Thoughts from Dennis Green

From Here to There

By Dennis Green, Executive Pastor

(written on 9/26/10)

A couple of hundred PCC’ers gathered together tonight at out Powhatan campus. We had a great time of worship, information and inspiration. (If music at PCC is your main thing, you will want to come to these quarterly meetings!) Brian laid out for us what the next six months will look like and invited Lindsay Harris to the stage to take us through our Thematic Goal. (More on Lindsay and our Thematic Goal below).

In his presentation, Brian talked at length about getting “from here to there”. Maybe that language is familiar to you. We just finished a series by the same name. The premise is simple, but, at the same time, powerful. As an organization- WE ARE HERE and we believe God wants us to GO THERE! Brian asked a compelling question. Why not stay “here”? After all, “here” is good. “Here” is helping some folks. We like “here”.

Circa, Spring 2006. PCC is “here”. Growing like crazy, baptizing people, great music, lots of energy and excitement – Why do we need to leave “here” and go “there”? Yet, that is exactly what Brian was feeling. The need to move PCC “from here to there” became paramount. PCC could provide a powerful and meaningful Sunday morning experience, but there needed to be more.

Enter Sammy Frame. A smart, good-looking (in an Eastern European kind of way) guy PCC hired to bring an effective and vibrant Small Group ministry to PCC. The metamorphosis has been remarkable. PCC went from a church WITH small groups to a church OF small groups. Small Groups permeate every part of who we are at PCC and who we hope to be.

About eighteen months ago, Lenny Harris began attending a small group. Lenny was struggling in his personal life and in his marriage. He found a safe place with this small group. His small group embraced him, loved him, allowed him to share and ask questions at his own pace. He began to heal. He began to allow God to transform him. Soon, Lenny was not the same person he had been just a few months earlier.

His wife Lindsay noticed.

She came to check out this small group too. Transformed, too, you ask? PCC baptized Lindsay this past June.

Why was Lindsay on stage and what is a thematic goal anyway? Thanks for asking. Thematic goal is a term used in some business circles and describes an overarching corporate theme or goal that is used to help organizations focus and be unified in their efforts. Our staff recently spent some time working together to identify our thematic goal for the next six months. (For more on specifics of what our thematic goal is, click here)

Lindsay was on stage walking us through the details of what we are doing and how we are getting it done because Lindsay is on our staff now. You already know she has been leading Worship at Westchester since our opening Sunday. She still does that. She works closely with Beth Brawley Stoddard each week to develop and deliver excellent worship experiences at both campuses. But she does so much more. Our staff asked her to use her education (MBA) and business experience (Project Manager) to lead us through this thematic goal experience, and she readily agreed. She often says that she will do and serve in anyway she can. Oh yeah, did I mention that Lindsay is UNPAID staff. Working for PCC full-time since March – unpaid. Did I mention that her life was transformed?

Finally…made it to my point. Thanks for hanging in there with me. Lenny works hard every week, sacrificing, so his wife can work persona non grata ( free of charge) at PCC. Brian said tonight that Lindsay was a “gift from heaven”. They both are. It’s a team effort. They are both such a huge blessing, and, they received huge blessings because of…a small group…because of…the work of Sammy Frame and his Small Group Leadership Team…because of…PCC’s willingness to leave the comfort of “here”, and go to “there”.

If experience is any indicator, this journey “from here to there” will be exhilarating and exhausting; maddening and motivating; incredible and indelible. The “Lennys” and “Lindsays” we don’t know yet are counting on us, and they don’t even know it.

Join us, won’t you? It will be worth it!