ATHENS CHURCH

this past weekend i had the awesome opportunity to spend some quality time with the athens church gang. in addition to spending time in the environments i had some incredible conversations with their staff that i am still unpacking. athens church has been rocking as a north point ministries strategic partner since before it was cool.

i would say my 2 biggest take-away's were:

1. their comment to excellence, which really shined in the small things.
   • i.e. when moving their drum shield in the adult worship environment (AWE) the volunteers used gloves to avoid hand prints and smudges on the shield. while for many of us this would have been over looked mike, service programming director, has helped create a culture of excellence even in the small things. this is just one example of their culture of excellence that i saw.
   
   
2. their ability to use every opportunity to connect people to the vision, especially using stories of life-change.
   • it was really remarkable at the level of intentionality that i saw in every staff, volunteer, and one-on-one meeting to connect every single person to the vision through stories of life change.
   
   
   • i.e. during the AWE breakfast/production meeting sean, lead pastor, shared a story about a starting point group and how 2 people who had been impacted by the AWE had crossed the line of faith.

athens church is a church that has taken the north point model, scaled it to their size/location and God has used that to begin transforming a city through them.

top left: a look from the top balcony during the 1st service
top right: insideOUT/Xtreme (student environment) during 1st service
bottom left: information sign in the building that hosts family ministries

bottom right: one of several hallway signs on UpStreet