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Developing Leaders // AdvancetheChurch

Guest Blogger: Mike McDaniel, Director of SendRDU

This morning I had the opportunity to share in Southeastern Seminary’s chapel service about SendRDU. I felt like I was preaching to the choir. Danny Akin and the faculty at Southeastern have a tremendous heart for church planting.

As I told them, talking to seminary students about church planting felt a little like lecturing homeschoolers on the value of big families, or telling a tree-hugger why they should recycle. If Southeastern is anything like my seminary was, then most of the guys, when they’re not studying or fighting for the attention of the 10 girls on campus, spend the rest of their time daydreaming about the church they’re going to plant one day.

Still, I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to share our vision, because we don’t just want to be a church that impacts a few pockets of Raleigh-Durham. We want to see all of RDU reached with the Gospel, and not only our city, but in cities all over the world. We believe the key to doing that is developing leaders that will plant churches. I’ve heard J.D. say many times lately that one of his greatest responsibilities as a pastor is developing future leaders.

That’s why SendRDU (our church planting center) exists, to equip leaders to plant churches. It’s also why we have partnered with organizations like AdvancetheChurch. Advance is a movement of local churches committed to planting healthy new churches and reviving dead and dying churches (some of you may have attended the Advance conference in June). We're excited to be a part of Advance, because we believe that by partnering with like-minded local churches we will better advance (no pun intended) the Gospel in RDU, the South and beyond.

Next Wednesday, October 7th, we are helping put on the first Advance Regional forum at Vintage21 Church in Raleigh. This is a free event for leaders and pastors. It will feature Pastor J.D., Pastor Jeff Vanderstelt from Soma Communities in Tacoma, WA, and Pastor Tim Smith from Mars Hill Church in Seattle. For more info and to register, go to www.advancethechurch.com.

A Defense of Mediocrity

While J.D. is away traveling, I (Ike Miller) will be posting a smattering of his greatest hits, thoughts on Church Philosophy and possibly some guest blogs.  J.D. also will be posting intermittently with thoughts and updates from his trip so be sure to check in for those. 

Below I am posting a guest blog by Summit's very own Sharon Hodde.  Sharon is a college minister in North Carolina who is especially passionate about women's ministry and articulating its importance for the future of the church.  For more from Sharon, see here own blog at "sheworships.com".

At least once a week, I consider dropping out of ministry.

I’ve heard Mark Driscoll refer to this kind of weekly day-dreaming as “bread truck Mondays”–every Monday he wakes up and thinks about quitting his job and driving a bread truck. Why? Because driving a bread truck gives you just enough distraction to be stimulating, without requiring you to really think at all.

I can sympathize.

For me, there is a myriad of reasons why I consider quitting ministry on a weekly basis. Some days I’m burned out, some days I feel overwhelmed, and some days I feel unappreciated. And then there are the days when someone blesses me out and calls me everything short of the anti-Christ–those are the days when my friends and family have had to actively stop me from running away and never coming back.

But the MAIN reason that I often consider quitting the ministry, the one reason that I would ever seriously give heed to, is this: my motives for doing ministry are wrong.

There is a misconception that Christians get into ministry to resist the rat race of the secular business world. It’s well known that ministry doesn’t pay well, plus ministry is all about helping people, so it would seem to attract those individuals who are denying the temptations of the American dream. To go into ministry, we must be intentionally forsaking the idols that so many Christians chase after in the secular realm.

This is false.

For many, ministry is merely a Christian version of the worldly ladder of success. While that is not the primary reason that most ministers pursue their vocation, there comes a point at which the lines become blurry. You DO want to reach the lost and you DO want to love the world for the glory of God, but you also want to do it BETTER than everyone else. You want to be great. You want to be remembered as having done something truly remarkable in your generation.

Some ministers veil this desire with language about “doing something great for the Kingdom of God.” They don’t want to look back on their lives and regret their mediocre life’s work. They want to know that they left a mark on the world.

And while I don’t doubt that many of these ministers’ motives are pure, I must admit that mine often are not. I have that exact same passion–I want to do something truly great for God–but I am frequently measuring “greatness” according to the world’s standards, not God’s.

In doing so, I make the strenuous climb up the Christian ladder of success–I put pressure on myself to have a booming ministry, to be a great speaker and a writer, and to compare myself with those who do it better. And when I fail at these things, I feel like an inadequate minister. It doesn’t matter that I spent the whole week meeting one-on-one with students and teaching them to love Jesus more. That sort of ministry isn’t impressive. That sort of minister doesn’t get articles and books written about them.

If all you’re doing is meeting with students and your ministry is small, then you would seem like a pretty mediocre minister. You have the kind of ministry that many pastors would “despair at the thought” of spending their lives leading.

So it is on these days when I feel the pressure to out-perform my teammates, to be the best, the most successful, and the most original minister, writer, speaker and thinker–those are the days when I consider quitting. I think about leaving ministry behind and working at Subway, not because ministry is too hard, but because my call has gotten so thoroughly mangled. I think about quitting the ministry to intentionally take a job in which there is no ladder of success, and purge myself of the desire to serve God for any other reason than my sheer love for Him.

And maybe one day I will. For now, I am learning to be ok with mediocrity–not laziness, not complacency, or apathy–but mediocrity according to the world’s standards. Maybe I won’t have a ministry that the world judges to be a tremendous success. Maybe I won’t be able to tally up thousands of people who prayed the sinner’s prayer because of me. Maybe no one will remember me when I’m gone.

But those standards are not to be found in God’s economy. Sure, God wants all people to experience salvation–you see mass conversions all the time in Acts. But not everyone is a Paul, and God only asks that we do the best we can with the gifts we have. We are to love others radically, we are to speak boldly about Jesus, and we are to live a life that testifies daily to the Gospel. Nothing less, but also nothing more.

So even if you are mediocre according to this world, such a label does not matter as long as you are a good and faithful servant to God. This is hard for me to remember as I stand in the shadow of so many successful pastors and writers, but it is in those moments that I am reminded that worldly success, even when it’s achieved in a Christian context, will all be burned away. The big church buildings, the millions of books–they will all pass away come eternity. Those things can certainly be effective tools for God’s Kingdom, but they do not distinguish the sheep from the goats.

A culture of hospitality...

From Danny Franks... off of his blog today... I couldn't agree more

Summit Church, you were paid one of the highest compliments last weekend that I can think of in terms of first impressions.  As many of you know, we hosted the Re:Sound worship event at the Brier Creek Campus last Friday night.  At that event, a pastor from another church observed our First Impressions Team (many of whom were serving for the very first time that evening).  Here’s what he said (completely paraphrased because (a) I wasn’t there and (b) I don’t remember the retelling all that well)…

Your people just get it.  They get the importance of guest services.  You’ve opened this place up and made everyone feel like a part of the family.  I wish the people at [our church] understood guest services like the Summit does.

Listen: I don’t say that to blow warm sunshine up our collective hineys*.  Nor do I say it to pridefully point at the things we do right.  You know as well as I do that there are plenty of Sundays where we drop the ball, guests don’t feel welcomed, and people don’t feel like part of the family.

The reason I bring it up is that little by little, slowly but surely, hospitality is becoming part of who we are.  And the reason behind the hospitality is that we want to remove all barriers that would keep people from hearing the gospel.  Satan can use an unfriendly greeter, a dirty nursery, or a confusing parking lot to keep people from focusing in on the message at hand.  

You guys get it!  And I’m proud to be a part of your team.

 *I’ve never written out the word “hineys,” but spell check doesn’t like it.

From Pastor J.D.: Danny, try "heinie." One of your faithful blog readers corrected you on it.

Joy in the City

I thought what Pastor Charlie said below was a good reflection. The two things that give the clearest and most compelling witness to Christ in this generation are AUTHENTICITY and THE BONO FACTOR (being conscious of the needs of mankind and living a life of service). Charlie here demonstrates both well. To note, we don't simply serve others as a way of trying to convert them... we do it because we love them...or, as a friend of mine says, "We don't serve to convert; we serve because we're converted"... but, that said, we also realize that serving the community is an essential part of reaching our city.

Guest Blogger: Charlie Dunn, Campus Pastor at Brier Creek Evening Campus

If you remember, two weeks ago, Pastor J.D. spoke out of Genesis 18 and Abraham's prayer for the city of Soddom. After the sermon, each campus, prayed for our city by praying for its respective domains. Again if you remember, we defined domains as those sectors which make up the city. Sectors like Education, Governement and Politics, Science and Medicine, Agriculture, The Arts, etc.

At the Evening Campus we transitioned into our prayer time and I mentioned that "when the domains of a city are broken, the city at large and its people experience brokeness as well." So for the sake of complete honesty, let me tell you...when I said that, I meant it and I believed it...intellectually that is. The problem was that it was sort of just words for me....Until this past week.

First, I have been reading through the Book of Acts just to get a better idea about what the early church looked like and how God moved then. As I came to Acts 8:5-8, I read the verses which state that there was "much joy in the city" as a result of Philip's preaching and displaying of the Gospel. In other words, the city experienced joy because Philip was willing to commit himself to bringing and displaying the truth of the gospel in a city whose domains were broken. And the consequence was that areas which were formerly broken became healed.

Secondly, Abby and I were at a banquet for Teachers of the Year from Durham Public Schools (Ahemm... did I mention my wife is the teacher of the year at Burton Elementary... finally, someone else has recognized what I've known for years: i.e., she's awesome). At our table was one of the Assistant Superintendents for DPS. This gentleman asked what I did, so I told him that I am a Pastor at the Summit Church. Now I fully expected the conversation to die on the spot, since the words "pastor" and "church" in the same sentence evoke about as much excitement from audiences as having your fingernails pulled out. However the gentlemen's response was all about how much he appreciated the Summit Church's work with public schools in the city. He was extremly complimentary of you all and even told me to go introduce myself to Dr. Carl Harris, the Superintendant of DPS. So I did. I said hello and told Dr. Harris that I appreciated his willingness to let us into the schools for the purpose of blessing faculty and students. His response was simply to thank me and tell me how blessed DPS has been because of the Summit's selfless love for and consistency in serving the schools.

As I have thought about Acts 8 and that conversation this week, what was formerly an intellectual knowledge became an experiential knowledge for me. You see, the Education Domain of our community is huge. It encompasses millions of dollars, thoushands of students and staff, hundreds of families and generally affects so much of the well-being of RDU at large. But, and this is not a knock on any one person or group of people...but it's broken. Our schools are hurting. Our teachers are burnt-out, paid the minimum, frustrated and our kids are tired, stressed and many times have very little to go home to. And as long as our educational system remains broken, Brier Creek, RDU and North Carolina will never be able to experience the joy that God intends for it.

Yet, Dr. Harris, in his one simple and grateful comment showed me that they had experienced a little of that joy, simply because people from our church decided to take it upon themselves and bless as Jesus has blessed.

In all its just really created an urgency in me...NOT to see the Evening Campus or any of our campuses grow large or our ministries to prosper or anything like that. That's all good, but what I REALLY want to see...what I am asking God to let me be a part of...is a people who experience joy because Jesus has transformed their lives, but who are also ON MISSION, taking PERSONAL INITIATIVE, to bless those in our community so that the community experiences the same joy and eventually worships Christ because of it.

I think it could start simply by getting involved with the public schools in our backyard. If you are a Brier Creeker, Bethesda Elementary and Neal Middle. If you are a West Clubber, E.K. Powe Elementary. If you are a Cole Mill'er, Eno Valley Elementary. You could serve as a proctor for each school's end of the year tests between 5/18-5/20. Or you could get your small group to partner with a class and provide gift baskets for the teachers or encouragement notes to the students. If you are a SummitLIFE Group leader, apply for a grant to bless the school during Week of Hope!

What do you think? Where else can it start? How can you be a part of "bringing joy to our city."

- Pastor Charlie

www.summitbriercreekpm.com

Women and Ministry

*The following is a guest post by Sharon Hodde, one of the Summit's brightest theologians! She is a recent graduate of Duke Divinity and has been involved in our church for a number of years. I thought her perspective would be helpful regarding a comment in my last post (see comment #26). The comment questioned my statement that the Summit Church believed in the "complementarian" roles of men and women in the home and church.  I responded myself in comment #27, but thought it would be helpful to voice a perspective from a different angle. Sharon's own blog, a great one to read, is "sheworships.com".

The short answer is this... we believe that women are fully equal to men, can be gifted in all the same things, and can do just about anything in the church--save serve in the office of elder and in the performance of its functions in an official capacity. We believe that God has called men to lead in the church and home. This should not and does not imply superiority, but simply a difference of role. It certainly does not mean that men have any right to dominate or lord over women. We want to enthusiastically affirm and encourage the development of the ministry gifts of the women in our church (see my comment, #27)... also, let me make clear that we would never want to overlook the incredible privilege and calling God has given to many women, that of mothering--one of God's greatest callings! 

(On a personal note, congratulations to all you tarheel fans... and specifically to J.B. Tanner, Tyler Zeller, and Patrick Moody (guys on UNC's team that come to our church). We know that your fellow Summit members, even if they are are Duke fans, are obeying the biblical command to "rejoice with those who rejoice." Ha. That's tough. And you Tarheel fans, don't be jerks. :) I kept expecting last night for T. Geithner to come out and give a "bailout" to Michigan St.... to take 15 or so points from Carolina and gift them... ha, couldn't resist.)

Sharon Hodde:
Yesterday a comment was placed on Pastor J.D.'s blog about where women fit in the ministry of the Summit Church, and in the SBC in general. That question is one that I have struggled with greatly over the last several years. I still struggle with it now. I was raised in a Presbyterian church in which we had numerous female pastors, and I attended a seminary through which all my other female friends were ordained. But I now find myself at a Southern Baptist church that I love and where I see God moving, and I have become convinced that the position commonly called "complementarianism," where men and women, while equal, have different roles in the church and home, is the one Scripture teaches. So as a woman called to ministry, where exactly is my place? 

The best way to answer this question is to begin by delineating what Scripture does NOT teach:

1.  Complementarianism does not mean that women do not belong in ministry—This perspective plays out in a lot of different forms. I have met men who were so extreme that they rebuked me for praying aloud in public when a man was present to do it for me. In a more subtle form, this perspective masquerades as a kind of equality, but hides a very real belief that women are not as effective in ministry as men. That said, this approach tends to have an anemic view of the Church and its design as a Body. Though it does affirm the different roles of the Church’s members, its definition of those roles can be so narrow as to be restrictive, as well as unscriptural.

2.  Complementarianism is not just a fancy way of telling women to stay in the kitchen—This approach tends to view ANY sort of differentiation between gender roles as a way of oppressing women or devaluing them. Though feigning to be a more progressive, nuanced approach to gender roles, it’s actually a reckless over-simplification. There is a tendency to ignore or brush off difficult passages in Scripture as simply being “outdated” or “cultural,” thereby resulting in a shallow reading of the text.

The first of these approaches leads to a hard and fast structure of the Church, whereas the second approach throws out structure altogether. I think the answer lies somewhere in between. 

We cannot throw out all distinctions because the Bible does not do this—over and over again it affirms the authority (headship) of men in the church and home, and in a universal way. However, Scripture does not offer a systematic rendering of what that authority looks like. Though it does give us an idea, we should be cautious about basing entire legal structures off of passages that were not designed for such a purpose. 

With all of that in mind, I appreciate D.A. Carson’s approach to balancing this tension. He explains, “Keep your finger on the text, say all that it says, and refuse to go too far beyond it. And if you do go somewhat beyond it in terms of practical application, acknowledge that that’s what you’re doing. That is, some implications and applications you could work out this way, but you could work out another way…just don’t fudge the center.”

That is a message that we ALL do well to hear, no matter how right we think we may be. And that is the place where I find myself today. I am a woman called to ministry. I am also called to honor Scripture’s affirmation of male authority. While I do not yet know what that looks like in all its details, I do know this—I am going to serve God to the best of my ability, not for my own sake or my own agenda, but for His. For the Gospel. And if I serve God faithfully and radically, if I humble myself even when it’s hard and it interferes with my pride, I will not find oppression, but my greatest freedom. 

As long as the SBC remains a place where women can pursue God’s call on their lives in faithful accordance with Scripture, then yes, there is a place for women in the SBC. In fact, there’s more than just a place—the SBC, and the Church in general, need that caliber of women. At best, we would be a crippled Body without them.

(For more on this, here's the talk D. A. Carson did on men and women in ministry from 1 Timothy 2 to which Sharon referred. Carson is one of our nation's finest theologians, and he is at his best in this talk!)

NBC-17 covers our "Giving the Coat off our Back" project

We got a visit from NBC 17 Sunday morning. Here is the link to the story. The ‘Day of Hope’ event was one of the headline stories tonight on the evening news. Summit Church… you continue to AMAZE me! Thank you for being such an active part of blessing RDU! - Brad O'Brien

Why We Plant Churches (& How You Can Get Involved)

Quick note: College students... quick update on next weekend. Our church is helping to host our friend Mark Driscoll, who will be speaking at UNC Cornerstone on Thursday night (Feb 5) about UNC's skanko-roman sexual culture, and then he, CJ Mahaney, myself and several others will be doing the 20/20 conference at SEBTS that weekend (Feb 6-7). Mahaney and Driscoll are two of my absolute favorite speakers... it is a huge opportunity, one I don't think you'd want to miss!

Guest Blogger: Mike McDaniel, Director of the Church Planting Center

Ed Stetzer, who some might call the yoda of the church planting world, recently put together a study with Leadership Network on the state of church planting in North America. Here are a couple of highlights:

“We’re starting more churches than ever…we are planting about 4,000 new churches a year. This is an all time high.”

Enthusiasm about church planting is at an unprecedented high. The church has woken up to the fact that we’re losing ground (according to the American Church in Crisis, only 17.5% of Americans attend worship on a given weekend), and we’re recognizing that “church planting is the single most effective evangelistic methodology under heaven” (Peter Wager). From a biblical perspective, not only is church planting the most effective means of fulfilling the Great Commission of making disciples, but it was also the strategy of Paul, who planted churches in every city he visited. From a practical side, numerous studies have shown that new churches best reach the ‘unchurched’, new generations, new residents, and new people groups (Tim Keller, Why Plant Churches?).

As encouraging as this is, we need to plant many more churches. Research suggests that we need to plant an additional 2900 churches a year just to keep pace with population growth.

“Contemporary church planting organizations display a heart of cooperation and a “kingdom mentality” by sharing resources. In addition, the energy of successful church planting is moving quickly from denominational structures to the more hands-on local churches and networks… The proper preparation and partnerships make a dramatic difference in the well-being, self-image and potential of the planter and the church plant. Though denominations may provide help, the most effective strategy clearly seems to be local churches planting other churches...”

We believe that the most beneficial thing for every community is a church that proclaims and embodies the Gospel of Christ, because only a church can meet both the physical and spiritual needs of a community. The most effective way to renew communities is through the strategic building and planting of churches, and no organization is better qualified to do this than the local church.

That’s why we launched a Church Planting Center last fall to assess, train, send, and coach church planters. On Tuesday, February 17^th, we will hold our fourth church planting Forum at the Summit. That’s open to anyone who is interested in church planting, whether you sense God calling you to church planting or you just want to find out what it's all about. Pastor J.D. will be teaching on Contextualizing the Gospel. You can get more info here.

One of our goals in launching the Church Planting Center is that it would be a resource to churches throughout RDU, and we’re pursuing ways that we can better partner with local churches for the sake of the Gospel.

On that note, February 4-5, Vintage21 in Raleigh is hosting an Acts 29 Boot Camp. Acts 29 Boot Camps are considered by many to be some of the best available. They are open to anyone. So whether you’re considering planting a church or you’ve already planted and are looking for more training, this is a tremendous opporunity. This year’s boot camp features Mark Driscoll, Danny Akin, Wayne Grudem, and Vintage pastor Tyler Jones, among others. To get more info and register, go here.

BIG SMALL CHURCH

Guest Blogger: SummitLIFE Pastor, Spence Shelton

What an exciting time we are in the midst of here at the Summit! In my 6 years as a member here and in my whole 9 months as a full-time pastor here I have never seen this place so energized! I take that back, This feels similar to a couple of other times in our past 6 years where the auditorium was so packed I couldn’t turn to introduce myself to the person next to me b/c we were so close face-to-face touching was a real potential consequence of such pleasantries. But this time around its even better. Because its happening on 3 campuses and because so many people are experiencing it for the first time. Summit Church, God is doing something unbelievable here and I think you will agree with me that we are looking at just the trickle of what looks to be a deluge of people God is about to pour into our church that they might experience his love, grace, and his church as they were created to experience it. 

So yes, we are getting big as a church. Here is the really cool thing, your pastors & elders have organized the church in a way that we can reach as many people as God will bring to us, and still keep the life-on-life, real, honest, life-long & life changing relationships at the center of the church.  We want….no, we need you to be invested into the lives of some of the people here in your church family. Thankfully, the 1^st church ever looked pretty similar. In Acts 2 you see one point where the local church grew by 3,000 in a single day. That’s like doubling the number of people at the Summit this Sunday. That is verse 41. Look at verses 42-47. Does it talk about the 3,000 sitting around watching an event once a week? Of course not. It talks about them eating together, praying together, going to one another’s homes and studying the apostles teachings (now the scriptures) together. They had a big church, and at the same time each person had a small community that they had real friendships forged through their unity in the gospel. They had a BIG SMALL CHURCH.

Summit, your pastors and elders long for this place to be a BIG SMALL CHURCH. Big in that we are praying God continues to “add daily to their number those who are being saved.” Small in that we want you in community with 7 to 15 other people so you can experience discipleship which we have seen takes place best in relationships. How do you get there? You get into a SummitLIFE group. A SummitLIFE group is a group of 7 to 15 Summit members and attenders who meet together regularly in someone’s home to connect, study the scriptures, and pray together. We have seen life change happen over and over in these groups and we believe this is where we can each experience that Acts 2 community.

This Sunday, at all of our campuses, we are going to offer you a chance to connect to a SummitLIFE group. Here’s the Schedule:
                Brier Creek AM : GroupLink (our connection event) will be after the 2^nd service, in the Bay. We have 20 group leaders ready to make you a part of their group.
                Brier Creek PM: You are brand new for us! We will have group leaders at the Next Steps Tent waiting to connect you to their groups.
                Cole Mill Rd: You have many new faces! Part of our SummitLIFE Staff will be there looking for people willing to host a group in their home.

It's gonna be an awesome Sunday here at BIG SMALL SUMMIT CHURCH!

Planting Churches with the God Who Saves

Guest Blog: Mike McDaniel, Director of Church Planting

Have you ever had one of those “aha” moments, when you read something that you’ve probably read a hundred times before and suddenly it just knocks you upside the head? I had one of those moments this morning as I was reading through Exodus 6. Let me set the stage…After some serious convincing from God, Moses finally goes to Pharaoh and delivers that famous line “Let my people go…” But Pharaoh isn’t impressed, and instead punishes the people, making them work even harder. So Moses goes back to God and basically says, "What’s the deal? I did my job. Why haven’t you done yours?"

What follows in the first half of Exodus 6 is God’s response, and it’s awesome. Here’s a highlight:
…I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you…I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God…I am the Lord (Ex 6:6-8)

Summary: "Don’t worry about me. I’ll do my part. After all, I AM the Lord. In other words, this is not just WHAT I DO, this is WHO I AM. I am the God who saves."

At the Summit, we’re praying that God will let us be a part of planting 1000 churches in the next 50 years. Despite what you may have thought, that’s not just crazy talk. We honestly believe that God wants to do something truly amazing here in RDU, in North Carolina, and around the globe. Why? Because we serve a God who saves, and He uses churches to do it.

Our world needs deliverance both PHYSICALLY and SPIRITUALLY. The best way to do both of those things is to plant a local church. A local church, properly conceived, will both minister to the needs of a city and evangelize it. Local churches are uniquely equipped to bring both physical and spiritual healing to a community. So, that's our strategy...plant churches in strategic cities. It just happens this was also Paul's strategy in Acts.

To do our part, we’re starting a Church Planting Center (CPC) here at the Summit. The goal of the CPC is to train and send out not just lone pastors and seminary types, but entire teams of people just like you. The CPC actually kicks off on Monday at 7pm with our first training Forum (you can get more info at www.summitchurch.cc/cpc).

So join us in praying that the God who saves will do it here in RDU, in North Carolina, and around the globe. Join us also in praying that God will raise up Moseses (or is it Mosai?), normal people who, despite their shortcomings, are just dumb enough to believe that God will do what he says he will do.

Will you be a part?

Guest Blog from Charlie Dunn, Campus Pastor for the Brier Creek Evening Campus:

It is not that there comes a time when we should stop talking about vision or how to “move forward,” but there is a time when the vision has been cast, we know what “moving forward” entails and metaphorically speaking, the talk is over.

That time has come for the Brier Creek Evening Campus. For months now, we have been preparing to expand the ministry of the Gospel at the Summit Church, so as to reach people who do not currently have the opportunity to experience God as we do. The planning is in the books and now, we are all asking ourselves one question: will you be a part?

For the Evening Campus to be the success that I feel God has intended it to be, we need you to come, lead out of your own gifting and be diligent in seeking out those in your spheres of influence who can do the same.

This is your chance to step out in faith and trust that God will do something amazing here on Sunday nights. I hope that having heard and seen the vision and the way in which God is building this campus, you will be convinced that your place is here! Join me in launching the Brier Creek Evening Campus this Sunday, August 24^th at 5:00 and 6:30pm