Current Focus at West Ridge

I thought you might be interested in seeing where I’m currently investing my time at West Ridge. We have a lot happening. And, fortunately, I have great team that I get to work with to pull this all off. Here’s my current focus:

Reaching People Outside the Faith

• One Story Campaign – This is a one-year outreach campaign that will start on August 8. The initiative includes student ministry, multi-site, church planting, missions and community.
• West Paulding Campus – The new campus begins on Sunday, September 12. We already have over 150 people committed to serving at the West Paulding location and are planning for over 400 people to attend.
• The Launch Network – Mac Lake, the Chief Launch Officer, started this week. West Ridge is partnering with other churches to plant 1,000 churches in 10 years. Want to join us?
• Campus Connectors – With the One Story Campaign, we are planning on hiring ten campus connectors to work with administrators, teachers and students in ten area schools.
• Series Planning – I’m engaging conversations with Brian and our lead team as we talk about series that will reach more people and offer next steps for spiritual growth.

Helping Christ-Followers Grow in Their Faith

• Discipleship Focus in Kid’s Ministry - We’re hiring a new person to help us focus our spiritual growth strategy primarily through rethinking how we do small groups with kids and provide online tools for parents. We’re also expanding kid’s ministry within our facility to accommodate recent growth.
• Student Ministry Strategy – Our student ministry has grown by 60% to over 500 students in the last 12 months. That’s forcing us to rethink discipleship strategies and wrestle with space constraints. We’re sharing all the details on August 4 with parents and students.
• Spiritual Formation for Adults – I’m really excited about the next steps we’re going to begin to offer this fall for adults. We’ll have some new Bible classes available, but we’re pouring a lot of energy and focus into providing online tools for folks to take their next steps based on where they are in their spiritual journey.
• Community Makeover – West Ridge is partnering with over 80 Atlanta-area churches to serve our communities. Yes, this is about outreach, but it’s also about creating an easy first step for our folks to practice serving people outside the church.

This is a huge vision for these next 12 months, and I’m really excited to be a part of it. The best part, of course, is being a part of a great team of staff and volunteer leaders that is engaged in making it all happen. They make this both rewarding and a lot of fun.

I’ll share more details about some of these initiatives in the coming months. Until then, I hope you’ll pray with us as we engage each of these initiatives.