Cumberland Church Blog

Top 5 questions I'm answering at Cumberland Church right now...

(1) What is the deal with the video sermon? Will you ever have a live local preacher on Sundays?   

My short answer:  Video teaching is effective, at least in North Point world (hard to go wrong with Andy, Louie and Jeff Henderson).  Also, I'm fired up about teaching live next month at Cumberland.   

(2) What is the relationship with you and North Point Community Church and Buckhead Church in the Atlanta area?    

My short answer:  See my "Chick-fil-a" answer.

(3) Your music was louder than I'm used to. Will it always be that way?

My short answer:  Yes, it probably will always be louder than your last church.  But, we are working on improving the acoustics in our new auditorium.  Old churches were not designed for high-tech production.   

(4) Why doesn`t Cumberland Church have Adult Sunday School or other Bible study classes?

My short answer:  Sunday and School...two words that should have never made a connection in my opinion. (no offense to it's innovator and one of my heroes, Mr. D.L. Moody)  We do small groups here at Cumberland, nothing else.  Why?  Because that is where we believe sustained life-change happens best.

(5) It seems like our Sunday morning service has reached capacity.  What are the plans for a second service?    

My short answer:  GREAT question!  But, you'll have to come this Sunday to Cumberland Church to find out the answer (smile).  See you then!   

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Something about Mary and Rudy: A relationship between football and cinema

It's Friday morning and I can't help but feel for Eddie. Since Eddie's the Lead Pastor of a video church and primary contributor of our VideoChurchBlog, he's often left with lots of free time (or so it seems).  And since we're knee-deep into the 2007 college football season, his thoughts naturally turn to Notre Dame football.  Here's one of the most successful programs in the history of college football sitting at 0-4 and they could go to 0-8 before they play Navy in November. So how has a program with 11 national titles, 7 Heisman Trophy winners and the 2nd highest winning percentage (to Michigan) find themselves here?

Is it something about Mary? Because in the movie Rudy, the visual anthem for all Notre Dame fans, Rudy and team ask Mary to pray for them. Well....maybe she doesn't like football anymore?  Or maybe she's tired of re-directing all those prayers? Or maybe it's because they have no Rudy to rally behind? Or maybe it's because they have no offensive line to run and pass behind?

So, after Purdue has their way with the Irish tomorrow, think of Eddie, would you? And when you see him on Sunday, give him a hug and remind him that Notre Dame football has been around for like, 120 years, and they're likely to get better before another 120 pass. (Oh, and for those of you Notre Dame fans unfamiliar with that word, allow me. "Pass", v or n :  When the ball is thrown from behind the line of scrimmage to a receiver who is closer to the opponents end line than the passer.) Upon further review, the term I should have defined was "completion." But I digress.

Hope all of you college football fans have a great Saturday...except Oklahoma fans. Go Buffs!

@ Cumberland on the 30th

This week, Andy Stanley will deliver part two of the Everybody series - Everybody's Included. Most people don't have a problem with God. After all, plenty of people show up for church on Christmas and Easter. Unfortunately, people do have a problem with the church. For centuries now, Christians have made Christianity so complex that people simply write it off as irrelevant and confusing. In this session, we'll see how this problem surfaced in the very early days of the church, how they dealt with it then, and how we should deal with it now. 

My solution - and here's where the blog entry gets off track - is to play more cowbell. And if that doesn't work, maybe a little Red Barchetta? Okay, you'll likely not hear Rush this weekend - unless it's on your iPod as it's certainly in mine - but you will hear the following:

Sunday's Music:

Not to Us / Here is Our King
Marvelous Light
I Stand Amazed

Ryan Stuart and the Cumberland band will be leading worship this weekend.  Ryan comes from the Atlanta area where he leads regularly at North Point and its campuses and partnerships in the Atlanta area (And where he likely listens to Rush). We're excited about having Ryan with us this Sunday. Come early and get a good seat!

Hope to see you Sunday. Rock it.

"The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh"... Part Two!?

One of my favorite movies growing up as a kid was the 1979 classic B-movie cult-hit, "The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh", that featured Dr. J, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Meadowlark Lemon, Jonathan Winters and Flip Wilson.  If you haven't seen it, you need to rent it...but good luck trying to find it anywhere but Amazon and E-bay.  Oscar-worthy it wasn't! ;>)

Well, another GREAT story is developing in the Steel City that has the potential to even outdo the phenomenal season of the fabulous "Pittsburgh Pisces".  

This past Sunday night, a new North Point Strategic Partnership church, NorthBridge Community Church, was launched in the Cranberry suburb of Pittsburgh.   The team of Jame Price (Lead Pastor), Jayson Samuels (Family Pastor), Rollie Brinker (Director of Group Life), Nick Hoover (Sunday Program Director) and Nathanael Avery (Host Team) have been working hard for a long, long time putting together a volunteer team of ministry partners who believe that Pittsburgh needed a new kind of church.  A church that could be engaging, relevant and helpful to EVERYBODY looking to connect with God and other people.  If Day One is any indication, Pittsburgh may never be the same again.

Jame wrote to me and the North Point church planting family today to share the EXCITING news of their first service last night that saw over 350 people show up!  Wow!  Here's a little bit of what he had to share:

Wow!  It was April 2006 when David McDaniel (North Point's Director of Campus Expansion) sat down with my wife and I outside an Atlanta area Starbucks.  Who knew that a year and a half later I'd be part of launching a church in Cranberry PA as a North Point partner?  God did.  This has been such a wild, crazy and unfathomably awesome journey.  It could only be God.

Last night was the unfathomably awesome part......we launched NorthBridge.  I can't possibly begin to explain what a person feels at a time like that.  It's like having a child in the sense that you try and explain to those without children what it's like.  No matter what you say they just can not truly "get it".  It's something that must be experienced.  Same with launching a church.   And like having a child, the experience left me feeling very small in awe of our amazing God.  .....Unfathomably awesome.

Can't wait for our next service,  October 7th.

The numbers:
Adults in Worship:  244
Adult Volunteers:  60
UpStreet (K-5):  27
Waumba (0-5 yrs. old):  22
___________________
Total =  353

This is for His Glory!  Thank you for all the prayers. 

Jame

For those of you who may not have been around the "church planting world" for very long, that Opening Day number (especially in the Northeast) is nothing short of a miracle.  Great job NorthBridge team!  Can't wait for the life-changing stories that will come about here shortly because of your sacrifice and investment.  I truly believe you guys are going to redefine "church" for a lot of people there in Pittsburgh.

What is the right size for a local church? When is "big", big enough?

Great question.  One that we are often asked in the North Point world since, well... we are a church plant of a mega-church.  And since we (Cumberland Church) are experiencing significant growth as of late...this question is starting to come up more and more here locally.  So...

How BIG do we want Cumberland Church to become? 

When will we start another campus, or plant another church?

Instead of answering this question myself, I thought I would let the "Jedi-Master" himself, Andy Stanley, take a shot here with this really insightful response he gave awhile back on a blog-site where the same question came up.  Here's his thoughts and advice on the subject of the "bigness of a local church":

As to the optimal church size… I pretty much agree with what everyone has written. In fact, our answer to that question may seem a bit…simplistic… compared to previous entries.

Our theory is that a church should be allowed or encouraged to grow large enough to sustain a viable high school and middle school ministry. A successful student ministry requires critical mass in order to capture and keep the attention of their target audience. So the question becomes, how many adults are required to generate critical mass for a student ministry? That depends upon the demographic of a community.

If you are a twenty six year old seminary student with a couple of kids in diapers that may not sound like a great answer. But if you are a church planter with 150 people and one of your elders just informed you that her family is leaving because you don’t have anything for her thirteen year old, it makes painful sense.

Parents will put up with a lot in big church if their teenagers feel connected to a student ministry.

That’s it. Reaction welcomed. We’re still learning.

Louie Giglio is coming to Nashville. Twice! Once live...Once on video.

Passion Conferences and sixstepsrecords will present a limited-run extension of the "How Great Is Our God Tour" this fall, featuring award-winning worship songwriter Chris Tomlin and noted author/speaker Louie Giglio.   

The original 32-city U.S. tour held January through March of this year included numerous sell-outs and great reviews, and fueled a public desire for more events.    The fall leg of the "How Great Is Our God Tour" opens Saturday, Oct. 6, at 7 p.m. in Nashville at Allen Arena  (Lipscomb University).   

Then on Sunday Oct. 14th, Cumberland Church will begin a new two-week teaching series from Louie entitled, "Indescribable".  Mark your calendars now and plan to bring a friend.  You won't want to miss it!   

This series was previously recorded live at North Point Community Church and has created a "buzz" at every North Point campus and Strategic Partnership church where it has been shown.  To tell you a little bit more about "Indescribable", here is a little teaser about this series...   

Have you noticed? The heavens are telling the glory of God, and their expanse declares the work of His hands. Night after night they remind us of just how small we are, and how huge God is.   

Looking out into the far reaches of the Universe, we find a seemingly infinite expanse of mystery and wonder, intricately fashioned by a God of unfathomable size and power. Just a glimpse of one of the billions of visible galaxies He has formed, resizes us, shrinking us, and the world we call home, to seeming insignificance in an instant. But as tiny as we may seem, the God who knows every star by name also knows yours and mine. And, in the most stunning rescue imaginable, God sent His Son to this spinning planet we call home--the Creator reconnecting us to Himself with life that never ends.    

Be sure to catch Louie while he's "in town" here at Lipscomb University and Cumberland Church in October.  It should be awesome!    For info and tickets to the Oct. 6th "Chris Tomlin and Louie Giglio" concert, please click here.

We did it!

To the Cumberland Church family,

Can you believe it?  We did it! 

After being informed just a few short weeks ago that we no longer had a church home at "The W", our team of staff and volunteers pulled off an amazing accomplishment by having our new church building ready to go for services this past Sunday. Way to go gang! I'm so proud of you guys.

Sunday was an amazing, milestone day in the life of our young church. It was awesome and a day we will remember for a long, long time.

The short story is.... we ran out of parking spots, we had to go get extra chairs for seating, every new guest our staff met was because someone currently attending Cumberland had invited them and we even had kids crying AFTER the service because they didn't want to go home yet. All of these are great reasons why Sunday was such a huge win and a success for us.

Just want to say "thank you" again to all of you that played a part in your serving, in your inviting and in your sacrificial giving to make our Grand Opening at 415 Franklin Road such a special day. Thanks for choosing to partner with us!

Gratefully yours,

Eddie

This weekend @ Cumberland Church - September 23rd

This weekend at Cumberland Church will rock. One of our good friends, Danny Dukes, will be up from North Point leading worship this Sunday with the dynamic Cumberland Church band. I use the word "dynamic" not to solely suggest their  musical abilities but to also point out that the line up is likely to change...weekly. We'll bring in artists from across the region and from right here in our own fruitful backyard. We've been blessed to have worshiped with some of the best musicians around. This Sunday is no exception. Danny brings a wealth of experience and passion with him onto the platform and will lead us through the following set:

You Are (Todd Fields)
Beautiful One (Jeremy Camp version - my personal favorite)
Mighty to Save (Hillsong)

(And there may be a sonic surprise (from down under) on the production order, as well.)

Hope you're able to swing by on Sunday! With Andy Stanley kicking off the Everybody series this weekend, you may want to get here early.  Service starts at 10:00, tailgating starts at 9 and the bathroom's on your left.

Rock on.

"Redeeming" church

Okay....before you church-folk out there start freaking out or emailing me with a theological dissertation about my misuse of the salvific word "redeem", here's my understanding from Merriam-Webster Dictionary about an alternative use of the same word. 

Redeem:  Definition 6a : (1) to offset the bad effect of or (2) to make worthwhile

For a church building that has set desolate and unused for over a year (the baptistery was even boarded up for goodness sake!), I think that the word "redeeming" is a great definition of what's taking place here at Cumberland Church.

Our team has done an AMAZING job these past few weeks renovating this place and working hard towards making our ministry environments look and feel "irresistible" to our guests.  If you get a chance, take a look at these "BEFORE" and "AFTER" shots.  Not too bad for a 7-month old church plant on a s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d budget, huh!?  I couldn't be prouder of our team.  GREAT work guys!

      

(Disclaimer: We're still finishing up on the stage design and a few other environments.  We feel like we are 90% done but still have some finishing touches to make.)

Sunday Recap - September 16th

Worship Leader:  Michael Olson

Music Set:  Days Go By (Keith Urban), God is With Us (Michael Olson), How Great Thou Art (Passion Worship) and Here I Am to Worship

Teaching: Andy Stanley taught on the "Missing Ingredient". 

Highlights/Recap:  It was our first day in our new 24/7 church building.  Had our highest attended day since our launch on Feb. 11th.  It was awesome!  We literally ran out of parking and seats.  Need to go to 2 services... like yesterday. Pics of our new environments should be up here soon.

Michael Olson is flat out one of the best and most engaging worship leaders I know.  He's incredible.  Andy's message was also a home run.  It was on the importance of being in a committed small group with people your doing life with.  We're preparing for our first GroupLink on September 30th.  Our "win" for the weekend?  A lot of new people interested in taking a "next step" towards becoming part of a group.  That's cool. 

If you missed Andy's message, you can watch it here.

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