In this short Take 5 interview we chat with Brett Esslinger, the lead pastor of both West Edmonton Christian Assembly and Engage Church. He chats with us about the process of being a lead pastor of both congregations and how he still wants to continue to grow his passion for church planting!
In this short Take 5 interview we chat with Brett Esslinger, the lead pastor of both West Edmonton Christian Assembly and Engage Church. He chats with us about the process of being a lead pastor of both congregations and how he still wants to continue to grow his passion for church planting!
Transcript of Podcast by Multiply Network
Created to champion church multiplication, provide learning and inspire new disciple-,
making communities across Canada
January 30, 2020 Multiplication Management - Brett Esslinger
Q. Paul Fraser: It is so good to have Brett Esslinger here, the new Lead Pastor of West Edmonton Christian Assembly. Thanks for jumping on ‘Take-5’ today.
A. Brett Esslinger: Absolutely. It’s an honour and privilege for me to be here and hang out with you as always, you know. We do go way back.
Q. We do go way back. Thanks for taking time. We want to jump right in.
A. Yes.
Q. You were a church planter in Spruce Grove?
A. Yes.
Q. You launched another site out of your church out in Stony Plain. Now you are here at West Edmonton Christian Assembly. You started with this heart for a church plant, not even your first church plant.
A. Um-hmm.
Q. Why don’t you talk about what you want to say to those people listening out there? What is the heart of a church planter?
A. I think the first thing is you have to be called to be a church planter. I think sometimes we miss that aspect, so we think, “oh, this looks like a great thing to do”, and it seems exciting, and it is all of those things. It’s the best thing you could ever do - if you are called to it.
Q. Right.
A. Because if you don’t have the call, you cannot sustain.
Like, so people look at us ---
Before [I came to] West Edmonton Christian Assembly, you know, just the Engage side - two locations, in the last couple of years, more than 350 responded to Jesus. Wow -That looks amazing. [But] our first service had twenty-four people!
Q. Yes. Right.
A. And I hauled gear three times; once from my basement to my front door, once into our car, drove to the movie theatre, unloaded again and then back out.
Q. Yah, you better be called to it.
A. You just have to have the call to sustain you when there is nobody there. Because you have to preach the same way whether there are 6 people sitting there or if there are a thousand people sitting there. You have to preach the same way. You have to deliver the same way. And then, for me, it’s about reaching people. It’s about reaching people who are far from God. And so, what I did when I moved into Spruce Grove, was I met with every pastor who would meet with me and I said, “Listen, I’m not here to take your people.”
Q. Yes.
A. But now I go to the lunches, the ministerial lunches, and you know what, 7 years later “You’re right.”
Q. And that was your heart - evangelism, church planting.
A. Yes.
Q. Now you are in an existing church and they have another site at West Edmonton Mall ---
A. And we’re pulling together Spruce and Stony
Q. You are pulling all of these together into ---
Maybe explain how that’s working, what are you thinking through, obviously we only have 5 minutes so---
A. Yes. The easiest way is one site - One church, 4 locations. So, we’re actually relaunching ---
So right now it’s 3 locations. We’re relaunching Spruce Grove (got a reno and all those things) in 2020. How we’re doing it? It’s, you know just, I give the multi-site thing now. Our story could best be described as Disney Pixar. WECA is Disney and the Engage side is Pixar. So, start-up culture coming into maybe more of a corporate culture, using the business analogy, but being asked, like, to be a leader in DNA and culture. So you are kind of infusing old with the new. Now, the real cool thing is that the founding DNA goes all the way back to the start of this church, with West Edmonton Christian Assembly, is the same DNA that we have with Engage. So, all we’re really doing is re-lighting old fires and kind of, like, putting our eyes back on where we started.
Q. So, are you bringing your church planter mindset to the existing church in trying to shift culture, or is there a hybrid? Like, as you are now leading a church that wants to plant churches…?
A. Yes.
Q. …And has 4 locations. How are you managing that as a leader?
A. It’s a both-and approach. It is always a both-and approach. If you try either-or, you will fail. So you have to take ---
You can’t change things as quickly as you want to. You have to get used to this new paradigm. It’s a little bit slower, the decision making processes. There are more moving pieces. And that’s okay.
But we get to stay nimble so what we’ve done, one of the things, uniquely, is both organizations have stayed as their own societies. I’m the lead pastor and I’ve got two Boards.
Q. Okay. Okay.
A. Fun. (Laughter) Two whole societies but what that does is allows our Spruce Grove and Stony Plain locations to be lean and nimble and we can try things. We can take risks without exposing the larger organization to that risk, which is actually really exciting because we can, you know, try different things without trying some things over here and taking as big a risk. So, I get to play in both sandboxes, which is really fun.
Q. Yes, very cool.
A. And then infuse some of that heart, culture, DNA. I’m a big lead lean guy, low overhead - which is really ironic that we now, for those who don’t know it, 85,000 square feet of big. And I don’t care about buildings. Like, buildings are a tool. So maybe that’s why I’m here. Because now this is a tool. How do we best use that tool to reach people?
Q. Yes. So you weren’t looking. God just kind of had you doing things, you were launching campuses, planting the church.
A. Yes.
Q. Your Spruce Grove was at 2 or 3 services. Things were growing. You come here. What are you most excited about, now being here at WECA and still overseeing Engage.
A. I mean, last Sunday we had 22 decisions across all locations. I think that’s what gets you up in the morning.
Q. I hope so.
A. And if it doesn’t there’s something wrong with you! (Laughter) So I’m just excited about an amplified voice from every location because we’ve got things to learn on every side. So, we’ll take the best pieces from each church, each location, and meld it into something new. What is going to come out of it isn’t Engage, isn’t West Edmonton Christian Assembly but something brand new.
Q. Right.
A. And from there with this new shared identity we’ll have an amplified voice to reach even more people.
Q. So great. And I love your heart for this city. Keep going. We’re right behind you and we want to see more churches planted.
A. Let’s do it.
Q. That’s your heart, right?
A. Absolutely. The more churches, the more locations, and that’s a whole other conversation.
Q. Yes.
A. Locations and churches – but it’s both. It’s not either-or.
Q. Thanks for jumping in today.
A. Thank you.
--- End of Recording