I just got back from 2 days in Atlanta where I was part of Northpoint Church-Buckhead Church's Tuesday night young singles gathering 7/22.
7/22 was started in 1995 by Louie Giglio. A few years ago Jarrett Stevens (who has an excellent book out called The Deity Formerly Known As God) took over the leadership of 7/22. I am guessing there were 1,200 people there - it was hard to tell as it was such an incredible and gigantic sanctuary at the Buckhead campus. This summer they had 3 authors come to 7/22 (myself, W.Paul Young who wrote The Shack, and Margaret Feinberg) and it was an interview and casual format where they had the books for 7/22 to read and then we were there and Jarrett would ask questions.
You can view the video of last night here and it has the whole evening with Charlie Hall (who was leading musical worship) and Jarrett and me doing the interview.
Louie Giglio was actually there last night and we chatted in the room where the band and 7/22 staff meets to go over the night and pray. Louie and the Passion team have been literally traveling the globe lately and he was sharing how amazing it is seeing the hearts of young people worshiping God all over the world. Charlie Hall was the guest musical worship leader for this night and his new CD was released yesterday. I don't listen to a ton of Christian music, but I will say that Charlie's new CD is really powerful in it's message and theme of "The Bright Sadness".
The highlight of this trip for me was hearing the story of why 7/22 is ending next month - I say highlight as the reasons are very missional and very honorable and Kingdom-focused reasons.
It is crazy from an outside perspective because here you have 1,000 plus young adults meeting on a Tuesday night. That is something most churches would be thrilled to be doing. But the 7/22 leadership began wondering if perhaps having another music/worship/teaching event is the best usage of energy and finances for advancing the gospel in Atlanta to those who do not know Jesus yet. Because there are so many worship/music/teaching gatherings already in Atlanta - and at Buckhead Church on Sundays they have a wonderful and impactful worship/music/teaching gathering. So the 7/22 staff, without having to do this or being told from the top-down, they bravely and sacrificially laid their jobs down and worked out a transition to end 7/22.
You can watch the video clip opf Jarrett giving the announcement of this transition here (this was from last month's 7/22).
I had lunch with the 7/22 staff and listened to their hearts and what they each are going to do next. I shared that I can't imagine God is not going to honor that decision as extremely difficult as it was to make. Not only their jobs ending, but all the people who are part of 7/22 understanding why this decision was made.
So you know it was something much, much bigger they believed in for them to do this. They believe that there are many people in Atlanta who need Jesus and don't know Him yet. That is what was driving this decision and again, from the outside it may seem crazy as having so many young adults coming out every week is larger than most churches in America. But they understand that having a worship/teaching meeting (as wonderful as it is) in addition to other wonderful ones already happening on Sundays is something that they could steward energy, time, prayer and finances towards something else that will be for those who don't know Jesus.
The Buckhead area is a growing one, with a lot of people moving there from other states. So the cultural Bible-belt climate is changing as the area isn't just people raised in a Christian culture anymore. I shared during the dialog with Jarrett that when I arrived in Atlanta the night before and found the hotel I was staying at, I drove .9 miles down the road ( I looked up how far it was on Google just now) and saw a bar that had a lot of younger people hanging outside. So I grabbed my laptop and went in and hung out there for a while. I try to get a feel for a place and I talked to three of the employees of the bar last night. I normally am able to strike up conversation by telling them I am writing about church and culture and could use their input for what I am writing. I have never been turned down when I ask questions as I believe people want to share what they feel about something.
So I talked with these guys and none of them were part of any church and in fact had some pretty sad impressions of Christians. Two of the three had moved to Atlanta from another state and said the "Bible Belt" of Atlanta has Christians who are (I am quoting them word for word as I wrote down their words) "intolerant, narrow-minded, hypocritical". I asked them stories and they had some examples of people in Atlanta who tried "witnessing" to them by giving a tract that told him he was going to hell, and another time someone approached him and asked him "Do you know where you're going when you die?". He said he was just trying to go to his car to go to work and someone then walks up who doesn't even know him and starts asking him about dying.
Typical sort of answers - and as I shared at 7/22, most Christians aren't "intolerant, narrow-minded, hypocritical". of course, we do believe there is but one way of salvation of course, but that wasn't the issues they were raising. It was more about attitude. Yet as I asked these guys there about their relationships - they didn't know any Christians personally as friends. They had only encountered ones (strnagers they didn't know) who approached them to directly witness with no relationship first. In fact, of the 7 people I asked if they even heard of Buckhead Church (less than a mile away) 7 of the 7 said they never heard of it. So there is a mission for them with people even less than a mile from the church campus not knowing about the wonderful things that they are doing there - because they didn't know any Christians personally who weren't simply strangers approaching them to immediately tell them about hell with a tract etc.
So... hearing that 7/22 is closing down so they can re-think and figure out a way to approach evangelism and mission differently and not simply have yet another worship/teaching option for people who already have one on Sundays - to me, is a wonderful and noble and Kingdom-minded thing to do. Right down the street there were dozens of twenty-somethings in this bar and if my quick surveying of them indicates the whole of them- there is a desperate need of rethinking what mission looks like for them. So there may be a church of 6,000 people less than a mile away, but the 7/22 team desired to risk their jobs and even the criticism they may get for closing a ministry for the sake of people like those in that bar. My respect for Jarrett and the 7/22 team and Buckhead and Northpoint Church is immense, and I trust God will be doing some major things as they pray and plan for the future.
I also got to have dinner and hang out with Brad Lomenick and Ben Arment from Catalyst and could blog a ton about that conversation (i just added the Catalyst Space link to my favorite universe places links). Got to also have breakfast and catch up with Jason Malek from Northpoint Church staff and hear the adventure of a new church they are planting in Denver next year.
So Atlanta was a very fun trip and I was totally honored to be part of 7/22 as they are wrapping up a wonderful season and ministry that it has been since 1995. May God continue to bless and encourage Northpoint and Buckhead Churches and in particular those who sacrificially are making change, both the staff and those who have been part of 7/22 for the sake of those who do not know Jesus yet.
