by phanisvara das

Founded By Andy Stanley and five associates in 1995, North Point Ministries has grown to over 17,000 members who attend worship services at three satellite campuses: North Point Community Church (Alpharetta, GA), Buckhead Church (Atlanta, GA), and Browns Bridge Community Church (Cumming, GA). In addition there are a dozen or so "strategic partners," using North Poing sermons and material in their programs, often started by ex-North Point staff.

According to www.thechurchreport.com, Stanley was voted 13th most influential Christian in America in 2006, and North Point Community Church 3rd most influential church. That's quite a bit of success, and Sitapati Prabhu, who visited Buckhead Church recently, has been impressed, too.

From Sitapati's blog:

The first thing that I saw as I approached were traffic direction signs that let me know I was on the right path. The next thing were orange vest clad volunteers who direct vehicle and foot traffic, and greet people arriving. They are part of the Host Services team. I spent some time later in the day with the leader of this team, Erin, who showed me around the facilities. ...

I went into the auditorium, which seats 3000 people in a two tier seating area. At the door I was greeted by Owen, who shook my hand, spent a few minutes talking with me, and gave me the handout for the current series, "Legacy", given by Voddie Baucham, a black American preacher from Texas. The handout also included the Order of Service. 9 am - 10 am, perfectly programmed, and running like clockwork.

The main auditorium is a state-of-the-art hall just like any venue in a modern city used for speakers and musical performances. It has two large video screens flanking a large stage with a drum kit, keyboard, guitar and bass set up. There is a full lighting rig (and as I later saw, dry ice smoke machines), two cameras mounted on tripods toward the back, and the mother of all sound and lighting control desks, manned by volunteers and staff.

The sound rig is controlled by Protools and all the sound processing is done in real time using software. There is no rack of effects. The speakers were using the high-end Countryman earset microphone (sold by Shure as the Shure WCE6T). Afterwards I talked with Chris and Ryan, the guys manning the sound desk, about using this, and Ryan explained that they have to profile each speaker before the event to get the right EQ to stop it from feeding back.

Visit to Buckhead Church, Atlanta
Visit to Buckhead Church, Part Two
Visit to Buckhead Church, Part Three

Building megachurches is family-tradition with the Stanleys: Charles Stanley, Andy's father, is senior pastor of the First Baptist Church of Atlanta and founder of InTouch Ministries.

"Andy Stanley received a bachelor's degree of journalism from Georgia State University and later earned a masters degree from Dallas Theological Seminary. After working for several years as Associate Pastor and Minister to Students at First Baptist Atlanta, he and five others founded North Point Community Church in 1995." (Wikipedia: Andy Stanley)

Andy Stanley and North Point Ministries figure prominently in the blogs of many Christian leaders and thinkers. While not everybody is comfortable with the phenomenon megachurch, they do respect him for being an inspired communicator and leader, and being "real"—driven by the passionate desire to spread the Christian gospel and influence the lives of as many people as he possibly can.

Here is an interesting reply from Andy Stanley to a blog-conversation that took place a couple of years ago. Adam W. Cleaveland, the author of the blog, stated that he couldn't possibly attend a megachurch like North Point since there wasn't any real community experience, and he was initially supported by several commentors. Eventually Andy himself replied, and a lengthy (but interesting) discussion followed. Here's Andy's first reply (August 29th, 2005):

I’m writing to aplogize for the size of North Point Community Church. When six of us gathered to think through the idea of beginning a church we had no idea that it would become so large. For this growth I am truely sorry. I realize that the size is intimidating.

I have read the comments on this site and have decided to make some changes. To begin with I am going to spend time with each and every parisioner so that they can get to know me personally. Like many of you, I wouldn’t want to attend a church where I could not connect personally with the pastor. I’ve shared this with my wife and three kids. They are in complete agreement. So beginning next Sunday I will be at the back door to shake hands.

Secondly, I am going to suggest to our elders that we sell our three campuses, consolidate, and move the church into a much smaller building. Smaller space will mean smaller crowds. And aparently large crowds are unbiblical. I agree, the church should be no larger than 40 to 50 people. Most of whom are believers.

Regarding my shallow, simplistic preaching…for this I am truley sorry. I am doing the best I can. I know deeper is better. I’m just not deep. I’m not really sure what to do about that.

These changes will take some time. Please be patient. If you have any helpful suggestions as to how I can transition North Point Community Church into a church made up of a handful of believers who enjoy deep preaching please let me know.

On a positive note, the 8,000 adults who meet in groups of 8 to 12 in homes throughout our community can continue to meet in spite of the fact that they will no longer be able to worship together.

Thank you for your valuable insights. And please accept my apology.

Andy Stanley
Pastor, North Point Community Church

Unlike Sitapati I didn't visit any of North Points campuses, but while researching this megachurch via the internet I found a lot of interesting information. I'll continue this article, describing North Point's use of technology, Starting Point- and Community-Groups, and their Fusion-approach to include teenagers and young adults in their ministry. I think there's a lot we can learn from their success.