7 Questions - NE Atlanta

7 Questions - NE Atlanta

NE Atlanta – Chip and Bryan

Unite was birthed out of a pastor’s meeting in 2003. Two churches came together and they threw out the idea of trying to be externally focused. Deep racial tension and isolation had kept these two large churches apart.

They decided to work together to bless the community. They emulated Sharefest in Little Rock.

In the next few months more churches got on board. October 2003 was Compassion in Action Weekend. 30 churches blitzed the community with serving. The next week they had a celebration. 4500 people were involved in both.

Atlanta was too big so they focused on NE Atlanta. About 1 million people in their scope.

A leadership team developed. They are not an organization but just a group of partnering churches. They began to pray and serve and celebrate together on an ongoing basis.

Now there are up to 70 churches that see themselves as part of Unite.

Bryan and Chip are a picture of what Unite is all about. Two brothers who fell in love with each other (families and all) over only one and a half years.

Relationships are the key to the partnerships.

The community watches the church. They look to see if there is life and change in the church. The church has worked to cross racial and cultural lines to serve. The community sees this.

What is right?

The local church focus drives the movement.

What is wrong?

q
The scope of Atlanta is so big that it overwhelms their leadership
and resources.

q
There is a break in the relationship between the
senior pastors of the two large church’s that help
found the movement.

q
Spent too much money on the celebration events.

What is confused?

Churches are not recognizing the movement of God’s spirit to
bless the city.

What is missing?

q
Not enough business involvement.

q
http://www.uniteus.org/
is not facilitating information about what is happening in the community.

Where are we failing?

Too many people see Unite as an event instead of an ongoing movement.

Eric: Efforts that are based on events but not relationships tend to break down and leave things worse than when they started.

Dan: This is because we have an enemy that opposes us. It is spiritual battle. What keeps the movement from breaking down, what keeps us in the battle is the love we have for those who are standing with us.