Welcome to the blog of The Point’s pastors. Each week, our pastors will post on a wide variety of topics – from our current sermon series, theological topics, and other subjects that relate to our church body. Check back often for updates. You can also subscribe to the RSS feed in the sidebar.
Pastor’s Blog
Member’s Mtng
May 10th, 2010 by Rick Long
The Elders have called a special member’s meeting on Sunday, May 23 at 5pm. The Elders want to discuss some exciting ministry opportunities. Everyone is invited and encouraged to attend, you don’t have to be a member. But members are expected to attend if at all possible. The main discussion topics are going to be the development of a Lexington campus, consideration of Tony Cecil as the Lex campus pastor, the youth ministry, and the opening of a downtown (FKT) arts venue.
The location has not yet been determined, we will let you know this week of the specific site.
Some Rationale for Launching a Multi-Site Strategy with a Lexington Campus
May 4th, 2010 by Rick Long
We are constantly asking God what is next for our church. There are several key factors that lead us to believe that now is the time to plant a TPCC campus in Lexington.
- The call of God and the love of Christ compels us to take the gospel to Lexington.
- More and more people are driving to Frankfort from Lexington to be part of The Point.
- There is a need for a gospel-centered church in downtown Lexington. There are many good, gospel-centric churches in Lexington, it remains one of the most unchurched areas in the eastern United States.
- Our vision has always been to plant churches and be a multi-site church.
- There is a very strong desire in Lexington for an Acts 29 church. Lexington folks are asking for an Acts 29 church.
- Lexington is the regional hub and a city of influence; we further influence our region with the gospel by being in Lexington.
- We believe in our God-given mission and vision, and we want to see it replicated throughout our region For God’s glory and the fame of Jesus.
- Having multiple sites throughout our region is a much better growth model and certainly is a better stewardship of resources than buying lots of property and building larger and larger buildings.
- Jesus commanded this. Paul modeled this.
The Point is already a regional church with people attending regularly from seven or more counties. As a regional church, multi-site has always been part of our vision and has evolved into a very proactive approach to establish and empower a strong network of local campuses that each have a campus pastor, a team of elders, deacons, and a core of faithful and dedicated members. In this way, we have decided to establish gospel centered, missional communities throughout Central Kentucky.
Our multi-campus approach allows us to function as one church that meets in many different locations. Each campus in and of itself does the work of a biblical church—including teaching, pastoral shepherding and leadership, large gatherings, small group gatherings for community and fellowship, membership, financial giving, communion, baptizing new Christians, and serving as missionaries to their context. Each campus pastor will serve as the primary preacher for that campus and will serve on our preaching team. We will have one elder body which governs all sites (or campuses), and each campus will have campus-specific shepherding elders. There will be more about the eldership structure in another upcoming article.
While each campus functions much like its own church we have also recognized that there are very strategic resources, benefits, and blessings that come from being a single church entity as The Point Community Church. Those resources are primarily: vision, mission, preaching, theological unity, church planting efforts, administrative operations, technology, leadership training and ministry development. Through these shared resources we work together for the good of the gospel, regardless of campus affiliation. Our goal is not to become a large church in one place, rather we hope to become an influential church which advances the gospel through several sites.
As we continue to expand geographically throughout Central Kentucky we are always wrestling with the question of how to effectively operate the balance between distributed and centralized leadership and care for the people who call The Point home. This is not us sending a church planter to Lexington, this is us going to Lexington. We can go to Lexington swiftly and rather easily because of the close proximity and similar contexts of Frankfort and Lexington.
In the coming days and weeks, our pastors will be writing articles, which cast and capture the vision of our multi-site model and how we hope to have a large gospel impact on our region and beyond. The Point will be ONE church in more than one location.
To God be the glory as He builds His church! (by the way, we really mean it when we say this!)
Go Frankfort / Flood Relief
May 4th, 2010 by Rick Long
Go Frankfort organizes volunteer days in the Capital City and puts charities in touch with people that can meet their needs throughout the year. As Go Frankfort, citizens of this great community come together as one to take action to help local charities and provide labor for community projects in Frankfort.
Go to the GO FRANKFORT WEBSITE to register for serving on MAY 15.
Due to the recent flooding of parts of downtown, Go Frankfort will also be organizing volunteers to assist with clean up.
We are encouraging all of our people at The Point to participate and serve our city. Contact the church office at 502.352.2911 for more info or call Go Frankfort directly via the website.
In The City For The City
April 17th, 2010 by Rick Long
The pastors of The Point have long desired to have a presence in downtown Frankfort. In the center of our city is unique micro-culture of artisans, politicians, historians, musicians, intellectuals and even a bohemian or two.
We have a vision for a space that serves to connect the community and benefit the city and its many diverse people. Knowing the history of Frankfort and getting a sense of the city’s hope for a revitalized downtown, The Point hopes to identify and obtain space where Frankfort residents will gather and celebrate the arts, where the people of The Point can utilize a central space for multiple purposes, and where we can engage the unique culture of the city downtown.
We plan for a downtown site to eventually host a worship service, probably on Sunday evenings. It is our desire to make this space a place where people will gather for conversations, forums and events which will bring understanding and commonality among the people of Frankfort.
The walls will be lined with the works of local artists. On stage will be heard the creative works of singers and songwriters. In it all, our hope is that this would be a place where diverse and varied people gather and find common ground and community as we celebrate all that is good and beautiful.
Our hope and vision is for…
A venue for music, worship and the arts.
A space for meetings, forums, gatherings, community, conversations and groups.
A platform for the gospel in the city.
Pray with us. Ask God for this.
Why Multi-Site is a Strategy For The Point
April 17th, 2010 by Rick Long
Why is The Point considering a multi-site strategy for Frankfort and Central Kentucky (CKY) ? Is this really the best way to grow a healthy church?
WHAT IS OUR ULTIMATE OBJECTIVE?
Our ultimate objective is to reach people and grow a healthy church. It is not to build the biggest church in town or be a mega-church. Nor is it to get to what we think is an ideal size and then stop growing by being content with reaching ‘enough’ people. It is to ask the honest question, “How can we get the most people in this area following Christ and into a healthy church?”
Church, after all, has nothing to do with a physical locale or a building structure. The church is a body of people. And that body of people should be willing to do whatever it takes, and meet wherever it needs to, to most effectively spread God’s glory to their community.
WHY IS MULTI-SITE THE BEST WAY FOR THE POINT COMMUNITY CHURCH TO DO THAT?
Multi-site allows us to take the location of one of our most effective outreaches, our Sunday morning service, closer to where people live. Studies have shown that, by FAR this is more effective than having one big building for everyone, everywhere to come to.
It also allows us to keep weekly ministries closer to people. Children’s ministries, high school ministries, community group–all these things are done best in local community. Ecclesiastes says “Better is a neighbor nearby than a brother far away.” We can be better brothers to our community and each other when we are organized locally.
It is also much more cost and time efficient. The multi-site approach is a far better stewardship strategy than building larger and larger buildings on one site.
It allows us to be flexible for ministry in the future. If God really blesses our church in the future and we have 1,500 people coming (a very real dream, I believe!). Community and Fellowship is far more efficient at a campus of 750 than 3000. Multi-site makes us flexible.
WHY NOT JUST PLANT A COMPLETELY INDEPENDENT CHURCH?
90% of church plants of this type fail and 90% multi-site campuses succeed. If that is the case, why shouldn’t we start multiple sites in CKY? We want to reach as many people as we can as quickly as we can?
I will add that if a new campus starts and we perceive that the congregation would be more effective at reaching people as an independent church, then we will most definitely turn it loose! The bottom line is reaching people. We must evaluate carefully each situation to determine what is the most effective way to reach people in a particular city.
WHAT WILL THE LEADERSHIP STRUCTURE BE LIKE? WILL THERE BE MULTIPLE PREACHERS? WILL THERE BE ONE LEAD PASTOR?
I think the question comes from the idea that people feel like they “know” the ‘senior’ pastor. But that is impossible for everyone in any church over 100. I gave up trying to know everyone in our church a long time ago. That’s why we have MULTIPLE pastors and elders. And there will be elders and pastors at each campus. The local pastors and elders will be able to know those people more.
Church community is built not by shaking the preacher’s hand, but primarily by being committed to living in community within a small group of church members and by pastoral care by the local ministry team on campus.
The Point Community Church, if God gives us multiple campuses across CKY, will have:
ONE elder body, divided into specific elder responsibilities; and campus-specific elders for each site. The campus pastor is also the primary preaching pastor for that site. The sites will be governed by the body of Elders.
IS THIS THE BEST WAY TO GROW A CHURCH? DON’T YOU AUTOMATICALLY LOSE “COMMUNITY” AND ATTRACT ONLY “CONSUMERS?”
Churches don’t grow when they don’t reach people. Churches that reach people will grow. Healthy things grow. If your plant is not growing, it’s dead.
We believe you CAN grow large and build a community at the same time, if you value both things, as we do. In Acts 2, the church grows by 3000 in one day and then adds to that number daily. All the while they are growing in community and love for each other.
Jesus often attracted a huge crowd at first (see, for example, John 6 with the feeding of the 5000). Out of that crowd he drew committed disciples and brought them into community.
Frankly, many people that criticize the large, growing churches are people who aren’t reaching others and are in churches not reaching others. It’s a self-righteous way of disguising their own laziness and ineffectiveness. Before we will listen to someone’s critique of our way of reaching people, we will want see their more effective way of doing so. D. L. Moody said to the man who complained to him that he did not like Moody’s way of reaching people: “I don’t particularly like my way of doing it, either. But I certainly like my way of doing it better than your way of NOT doing it.”
Planting a regional campus is a proven strategy of reaching people and it does so with urgency. If we believe in what we are doing at The Point in Frankfort, then why not do it in other CKY cities?
The bottom line is reaching people and growing healthy churches.
WHY DOESN’T THE POINT JUST SAY ITS FULL AND SEND PEOPLE TO OTHER CHURCHES?
We are counting on other churches to prosper as well. Consider this… Central Kentucky is 1.5 million people currently. So, if our church grew by 15,000 next year, we would only have reached 1% of CKY.
So, it will take lots of other churches to reach this area–for every 1 we reach 6 more will have moved into our area! We will continue to work with other churches, support them and pray for them, and plead with God to sweep through CKY, knowing that when the water in the harbor rises, all the boats rise with it.
But make no mistake, we WILL act in some ways as if we are the only church in CKY because we’re not going to assume that anybody else is going to reach those people. The problem is that nobody is reaching many of these people. We are going to try. And if all the churches would begin to operate this way, we just might actually get the job done, by God’s grace. We are ever mindful that Jesus said that He will build His church.
It is our belief that this is the best way to accomplish our two objectives: to reach as many people as possible as fast as possible and to grow biblical, healthy, Gospel-centered churches. We believe in God’s incredible intentions for CKY. We measure His love for the Bluegrass by the cross and His power to do something here by the Resurrection. We are going to, by His grace, take the gospel to every community in our region.
