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unSeminary Podcast
When Growth Gets Messy: How to Lead a Fast-Growing Church with Brandon Boyd
00:34:51
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- [00:03]
A
Do you feel like your church or school facility could be preventing growth? Are you frustrated or possibly overwhelmed at the thought of a complicated or costly building project? Are the limitations of your building becoming obstacles in the path to expanding your ministry? Have you ever felt like you could reach more people if only the facility was better suited to the needs of your community? Well, the team over at Risepoint can help you. As former ministry staff and church leaders, they understand how to to prioritize and help lead you to a place where the building is literally a ministry multiplier. Your mission should not be held back by your building. Their team of architects, interior designers and project managers have the professional experience to incorporate creative design solutions to move your mission forward. Check them out@risepoint.com that is RisePoint with an E. While you're there, schedule a free call to explore possibilities for your needs, the vision, your future, that sort of thing. Risepoint believes that God still uses spaces and they're here to help you again. Reach out to them today. That's RisePoint with an e.com RisePoint.com and Schedule A call today.
- [01:22]
B
Welcome to the Unseminary Podcast, the place where church leaders get practical insights, tips and strategies for ministry growth. Today you're stepping into something bigger than just a conversation. This podcast is part of a bold mission to help 100 churches grow by 1,000 people. Whether you're dreaming of increasing your impact in your community, empowering your team, or reaching more people with the message of Jesus, you're in the right place. We're here to bring you the stuff you wish they taught in seminary, ideas and tools you can put into action this week to see transformation in your ministry. Let's dive in.
- [02:01]
A
Hey friends, welcome to the Unseminary Podcast. So glad that you have decided to tune in today and you're definitely going to be rewarded for that. Today we're talking with a church that I like to say has platinum problems. Like every church wants to be a fast growing church they want to be. Or you'll hear leaders talk about in a season where they're growing, where we're capturing a church and a leader in the midst of that right now. And really excited to talk to Brandon Boyd. He is at Key Church in Windermere, Florida. This is a fast growing church. It's one of the fastest growing churches in the country. He serves as the XP and really looking forward to unpacking this story a little bit. Tell us a little bit about Key and the history there. The story, what's going on? Tell us. Bring Us up to speed.
- [02:42]
C
Yeah, Rich, thanks for having me on the podcast today. Just such a joy to chat with you and tell all the incredible things that the Lord's doing at Key. So I've only been at Key for about, like, 15 months. And so previously I'm a native Texan, grew up in Dallas, served my home church in Dallas and another church in the Dallas, North Dallas area. And then the Lord transplanted us all the way out here to Orlando, Florida, Windermere, suburb of Orlando, which is on the north side of Disney World, which is pretty fun. And so I'm married and I've got three daughters. I live in a sorority, basically, which is really fun. And so when the Lord said, hey, I'm taking you to Windermere, it was pretty easy. Yes. For our family, for what the Lord had for us. And so, you know, Key is a little bit of a replant. And so our church was initially started in the early 2000s and went through, like, two or three church splits. And we shouldn't really have a church just because of those splits and what was occurring at that time period. And I would say our church got replanted in 2022 when Luke Lazon, who was our young adult pastor at the time, when he became the lead pastor at that time, there was basically like, 400 people that were calling our church home. We were known as Lifebridge Church at the time. And you fast forward to when I got here In May of 2024, we had grown to 1500 adults. And then this past weekend, we had 2,700 adults with us and then about 500 kids and students. And so it's just been a wild ride these last three years, and I've just been fortunate to be a part of it in the past, like, 15 months.
- [04:19]
A
Well, I. Yeah, I want to acknowledge that, you know, that kind of growth is. It's exciting and fun and have lived through similar seasons in the past, but there is also, with a lot of challenges and a lot of, like, real world problems. And so I appreciate that you've taken time to, you know, help us think through these issues today. And even just before the call started, we were talking about stuff literally from last weekend that was like, well, there's a new problem. We gotta figure that one out. So. Excited for this. Well, let's talk about when you stepped into the role. So you, you, you arrive. You know, the church is obviously growing, had experienced incredible growth in the couple years before you got here. Went from 400 to 1500. When did you realize that Maybe not just that it was growing, but maybe the qualitative, the kind of what kind of growth key was having was maybe a little bit different and was kind of going to inform the next couple years. Help us think through what was that like when you first arrived, unpack that, you know, those first weeks or months.
- [05:13]
C
So my first Sunday was Mother's Day in 2024. And on that day we had communion, we had baptism, we had a parent child moment. And I looked up to us and I said, we're just not communicating well, so we can't have all these elements in a worship gathering taking place at the same time. And so I started talking with our XP over worship and creative and I just said, help me understand your planning process through the week. And so I took that first week just to ask a lot of questions like how are we sitting together? How are we working together? What's not working? And then what we started to do was start to organize our meetings behind the scenes. So we really took that summer of 2024 and start putting some processes in place that would help us kind of scale up well. And part of that was we use a project management tool on the back end to make sure that everything is operating well. We use asana. And some of this is what I learned in Dallas with our team there. And I took that and brought it here and scaled it. And so everything runs through a project, through us on the back end. Worship is a project, all of our events are a project. And so everybody knows what is expected of them today, what is expected of them tomorrow, two weeks from now. And it's also our accountability tool. So back to that first Sunday when we realized that we had all these things going on. Luke still preached for 40 minutes, and then they looked at me and said, hey, we're just always over time on our gatherings. Well, everything's got to be spelled out. And so that was an initial thought that I said, this can't be the Wild west anymore because of the rapid growth that we had going on. Knowing that we've got natural growth cycles coming up, whether it's in the fall when school starts and in January. And that's kind of what we saw happen at Key in that first year in 2024.
- [06:50]
A
Yeah, that's. There's a lot there. I want to unpack and I want to get to meetings and pro and project management. I want to really dive into some of those details. But one of the things I've been, as I've kind of watched from afar, what's happened at key. You guys have done a good job balancing the past, even just how you talked about there, kind of balancing talking about the past, but then, you know, projecting forward and kind of casting vision for the future. How did the church's past really approach your. Or has that, you know, kind of impacted your leadership as you've approached leading here in the. Even in the current or as you think to the future? How are those two connected together?
- [07:31]
C
Yeah, I think just an axiom I live by is I always want to speak respectfully about the past, be honest about what's going on presently and optimistically about the future.
- [07:41]
A
That's good.
- [07:41]
C
And so we're super grateful for the people that went ahead of us that helped start this and plant this church way back in the early 2000s, and then had the foresight to kind of buy this piece of property in Windermere. We've got. Part of our property's not developed yet, and we had a developer show up the other day that offered $5 million for our grass kind of parking lot where we're going to expand our campus on. But I couldn't imagine unloading and reloading everything into an elementary school or a high school right now. So we're super grateful for the people that went ahead of us, not only the pastoral leadership elders, but also the people that called this church home, that hung on for the hope that something better was coming in the future. And so they've been on this wild ride up and of splits, attendance differences, whatever else. But knowing that, you know, there ought to be a church in this part of Windermere, that there should be a gospel presence, especially in a place that's so known for entertainment, like you can stand on our roof at nighttime and see the fireworks from Disney World. It's a wind. If the wind is blowing just right, you can hear the whistle from the train at the Magic Kingdom. I mean, that's how close we are. So for a spot in Orlando that's known for entertainment, why shouldn't there be a place that is a flag spot for the gospel? And so knowing that those people went before us, knowing that you've got people moving here on a daily and weekly basis, we appreciate that. But we also got to look forward to the future. And so we had this opportunity to kind of rebrand our church. So our church was named after our young adult ministry key. And a key is a literal thing. Like it's a place where ships unload and reload their cargo. And that's just a metaphor for the church that the Church is a place where people can unload the things that. That are burdensome and get refilled up with the message of Jesus and take that out into their places of influence, to their schools, to their work places. And so when we cast that vision early in 2025, the people that had been here, when all the ups and downs of the church really saw, like, this is the moment, and then they saw this surge of people that were coming in to hear the gospel message. We baptized this past year. 188 people.
- [09:40]
A
That's great.
- [09:40]
C
Adults, children, kids. I got to baptize my own daughter this past year, which is super exciting. But to see life change. So you go from this really small remnant that was left to see this surgeon explosion to see people, their lives being transformed for the gospel, I think is how they've just seen, all right, what's next? What's next, Lord, for us? And we've got this phrase here that stewardship is our responsibility, that we're just merely stewards of what the Lord has provided to us. And so we're just stewarding this moment, and we really want to set it up well for the people that follow me, that follow Pastor Luke, that follow any of us, that we want to leave it better than we found it.
- [10:15]
A
Yeah, that's so good. And I just want to honor you for how you guys even publicly are handling all that, because I think particularly with the growth that you've seen, it would be easy to be like, man, it's incredible what's happening now, but even kind of just forgetting what's gone in the past. So I honor you for what you're doing there. I think that's incredible. Well, let's get back to some of those rhythms. So one of the things you talked about was like, hey, we realized, oh, maybe these, you know, the meetings, we just. We didn't have the right. Maybe the right flow of information. So let's talk through. What did that look like? How did you. How did you pick that apart? Diagnose the problem maybe first, and then how did we make some shifts towards the kind of system you're currently running?
- [10:57]
C
So our organization was a flat organization. So when I got here, everybody was involved in every single decision. Everybody. Like, there was a weekly staff meeting where everybody was there and they were pitching ideas left and right about what we need to do on Sunday, what we need to do for our student ministry programming. And then we had a weekly meeting where we. Everybody was involved with all the event processes and everything else. And so I think another Obstacle that we were trying to work past was Luke went from, like I said, young adult pastor to lead pastor. So he went from a peer on the hall to the boss. And so I knew that we had to put some structures in place and we had to scale the organization and had to put some meeting structures around that. So we created an executive team meeting that meets on Mondays. We created a lead team that meets on Tuesdays. And we put people in those meetings that had influence or had certain gift sets or we took working genius. And so we've kind of started to strategize our meetings around working genius and putting people in meetings where they thrive. So if they're an innovator, if they're a wanderer, then we need to put them on the front side of work. If they're more of an implementer and they're more of somebody that can get the tasks done, they don't need to be in all these meetings. So what we've tried to do moving forward is really name what the meeting is before it's even called so people know what the expectation is. So what. What we've tried to do over the past year is really provide clarity and expectation. So when somebody comes to a meeting, they know what they need to prepare, but then they also know what their expectation is in the conversation.
- [12:28]
A
That's great. A couple things I want to unpack there. First for listeners, we had Patrick Lencioni on talking about working genius. If you should go back and listen to that episode, if you don't know working genius is Gene is a fantastic tool. Here's an example of a church is actually putting it into practice, not just like reading the book and putting it on the shelf. So can you pull apart the. When you say executive team and lead team, the kind of Monday and Tuesday, how do you. What's the like 30 second definition between those two and their roles and responsibilities between those two groups and who kind of comprises those.
- [12:59]
C
Those teams? So our exec. Well, it really starts with our elder team. So for a period of time, like our elders had to be really involved just because of the nature of what was going on in our chur. But they have since decided that they needed to fly at a higher level. So we'll just talk 50,000ft. So the elders are at the 50,000ft. They're really guarding the mission and vision of the church. And then you come down to the executive team which flies at 40,000ft. And they're really tasked at making sure that from an executive level, we've got all the problems that need to be solved, that we're looking at the vision forward, that we're not only looking at the current week, but we're looking six weeks out. We just wrapped up Christmas. We're already talking about Easter, and we're talking about Christmas already for 20, 26. And then you step down to the lead team. They're at 30,000ft. And what they're doing is making sure that our ministries are humming and running on a weekly basis and making sure that those budgets, ministry resources, calendars, everything are executing. So what we've done is executive team is obviously our lead pastor. We've got myself as executive pastor. We've got the other executive pastor over worship and creative Justin Melton. And then we added our spiritual formation pastor, Mike Brooks on that team. Our lead team is the executive team, plus our project manager, plus our young adult pastor, because young adults are so important and vibrant to our house. And that's kind of like the impetus for the rebirth of our church. And then we've got, like, people in charge of our crews, which is our small groups, and then kind of our volunteer teams in that. And so that's kind of those teams. And then out of that, you've got ministry teams that run on a weekly basis. And then our staff gathers for once a month where we pray together, we have some fun together, we eat lunch. And so let's kind of put some meeting structures that we put in place and the purpose of them. So we've kind of walked through 50, 40, 30, 20, 10, all the way down to zero. So everybody knows what the purpose of each of those meetings are?
- [14:53]
A
Yeah, that's good. And I'm assuming. So you go executive to lead, and then is there then like a weekly team meeting? So each of those people that are on the executive or on the lead team, they would then have their, you know, kind of trickle that down, that information throughout the organization. Is that what that looks like?
- [15:06]
C
Basically, yeah. Yeah, you're exactly right. So those ministry teams meet on a weekly basis. And so. Yep.
- [15:13]
A
Okay. One other thing you said that caught my attention, which is a small. It's like, since we're sticking with the. The key metaphor, the. The nautical metaphor, it's a small, like a rudder. It's not that big, but it's. It's a huge deal, actually. People knowing what we're talking about in the upcoming meeting and being prepared for those meetings is. Can be transformational in an organization. So talk me through. What does that look like? What's your expectation? And then when it's running perfect, what is the kind of goal that we're, we're trying to go towards on that? You know, on that front, obviously, that we don't, we don't bat a hundred. But I'm not even sure I'm mixing metaphors now. We don't bat a thousand. I think it is.
- [15:49]
C
Yeah.
- [15:50]
A
You know, what does that look like?
- [15:52]
C
Yeah, if you're batting 100, I think you're batting pretty bad. Yeah, exactly, exactly what we try to do. I mean, we're not afraid of tools and so we use several different tools. Already talked about Asana. We use Slack for internal communication. So we, we really try to strive that we've got to get our agendas out ahead of time and then understand if there is an action item in the agenda so that people can understand what's expected of them. We use another tool called Otter that helps make minutes and notes and then we disseminate those to the people so they know what's expected of them. Otter does a great job of recognizing voices and then it'll also tag people. Then we take that and dump it into Asana. So if we're having, we'll just use our student ministry. If we're having like our weekly Wednesday night student ministry programming for middle schoolers, they'll know what's expected, expected of them from what their, our middle school director is speaking on to what's expected from production to what's expected from our creative team to what's expected from our communications team on the website, social media, some of those other things. And so we use, we're not shy to use tools. And so we use those tools just to make sure that everybody understands what's expected before the meeting and after the meeting.
- [16:55]
A
Yeah, that's so good. I'm an Otter user as well. Use it in my coaching. And it's, it's, it's transformed my own personal interaction with the churches I work with. And then I've actually had a number of churches pick it up and start using it. I had an xp. This is before Christmas. Texted me after just one week. He was like, dude, this has changed our game. Because it's like having someone, it's like in every meeting having like an incredibly detailed assistant that's writing notes on everything that's going on. And they don't, they don't miss anything or miss very little, which is, you know, incredible. So now let's talk about so from there. So I get the idea you're using Asana. Get that Slack Otter tools are together. How do you ensure that things keep simple and streamlined rather than becoming con, you know, really complicated and you know, we're just bolting on stuff. How do you think about those issues as, as you're growing?
- [17:48]
C
So I've got a phrase that I learned at one of my churches in Texas and it's actually an acronym, it's for simple. So systems in many places leads to excellence. So we just try to keep things simple. Like we launch a fourth gathering here. We were at max capacity on Sunday mornings with all three of our gatherings from 8:15 and 11:45. So we're launching a fourth one here in a few weeks at Sunday night at 5pm and so we just take what's replicable from the Sunday morning experience and add it to the evening experience. But it's just the basic thing. So yes, we've got tools, yes, we've got sauna, yes, we've got Slack pay to call a stand up meeting and just to make sure everybody's understand what's going on and just have a conversation like my door, I've got an open door policy and if my door's open, just come on in and ask a question to make sure that you understand what's going on. I think it's just the basic thing. A lot of times we can hide behind email, we can hide behind Slack, we can hide behind text messages, but we've, we've just got to be more proactive than reactive and is, hey, if, if you don't understand something, then it's okay to come ask a question because I may miss something. Because we're at a different level. And so what we try to do is just make sure that we've got avenues for people to ask questions. Whether that's having quick stand up meetings before we run to a big initiative. We also run things where it's kind of an integration meeting. So if we're looking at Christmas, Easter, if we're looking at another objective where we're going to get everybody on the table and we're going to walk through a checklist just to make sure even the most small minute details are taken care of, that's good, is like we're a stickler for excellence. So we would say excellence is our standard. And part of that is just kind of where we are with Disney and Universal and theme parks all over everywhere that everybody goes to. Our church already has an excellence experience whenever they go to that. So why can't they have the same excellence level when they come to church on Sundays?
- [19:47]
A
So Yeah, that's good. A big issue in growing churches is, you know, the people side. So it's related to what we're talking about. But as you're scaling, you know, your team has to continue to grow as people, they have to, you know, step up their game as growth has accelerated. How are you accelerating whether people are operating at their best contribution? They're kind of really leaning in, you know, and they're kind of performing at their highest. How have you been able to keep an eye on that?
- [20:17]
C
Yeah, I think this is a growing thing for us. I've got a no freak out policy.
- [20:21]
A
Right.
- [20:21]
C
So we've just got to talk through it. We've only got about 20 full time equivalents behind the scene. So when you're at a church, that's 2,700 and then you add in kids, you're easily at 3,200 on a weekend basis. We have to run lean and mean knowing that we're trying to project out for when we need to hire additional staff members or we need to hire some part time. We're launching an internship program. And so what we're trying to do is making sure that our staff team feels taken care of, feels heard, feels supportive. And I think a lot of that is being accomplished by when we went from a flat organization, everybody knew who their boss was, but their boss didn't know maybe what specifically what their directions were. So as we created the executive team, as we created the lead team, as we've got those ministry teams, we've created avenues for people to be able to feel supported and cared for. And so what I've said to our team is, you're caring for the people just down the rung for us. Obviously Luke and I are caring for our entire team, but just making sure that we've got avenues for feedback, avenues for just encouragement, avenues for conversation. And then what we're trying to figure out, Nexus, how do we hold people accountable? So how do we. Yes, we've told people what's expected from them. We actually created like a staff covenant for 2026. Like here, here's our expectations just in case you're, you're, you're, you're curious about what's expected from you and in case you're caring. Well, I was hired under this pastor and this was what, what the agreement was, that's out the door. But as 2026 for Key Church, just so we're all into entirely clear, this is what we're, we're coveting not only from us as a team, but to the Lord. And so we've got that, we've got.
- [22:01]
A
What are some of the. Before we leave that. What, what are some of the things that landed in that you want to get into this? But you know, kind of categories of things that you're, you're re covenanting around,
- [22:10]
C
we kind of made a joke that it. Sometimes we just, our volunteers, which we call stewards, they kind of outwork us, right? And so like, hello. Like we, we want to be the first one in and the last one out. And so in the covenant, it just talks about, hey, we're going to be here for all the gatherings and we're going to set the table and make sure that our house is ready to go before people show up. We're going to covenant. If we're going to ask our church family to do something, whether it be in a group or tithe or whatever, those things that we asked on the platform, we're going to do it first. So one of the things that I just said to our staff team today is we need to give up parking in our staff parking lot and we need to park in the farthest spots away on our grass parking lot, so those spots are ready to go for people. And so it's just little things like that. Just making sure that we're super clear so that there's no shadow of a doubt. That as we go into 2026, and we kind of anticipated that we would have another growth wave based upon what we saw in 2024 and 2025, that in 2026 we just need to be clear what was expected from them as people stepped into it.
- [23:11]
A
That's cool. Well, when you know everything in a growth phase that you're in, it can get chaotic pretty quickly because everything feels urgent. It's like, you know, literally even just the situation we talked about before we jumped on the call, it's like, oh my goodness, you know, we had a bunch of new more people show up, that we're excited, they're with us, but now we got to figure out how to keep them plugged in and all that. How do you keep from the urgency turning into chaos? What are you doing to try to really push back in some ways and keep your team focused? And I like that. No freak out, no freak out policy. Like, hey, let's not freak out, we'll figure it out. But what's that functionally look like?
- [23:50]
C
I think part of it is it just goes back to our staff values. And so when we were looking, when I first came on board, on the church staff. Luke was like, hey, we got to rebrand the church now. And I said, that's a longer conversation that we need to roll out in a smart and healthy way and also gives us time to cast vision. But that first fall that I was here, in the fall of 2024, we rolled out staff values and we really go back to those staff values to help people understand they're not just phrases that we stick up on a wall, but it's who we are as a culture, as a people. And so one of our values is that we want to build a kingdom over Castle. So we're more interested in obviously the kingdom of the church, the kingdom of the Lord, and not your own necessary small little ministry thing at Key Church. So everybody is all in on the broader conversation of the church. Like I told our staff team this past week, as we look towards the launch of the fourth gathering in a few weeks, no matter what your role is, you're all jumping in and helping make sure that facilities is ready to go the next day. No matter what your role is, we're all going to be nimble and shift to it. Another phrase that we like to use is that we're nimble over fragile. And so we don't really hold on to things that, that, that we're, that we created. We're, we're open handed and open palmed. It goes back to what I said earlier about stewardship. We're just stewarding this whole thing. This isn't ours, this is the Lord's. That comes down from our lead pastor to our team. He models that so well. And so we really just kind of run with the staff values. Our other staff values are we take the risk. And so we're willing to take risk for the gospel, whatever that looks like, we're willing to push that forward. We want to be sled dogs over show dogs. And so we want to put in the good work and all pull together in the same direction. Slow is smooth and smooth is fast is another one of our staff values. We believe that yes, we can take time to make a decision, but once we make the decision, then we can run so much faster because we've got clarity. Kingdom over Castle already talked about nimble, nimble over fragile. And then a last one is we just want to burn the ships. And so this is the day that the Lord has for us. And so while we do look back in the past from time to time, the past is in the past and we've got today. We're not promised for Tomorrow, obviously. And so what can we do now with what the Lord is doing in our church to make sure that the message of Jesus is available to people not only in this part of Windermere, but also throughout the other Orlando regions?
- [26:15]
A
Yeah, that's so cool. When you think about key today, what tells you that the church is becoming healthier, not just bigger? I know there can be, like, criticisms of. And listen, that comes from a place of being on the other side of these questions. When I've led before, where there's, like, this criticism, they look at something like key, and they're like, oh, like, that's just whatever. It's a fad. It's going, you know? But that's not the case. What are some of those either metrics or stories or things that you see happening that say, like, oh, no, things are actually heading not just bigger, but also healthier.
- [26:48]
C
It's not like we have a growth strategy on my whiteboard over here, and we're like, hey, we got to hit this marker and this marker. But I think what's. What's. I'll just tell you a quick story. We're in a collection of. We call sermon series, collection of conversations. So we're in a conversation about song of songs right now. We call it Divine Desire, and we're walking through that, and the Lord has really blessed what we would call altar ministry. And so at the end of our gathering, especially during the last song, after the message has been communicated, people just come down to the front of the altar for prayer. And we've got pastors, we've got elders, we've got deacons. And some of those things that are being communicated in those moments. Like last fall, we had a gentleman come down and he said that he was cheating on his spouse and was repentant. And he's like, I gotta go get her now. We've got to share this right now in this moment. So I think we're seeing, like, real life transformation take place in the gatherings on, obviously through the movement of the Holy Spirit. But then the Spirit is directing people to make inroads right now in that moment. Like, don't leave this building today before you've had a conversation with the Lord and you've confessed your sin. So I think from that perspective, I've just been able to see that happen and to see people really take their faith seriously in that moment rather than just like, coming to a worship gathering, getting in their car and going home.
- [28:13]
A
Yeah, that's so good. I love that. That's great. Any you know, the talk to me a little bit more about the response time, the altar time. I would say this for sure is a. Trends may be the wrong word, but like we see more and more churches, you know, employing that, that tactic. What have you learned from just managing that as a normal part of your worship experience? What, what has been, has that been an ad in the last couple years?
- [28:37]
C
I think.
- [28:37]
A
Has it always been there?
- [28:39]
C
I, I think it's been an ad, but it hasn't been like a programmatic element that we've said, hey, we gotta have altar ministry. I think it's just been a movement of the Lord. So last spring we had, we had this moment where it was our last gathering of the morning was at 11:45 and then we had this altar ministry where people just stayed and prayed after the end. And I don't even remember what Luke spoke on that started at 1 o' clock basically and didn't wrap up till 6pm that night.
- [29:10]
A
Wow.
- [29:10]
C
So we're not manufacturing any of this. I think it's just the Lord and I think it's just being sensitive to what the Lord is doing. And I think it's the courage of not only Luke, our pastor, but other people that fill the pulpit when Luke isn't there that says, hey, don't leave this room. Our worship pastor Justin Melton does a great job of this at the end of each gathering. Don't leave this room before you've talked to somebody if the Lord has promised. So I think from a programmatic standpoint, we just want to be open handed and just provide opportunities for people either to come forward or go to a next step space to have a conversation. And so that's, it's just been really remarkable to watch. Like at first I was kind of like, what in the world is going on? These people are just getting out of their seats and coming down front. But that altar ministry is not only prevalent in our Sunday morning worship gatherings, it's prevalent in our student gatherings, whether that's Wednesday night for middle school or Sunday nights for high school and Thursday nights for our young adults. So it's just something that the Lord is kind of stirring in and through our church.
- [30:11]
A
Yeah, I was visiting maybe 18 months ago, I was visiting a church. It was the year before, it was the second fast growing church in the country and showed up and there was nothing about the kind of my pre experience with this church that would have led me to believe that like oh, altar time was going to be a part of this, their experience and very similarly at the end of the service, it was very like, nonchalant is the wrong word. But it wasn't. It was not a programmatic. We are, you know, people know what we're talking about. Like, we're not. We're not trying to. We're not doing anything to get people to respond. And I would say, I don't know, two thirds of the room got up and came down, or, you know, half the room. It was like a huge portion of the room got up and came down. And I remember talking to the lead guy the next day, and he's a good friend of mine, and I was like. Like trying to pick it apart and understand it from a process point of view. And he was like, rich man. The fact that we don't totally understand it is a part of what we think that God's using. Right. Which is beautiful. So that's. That's great to hear. That's cool. Are you doing anything with your elders or staff team to train towards that? Because you want to make sure that, you know, the people that are receiving some of that, you know, are kind of thought about it ahead of time before they got down there. Is anything you're doing on that front? Yeah, we.
- [31:23]
C
We've had training conversations and just how to be receptive to what people are sharing and knowing that we've done that with our elders, with our deacons and our staff team and pastors and. But some of that is. Obviously, there's. There's going to be greater needs that extend past a Sunday. Right. So what is the immediate conversation that we need to have? But then if it's a counseling issue, how can we refer them to a counseling partner? Are there things that we can handle internally? Part of it is like, we've just had this rapid growth in our church where it's like, you would assume if you come to our church that we would have this ministry. This handoff. This handoff. So another thing that we've had to do this past year is kind of build those handoffs as we've experienced some of these altar ministry things.
- [32:05]
A
Sure.
- [32:06]
C
Yeah.
- [32:06]
A
That's cool. Well, it's been a fantastic conversation. What kind of final words would you have or encouragement would you have to a leader who's maybe experiencing. Obviously what you're experiencing. Experiencing is super unique across the country, but is maybe experiencing a season of growth that there's. Hey, there's. We're experiencing more momentum. We're seeing this across the country in a number of churches. But what would you. What would your kind of final words be to them as we wrap up today's conversation.
- [32:28]
C
I think for me just the final thing that I'd like to say, Rich, is it's easy to feel overwhelmed. I've felt overwhelmed in this season and it's okay to acknowledge that. And so just to have that space with my lead pastor where I can go into him and just say, look, I'm overwhelmed, I'm going to be okay. But I just want you to know that I am overwhelmed. And then being able to be transparent with our elder board about that, I think that's just a feeling of as if you're in a fast growing church like this situation or other situations where it's okay just to acknowledge we're humans. You don't have to act like a superhuman that everything is okay. But just to say, hey, I'm overwhelmed and it's a season. And then being able to express that not only to your lead pastor, to your elders, but I've got got friends outside of Orlando that are in pastoral ministry that understand what that feels like. So just creating that network of being able to say that because I, I what my fear is that people can just get overwhelmed and can get burned out and can say like I hate the church, I don't want to be a pastor anymore. And I believe that the when the Lord calls you, he's also going to equip you. And so at the same time you just need to be able to voice that and just say like I am overwhelmed. We are going to make it through it. But here's some things that I need help on.
- [33:44]
A
That's so good, Brandon. I really appreciate you being on today and taking time out of your schedule packed schedule I'm sure to help us today. So I really appreciate that if people want to connect with key connect with you, kind of track with the story. Where do we want to send them online?
- [33:58]
C
Yeah. So you can go to our social media. That's at Quaychurch Q U A Y Church. Also keychurch.org and then I'm on Instagram at B.
- [34:10]
A
Nice. That's great. Thanks so much for being here today.
- [34:12]
C
My pleasure.
- [34:13]
B
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of the Unseminary Podcast. If you found today's conversation helpful, I'd share it with a friend in ministry. It's a simple way to spark new ideas and grow together. Also, don't Forget to visit unseminary.com to sign up for our email list. You'll get exclusive resources and practical tools delivered straight to your your inbox to help you lead your church more effectively. Most importantly, take what you learned today and put it into action this week. Ministry Impact starts with small, intentional steps. See you next time.