A New Campus For Us???

As many of you know, last year at this time I gave a clear vision talk for the dream we have of opening another campus in another area. I shared that we would move toward the goal of being one church with many campuses in many different areas.

Yesterday afternoon Rick Faulkner (Executive Pastor) and I traveled to meet with a potential campus pastor and a core group of people about starting a campus in their area. The discussions went very well! I think God may be in this and we are pursuing it with prayer and diligence.

As I shared a few weeks ago to over 100 people at our Leadership Retreat, our goal and philosophy is to have one functioning church and to have our values and DNA planted in other areas. Also, after much prayer and research, we have decided against having a "video-pastor/teacher" piped in for the Sunday services for people to watch. Instead we feel like it is best for us to bring a pastor/teacher on to actually be the teacher and area leader for each campus. This will allow the services to be culturally relevant to the specific area where we have started a new campus. Moreover, we feel this will allow the Sunday morning worship and teaching to be matched up perfectly with the specific area. The culture of Suburban Charlotte is very different than areas that are only 45 - 60 minutes away. Also, we believe that a local pastor/teacher can speak to the issues in the area that may arise there that we in Matthews area are not dealing with. For us, we believe our value of impacting a city in many different ways other than just a Sunday service means we need to have a visible and live teacher/leader in place in that area.

Anyway, we think God has led us to a Pastor/Teacher for a specific area that wants to be a part of the team Church philosophy we have for impacting a city. I can't tell you who and where just yet.....but be praying as this is exciting stuff! We are hoping to launch this new campus at the first of the year.

Don't forget our joint worship and Baptism service tomorrow night! 6:30

Today's Bible Reading 3 John (another day...another whole book!)

John is a leader for the Church and has been given overall leadership for many of the local churches in the area. He continues to write "letters" to the on-site pastor/teachers of each area "church" giving them instruction and encouragement. He knows that he can not be there in person for the day to day ministry and teaching of the church and that they are responsible for their local area. However, he is responsible for the overall vision, values and direction of each local area church. In this role he once again gives them great advice......their are people who love to be first and who only want to do what is best for them personally. They are the people who gossip about others and are team players for the greater good.

In today's lingo....John was saying that Diotrephes is not a team player as he is only worried about what is good for him. Remember....their is no "I" in Team. Church is a team sport and we are playing in the most important game of all. The game of life!