Get Your Strategy On
Browns Bridge Community Church
Nov52006 Filed under: Churches Author: Tony MorganWe visited Browns Bridge Community Church in Cumming, Georgia this morning. Browns Bridge is a campus of North Point ministries–that’s Andy Stanley’s church. This is North Point’s third major location in the Atlanta region. They also have a campus in Buckhead in addition to their original campus in Alpharetta. Here are some observations from our visit this morning:
- This is a full-fledged church. Everything that happens at the Alpharetta campus, happens at Browns Bridge.
- I was intrigued by the lack of reference to North Point. They’re obviously trying to brand Browns Bridge as a completely separate church. I didn’t see any print materials with any reference to North Point. In fact, one of the pre-service PowerPoint slides was encouraging people to transfer their membership from North Point to Browns Bridge. Makes me think North Point is taking a different approach to most multi-site churches that are trying to remain "one church" in multiple locations.
- KidStuf opened this morning for the first time on this campus. I’m surprised more churches haven’t adopted this type of family service. If one of your focus audiences is families with young children, it seems like a great strategy to connect kids and their parents.
- The brand new auditorium unofficially seats 2,000 people. I heard it was filled for both services on opening weekend. It appeared to be about 75% full this morning.
- The service was very similar to services I’ve experienced on North Point’s campus. Everything was "live" expect for the message.
- I was surprised that the campus pastor wasn’t involved in any of the service. I would have expected that this early in the launch, the campus pastor would have had a more visible role in the services. I wonder what the thinking is behind that decision for him not to be on the platform?
- The video system is amazing. When Andy Stanley was speaking, it was as if he was actually standing there on the platform. I don’t know how they do it, but it almost looked like it was a three-dimensional image.
- The crowd was completely engaged throughout the message. They were interacting with Andy as if he was actually in the room.
- For the record, I’ve never heard Andy bomb on a message, and today was no exception.
- Though this campus is in an ideal location in close proximity to the highway interchange, the only exits are to Browns Bridge Road which is a two-lane road in front of the church. I suppose people around here are accustomed to dealing with traffic issues. And, honestly, I don’t know that the traffic is any worse than what I’ve experienced trying to get out of the Alpharetta campus.
- If I lived in Cumming or the surrounding area, I’d engage in ministry at Browns Bridge.
More Fun on TonyMorganLive.com:
8 Responses to “Browns Bridge Community Church”
Leave a reply
Tony Morgan is a pastor and the Chief Strategic Officer at NewSpring Church where he develops creative solutions for communications, technology and NewSpring Ministries--the church's ministry that equips other church leaders.
[read more...]
Site Sponsors
My Book
Rich Schmidt
November 5th, 2006 at 6:01 pm
Thanks, Tony! This kind of inside look is really helpful for those of us who don’t get to travel quite as much. :)
Greg
November 6th, 2006 at 9:21 am
Hi Tony, glad you made it out to see us. A couple notes from a member of BBCC:
1) Sorry for the traffic on the way out! I was on the parking team yesterday, and we had an unexpectedly bad day, due to a couple unusual timings that shouldn’t happen again. The long term plan is to have another exit out of the south side of the church, and that should help a lot.
2) Lane Jones, the campus minister, usually comes up and greets everyone at the beginning of the service. Not sure why he didn’t last week.
3) My family came from NPCC, and we’re quite happy to be at BBCC. We don’t feel like we’re missing anything at BBCC, and we’re excited to be in a different area where we can reach out to new people who wouldn’t make the trip to NPCC.
place of nathan.
November 6th, 2006 at 9:43 am
Browns Bridge Community Church
Tony Morgan is a blogging superstar. Tonys like a secret mentor to mehe has no idea the influence hes had on mebut he has. I am going to Granger Community Church soon and hope i get the chance to meet him! In this post he ma…
Greg Atkinson
November 6th, 2006 at 11:38 am
Wasn’t this supposed to be the campus where Andy was going to be seen as a hologram? Are they not going to do that?
Bob Nahrstadt
November 7th, 2006 at 9:53 am
Tony - it was great to see you at BBCC. When we lived in Wheaton, IL my wife and I would pray that we would either get offered a job in the South Bend/Mishawauka area so we could be a part of Granger, or that Granger would open a campus in our area.
But God moved us here to Cumming, GA instead, and now we are part of the ministry at BBCC. It has been fabulous. I thank God that NPCC invested so heavily to create BBCC and we have a place to contribute there. We now live only 5 mins from there and really enjoy it.
Keep up the great work at GCC! It was great to see you.
BTW: Lane Jones is the campus pastor and he usually does have some role on the stage each week, but I think he was busy with the 1st week of KidStuf. Also, the place was very full on the 1st sunday, but by the 2nd sunday was at about 75% - leaving room for me to find new friends and invite them to church! - The parking is full though!
Dede Rissler
December 24th, 2006 at 1:03 am
I get so much out of Andy Stanley’s messages that this just about makes it worth attending the service at BBCC. The only thing that might keep me away, however, is the music. I feel that this is just important as the spoken message and should prepare the hearts of the listeners for worship. I have great difficulty getting into this music. Although the band is very talented, most of the songs are SO contemporary (often seeming to border on alternative rock) that often I cannot relate to them and do not feel moved to worship God through this type of music. Perhaps the reason is that I am 50, not in my 20’s-30’s for whom this music might appeal. I would be delighted to hear some tamer praise & worship choruses mixed in with the alternative rock-sounding choruses(e.g., perhaps some from Michael W. Smith?). That way the music would minister to folks of all ages, not just the younger crowd.
Bobby Williams
March 23rd, 2007 at 4:40 pm
You referenced the amazing video system they use at Browns Bridge. It happens to be a special type of projector that was originally made by NASA. They also use it at Buckhead and also in the “other” auditorium and the North Point campus. Really cool stuff.
Debbie Shadburn
October 7th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
I read the post by DeDe Rissler and I’ve got to admit that I felt like that at first. I am 49 and I thought the music was too “hard” also and figured it must be my age, but I kept going back because I always got so much out of the message. Now, I love the music! I even bought a couple of CD’s which even my kids enjoy! I have visited other churches but now when I compare the worship part (singing) to some of the other places, I just feel they are lack something. I think the key is to focus on the words being sung and on singing those to our Heavenly Father. I think it’s awesome now!! And best of all, it’s so loud I don’t have to worry if my neighbor can hear me!! I wasn’t blessed with a very good singing voice!