PastorJohnAtkinson.com » Leadership

BAF San Marcos

johncatkinson — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:22:28 +0000

If you follow my blog you probably know that we are trying to start 6 campuses in 6 months. That process has begun, but we also had some unfinished business at one of our existing campuses. For the last three days myself, Pastor Dave, Pastor Joey, Pastor Randy, and some awesome volunteers from San Marcos have been burning the midnight oil installing all new media at the UPACC, which is a building on the Campus of Texas State where BAF San Marcos meets. It was three long grueling days, but well worth it, and I’m really happy with how it turned out.

This was by far the most difficult install the multi site team has ever done. We’re trying to be good stewards, so up to this point, we have tried to find buildings for our campuses that will hold about 150 in worship, and have room for supporting children’s ministries. These buildings have all been around 6000 sq ft with 15 ft or so ceiling heights. This has worked well for us and we’ve been able to continue to grow these campuses with multiple services while not killing the budgets. The UPACC however, has seating for 350, 35 foot ceilings, and a sloped floor with fixed theater seating. This made for an interesting few days because of course everything we were doing was being done over the top of fixed theatre seating and 35 feet in the air. We had a lift designed to work over seats, and it worked well, but it took forever because it had to be rolled back into the aisle every time we moved it, and good grief did we ever move it a lot. Of course the stage created the same problems for screens and lighting so the team really worked their tails off on this one. It’s important to know that all this work was being done by a MS Director, 2 Campus Pastors, a Worship Pastor, and a handful of volunteers! Pretty crazy mix for sure

Really proud of everyone on the team because they really did some amazing work on this one. This weekend at BAF San Marcos, video, lights and sound will be at, as our friend Pastor Ed Young Jr says, “a whole nutha level.” I’m really excited for the team at BAF San Marcos and me and Pastor Joey will be heading back up there Sunday to make sure everything is working as we planned it. By the way, who in the heck is the idiot who came up with the idea to start a campus three hours away? Oh yea never mind, I think that idiot is me:)

John

Wednesday Mindless Dump

johncatkinson — Wed, 13 May 2009 17:55:26 +0000

Starting campuses sadly puts my blog on the back burner sometimes, but as much as I love the blog, Multi Site is what keeps me awake at night, not my blog. So thanks for hanging in with me. So whats on my mind right now?

1. Really excited about what’s going in the Multi Site ministry.

2. We’re currently working on our temporary facility to get the Alice Campus ready to start meeting on Sunday’s.

3. We’ve gathered about 70-80 people who are interested in being a part of a BAF Alice Campus.

4. So proud of the Multi Site ministry for how we’ve saved so much money for future campuses! Every campus tithes weekly into our Multi Site account for just that purpose.

5. Padre Island is doing fantastic, and we’ve been able to solve our main problem of ceiling height with dual side screens. So much better now!

6. Pastor Dave Cotham is doing an amazing job out there. The PI campus is so about helping start other campuses. So thankful for all that is happening out there.

7. Never cease to be amazed at the job Pastor Rudy Garcia is doing at our Kingsville Campus. Pastor Rudy is 22 folks! What an amazing young leader!

8. Pastor Jason Curlee is tearing it up at our 5 Points Campus! I am blown away by what him and his team have been able to do with what was an old worn out metal building. They have transformed that place into a beautiful house of God.

9. Worship at the Multi Site Campuses is unfreakingbelievable. Is that actually a word? If not it should be. The quality of worship has exploded under the leadership of our Multi Site Worship Director Joey Davila. No way this happens without Joey joining our team.

10. Somehow we keep this machine rolling, and that’s in large part because of our MS Ministry Assistant Kyrah Hopkins. Not sure how she does it, but somehow she keeps all of us boneheads in order. We couldn’t do this without her!

11. We should have Alice meeting regularly in less than a month which will take us to 5 Campuses total, 4 being Multi Sites. A year ago we had one MS Campus. Wow, I’m leading this and that still blows me away. Amazing what God can do through a bunch of people crazy enough to believe He can do anything!

12. We have never waited until we had all the money we needed in place before starting a new campus. If we would have waited until all the money was place before moving forward on these, we would be one campus instead of five. Every one of these campuses has been built on the faith that God will provide if we’ll just start moving! That is one of the things about Pastor Bil that I love the most, he lives by faith!

13. Really excited to have Jim Tumberlin with Third Quarter Consulting coming down to hang with us for a few days in June. Jim is one of the smartest Multi Site guys in the country, and he’s coming to hang with us! I am so excited to have him join our Multi Site Staff meeting that week. We are going to learn a ton from him and I can’t wait!

14. Pumped about taking my team to the Innovation Exchange in San Antonio in June. I love hanging with this amazing team, because they are more than my employees, they’re my friends. Were going to have a blast.

15. Very pumped about and upcoming event at BAF. A group is using our church to film the third or fourth version of Thou Shalt Laugh which will be recorded and sold all over the world. We’re just hosting the event so our people get a free night of some amazing comedians. John Tesh will be hosting.

16. Also really stoked about Michael Franzese coming to BAF for a weekend in June. He is a former Captain in a Mafia Crime Family who found Jesus. His story will blow you away. He will be preaching at all the services one weekend. I’ll pick up John Tesh from the airport one week, then the next week I’ll pick up Michael Franzese. Talk about worlds colliding, WOW! lol Going to be cool meeting them both!

17. Really proud of my twin 17 year old sons. Cory is heading to Austin at the end of the month to compete in State in classical guitar, and he also serves on leadership staff in the Element Student Ministry in their Worship Dept! Cody is an honors student at Carroll High School with a 98 average taking all AP Classes. Most of all I’m proud because they’re both sold out to Jesus! I’m getting chills just writing that!

18. Then theres the my little guy Caleb, I will be 50 in June and he is 4, don’t tell me God doesn’t have a sense of humor.lol He is a mini tornado blowing his way through our lives at Mach 10. Cant imagine my life without him!

19. How cool is it that my wife is also my best friend! I love April with all my heart and she is truly a blessing to our family.

20. BAF is going live on national television in a few weeks. Very exciting because we’ve been working on this for probably a year. Our first show will air on The Church Channel which for now is only on Direct TV, but we should be following that up a few months later with some spots on Daystar.

21. I’m truly thankful for leaders in my life like Geoff Surratt and Jim Tumberlin. To have leaders who I can talk to who have accomplished what these guys have in Multi Site, is a huge blessing from God! I need all the help I can get! lol

22. I’m so thankful for all the ministry friends I have made through Twitter. There are so many leaders tearing it up for God all over this country I would never have known had it not been for the relationships we’ve built on Twitter. If you’re a pastor, I challenge you to join Twitter! Yes it will take some of that time you don’t think you have, but the relationships you’ll build with other leaders around the country, will be worth that time.

OK enough rambling! This is what is going on in my pea brain today, hope something in it interests you!

John

The Power of a Team

johncatkinson — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:18:47 +0000

One of the things I’ve been reminded about as I have taken on the leadership role over the Multi Site Ministry, is the power of a “Team.” Nowhere in the Bible does God tell us to go it alone. Sure God sent a few people out into the desert alone, but He didn’t leave them there. I don’t know how, or if it’s even possible, to grow a church without an amazing team.

Taking on the Multi Site Ministry at BAF has been a huge, yet awesome journey. Starting two new Campuses last year stretched my leadership, my skill set, my time, and my family. But in spite of all the obstacles we faced, and there were plenty, we have two new churches that both have around 250 people who regularly attend and call these campuses their church home. Since July of 08 almost 200 people have entered into a relationship with Jesus Christ at these two campuses. I am blown away by what God has done at these two new campuses, but one thing I know for sure, none of this would have happened without the amazing Multi Site team.

At our 5 Points Campus, God blessed us with an amazing campus pastor named Jason Curlee who came to us with tons of experience. There is no way I could have pulled off the huge construction project we undertook, completely with volunteers, without Jason by my side. Then on top of having an amazing campus pastor, God blessed us with some amazing families that stepped up and sacrificed in a huge way to get BAF 5 Points up and running. Night after night for four months the place was full of men, women, students, and children, all working like crazy to build their church. This project doesn’t happen without this amazing team.

I doubt if we would have even got started out on Padre Island if Pastor Dave, our Hometeams Pastor, hadn’t stepped up to take the lead so I could focus on the 5 Points build out. Pastor Dave leads a Hometeam ministry with a couple of hundred small groups in it, yet he took this on because he’s a team player. Padre Island is doing great because Dave surrounded himself with an amazing team. There is an awesome group of people out there who selflessly left the main church campus that they loved so much, because they want to reach their own community for Jesus Christ. Most of these people have been attending the Corpus Campus for many years so this wasn’t a small sacrifice.

One of the key factors in these two campuses being up and running, is the willingness of Pastor Rudy and the Kingsville team to allow themselves to be put on the back burner for most of the year so we could focus on the two new sites. Kingsville has been up and running for a couple of years, so for most of the year Pastor Rudy and his team have pretty much been on their own. They did it with a smile, and they did it well, because they’re part of a team.

As a member of the Management Staff here at BAF, I have watched each one of the Management Staff Pastors step up and support this project with their unique expertise in their own areas. They’ve done so, because were a team.

Then comes the people of BAF. They have stepped up to support the Multi Site Ministry by showing up to work, bringing food for those working, praying for us like crazy, and helping us pay for them.

And last but certainly not least is Pastor Bil, who has supported this with every ounce of his heart. He didn’t just speak the vision from the stage, he has stepped up to make sure it happens, and to make sure we had everything we needed to be successful.

I knew I couldn’t do this alone so I surrounded myself with a great team. If you want to change the world for Jesus Christ, surround yourself with a great team, and you’ll be blown away by what God can do through them.

John