My Weekend and Thoughts About Visiting Passion City Church

So I got an inside look into the amazing stuff going on at Passion City Church in Buckhead (ATL), Georgia. I learned so many great things about how they communicate, lead, set vision, and much more that I wanted to share my thoughts from visiting.  Plus a bunch or pictures below.

HERE ARE THE MAIN THINGS I LEARNED FROM THEIR LEADERSHIP TEAM ABOUT HOW THEY LEAD, GUIDE AND DIRECT THE PEOPLE OF PASSION CITY CHURCH!

• The lead story (the headline) at Passion City Church is always the same and that is that "Jesus Is Alive." No matter what happens on a Sunday nothing trumps this!  At most of our churches the focus can be on that the chairs weren't set up correctly or that something didn't get put back the way it should have.  Those things can and should be addressed, but they are so far down the line in importance.  The fact that Jesus Is Alive is the main thing!
• As a leader our main job is to consistently cast vision every second in every conversation.  Everything they say and do has a purpose.
• They emphasize the importance of Language and Communication one million times, which I completely agree with. For instance they never use the term "Take up an offering." Because they do not want anyone to feel like they are taking something from them.  They always say, "we are going to give our offering." They do not call their building a church.  They call it 515 because that is their address. They do not call their time of worship a service.  They call it a gathering because no one wants to attend a service it sounds like a funeral.  But people do want to gather together.
• The culture is what we create.  It is how we communicate.  Everything we say communicates what is important.
• Another thing I love is that at Passion City they do not have volunteers or any kind.  Not greeters, not children's ministry workers, not ushers, not production team.  They have DOOR HOLDERS. 
• 1 Chronicles 15 talks about when David was bringing the Ark of the Covenant back into the house of God.  We usually notice the singers, the musicians and the priest and we easily skip over the doorkeepers.  But the amazing things about the doorkeepers is that they play a HUGE roll.  They are not just people who open the doors and volunteer or assist the REAL Ministers!  We are door holders to the world. We are the face of Jesus to the world. A door holder is someone who has been on the inside and chooses to stand outside. They know how great it is in there, and they are volunteering to come out so that others can come in. They stand where the blaring sounds of the outside world intermingle with the melodious sounds of eternal life inside. A door holder signals that something good great is on the inside. If there weren't, why would they be needed? Door holders will fight you to hold that door. It is a privilege. They are worship leaders. They can't contain their joy and others want to follow their lead. They love people before they come inside. Door holders take the door to the people and meet them where they're at. They can put themselves in the world and not become the world. They serve all in order to win some. Their faces shine undeniably. Their only reward is the look on people's faces when they come out.
• I love how this speaks value and importance to volunteers.  It is so much more!!!
• Volunteers are about singing up and showing up... That is weak... But a door holder has a huge and very important roll to play. Door holders open the door and may the way easy for those outside to meet Jesus.
• The other thing that they preach to their door holders, staff and people is to come prepared.
• The headline of Passion City Church is Jesus Is Alive.  And the bylines are that the Holy Spirit is here and that people's lives are being wrecked for His glory.  Those are the main stories every week!
• One of the ways that they keep that in the forefront of what they do is they always tell "Jesus stories".  It keeps the main thing the main thing.  It also encourages our faith when we hear about what God is doing in the lives of those around us.
• Everyone has to SPEAK THE SAME LANGUAGE! If one person is not on the same page it throws the whole thing off.
• To create a culture you have to be super intentional. Constantly.  You create the culture or everyone else will create it for you.
• I talk more about this below but they reserve the first few rows in the auditorium for door holders and the Passion City Choir. Because they believe if you get the wrong people in the front few rows the whole thing can go wrong.
• You have to have the right people in the right places.
• They do not have bulletins or announcements.  THE USE TWITTER.
• You yourself as a leader cannot set a culture that you yourself do not live yourself.
• You have to model and ask people to speak into your worship sets and worship experiences.
• The most excellent people are always the most prepared.
• Everyone who is leading (the host, the worship team, the production, the person giving the message, the door holders, EVERYONE) has to come prepared ready to give 110%.
• If you want your teams to bleed the way you do you as the leader are going to have to hemorrhage.
• They feel who ever is hosting has to be excellent because they want people to feel welcomed.

 One of the things they mentioned more than once about their language is that they do not call their building "the church".  Even in their invites to people they have people come to the 515.  I love that they took an old run down Home Depot and made it into the 515.

The Auditorium was top of the line.  They had so much stuff going on but it was not a distraction.  It added so much to my time there.  Of course they had amazing music and it sounded great.  You walked in to a room full of lovely haze and music booming!  One thing I noticed was it was VERY LOUD.  I loved it!  It was probably 130 dB... easy!  It vibrated my heart out of my chest. Probably one of the coolest thing was the Passion City Choir that was composed of about 25 people on risers in the middle of the stage.  Ji Lee is the Passion City Choir director and she does a fabulous job with this team!  It wasn't so much the volume or sound that they added but it was an amazing presence!  Their stage presence was so amazing and encouraging! Another aspect is when they don't sing on the stage they stand in the very front on the floor by the stage and worship just as hard as they did on the stage. They do this and are directed to do this on purpose as encouragement to the band and worship team as well as the lead the people in the audience to feel freedom in worship.  Such an amazing idea!!!

The lobby (aka The Oval as they call it) is wide open.  There is so much space for people to be and hang out.  There isn't much seating which isn't necessarily a bad thing. The floors are the original Home Depot floors. And everything is very clean and stripped down, like an Apple store feel.  One the picture on the right is how they promote different things (series, CD's, missions, etc.) They are amazing cling on stickers with huge sticker frames around them and the look really awesome!

The signage is very simple and HUGE!  They really want people to know where they are going.  They have a simple marque out front as you see here and a huge full size billboard that they use to promote different things.  The signage is so simple and so large!  I love it!

In the Oval they had this amazing cling on sticker that covered most of the hallway on one side for worship leader who attended lift to right down thoughts and praises. It was great and they had "Door Holders" there to assist you in any way.  Of course all the colors throughout the church stay consistent which I love.  They used of course ORANGE sharpies! 

The resource center is really great.  Very simple and clean look applies here as well.  The resources are right in the middle of the Oval.  Very Apple store'esk.

The Passion City Kids rooms are very simple and Green's age group instead of meeting in class rooms they meeting in one huge room and they meet in tents! For visitors you can go to the "Door Holders" at the desk and they can get your kiddos all checked in.  For regular attenders you can walk up to one of these mobile wooded boxes that have framed iPads and a slot for the sticker to come out.  The check in station it a very easy and great idea to make it mobile and just very simple.