For the Southside: Chris Patton talks Southside churching and being known for what we are FOR.

Known for What We’re For: Chris Patton on the Mission of Southside Church

In part one of my conversation with Chris Patton, senior pastor of Southside Church, we explore the experiences that first led him into ministry and the path that eventually brought him to Southside.

Chris explains Southside’s unique leadership structure, including how the local church operates and how its relationship with Andy Stanley and North Point Ministries works.

We also spend time discussing the mission of Southside Church and the idea that Christians should be known more for what they are for than for what they are against. Chris shares what that philosophy looks like in practice and how the church hopes to serve and influence the surrounding community.

Finally, we discuss one of the simplest but most important messages the church often fails to communicate clearly, especially to people who are skeptical of Christianity, disconnected from church, or unsure where they belong.

In this episode:

• How Chris Patton got his start in ministry
• How Southside Church’s leadership structure works
• The relationship between Southside and North Point Ministries
• Southside’s mission and direction
• Being known for what the church supports rather than opposes
• What the church often fails to communicate
• Creating a church where people feel welcomed, valued, and understood

This is part one of a two-part conversation with Chris Patton.

You can find me as David Monsour a.k.a. Disco Davo on most social media applications as well as my contact 
davidmonsour.com.

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:21

All right, hey everybody. Welcome to Closing Time Podcast. I'm here with Mr. Chris Patton. How awesome is that?

SPEAKER_01 0:28

Love it.

SPEAKER_04 0:29

Thank you for joining. Thank you for coming.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

Real honor. Love you guys.

SPEAKER_04 0:34

So Chris is the senior pastor. Is that the correct term?

SPEAKER_01 0:37

Yeah, just because I'm the oldest.

SPEAKER_04 0:38

That's right. Yeah. You've been there the long time. You're the OG, though, right? You're the original.

SPEAKER_01 0:43

Actually, Andrew Cathy, who's the president of Chick-fil-A, was the original founder of Southside, had the vision behind it. So really yeah, he was at UGA and really God had a place on his heart to start a church and knew that he wasn't going to do it. And so then one thing led to another. Um, our family, you know, I've been in ministry my whole career, but we had just started a church not too long ago before that called Grace Midtown, which maybe have heard of, and in Midtown of Atlanta. But yeah, was like kind of looking for something new.

SPEAKER_04 1:10

And now is that I just we what is it, transit weekend. We were at the host family, was I can't think of it, but he was one of the fact he said that he was part of the group that came to Jim Pace. Jim Payne. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:23

So Jim Payne was. That was so awesome because I knew Jim through So basically, Kim, his late daughter, who passed in Africa. Yeah. So Kim and Andrew were really the catalyst behind starting Southside. That's right. So they began looking for, and this is back before there were any partner churches at North Point. They were just kind of getting Browns Bridge and Buckhead off the ground. So the team, the group that's that was original uh core team back in 2004, were driving to Buckhead Church and they were like, we want a church like this on the Southside. Not that there aren't great churches on the South Side, but just something different. You know, I can share a little bit more about that, our differentiators, I guess.

SPEAKER_04 1:55

But yeah, so that's how it all That was cool because I I need to have Jim on because I remember when we when we were there spent a night and the kids were running around, he was telling me that that him and a couple other people were looking, and he you know told me about his daughter, which I didn't know that story. And then he said that he sought you out.

SPEAKER_01 2:13

Yeah, and I was like, wow, that was pretty cool. Uh yeah, I there was a number of folks that they they could have gotten. I just happened to be the one of the first to come along.

SPEAKER_04 2:21

You were the first one to say yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

20 almost 22 years later. Yeah. So January 1st of 05 is when is when I started 22 years?

SPEAKER_04 2:30

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 2:30

Yeah, so we didn't start the church until later in that year in 05.

SPEAKER_04 2:34

I was gonna ask you what you were like 20 years ago as a kid, but you weren't a kid 20 years ago. No, so let's go way back. What was Chris Patton like in high school?

SPEAKER_01 2:44

Got to have the privilege of going to high school with you for a little bit. Go tigers. County goes Tigers, that's right. And but yeah, no, I grew up, it's interesting. My dad moved over, Paris moved over from Mississippi to work and what they call the jet base back then. Now I guess it's tech ops at Delta. So, but he was always a part-time music minister in Baptist churches. So I was almost born in the back of New Hope Baptist Church in the little white chapel back there. Oh wow. And my mom accompanied him uh for all these years. So my dad is 86, still leads at Northside Baptist. My mom uh had to retire last year after 63 years of accompanying him. So grew up in church literally Sunday morning, sunday night, Wednesday night, all the things, right? In that, you know, I remember when I was eight years old, walked down the aisle, got baptized and all that, kind of had the feels, but I didn't really understand, I don't think, as much, which you know, the gospel is simple, but I felt like that it was, you know, because I I went to church, was involved, had my church friends, but then I had my school friends. So I had two different masks that I would wear, if you know, and some some of y'all can relate to that. Had the two different masks.

SPEAKER_04 3:45

I might still have two masks. Fair enough, fair enough.

SPEAKER_01 3:48

Yeah, we know me, yeah. Listen, it's uh we're all broken people trying to help broken people, is what I say. Like I say it all the time. But yeah, no, and so for me, I really went went to school to West Georgia, walked on the basketball team there, eventually was earned a scholarship, but was there that I really understood Ephesians 2, 8, 9. It's by grace that we're saved through faith, not of ourselves, not a result of works that we should boast. And so I literally had the scales going on good versus bad. Do I, you know, every night would pray, God forgive me my sins in case I die in my sleep, you know, kind of thing. So really life was changed in college. So I, you know, did so many things that my parents didn't, I mean uh didn't know, and they found out later. I remember getting, you know, uh stopped by the police in college, you know, for for underage drinking, and my mom's like, first time drinking? I was like, absolutely 100%. Can you believe I got caught on the first time, mom? Yeah, God is good, he taught me a lesson the first time. So, no, a lot of protection along the way, but yeah, so that was my background. And and you know, as far as like a calling to ministry, to be honest with you, that calling is an interesting thing. Yeah, I grew up in a church, and and maybe you did or you know of churches, anybody that's watching or listening, where people they would say, you know, if you're young and God's calling you and put up in your heart to be called to ministry, and then you walk down and commit to that. Well, that's a lot of pressure, you know what I mean? Like I've got to be in full-time ministry, but I think we're all called to something. And you're called to what you do, called to your ministry, and your ministry is multifaceted. I see I get to see it with what you do in the community, with what you do at Southside, we're working with you know, teenagers and kids, and then what you do with it with guys and groups. So, and then our calling for for ministry, is it in in the Bible as far as like a set apart kind of thing? I I do say yes to that. I do think that there's a special calling, but I do also say that everyone has a special calling. And to kind of separate those, I'd get a little squirrely on because of the.

SPEAKER_04 5:40

Well, I I'll answer that for you because Andrew is just incredible that leads missions for Southside. And I've gone on a couple of missions, and I was I kept like hanging around the church, like I want to get it, I want it, I want it. Right. Let me just keep hanging around till it like lands on me. I just couldn't figure it out. And and you know, it just one of the things that I learned on that, andrew and the group just taught is like your ministry could just be that you sing out loud Christian songs.

SPEAKER_01 6:09

Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_04 6:10

Like that, yeah. And that came because Andrew's son, when we were on that mission trip, he was one of the coolest kids I like knew, like as far as just being a cool kid. Yeah, and he sung Christian songs everywhere we went. Yeah, proud, and just and and I've just I was like, he ministered to me the whole time, didn't know he was doing it. That was it, whether he ever does anything else the rest of his life. Right. So that's where I learned that lesson is your ministry could just simply be showing up, singing, whatever. You never know what people are are watching.

SPEAKER_01 6:41

But I will say that ministry is hard at full time doing what we do. It's the last few years, especially since the pandemic. I mean, the the landscape has changed. You know, if you think about like stones along a pathway that lead you to Jesus or even to church for that matter, there's more stones along the pathway. So, for example, uh, our digital, we've grown our digital team because the front door is no longer the front door. It is literally your website, social media, all those things, as well as the chasm is so large between people and church nowadays because of trust. Unfortunately, a book was written not too long ago called The Great De Churching of America. In the last 25 years, 40 million people have left the church. And at the pen in the pandemic, it even accelerated it because people were already watching digitally, not just online, but engaging with digital means to grow in their faith. Which is nothing wrong wrong with that. But you and I know that in-person's the best. Right. It really is. But when you give people permission that, hey, this is a way to grow in your relationship with Jesus, you don't have to connect with people as much. You know, that but that's the world we live in. And we've got to connect. Uh, we can't just say, oh, well, we're gonna shut all that off and just you come in person or else we'll lose life.

SPEAKER_04 7:48

Well, I think I I saw a number, I don't know what what I was looking at, but it said something 65% of people are believers or consider themselves believers, but only 30% are part of anything.

SPEAKER_01 8:01

Yeah. Well, and also it's become a very consumeristic Christianity, especially in the United States, that you know, you want fast food, you want to order Amazon, you want to get it fast, you want to do it quick, you want to have your own journey. And so the amount of people that I talk to that just they and their kids for that matter, I mean, a thing that I I really want to engage with is folks that are doing travel sports. It's an 800 billion plus industry that uh people are just you know feeling like they need to do. And so I want to come alongside those parents that if if you know if that's gonna be where they're gonna be living, because Sundays are no longer sacred.

SPEAKER_02 8:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:34

So just how can we come alongside people and help them with with their journey of faith with with their family? But yeah, no, the landscape's changed. People choose their their journey with different things out there. What is my preference? What is my style? There's also what am I gonna hear from the pulpit? From what I understand, the laws changed last year that you can talk about politics, you can do all those things, and you don't lose your nonprofit status. Really, I didn't know that was Oh, yeah, that was a thing that you had to separate church and stuff, you had to separate politics from church, or you would lose your nonprofit status. That's why you didn't see signs in our in the church's yards and all those kind of things or you know, properties. But now, you know, people go all in on that with a growth strategy.

SPEAKER_04 9:14

Well, you you know it's funny, and you don't have to answer this in any way, but I had an argument or discussion with a good friend of mine on whether Andy Stanley was a Republican or a Democrat.

SPEAKER_01 9:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 9:25

Because I think he and probably a lot of people hate that he does that, that he rides the fence. Yeah, but I absolutely love that I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 9:34

Well, you're saying rides the fence in terms of what he publicly faces. Right. Right.

SPEAKER_04 9:39

And I I love some things that I've heard about. There's been some really good messages out that I've seen about choosing your faith over your party. Yeah, like if you are choosing your party because of your faith, that and I'm my words are horrible on this, but it was so good because it talked about let's not love the current administration just because they're Republican and typically Republicans supports our religion. If they're not fulfilling what we believe, then you know, anyway, that's a whole other topic.

SPEAKER_01 10:16

All that to say that, yeah, no, I get it. And and you know, we all have our different beliefs, and and we should. We should care deeply about our politics and have all that. But there is a a place that it it with your faith and and even in your influence with Jesus, is that there's got to be a place that we've got to agree to disagree on some things. What are the things that are major? St. Augustine had one of the greatest quotes that in in the essentials we need to have unity, non-essentials, liberty, and all things charity. And what that is is that what are our essentials? And then for us as a church in the Southside for that matter, you know, our our doctrine is very simplified because there are just some essentials. Because if you ask people, you know, what do we believe as a church? Well, there's different people in our church that believe all kinds of different things. Not that we want them to believe, you know, there's tons of different ways to God, but as far as their politics, as far as their different things, but where we want to put the focus is on Jesus and the essentials of that. And then those non-essentials, as far as like even baptism mode to, you know, speaking in tongues or doing different things, those may be, I don't know, I consider those to be non-essentials, but some people would really want to put those in an essential category that, you know, oh, if you weren't dunked all the way or if you were sprinkled versus, you know, I wasn't in a river or a creek. Yeah, ours is more of like if it's a public profession of faith. And the mode, if if you if you made a public profession of faith and the mode was different, and you were in Israel versus in one of our tubs or whatever, you know. I mean, that that that is not as big of an issue. It's really more so going public with your faith in Jesus.

SPEAKER_04 11:50

So that is what draws me to Southside. That's why I love Southside, is because it's it's a come as you are, and we're gonna love you as you are, and you're welcome as you are, like with the baptism. I love that I think a gentleman this past week had already been baptized, and he's baptized again. And I feel like I was sitting there thinking, oh, I bet somebody out there is upset because he's getting baptized for a second time or some traditionalist or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 12:14

Infant baptism. So for those, and again, we appreciate and acknowledge that there are different thoughts, there's different ways to interpret scripture as we know. That's why there's all the different denominations. And they, you know, different denominations double down on again, feeling like there's certain things that need to be essential and bigger than maybe they should be. And again, uh teaches on a lot of amazing churches in our community. But is that with that is he felt like, okay, if I'm reading this, that it's a public profession of faith, that it's a declaration I want to go public, then I haven't done that and I want to do that. And then the word in the Greek baptizo actually means to immerse. So that's why we immerse. Yeah. Whether it's just to stand up, go down, or just to go back. And and we try to explain that because, as you know too, we'll talk about this, that we want to be an outward-facing church. So we're assuming for the people in the room, who are those in the room? I mean, I remember a buddy that that I invited that was Jewish. And when we we got up there on stage and said, okay, it's time to worship, he told me after the fact, he said, I didn't know what to do. He said, I didn't know if I was supposed to get on my knees, if I was supposed to start, like, you know, what put my hands up, like what did that mean? So then we're like, that makes sense. So maybe for that person, we need to say, we're gonna stand up and sing and we're gonna worship together. But what we mean by worship is singing. You know what I mean? Just trying to articulate some things to those because I feel like that in our language in churches, it's so easy just to cater to the insider, to those who've been there for years and years and you know, know Jesus, love him, and maybe have fallen for. But we're really trying to make it a place where not only that they, but the person you're inviting that is either been hurt by the church, never been, you know, which is rare in the south, but so many people transplant here and that that didn't grow up in church, so that when they come in, that they will build a we can explain it's comprehensible. It's it's uh secret comprehensible. So we we wanna we want to be an attractional church, but at the same time, we want to go uh is Andy's book is called Deep and White.

SPEAKER_04 14:07

Yeah, yeah. Well, your your children's church leader, I don't know what her title is, but she just posted a video. And it's so funny that you say that is the lady, it was a TikTok or whatever, the lady was was going, Oh my god, y'all, my daughter wants to go to church. I haven't been in church in so long. I don't even know what to do. I'm so nervous. And she's just talking to herself and she's like, What do I do? Like, it's can I wear this? Like, what do I do? Where do I? I don't, I don't know. My daughter wants to go to church and I love my daughter. I'm taking her, and she was talking fast and rambling, and it was just, and the message on there was just the point. It's like we forget how hard it might be this for somebody just to walk in the door.

SPEAKER_01 14:42

Yeah, and James, the brother Jesus in Acts 15, 19, was talking to the Jerusalem Council, and he made the statement that we do not want to make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. And the reason why he said that is because there were limitations and things that were putting on them, like circumcision and things that they were saying, this is what you have to do in order to turn to God. And not that we want to dumb down or simplify the gospel, make it just an easy believism kind of thing, but we do want to remove some barriers that some people have to say, hey, you can take a step, and you don't have to take a step away from this room to the next room. Just take a step in this room, you know. And so I think creating a place where people feel welcome. We we we we use a metaphor with the ladder so many times, you know, in our churches, we can have the the lowest rung of the ladder is up here. And and like you said, they just can't get there. We want to have what are our lower rungs on the ladder for people, for children, for teenagers, for adults, that they can come in and say, you know what, I don't believe everything yet. That's okay. You can belong before you believe.

SPEAKER_04 15:40

See, that is exactly what I needed. That was the step that I felt like you were in or you were out, it was all or nothing. I felt like, okay, I can't tell people I'm a Christian because I could not, I can't stand politicians or anyone that uses that as a I'm a Christian and then is not living up to that standard. And so I I held myself and I was like, I can't buy in until I'm all the way in. Right. And then again on these bishop trips and talking with Andrew and and other people, learning this, like, no, make that just that first step, that ladder, that one little step, because I don't know that I believe everything yet. I don't know that I believe the Old Testament yet. I don't know that I believe that the sea was parted and all the animals. Sure. I don't know that, but it's okay for me to still sing the songs and go on a mission trip, even though I'm not there yet. And that that for me, that was that was a big difference.

SPEAKER_01 16:38

And that's probably if there's a differentiator. Again, a lot of amazing churches in our community that I love, and and you know, we we do things together. We have relationships the pastors do. Not a lot of people see what we do together, but we lock arms in a lot of different ways to do that. I want to talk about that, yeah. Yeah, but I will say that you know recently the the statement was made in a message that you know, when you you shouldn't use Christian as an adjective, it's a noun. Yes, you know, because when you say we're a Christian nation or a Christian Christian Christian, was that the fourth of Slime message?

SPEAKER_04 17:07

I just listened to that.

SPEAKER_01 17:09

So that's something that's this interesting to think about when it comes to that word and how we use it and how we associate with it. But no, back to your point about what we want to do, we want to just create a place. And and our maybe a differentiator again for us is that we we want to do some things that people may not be happy with because they would say, Well, why why would you mention in a message about Jonah that if you're here today and you don't believe that he literally was in the belly of the well for three days and you know, and that's okay. Let's don't just put that to the side for a moment. And then it's it's like, well, do we all not believe the Bible? I'm like, no, we believe the Bible, we believe it's true. That's you know, but what we're doing is we're letting that person out there who just is like, I don't believe all those old testament stories. Like, it's okay. Let's start with Jesus. Yeah, let's start with Jesus, and then we'll we'll get to to some of the other things. But so many times I think people they get stuck on something like that, they get stuck on the behavior of a Christian that they interacted with, whatever it might be. And so when they come in, we do want them to be addressed by just saying that, hey, you know, again, for anybody listening, and I want you to think that we're not, uh we don't believe that the Bible is all inspired. We do. And and we want to teach that. But at the same time, it's about approach.

SPEAKER_00 18:20

Right.

SPEAKER_01 18:20

Approach is so important. And again, that that that verse, Acts 15, 19, not making it difficult, is not watering down the gospel in any way, but it's an approach to people, whether it be that's why we do different things for children, students, and adults, is because we need to approach ministry to them differently, approach theology, because they don't need to be, you know, looking through the book of Song of Solomon in Wambaland, you know, in our preschool environment, right? I mean, eventually get to that when it's kind of age appropriate, you know. So, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 18:49

That's awesome. And and for anybody out there, if your church does it differently, or if they believe that, you know, not and I don't think the watering down is fair, but uh I've listened to a few online preachers that have dove more into hey, we need to get back, we're letting people just pick and choose, and this is what the letter of the law says. And and I do like our approach because where I am in my stage of Christianity is I need Southside. Yeah, and it's funny because you dove one of my big questions on here was what is something simple the church is failing to communicate. And and I I love what you just said about I think we're failing to communicate that there are different people at different stages. Yeah, and I don't for a church or a Christian, because even in our men's group, we've had that discussion, and one person felt like Southside was letting people off the hook because they welcome this or they didn't condemn that strong enough. Sure.

SPEAKER_01 19:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 19:46

And I'm like, that's not what it's about. We're trying to get people babysit.

SPEAKER_01 19:51

People are a journey, and it is easy to on any kind of stage, I say it this way, maybe it's not a good way to say it, but throw out a truth bombs to people who are out there and they already know that what we believe on these things, but we feel like we've got to double down on some things because they're they're they're not only theological issues, they're political issues can be as well. And people get really, you know, uh now. I'm strong belief in the things we we and we teach and we believe in and I believe in personally and and all that, but at the same time, there again, we're all broken people, and there are people out there that have struggled so much. What they need to hear is what they need to hear in different in environments and spaces. So, for example, how we teach and what we teach in in our adult services versus what I would talk to you about over coffee. Yeah, we need to do better, I believe, in in our churches of building relationships that will bear the weight of truth for both sides to walk across.

SPEAKER_02 20:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:54

Instead of just, you know, preaching to the choir, if you will. Now, I will say that in our approach, we are shifting some things with how we approach our preaching and that we're we are talking about more scripture and going deeper into scripture because even those I think that that are far from God and are even coming back to God, that they want that and are seeking that and desiring to know what are some historical facts behind this. And that's interesting. We have to we are always trying to figure out what is gonna be relevant, helpful, and engaging when it comes to the content. Because think about the Bible like this when we go to eat dinner, lunch, whatever, we're either gonna eat pork, chicken, seafood, meat of some kind. But what do they do? They prepare it differently to make it taste the way it needs to taste. So what we're doing is we're taking the meat, and not that we're trying to add to it, it doesn't need anything added to it, but we want to uh prepare it in a way to approach different audiences to where they can receive it as well. And then all we can do, this is our strategy, all we can do is create environments and create experiences. The Holy Spirit has to work in someone's heart. We can't force anyone or change anyone. It's that's that's up to God. But we do want to create a distraction free environment for all ages so that when you come in or you invite somebody in, they can they can take an easy step and they know what that step is. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 22:15

I do remember when I was volunteering at Upstreet, the at the time, the one of the leaders said that it was powerful. Down that we needed to include more scriptures because kids were coming out of church, and mom was like, What scripture did you learn? And the kid was like, I don't know. We learned about Noah.

SPEAKER_01 22:34

And they're like, Well, what doesn't need to just be a rally, right? And the cheerleading, you know, front friends.

SPEAKER_04 22:39

But it was important for that parent to actually have a scripture. And I was like, I get that because it wants to feel like church, but is your kid really remembering the scripture?

SPEAKER_01 22:48

Yeah, no, there's a balance to it. You want it to be engaging and fun for the kids, I believe, because it for so many people that that we've talked to, right, that grew up and they say, well, for me, growing up church was boring. Either because they had to sit in an adult service that didn't pay they didn't, you know, they couldn't connect with it because it was above their head. And so they're just trying to behave and get in control for behaving. They have that in their memory. There wasn't anything age appropriate for them. But we do need to teach them how to handle scripture, to memorize it, how it applies to their life. But it's age appropriate and hits them where they are and helps them take the next step. So, like I say, I think we are learning though that we need to share even more scripture than we have been and make some changes in that. And then how do we explain it to kids and to teenagers to give them handles on the things that so so there is a with being, if you want to call it attractional or seeker-friendly, that kind of thing, which is a term that gets used, which I don't really like because I do feel like that we can go deep and wide. We're always we say we marry the mission, we date the model. Our mission is to inspire and equip people to follow Jesus by engaging in the life and mission of our church. But our model needs to always be evaluated, scrutinized to make sure that what we're doing. Do we need to add more scripture? Do we need to get let everyone, every kid has a Bible, we need to open those up? Absolutely, 100%. That needs to be in every Sunday in what we do. But we're also going to sing songs, we're going to play a game, we're going to engage the kids, you know, with what they're doing.

SPEAKER_04 24:16

Yeah, in transit, we have stacks of Bibles. Exactly. That, you know, it's our job as leaders that the kid doesn't have one is to put one in their hands.

SPEAKER_01 24:24

Give them away as much as we can. So you budget.

SPEAKER_04 24:27

I want to go back to that because that was one of my questions. Is you gave me the formal definition or the mission. What is it in your own words? What is the mission of Southside?

SPEAKER_01 24:35

Yeah, it really is. We want to create churches where unchurched, de-church people will engage. But at the same time, our mission is truly about two things in there, two words that are very specific. And we changed those, by the way. Again, changed our even our mission in the last couple of years. It used to be to lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ, which there's many different church mission statements that they all say the same thing for the most part. Make disciples, make better disciples, all that is the two words, inspire and equip. We felt like that in this day and time that people do want to be inspired, you know, to follow after Jesus. And that's again, only what we can do. We know that we know the land we are in, and only what God can do. But not only inspire, but equip.

SPEAKER_02 25:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:18

So it's both of those things. It's a double barrel approach to you know, inspire and equip people to follow Jesus. So that that's really what we're wanting to do. And help you partner with you and everyone that attends, partner with me, everyone that attends our churches, that that it's consistent, predictable, and that they know when they invite someone that they're gonna invite someone into something that they can it can be comprehensible. Right now, they might not understand. If we're singing a song washed by the blood, it's like a great song.

SPEAKER_03 25:46

I heard that on Christmas morning at 30.

SPEAKER_01 25:50

Yeah, no, that's a deep um because I I'm I'm totally against the and for the churches that have this, I no offense, but is the churches that that we are now entering the mission field? No, the mission field's at our churches and out there, it's everywhere. And that we need to be inviting people into those spaces, and and they have a place that is comprehensible to them, and we explain it. Now, we're not gonna explain every single thing because so we have a funnel. We kind of want to start it with with a wide funnel with it being engaging, fun. We might even do like the summer, we've done some fun secular songs 15 minutes before the acoustic, yeah, before the service. There's summertime, you know, just fun. But then we're gonna, you know, have a host that comes out, they're gonna greet people, acknowledge who's in the room, make sure the people who are here, if we talk about giving, we're gonna let them know hey, look, if you're here and you're new, because that's one of the top reasons people don't go to church, well, all you talk about is money. So when we have a generosity moment or we do talk about giving, we want to address those in the room that if you're here first time or you're not a follower of Jesus, then you know, this is not for you, this is for the insiders. And even in our messaging, we'll share a lot of times that if you are not there, like I said earlier, if you're not there with understanding this and you're not a follower of Jesus, then just think about this as you think about following Jesus. So just acknowledging those in the room while addressing Christians in the room as well. So it's always something that we're thinking about, paying attention to in our language and how we do things. And and there's a reason why we try to keep our services to around an hour, a little over an hour, is a funny joke that Jeff Henderson came up with years ago. Is we found that in our preschool environment, the Holy Spirit leaves around 65 minutes.

unknown 27:28

So I'm just kidding.

SPEAKER_01 27:31

That's pretty accurate. Upstreet, right?

SPEAKER_04 27:32

I started wiggling myself.

SPEAKER_01 27:33

Yes, exactly. Upstreet, trans and all that. We we are paying attention to that, and also adults for that matter, right? I mean, for someone to watch this entire podcast or whatever, versus little reels and clips on it, right? So, so we want to also pay attention to what people's attention span nowadays and and what's there. Still think that the Holy Spirit can work within a plan and within time constraints. Yeah sometimes it goes over, sometimes it goes under, but we want it to be you know around that. And so, because it we get knocked sometimes with just that, you know, gosh, you plan and you're kind of boxing in the Holy Spirit. It's like, no, Holy Spirit's got room within the plan. Sometimes that plan changes. We've had things where somebody unfortunately has a medical incident in this in the service. Well, we're not gonna just keep going. We're gonna stop and pray for them or we're gonna do you know something there.

SPEAKER_04 28:22

And the baptisms change. Baptism changes things.

SPEAKER_01 28:24

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_04 28:25

So yeah, it's where we but also I I like I like knowing that when I go to Chick-fil-A, I'm gonna be in and out. And and I know, oh, that's uh you're not you're there, I forgot, whatever. Yeah, uh it makes me attend more when I know that I can plan on 12:30, changing clothes and cutting the art or whatever. So I do like that consistency. Uh I just do that in there for no reason. I I enjoy the yeah, knowing when it's gonna get out. And I think most churches are the same.

SPEAKER_01 28:53

I don't think that's very and we will say that in a lot of times in our services for that person you've invited, so they know am I gonna be here for two hours, three hours, what's it gonna be? To to the point of the the lady you you were dressed about in that clip, TikTok clip. Is what do I wear? What how long is it gonna be? Do I need to bring snacks? Do I need to stand? Yeah, exactly. And they we want them to be aware through, and that's where our front door is the website. People are gonna go on and watch our service, they're gonna go on and see, kind of get a sneak peek into the church before, just like we do with any other places. I want to go see the menu, I can go to the website and check it out, or I can go to Yelp, wherever.

SPEAKER_04 29:31

Yeah.