Among those speaking were Charles Hill, Rick Bezet, Tim Stevens, Dwight Mason, and Geoff Surratt. The host pastor, Shannon O’Dell also spoke. Check out these guys.

The Sticks Southeast Regional Conference is coming up May 12-13, at Revolution Church in Canton , Georgia. Among the speakers there: Perry Noble, Gary Lamb, and Ed Stetzer. I would love to find a way to get to that one, too.

Here’s a video that gives a quick recap of the events of the conference. And yes, the BNC Band played the song “Boondocks.”

This post Stick Conference Recap originated at robwestbrook.com. See more like this at robwestbrook.com - adventures of a mississippi church planter.

God showed up.

The worship service began with the worship of hundreds of voices praising their Lord. Grace has a small band: guitar, bass, drums, and keyboard. The band is great, and not overpowering the voices. Probably 20 or so people are in their nontraditional choir, and each person has a mike. Even as the songs were sung and the Lord worshipped, people were filling the altar area at the front of the stage. And even cooler, most of those at the altar were teenagers, 10 or 20. They would gather in groups and pray during the song service. Very cool, very awesome, and very moving.

There was a testimony from a man who I gathered was a young Christian. He shared how he started using text messaging to send out Scripture to his contact list; some believers, others not. One contact was not who he thought it was but it was a God thing and God used those text messages to minister to a woman who had not maintained a relationship with the Lord and whose mother was dying. It was a powerful testimony given by a humble believer. It moved Teresa to tears.

Danny Carl Burks, pastor of Grace Fellowship delivered a message from Psalm 147 concerning thanksgiving. It was a great message and one I definitely needed to hear. Bro. Danny can preach the Word.

At the end of the service they had a time of invitation and the altar was filled again. Danny Carl talked to two couples whom we found out later were either coming back into the church fold or joining the church for the first time.

It was hard for me to leave because of all the people I knew there and wanted to talk to. Since I finished high school in Hatley, there were many there I knew. I’d like to give some shoutouts to Loretta Earwood, Melissa Hathcock, Tim Pickle, the Price sisters, Dianna Jernigan, Bob Angle, Scott Carter, and many others who went out of their way to make the LifePointe Group welcome. They even invited us to Thanksgiving Dinner that night, but my family and I couldn’t go.

Our excitement was as high leaving as it was going in. I am excited about how God might use our partnership with Grace Fellowship. They are where we want to be at some point in the future. God, give us the grace, the wisdom, the knowledge, and the leadership to bring LifePointe up to the standard of Grace Fellowship Church.

This post Church Visit – Nov 18 2007 originated at robwestbrook.com. See more like this at robwestbrook.com - adventures of a mississippi church planter.

Although I’m originally from Monroe County, of which Aberdeen is the county seat, I was not really familiar with FBC. We really didn’t know what to expect. I have to tell you I was pleasantly surprised and came away excited about this church.

The people there are exceptionally friendly. Many of those there knew my mother, my father, or some member of my family. Since this IS Mississippi, I was probably related to many of them.

There was a good mix of ages. There were at least two complete pews full of teens and there were some younger couples. Probably the majority were 50+, but they were great.

This is probably the first church I’ve been to in this area that had a genuine blended service. They began with two standard hymns, all displayed on a big screen. The worship leader (who by the way is very good) then strapped on an acoustic guitar and we sang three very recent praise songs and choruses. From my vantage point, people of all ages were deeply participating and I believe God was truly worshiped. It was a very moving and awesome worship experience.

When you think about it, please lift up a prayer for First Baptist, Aberdeen. They are in the middle of a community that is experiencing a dramatic transition. The church has some important decisions to make in the near future, including calling a new pastor.

If any of you attend FBC, Aberdeen, I want to thank you for making my family and me feel very welcome., I also want you to know I’m praying for you. I look forward to FBC, Aberdeen and LifePointe, Amory, working and cooperating together for the building of the Kingdom of God.

And if any of you are living in the Aberdeen area, take a Sunday and visit this church. You’ll be glad you did.

This post A Trip to Aberdeen originated at robwestbrook.com. See more like this at robwestbrook.com - adventures of a mississippi church planter.

This post My Sunday originated at robwestbrook.com. See more like this at robwestbrook.com - adventures of a mississippi church planter.

This post Let’s Take a Sunday Trip (Part 2) originated at robwestbrook.com. See more like this at robwestbrook.com - adventures of a mississippi church planter.

If you are interested, we’ll follow each other to Northstar. Use the “Contact Rob” link above and let me know you want to go. We’ll arrange a place to meet and we’ll head on out.

This post Let’s Take a Sunday Trip originated at robwestbrook.com. See more like this at robwestbrook.com - adventures of a mississippi church planter.

Northstar works hard to make contact with everyone, even before they get in the building. When you pull into the very ample parking lot, there are church volunteers there to assist you in parking.

The building you are about to enter is a large metal building. From the outside it may appear to you as a small industrial factory. But your view will change rather quickly once you get inside. And to get there, you’ll have to pass at least one person greeting you outside the door and at least one other inside the door. You enter into the intersection of two long wide comfortable halls. They are painted with colors that are ward and colorful. If you turn down the right hand hall, you walk into the large children’s section of the building. The hall takes another right after a short walk and you’re on what appears to be a street. This area is where the children’s rooms are, from the nursery all the way up to thepre-teens. Each room has a sign and the outside is painted to resemble some type of Main St building. It’s very nice. It’s also a secure place, where children are registered. Their parents are given cards that correspond to thier children. If there’s a need for the parent later, that card number is displayed on the video screen. Good working system.

If, at your initial entrance, you walked down the hall straight in front of you, you would pass two doors into the worship area, with a video display of the churches baptism rolling on a TV. And once you get to the end of the hall, there’s a coffee shop, with, of course, coffee, soft drinks, donuts, and other pasteries. You’ll usually find at least one staff member here!

Walking back, you turn into the door and enter the worship area. The worship area is much larger than it would appear from the outside. The stage is on the south wall, and is very large, with plenty of room for the worship band. There are black curtains around the stage and two large video screens are mounted in from of them, one on either side. Recently, the church bought very nice comfortable chairs and they fill the room. By my guess, the room will seat 400+.

As the service time nears, the video screens display a countdown to the start of the service. That’s when the worship band Three Days Journey takes the stage. This is probably one of the finest worships bands around. They are all great players, and with a plus, you can tell they do love the Lord. On this day, they opened with that ole timeless tune, Who Says You Can’t Go Home, by BonJovi. Charles Wesley may not have written it, but it did focus on the theme of the whole service, going home. The band played several songs before bowing out to Michael Bowyer (sp?) the speaker for the service. The regular speaker, Terry Ledbetter was on vacation. Michael is on staff at Northstart and very capable in his teaching. But before Michael started, there was a video montage playing, back by the song Home by Daughtry, another secular song used to emphasize again the point of the service, going home.

Michael’s message came from Luke 15, The Prodical Son. Michael emphazied the downhill spiral of the younger son, his coming to his senses, and returning to His Father. The Father threw a party to honor the son, who once was dead, was now alive again. That was the point for all, no matter how far you’ve gone, God is always waiting. You can always go home.

This post Church Tour: Stop 2 originated at robwestbrook.com. See more like this at robwestbrook.com - adventures of a mississippi church planter.

Yesterday (June 18th) we visited Common Ground Christian Church(edit: the website is no longer at this address. If you have a new address, please let me know). From what I gather, CGCC is a new church formed out of another church in Okolona, MS. The church meets in a new building 5 miles or so from Okolona, at the intersection of HWYs 45 and 278 in Wren, MS, which places them in Monroe County. They have been in this building since November 2006, and previously had met in a barn. I can tell you that the Lord has really blessed them and they have a wonderful facility.

From the highway, the building is a nondescript metal building like so many other metal buildings in the area. But when you walk in, you’re suprised at just how cool the place is. You walk in and there’s a welcome desk there with a really nice lady who will draw you up one fine nametag.  The room that you walk into stretches the width of the building. Comfotable chairs and sofas are scattered around this area. There’s a bar from the kitchen that stretches out into the room and, on Sunday morning, had coffee and Krispy Creme donuts covering it.

Our welcome was great. There was a man who met up at the door, welcoming us there. We then were called up to the welcome desk and received our excellent name tags. From what I could tell everybody had nametags on, so that was cool. We then moved toward the worship center, with people speaking to us from time to time. As we entered the worship center, the band was already playing. The worship center (they may call it something else) was very nice. The chairs we sat in were about three nothces above any pew I’ve yet to sit in. The room was a nice size. My guess is its 75ft long by 50 feet wide, and seating could probably approach 200. There was a very nice stage where the band was playing, and, above it, a nice sized projector screen that I could read easily from about 3 or 4 rows from the back. Sound was good, lighting was good, and the band was good. Mostly acoustic, with a little bit of lead electric guitar, and, get this, a great accordian played by the pastor, David Pannell. I really enjoyed the worship service. It wasn’t over the top showmanship, it was a means of moving the people to worship God. Personally, I’d say they accomplished that goal.

The room was finished with what looked like pine or cypress, below a neutral color painted sheetrock. One of the things I liked the most was that everything from about 12 feet and up was painted flat black. This works really well. It doesn’t reflect the light, so the light falls downward. This black color also seems to keep me from trying to follow the conduit and air conditioning duct work. The floor was stained concrete. Everything looked great. After the service, we were given a tour of the children’s area. There were several small rooms for babies and bathrooms for each gender. In addition, they have a very large room, possibly the size of their worship center. They had a big screen there and it was busy with a Play Station game going when we walked in. I imagine wonderful Super Bowl Sundays with that big kitchen and that big screen.

The service was great. The band was definitely talented. The pastor, David Pannell, did a little percusion work, and even better, the accordian. The acoustic guitar guy played really well, broke out a mandolin once, and sang much like Mac Powell, of Third Day. They played a mix of older choruses and newer ones. It was like an “unplugged” version and it worked.

One of the few doctrinal differences I might see between the Christian Church and LifePointe, a southern baptist church, is communion. They have communion every week and it’s open communion. There was a prayer put up on the screen from The Book on Common Prayer. My family and I participated in the entire communion and it was a meaningful experience for all of us.

David then brought the message. He’s starting a series on the book of Colossians. He used the first 7 or 8 verses for his talk It was a good talk, with audience participation.

After David’s talk the band got back on stage and they had a short invitation When it was over, I looked at my watch. I think we were there for an hour and 15 miutes to maybe an hour and a half.

As we were leaving, they announced that they had set a new attendance record that day, with I think 136 people. We started for the door, but these people are so friendly and fired up about what God is doing in their midst that we spent quite a bit of time talking with David and his wife Susan. We also talked to several others as we headed out. Then another young lady gave us the aforementioned tour of the childrens’ area. They also pointed out some ongoing construction in the big lobby area of the building. They are building a large baptistry into the floor of the lobby, with plenty of room for people to gather round and plenty of windows to let the light in.

My take of Common Ground Christian Church is that are on the cusp of reaching many more for Jesus. They seem to have their priorities together and they seem to be structured for and dedicated to reaching people for Christ. They also seem to be working on a plan to bring these people into real discipleship. David and I had met once before, and in the two brief conversations I’ve had with him, we both are thinking and heading in the same direction.

One more thing I really want to point out is the diversity of ages I saw attending CGCC. I would venture to say that there were just as many over-50s as their were under-50s. I think that speaks volumes. One of the arguments I’ve heard against using more contemporary style music is that the older generations won’t sit through it. I didn’t see anyone leave during the worship time at CGCC. I’ve read where it’s not really the music that draws these older generations to new church. What really draws them is to be in a place of worship where there are signs of life.

Overall, my family and I had a great time at CGCC. I’m sure we would probably disagree on some doctrinal matters. But we weren’t there to argue doctrine. We were there to join other brothers and sisters in worshipping our God, our Lord and Savior. And that’s just what we did.

CGCC will be a good church for LifePointe members to sit down with and learn from. Maybe, at some point in the future, we’ll be able to work that out.

This post Church Tour: Stop 1 originated at robwestbrook.com. See more like this at robwestbrook.com - adventures of a mississippi church planter.