Southbrook:Monroe Vision

I had a couple of great questions come to my inbox earlier this week. With permission, I am posting those, along with my answers. Hopefully these will prove helpful to others who may be asking similar questions.

“We’re doing something in Monroe that no one else is doing”. If you were to give someone a 15 second “pitch” on what we’re doing, what would you say that would convey our unique work in Monroe?

First - I would restate it this way: “We’re doing something in Monroe that no one else in Monroe is doing”.
There are three things (at least) that make what we are doing in Monroe unique:

1) Video Campus - As far as we know, there has been no attempt to plant a video campus/multi-site campus in the monroe area. One church did try at a high school in the area a couple of years back, but they did not stay long. Having leased a building, we have no plans for moving out of the area.

2) Community Outreach - Our outreach pastor, Daryl Sutherland, has been partnering with several para-church organizations in Monroe for a little over a year now. He has not seen any substantial involvement in community outreach from any of the many churches that currently exist in the community. This is not to claim that we are better...simply an observation: there is no church doing community outreach to the extent that we plan on doing - as far as we have seen.

3) Worship Style/Method - although several existing churches advertise a 'contemporary' worship service, there are no churches that have the DNA that Southbrook has. We are primarily attempting to reach the un-churched and de-churched - those who have been turned off from church in the past, or those who have never even been to church. We are careful not to use church language, or do anything that would discourage a 'tire-kicker' from checking us out.

I'll post the next one in a couple of days...