one of those twilight zone movies... Where you are taken from your current situation and given a glimpse of yourself a few years down the road. We spent the weekend with about 10 other church planting pastors at Next Level Church. The pastor couples that were their all came from similar size and aged churches. We all hit it off like we were long lost friends. I felt like a soldier meeting another soldier who understood the battles I faced and we could look at one another nod and know we were known.
The peeps in attendance where...
Fusion Church- pastors Nathan and Lisa Camp- Orlando, FL.
Go Church- pastors Barry and Christina Rice- Orlando, FL.
Family Life Church- Pastors Dan and Stephanie Stauffer- Succasunna, NJ.
Destiny Church- Pastors Terry and Tracy Jimmerson- Las Vegas, NV.
Networks Church- Pastors Andrew and Karen Fortner- Lee's Summit, MO
The Well- Pastors Todd and Gena Lugli- Solvang, CA
DC Metro Church- Pastors David and Taryn Stine- Washington, DC.
We spent the weekend going through Next levels way. We were able to ask any question and look in every crack and crevasse. Here are my observations...
- Churches are like people... no one is perfect but all are unique and are gifted in spectacular ways.
- Next level does church really well.
- They have a very organized system.
- the way they do set up challenges me. They are all about the lazy man paradigm. how would a lazy man do it? He wouldn't lift more then he should, he would do it in as few steps as possible, he would do as few trips as possible. Sounds like a winning way for volunteers.
- I posted an album of pictures from our visit. they may not al make sense but for our team it will.
- Matt Keller is the man... He thinks about things so different that it challenges you to reprocess things. I love it. He shared a thing about how to get over the comparison virus... WOW! life changing!
- We at High Point are kicking everything we do up a whole nutha level! we are going to push hard this fall... lots, LOTS, LOTS to do! but by our 3rd anniversary in January we will be a better church!
- My biggest take away is that being with these guys gave me permission to break out of the way I and the church have been going and take things up a notch.
- We had a sweet prayer time at the end and God spoke a word through Matt over me that I feel was right on. I am living it out to the fullest.
- High Points best days are ahead of us!
- The way they do their music... WOW... Josh their creative pastor is so like Courtney... I am totally connecting them because they run in a totally similar vain.
- E and I saw a model of ministry that fits how we work in Matt and his wife Sara. She is the CFO he is the CEO... I like it... You will see E and I become more specialized and complementary to one another's gifting.
All in all this was a fenom trip. Short... tiring... but good.
I posted some pictures of their set up. Pastors... If you have pictures from your set up process you think are good... post a link in the comments and Ill check it out. If it is good Ill leave the comment up.
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