SUMMIT Magazine | Issue 31 | Transform/ed

Transform/ed

Issue 31 / Spring 2020

LETTER FROM JOHN

THE PARKERS Sinkenesh, Abush, Brandy, Aschalew, John, Mulunesh, Samuel, Archike

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love the folks who make up the 33rd Street Campus, the volunteer team who serves there, and that I get to be a part of a church that doesn’t consider itself complete until people in all circumstances are invited to be part of the family. I have experienced most of the classic distractions during services in the jail. It is an environment not always conducive to a message of grace. However, for their part, the men and women who participate in services generally add value when they interrupt the planned service. While the occasional commentary is offered on Zach’s new haircut or other peripherals, I have found that the questions and perspectives of the inmates are often profound.

One Sunday last October, though we were running behind, we had a number of guests (Summit 33rd Street beats all other campuses for percent of first-timers every week. Sometimes it nears 100 percent!) and were committed to doing our best with the remaining time. As the team lead at that time, I began to talk about our sermon series “Kingdom Parables.” However, one of our regulars raised his hand and offered the perfect disruption— “Can you tell me what the kingdom of God actually is? It seems like it might be heaven, but I have also heard that it is us, and others say it is also out there in the world.”

My friend, in attempting an answer to his own question, had succinctly captured both the simplicity and mystery of the kingdom of God. When I was young, much of what I was taught about the kingdom of God had to do with heaven. Heaven is where all the brokenness of this world is finally and permanently healed, where sin and all its consequences are expelled for eternity, and

PHOTO BY WHITNEY KEILMAN

where the perfection of original creation is recaptured in a new heaven and new earth—where God reigns eternal and we, his subjects, live in direct and untarnished communion with our Creator.

As I grew older and began to know Jesus better, I became quietly stuck on how Jesus talked about the kingdom of God. It seemed that Jesus talked about the kingdom of God as both future and present.

It wasn’t only a future promise, but it was an imminent reality. Thinking of the kingdom as both here and now was new to me but commonplace in Jesus’ teaching. “‘The time has come,’ he said. ‘The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!’” —Mark 1:15 Understanding the present and imminent nature of God’s kingdom begins to reframe what it means to live as citizens of his kingdom. In the “here and now” reality of the kingdom, we are not merely exiled citizens awaiting rescue. Rather, our citizenship means we are both transformed and are agents of transformation. We are already rescued and are also rescuers. The kingdom of God is in us and through us.

One simple question and attempt at an answer in a classroom in the 33rd Street Jail began to unfold the mystery of the kingdom before a group of men truly

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awaiting rescue. This mystery is the promise of a future free of brokenness where we can be in full and untainted relationship with our Creator. Through Christ, that promised future has already broken into our world and is beginning the work of healing and transformation that is promised completion in the new heaven and new earth. As citizens of this kingdom that is both now and not yet, we find that, for now, it lives in us rather than we in it. Because the kingdom is represented in the present through its citizens, as we are transformed by the power of Christ, we in turn transform the world. We live out our citizenship and the world gets better—it gets closer to that promised future.

In this issue of Summit Magazine, you will see a bit of the transforming effect of the kingdom on display in its citizens who call Summit home. There is great mystery in seeking God’s kingdom, but as we find it, we find hope. My hope is that as you read these stories, you will be encouraged, be challenged, and know you are invited to be a part of the good news that is being realized in our kingdom stories.

John Parker | Lead Pastor

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Contents

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Cover Design: Greg Perkins

What We Value

Summit in New Spaces God called the Foley family to step out and do something new.

All of Us

CONNECT

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The Power of Yes The Bells founded Commission 127, an organization that equips churches to support foster families.

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Loving Globally

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You Were Made for This

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The Road to Change reGROUP was the catalyst for change in Susanna and Nicole’s lives.

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Feels Like Home

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Fresh and Honest Eyes

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r eT H I N K

F A M I LY

ETC.

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Community Over Capacity

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Reflecting Love

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her.BIBLE

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Now You See It Healthy perspective shifts always end with grace.

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More Than a Moment

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This is Worship

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All the World’s a Stage Ryan led actors in a character development workshop he designed.

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Together in Prayer

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Artist Feature Nick Sarasty brings a unique sound to all the music he creates.

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12 Questions

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Thoughts Become

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The Blessings of Stillness

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Our vision is to form biblically functioning communities that reach lost people, connect in Christ-centered relationships, teach truth, serve others, and worship God. WHO WE ARE Summit Church is one church in multiple locations, living out our vision so that people can know they matter to God. Whether you find yourself unsure about who Jesus is and why that matters, ready to jump right into community life, or somewhere in between, you are welcome here.

Locations Summit Herndon 735 Herndon Avenue, Orlando, FL 32803 Service Times: Thursdays, 7 p.m., Sundays, 9 a.m.* & 11 a.m. (*ASL interpreters available)

Summit Lake Mary 100 Technology Park, Suite 110, Lake Mary, FL 32746 Service Times: Sundays, 9 a.m. & 11 a.m.

Summit Waterford 11602 Lake Underhill Road, Suite 110, Orlando, FL 32825 Service Times: Sundays, 9 a.m. & 11 a.m.

Summit at 33rd Street Jail Men's & Women's Services: Sunday Afternoons

Connect With Us Find us on the web: summitconnect.org

Summit Church

@summitchurch

@summitchurch

summitconnect.org/blog

Contact Us Office Hours (Herndon Campus Location): Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

Phone: (407) 897-8130 Email: summit@summitconnect.org

Church Staff

LEADERSHIP TEAM Our senior staff members are responsible for leading the church and its ministries according to Scripture.

Lead Pastor John Parker // jparker@summitconnect.org Worship Pastor Andy Simonds // asimonds@summitconnect.org Organizational Development Pastor Jeff Kern // jkern@summitconnect.org Herndon Campus Pastor Zach Van Dyke // zvandyke@summitconnect.org Herndon Executive Director Tracy Beeson // tbeeson@summitconnect.org Lake Mary Campus Pastor O.J. Aldrich // ojaldrich@summitconnect.org Waterford Campus Pastor Garry Abbott // gabbott@summitconnect.org Teaching Minister Jim Keller // jkeller@summitconnect.org

Magazine Staff

Editorial Director Lauren Margheim Art Director L J Judy Production Manager Virginia Schultz Associate Editor Kari Freeman Associate Designer Kaelyn Christensen

DIRECTORS These folks oversee the departments and staff at Summit, helping to make sure everyone who comes through our doors feels welcomed, informed, and equipped to step into community here.

Communications Director Virginia Schultz // vschultz@summitconnect.org Herndon Children’s Ministry Director Doris Herrero // dherrero@summitconnect.org Herndon Connection and Mobilization Director Dan Sherfield // dsherfield@summitconnect.org Lake Mary Children’s Ministry Director Brooke Shoopman // bshoopman@summitconnect.org reGROUP Director Kailey Newkirk // knewkirk@summitconnect.org Technical Director Joel LeGros // jlegros@summitconnect.org For a full staff list, please visit summitconnect.org/staff.

Contributing Writers: Amanda Adair, Nathan Boyett, Chad Buel, Laura Cook, Laura Freeland, Kari Freeman, Kaleb Harrell, Adam Harris, Amy Kaufholz, Sarah Land, Lauren Margheim, Sarah McDonald, Brandy Parker, John Parker, Reagan Perkins, Andy Simonds, Zach Van Dyke, Lexi Winship

Contributing Editors: Brian Corder, Francis Diaz Kennedy, Chelsea Fretwell, Jessica Meyer, Ann Miller, MaryEllen Oliver, Ashley Simonds, Katie Sweeney

Contributing Photographers: Mya Blanton, Kate Bosse, Ryan Bowden, Scott Cook, Andrea De La Cruz, LJ Judy, Whitney Keilman, Rachel Vasquez Contributing Artists and Designers: Laura Candeletta-Burklin, L J Judy, Greg Perkins, Beau Wingfield

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Contributors

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CONTRIBUTORS

1. Laura Candeletta-Burklin A R T I S T

2. Sarah McDonald W R I T E R

After earning a solid C in a beginners’ high school art class, Laura began painting and working with mixed media. She loves combining watercolors and oil paints with interesting textiles—definitely inspired by texture and fashion. Summit seemed to pop into Laura’s life right when she needed it most. Searching for a church during her time as a student at Stetson University, she discovered a Young Life connection at the Lake Mary Campus. She and her husband realized there was a growing young adult population from her community there, so they decided to start hosting a Connect group on Sunday nights. Some of her absolute best memories were formed during those early times with friends, and the rest is history.

Writing has been a part of Sarah’s life from a very young age—she’s always enjoyed the process of creating and sharing stories. In high school, she started using writing as a helpful outlet to express her emotions and process experiences. Sarah started attending Summit in 2008 as a college freshman at the recommendation of her Bible study leaders. Over the years, she’s had the opportunity to serve in Base Camp, lead a Connect group, graduate from reGROUP, lead two niceSERVE projects, travel with a team to Malawi, and be baptized at Beach Baptism in 2013! Outside of Summit, she spends most of her time around animals as a dolphin trainer at SeaWorld Orlando and a dog trainer at PetSmart. When she’s not at work, she enjoys going on adventures with her dog, Belle. She also loves exploring new places with friends, documentaries, baking, crossword puzzles, Broadway musicals, Disney, and anything that involves being in the ocean.

3. Brian Corder E D I T O R Brian got into editing by simply helping out friends when they asked for help with writing assignments. He soon realized he had a knack for the craft and has stepped into serving as an editor here this year. He moved to Orlando in 2017 to begin working on the Jesus Film Project, a ministry within the organization of Cru. Brian visited Summit in August of that year and quickly decided to make it his local church home. Soon after, he joined a Connect group and eventually decided to begin serving on the hospitality team at the Herndon Camus. In his free time, Brian enjoys cycling, teaching golf lessons, and talking about mission work.

4. Andrea De La Cruz P H O T O G R A P H E R

Andrea got her first camera as a gift from her mom at the age of nine and has rarely been without one since. Encouraged by her mom as a child and, later on, a trusted co-worker, she decided to pursue her passion as a career path in 2016. Andrea recently moved to the Orlando area from Miami and started attending Summit in July of 2019. With a love for serving, Andrea jumped right in and started looking for areas where her talents could be utilized to serve at her new church. This is her first volunteer photography assignment at Summit. A woman of many talents, she is also a real estate agent, a notary, and runs a T-shirt business in addition to her photography business. She and her husband also have three wonderful sons whom they’re crazy about!

5. Amanda Adair W R I T E R Amanda credits her 7th grade English teacher as the first to encourage her creative writing. Coming from a family of musicians, she began writing her own songs at a young age, which helped her to connect with poetry as a similar creative outlet. Amanda was introduced to Summit through reGROUP back in 2016 and, as a graduate of a musical theatre program, was intrigued when she learned about BCL and other creative children’s ministry programs at the church. After diving in as a storyteller in Base Camp, Amanda has since gone on to be baptized, lead niceSERVE projects, join an Africa team, volunteer in Base Camp and BCL, and has now come on staff at Summit as the Base Camp costumes and props administrator. Amanda also plays the harp and piano and loves tap dancing.

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6. Ryan Bowden P H O T O G R A P H E R Ryan has been a professional photographer for 24 years and also teaches photography at Trinity Preparatory School in Winter Park. Ryan was just 11 years old when his grandfather gave him his first camera, effectively getting him hooked on the art. After relocating from California in 2012, he and his wife, Leanna, began attending Summit at the Waterford Campus. Ryan quickly joined Summit’s media team and has been covering baptisms and niceSERVE events and shooting for Summit Magazine for the last eight years. In his free time, he enjoys surfing and has become a “full-time soccer dad” to his two sons, Matthew and Taylor.

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What We Value WRITTEN BY JOHN PARKER

Our values, however, are intended to help give insight into how we live out the vision and will, from time to time, benefit from a little remodeling as context changes.

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For example, one of our values was originally worded “Sharing our resources … .” Now it begins “Investing deeply … .” Why the change? Well, 10 or more years ago, we didn’t have deep, longstanding partnerships with other organizations. We valued sharing the resources God had given us stewardship over, so we committed to do that. Hence the original wording.

o one has ever accused me of being distinctive, unique, creative, relevant, or any other words that might be used to describe Summit’s core values. A description of our vision suits me much better: simple, clear, not clever or pithy, doesn’t rhyme, can’t dance (OK, that last one is just about me). Be that as it may, I love our values as much as I am committed to our vision, and I am excited to share with you some upgrades and renovations that our values have gone through over the course of this past year.

If our vision articulates the fundamental commitment of our church to be the Church in the way Jesus intended, then our values begin to articulate how we distinctively live out that vision. In other words, our vision is our identity; our values are our personality.

Our vision doesn’t change. After all, it is our best distillation of the essence of what every church ought to be about.

Does that make sense? Great!

One more thing I would like to note regarding the values is that the way we have ordered them is intentional.

The first three values are mostly about what we do: We engage in transformation, relationships, and service. The next three draw us into the bigger picture of how what we do impacts the world. The final value (the crescendo, if you will) reminds us of the ultimate hope that we have in Christ and that drives our actions. We believe in the saving work of Christ and our present is fueled by the eternal hope we have in him.

Our vision is to form biblically functioning communities that reach lost people, connect in Christ-centered relationships,

Now allow me to introduce you to Summit’s values along with my best go at articulating the nuances of wording and intent. My hope is that this introduction to our updated values will not serve simply to add to your knowledge. My hope is that you will understand Summit better and, better yet, understand the value that you are written into the story of what God can do in and through Summit for the good of the world.

teach truth, serve others, and worship God.

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However, if you get good at sharing you end up with friends, and over time those friendships deepen. Eventually, the term “sharing” seems to understate the reality of deep relationship formed over years of intentional generosity and partnership. No longer are we simply sharing, but we are in a mutual commitment to common goals using kingdom resources over the course of time to bring about definite and dramatic change. “Investing deeply” is a much more apt description of such a reality.

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Being transformed into the image of Christ for the sake of others

Forming relationships around a common purpose

Jesus is about the transformation of the person, not reformation of behavior. Our transformation is not for us alone. When we, by the power of Christ, become more Christlike in our being, then it is good news for the world as well as for ourselves.

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Being a follower of Jesus is not a solo sport. My relationship with Christ is personal but should not be private. Jesus modeled community and built community into the DNA of the Church. The world should see the character of God on display in our community, giving purpose to our relationships.

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Investing deeply in local and global service We are committed to transformational service in our world locally and our world globally. Serving effectively goes beyond transactions of time or money. It looks like investment, common goals, and commitment over time—all for the hope of greater return.

God is a God of beauty. It is at the center of who he is and is reflected in the beauty of his creation. When we cultivate beauty, we honor God and point to our Creator, daring people to trust that the one who made beauty can bring beauty into their story.

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Making the most of our place in history

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We are not the beginning or the end of the Church. We honor those who have paved the way and we prepare those who will follow, until such time as Jesus returns.

Until that point, we live with great intentionality recognizing that there are needs and opportunities unique to our time and place. In this knowledge, we both find humility and the call to be heroic in giving ourselves to the work of God.

Reflecting heaven’s diversity here and now

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Heaven is home to the most diverse community anywhere. We ought to have the resolve to reflect that kind of diversity in our church community. Unity is the goal and the substance of Jesus’ prayer for us (John 17). Unity only happens when uniformity is rejected and, in our differences, we place Christ as the centerpiece, seeking to live and to love as he did.

Bringing holistic salvation to all that is lost Brokenness is not just a human condition. It extends to all the created order. We live with the promise that in Christ, all will one day be made new (Revelation 21). Until that time, we labor toward the future reality, living in the way of Jesus by caring for broken relationships, broken circumstances, broken systems, and broken souls. It all matters to God, and it all should matter to us.

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Cultivating beauty in our world

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ucked away in the Lockhart area of Orlando, a new expression of Summit meets every Friday night in the home of Doug and Naomi Foley. If you’re wondering where Lockhart is, you’re not alone.

“It’s kind of a hub for a bunch of more familiar cities,” says Doug. “You have Maitland that comes in on one side, Altamonte Springs comes in on one side, Apopka comes in on another side, Eatonville comes in on one side, and Rosemont and Pine Hills kind of on the other side.” It’s a place a lot of people have driven through, but very few, aside from those who live there, know by name. For the Foleys, it’s been home for 14 years and where they’ve raised their girls—Hannah, Summer, Bethany, and Zoe. It’s also where, in the fall of 2018, God called them to step out and do something new.

Their journey seemingly started on Vision Sunday in September of that year with the sermon preached by Lead Pastor John Parker in which, along with other strategic initiatives, he laid out Summit’s new approach to multisite. Throughout the sermon, Doug and Naomi kept looking at each other amazed at how clearly John seemed to be speaking directly to them. For Doug, it was like John had been listening in on the conversations he and Naomi had been having about inviting their neighbors to church. They would invite them to come to the Lake Mary Campus on a Sunday morning, wait in the Lobby to see if they would show, and then try again the next week. After the service, Naomi recalls, “We jumped in the car and we were like, ‘What are we going to do? We’re going to do something.’”

Doug thought they could be a part of seeing a campus planted somewhere closer to them, maybe Maitland or Apopka. “I thought,

Summit in New Spaces WRITTEN BY CHAD BUEL

Apopka is huge, man. We should have a presence in Apopka—Apopka’s close. We can get [our neighbors] there,” Doug says. However, soon after Vision Sunday, they had a conversation with John, and it became clear that the “closer expression of Summit” Doug and Naomi had been looking for would take shape under their own roof. “We just kind of cobbled together this little group,” recounts Doug, “and now it’s in two houses and the park.”

So now, at 6:30 p.m. every Friday night, around 50 people come together for this neighborhood church in the Foley’s home, and although things may look a little bit different than a typical service at the Herndon, Lake Mary, Waterford, or 33rd Street Campuses, there are certain elements that remain. There’s “Lobby time” before the service, “Base Camp style” worship complete with videos and hand motions led by the Foleys’ daughter Summer, opportunities to take next steps, biblical teaching for both kids and adults, and the same benediction you’d hear at the end of any Summit service (albeit in its most endearing form, led with the perfect mix of sincerity and energy by 10-year-old Bethany).

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The Foley family utilizes all available space to host the growing neighborhood church in their home. They're anticipating the need to move to a larger meeting space in the near future.

When you’re there, it’s easy to see that God is up to something in their community, and the Foleys are tapped into what he’s doing. The reality is that it has been both a tremendous blessing and a ton of work. They live in the tension created by the joy of seeing a real community born as people take steps of faith as well as the stress of preparing their home for a large group of guests every week. Bringing this community to life has come with a learning curve. “It’s kind of chaotic,” Naomi admits, “We’ve had several iterations as we’ve started.”

Doug reflects, “We didn’t know what we were uncorking.

It’s kind of taken on a life of its own.” That life is found in the connections between the people who call this neighborhood-church home. It was when those connections began to grow that Doug felt, “Now we have a church … we've really got something here. The Lord is starting to move in this neighborhood.”

It would be easy to reflect solely on what God has been up to since that September in 2018, but only going back that far is like only seeing the waves as they break on the shore. What if answering God’s call into kingdom work tied together strands of your life that you wouldn’t have thought connected? What if things you thought were dead ends became the foundation upon which God would build his kingdom? What if the change that came from answering God’s call isn’t a transformation into something new but a clearer revelation of who you already are? For Doug and Naomi Foley, that’s exactly what is happening.

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Despite living in Lockhart for 14 years, the Foleys’ connection to their neighborhood wasn’t all that deep until four years ago. Through a rather interesting chain of events, Naomi found herself the president of the Riverside Elementary School Parent Teacher Association.

The Foleys’ eldest daughter, Hannah, is Deaf, and Orange County only has one elementary school, one middle school, and one high school with a Deaf or Hardof-Hearing Program (DHH). For families with multiple children, Orange County Public Schools grandfathers all children in that family into the school that has the DHH Program, so all of the Foley girls attended elementary school at Lake Sybelia Elementary School while Hannah was a student there. When Hannah moved to sixth grade, it meant a move to Blankner School. The Foleys expected that all of their girls would be able to attend there as well, but OCPS disagreed. They were told that their three other girls would have to attend the school they were zoned for—Riverside Elementary School.

In addition to the inconvenience of having their girls at schools on opposite sides of town, they also knew Riverside Elementary was, at that time, rated as a “D” school. They fought against the move but lost.

Once they accepted that their kids were going to Riverside Elementary, they decided they needed to know what was going on there. In an effort to do that, Naomi joined the PTA and became the treasurer. However, at her second meeting, both the president and vice president resigned, and the school’s principal begged her to stay on. She did

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and became the PTA president at a school of which she never expected to be a part. Soon after joining the PTA, Naomi realized that a world she never knew existed had opened up right on their doorstep.

Doug says, “I’ve just learned that God is exceedingly patient and that he will bring you around at the right moments. He doesn’t pull the fruit off the tree until it’s ripe. But he is diligent, and he is careful, and he will wait for that right moment to bring you along where you need to go.”

She explains it as a light bulb moment. A self-described “Chatty-Cathy,” Naomi threw herself into making connections and building relationships. They now recognized that if they had continued to fight for all of their girls to attend Blankner together four years ago, they might have won. But if they had, this neighborhood church likely wouldn’t exist. And that seemed to be a theme for the Foleys—when they look back, they see how things that felt like setbacks turned out to be God laying out the course he’s had in mind all along.

As for what the future holds, they believe that the key lies in Riverside Elementary School and the surrounding community, which has come to be known as “Riverside” as well.

In 2019, a group of Summit volunteers served at Riverside Elementary’s “Sweetheart Dance.” At one point, Doug was talking with Lake Mary Campus Pastor O.J. Aldrich and recalls, “We were just looking and we were saying, ‘This could be a church.’ And it’s moving from ‘this could be at church’ to ‘I think this will be a church.’ I feel it. I feel like this school is going to open up. There’s going to be new relationships that are formed.”

About 17 years ago, when Doug and Naomi were really involved in youth ministry, someone from their church at that time recognized they had a gift for sharing the gospel and paid for them to enter a vocational ministry program.

They learned practical skills and had a great experience, but nothing really came out of it right away. Looking back, Doug says, “Somehow or another, I got a free education that now I’m using, and if I became a minister [after that education], then we wouldn’t be here.” What once felt like a roadblock became a key piece of what God would call them to eventually do. Doug describes it as, “You kind of feel like you’re just being set aside for years, and then all of a sudden, the thing comes and you say, ‘Oh, this. This is what God always intended.’”

Doug admits that somewhere along the way, he started to serve God with all of his mind but not all of his heart. He’s always been a learner and a reader, but in this past year, Doug’s realized that “God is not satisfied with that, and that he’ll do what he has to do to push you out of the library and into the street.” However, all of the biblical and theological knowledge he’d amassed wasn’t wasted. Doug has always had a gift for teaching and describing things in a way that’s just so easy to understand, so even this, he says, has found new usefulness. “Now, I feel like oh my goodness, all this head knowledge has an outlet practically.”

Ultimately, they know that as this neighborhood church grows, it will create new opportunities for God to call people’s gifts to life in the same way that he’s done for the Foleys. They don’t want to hold the joy and fulfillment that they’ve experienced close to their chests and not share it with other people. Because, as Doug truly believes, “When they get a taste, they start coming alive in the same way you came alive.”

"It didn’t require them to become radically different but to just embrace who they

Now, these things that have always been true about Doug and Naomi are being weaved together to form a new community of faith that’s born out of deep personal connections and speaking truth in ways that can be understood. It didn’t require them to become radically different but to just embrace who they already were.

already were.

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s you flip through these pages, it’s not hard to tell that we are a multisite church. We gather in multiple locations every weekend, hear teaching that surrounds a common focus, and worship our God together. One of the places we gather is inside the 33rd Street Jail. We’ve been very grateful to worship with the men and women of 33rd for many years now. In 2019, we were given the opportunity to begin holding an additional service in the men’s dorms.

When our first service began in the men’s dorm in 2012, we entered the faith-based program within 33rd in partnership with Good News Jail & Prison Ministries. The men in the faith-based program live in a separate dorm that participates in this specific programming. As the years went by, the team from Summit fell into a good rhythm of weekly services in this dorm. Then, in 2019, Chaplain Mike Dumas asked if we would be interested in adding a second service. However, this service would be in a different location—the general population section rather than with the men in the faith-based program.

“So the first service is the actual faith-based program,” says Dan Taylor, the men’s worship coordinator for Team 33rd.

“These guys are getting church services all throughout the week, and they have people come in and mentor and talk to them. The second service is very different from that.”

If you’ve attended a Thursday night service at the Herndon Campus, you have some idea of what a typical service at 33rd looks like because this is where we record the sermon shown in the jail. A service at the 33rd Street Campus is, at its roots, just like a service at any campus. Worship is tuned to the sermon topics, teaching follows the same rotation of speakers that other campuses do, and there is a focus on establishing and continuing genuine relationships.

All of Us

On paper, the second service inside 33rd doesn’t actually run any differently than the first service. But God’s Church isn’t defined by the building, pastor, or schedule. Church has always been made by the people who worship there together. We are the Church—all of us.

WRITTEN BY LAUREN MARGHEIM

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So because of that beautiful human component of the Church, the first and second services in the jail do each have their own unique feel. Dan continues to speak about the differences. “We're the only spiritual mentorship or any type of interaction [those in the general population] get [while in the jail]. ... It's very, very different.” He explains that the number of other organizations facilitating programming in the faith-based dorm makes services with Summit feel like more of a continuation of an ongoing process of learning and worshiping. “But the second service guys are just starving for it. And it's really awesome to hear them worship. There's almost always a guy in the back just crying, thinking about their life, and getting stuff together.

And it's powerful,” he describes.

There are also many stories of those who first joined us in services at 33rd and connected with us after being released.

One volunteer on Team 33rd, while pumping gas, ran into a man who used to attend services in the jail. “And the guy comes up to him,” Dan explains, “and says, ‘Hey, you know, I just wanted to say that the Summit services in 33rd Street really impacted me. And I just wanted to thank you guys for coming in and doing that with us and letting us know that we matter.’” Dan continues to tell stories about people who visit other campuses, bring their families, and keep worshiping as part of this church family on the outside.

“All over, you can see these guys slowly plugging in and integrating themselves into our family, and it's just really awesome,” he says.

“We had a guy recently who ... was in second service with us—he just cried,” Dan continues, “just all the way through, and then started to open up a little bit and talking [with us]. … It's interesting to see him slowly come out of his shell.

He's asking more questions and just really starting to lower his walls with the faith. And that's pretty powerful to see that happening in that moment.”

Dan also says that God can move powerfully through others in this environment. “Once I made space for that, it really changed my perspective,” he reveals. “I just kind of feel God pouring out of me when I go in there.” We are so thankful for every volunteer that chooses to spend their Sundays with our church family inside each of the services at the 33rd Street Campus. And we are equally grateful for the opportunity for those volunteers to welcome even more people into our family.

But the addition of the second service doesn’t decrease the significance of the first service, either. Both are equally important and powerful.

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CONNECT

WRITTEN BY LAURA COOK PHOTOGRAPHED BY SCOTT COOK

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echaud Bell looked at his wife, Betsey, and

said yes. When she hesitated, questioned, and asked, “Are you sure?” he said yes again.

Betsey had just walked in the door from a long day at work. And from the look on her face, Rechaud immediately knew something had gone wrong. But it wasn’t exactly that. Something hadn’t gone wrong— something was wrong, and today, Betsey had learned about it. She had learned the story of Emmanuella, a 15-year-old girl who was in foster care and living in a group home. Betsey was no stranger to these stories since, at this time, she was leading a Central Florida nonprofit for foster children, but for some reason, this one she couldn’t shake. She watched their three young children bounding around them as she shared the story with her husband and, at the end, asked him, “What do you think?”

Rechaud and Betsey Bell met at their church in 2001 and married three years later. Betsey was working in community relations getting experience at a number of large companies in Orlando while also earning her masters degree in social work. Rechaud was pursuing a career as a financial advisor. By about 2007, they were growing in their careers, building a beautiful home on the nice side of town, and expecting their first child. They loved God and were moving forward with where life seemed to be taking them. Then, the 2008 housing crisis hit: Rechaud was out of a job and their life was turned upside down. “It’s like the Lord removed every idol I had in my life—career, zip code, houses, properties—and was like, ‘OK, Rechaud, what is left? Who are you now?’ I had no answer,” Rechaud says. “I have always said … as long as I can remember, Jesus has been my Savior, but not until all of this loss happened … is when I really surrendered to his will— that’s when he became my Lord.”

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Rechaud expected to learn his lesson and then get back into the workforce, but God had a different idea for their family. Betsey kept working and Rechaud stayed home with their then two young girls, which enabled the rest of their story to unfold. In 2012, with their third baby on the way, Betsey took on the role of executive director at Foundation for Foster Children, a local nonprofit that helps meet the extra needs of children in foster care. “I just felt like God placed me there for a reason,” Betsey says.

“I don’t think we realized at the time that her saying yes to that job—it changed the course of our lives,” Rechaud says.

Fast forward to one year later: Betsey sitting across the table from her husband sharing the difficult story of Emmanuella, whom she had just met. “She expected me to say, ‘We’re not ready [to become foster parents], we have three small kids,’ and I looked at her and said yes,” Rechaud says. “That was the second thing that we said yes to that really changed our lives.”

Emmanuella moved into their home a few months later and never left their family. She’s now their 23-year-old daughter. Over the course of the next six years, Rechaud and Betsey welcomed two more children into their family: one biologically (a baby boy) and a daughter named Esperanza, who joined them as a teenager. Sounds like a picture-perfect story of grace

"WE THINK THAT IF GOD IS IN IT, IT’S GOING TO BE EASY, AND SOMETIMES IT’S JUST NOT. OVER AND OVER IN THE BIBLE,

and redemption, doesn’t it? But they’re the first to admit their journey has not only been the most rewarding thing they’ve ever done, but it’s also been the hardest— for everyone involved. “I think [there’s] something in our Christian culture. … We think that if God is in it, it’s going to be easy, and sometimes it’s just not,” Betsey says.

“Over and over in the Bible, it’s never easy.”

Their family of eight was slowly melding together, and by her sixth year at Foundation for Foster Children, Betsey had helped it grow from two employees to more than 10, benefiting hundreds of children every year.

She loved the work and felt like this was where she would be for the next 10-20 years.

Then one day, a volunteer slid a brochure across her desk.

“I thought you might be interested,” Betsey remembers her saying, nonchalantly. It was information about a Christian nonprofit in Georgia called Promise686. This organization was partnering with churches to help educate, support, and equip church members to become foster families or to support foster families. After some research, Betsey knew this would help fill a void she’d experienced in Central Florida. What would it look like for foster children to experience the love of Christ in their foster homes? This could be an answer for the pastors who had come to her with questions of how they could help in the Foster Care System. “There was a part of me that was like, ‘OK, God, I’m pouring everything into helping kids, which is awesome and needed, but is there something that’s eternal in connecting kids with families to love them well?’” Betsey says.

Now all she needed to do was find someone to take the Georgia model and start it with churches in Orlando.

“It took me a good three months to even allow myself to say out loud that maybe we should do this and raise [financial] support,” Betsey says. “I didn’t want to … bring it up to [Rechaud]. I waited, then we talked about the model [and I said,] … ‘I don’t know how it works, I don’t know if it’s for us to do. It should happen, but I don’t know if it’s something I have the courage to do.’”

Rechaud was open to the idea. “Maybe we could,” he thought.

IT’S NEVER EASY.”

They prayed, they sought wisdom from respected friends and colleagues, and they waited. In small, every-day moments and in sermons, conversations, and silence, God began to direct them onto this very

-BETSEY

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unknown path. They’d be giving up a secure and stable job that Betsey loved.

And they’d be letting go of not only the financial safety it brought for their family of eight, but also the emotional security of having a plan (and staying in control) for the immediate future.

Eventually, they let go. Betsey gave her notice, and she and Rechaud began to work with Promise686 to figure out how this model could be put into practice in Central Florida. And Commission 127 was born—named after James 1:27, which calls all Christ-followers to care for orphans and widows.

“Making that leap to leave what was safe was really an experience of trusting. … We

just had to believe at the end of the day that God would provide for us,” Betsey says. “And part of having [Rechaud’s job] loss earlier in our journey made us a little more resilient. If everything falls apart and this is a complete failure, we know that God will bring us through it. … This is a new opportunity of faith for us—to trust God in this particular way that he knows is really hard for me.”

The vision of Commission 127 is that every foster and adoptive family in Central Florida would be loved and supported by a caring community. “That’s the big picture,” Betsey says. “But yet, our vision is really that every child in foster care would experience the love of Jesus. And how does that happen? In the context of

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a family.” And now, the organization has equipped many churches in the Central Florida area—including Summit and the Bells’ home church of Grace Church—to help make this a reality.

Betsey and Rechaud are still learning and there’s still no “security,” but God is providing for their family and challenging them both. They are just trying to be obedient. “Our kids in the Foster Care System need Jesus and the only way we can [help] get them Jesus is through families,” Rechaud says. “Our older [two girls], Esperanza and Emmanuella, have said that because we loved them, they are now at a totally different place in life. … It’s Jesus within us. His love is coming through us.”

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If you had the opportunity to meet Grace Veronica or hear her preach at Summit, you have undoubtedly encountered her brightness of spirit and passion.

This was evident from my first call with her as the Summit staff prepared for her arrival, and she continued to exude that passion in the five months she spent as an intern at Summit. As the global partnerships coordinator, I had the privilege of working closely with her as she made preparations to join us. She captivated the hearts of new friends here—friends that were both sad to see her go and excited to see her continue along her exciting path.

Born and raised in Kenya, Grace is a church planter from Nairobi Chapel (a Kenyan church that is one of Summit’s longstanding global partners). Leaders there are planting churches throughout Kenya, Africa, and now in other parts of the world. Grace’s leadership development program has her intentionally engaging in cross-cultural experiences with the intention of growing her intercultural capacities. Her goal is to plant and participate in a culturally and ethnically diverse expression of a local church body.

But let’s back up. How did Grace come to be on this path? And how were we fortunate enough to have her with us for a season?

WRITTEN BY NATHAN BOYETT PHOTOGRAPHED BY L J JUDY

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Grace’s leadership skills were discovered at a young age. She began following Jesus out of a place of desperation after she and her brother unexpectedly found themselves in a singleparent household. She was gathering wood in a forest one day when some people she did not know approached her to share the hope they had found in Jesus. Having recently had her father removed from her home life, she found the hope of God as her Father to be captivating. Despite having grown up in the church, this was the moment her faith sprang to life—a catalyst that led to a rapid life change. That day rushing home, she told her brother, who then made a similar decision to follow Jesus.

"I would not want this to be contained in my area and die within my village...

The excitement of what Jesus meant to Grace prompted her to begin sharing that excitement with her friends. It soon became a regular occurrence for them to join her under a tree and listen to her share what she had learned at church that week. After high school, she volunteered at a church to make tea and clean the facilities. But her communication skills weren’t to stay hidden for long. She was asked to pray at her church’s weekly prayer gathering. This was followed by an invitation to speak at the gathering which was followed by an invitation to preach that Sunday! Despite feelings of inadequacy, she leaned into her desire to share what she’d learned about Jesus with others.

As Grace finished college, she had her first opportunity to travel internationally. She went to Uganda where she got to share her faith with people from other cultures. Around this time, she began to identify a desire to pursue vocational ministry.

After returning to Kenya and attending Bible school for a few years, she heard about an internship at Nairobi Chapel. She jumped at this opportunity, and through that internship, she began learning about the process of church planting. She didn’t expect, however, to be selected as part of an actual church planting team before even completing the internship. Once again, despite initial feelings of surprise and hesitation, she let a spirit of intrigue drive her to consider how that would look and ultimately accepted the position on the team.

Her time at Nairobi Chapel led her to opportunities to further their work around the world, specifically in India and the Philippines. The most recent opportunity took form in early 2019 through a partnership between Summit and Nairobi Chapel.

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Grace describes a desire “to see people of all races and all color go to church” and wants to be an agent of the creation of such churches—churches that reflect the diversity God created. The two churches coordinated an opportunity for a staff exchange program that would expand Grace’s cross-cultural toolbelt by exposing her to a western culture and ministry context.

Nairobi Chapel has selected her to be part of a team planting their first church in the United States, specifically in San Francisco.

Her time at Summit and her subsequent time in California next year will continue to provide her with learning opportunities to enhance her team’s ability to be effective in this goal.

Grace describes one of the most important lessons from her intercultural experiences: “In different cultures and contexts, if I see something being done differently, it doesn't mean it's the wrong way. I lean into it.” She explains, “I have learned to embrace an attitude of learning, that I take time to learn why they are doing something a specific way. Instead of criticizing and saying, ‘This is not how we do it back at home,’ and trying to impose what I think is right, I can actually embrace and accept their way of doing something. I can try to enter into it, and through that, build a relationship that can birth biblical conversations.”

I inquired what propels Grace toward moving beyond the borders of her country in her ministry. Referencing Acts 1:8, she responds, “I would not want this to be contained in my area and die within my village, but I would want it to go to wherever the Lord wants it to go because it's a global Church.

It's a global love … it's for everyone. And why shouldn't I then go out there and tell someone who can go and tell someone else? And they can go and transform their village and their country.”

As Grace moves on from Summit to Nairobi, to San Francisco, and then to wherever God may lead her next, I can say that for those of us who spent time with Grace, our love will certainly be more global than it was before.

...but I would want it to go to wherever the Lord wants it to go..."

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H E CTO R

You Were Made

for This

JOE

You were made to be in community.

It’s worth considering Jesus’ first priority of his adult life. It wasn’t taking a sabbatical to figure out how to harness all his gifts. Or finding the nearest stage and telling everyone who he was. Or even exercising his talents to start his public ministry. No, before all the miracles and before he changed the course of humanity forever, he went in search of 12 men—12 men to do life with, 12 men to hold each other accountable, 12 men to be in community.

WRITTEN BY KALEB HARRELL

Jesus didn’t just suggest that we find community together—he insisted on it. God made it pretty clear that he didn’t intend for us to go at it alone:

PHOTOGRAPHED BY RYAN BOWDEN

“As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” —Proverbs 27:17

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“For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” —Matthew 18:20 “So in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” —Romans 12:5 “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it …” —1 Corinthians 12:26a You get the idea.

Why do so many of us move to isolation when things get tough? I once heard that the three lies Satan uses the most on us are 1) it’s too late, 2) you’re not good enough, and 3) nobody cares. The presence, accountability, and support of community quickly debunk all three. The absence of community is like gas on a fire, just exaggerating his lies further—it’s a pretty good plan he cooked up.

unique circumstances to the table. Each new member was finding the value of the group’s simple goal: Let's open the Bible, read about Jesus, and see how that impacts our weeks—no matter how different those weeks may turn out to be.

“Within the first six months, two of our guys started following Jesus,” explains Hector, expanding on the deep need this group began meeting.

Now the group has an ebb and flow of around 15 men and has found a way to invite even more through digital connectivity.

“We decided to start using technology to our advantage,” says Joe. “We now video chat our group so that people who can’t make it in person still have the opportunity to be in relationship.”

Finally, a meaningful use for video chat.

We are in the midst of a growing epidemic of Christians lacking community. I know because I’ve lived it. Waterford Campus partners Joe Bollinger and Hector Gonzalez know it too, and in 2018, they were called to begin a new Connect group. They felt the need for community and quickly realized they weren’t alone.

“God uses Hector as a catalyst. He just goes after people and reels them in,” says Joe. The duo complement each other perfectly and bring a combination of formal ministry background and raw passion for Jesus.

“What was so unique about both of them was a deep desire to see not just people be in groups but people grow in relationship with each other ... and grow toward Christ as they grew toward each other,” describes Waterford Campus Pastor Garry Abbott.

As they started inviting people to join their group, the need became evident. There was never a sense that this group would be for a certain demographic. Hector and Joe approached the group with the idea that different life stages, perspectives, and opinions would only serve to make each of them better as they brought their

As I dug deeper and prayed about what Joe and Hector are doing, the importance of their work for the kingdom became very clear and hit home.

Like Joe and Hector, about six months ago, I also started the process of reaching out to a few guys for a new men’s group.

I thought that maybe a few would bite, but shockingly, every single person I asked replied with something along the lines of, “Man, I really need this.” We (big “C” Church) are desperate for community and, frankly, not very good at reaching out to find it.

I don’t have 12 (yet), but I do have a core group that does life together. My group lives anywhere from Madrid to Chicago, but we maintain relationship. When someone gets a promotion, we celebrate. When someone has a loss, we grieve. When someone is struggling, we support. I miss the days when we could meet in person more, and I miss the frequency and depth of connection. But I savor the moments that we do have together, and I always leave them feeling closer to God and empowered to be a better man.

These experiences are found to be true in Hector and Joe’s group as well. Men are forming unlikely friendships that span age gaps and life stages. Some even find themselves arriving at church early each week for an extra chance to check in on other men in their group. “Life-changing” is how some members have described this relationship into which they never expected to be invited. They’ve found a group that reinforces it’s never too late to build these relationships, we don’t have to be enough on our own when Jesus is, and there truly are people out there who care.

True community always starts with an invitation—an invitation to connect, to be vulnerable, and to share life. Just as Joe and Hector have done, I recently accepted God’s challenge to extend invitation for community during this season of my life.

Will you?

"Let's open the Bible, read about Jesus, and see how that impacts our weeks— no matter how different those weeks may turn out to be."

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THE ROAD TO CHANGE

WRITTEN BY LAUREN MARGHEIM PHOTOGRAPHED BY ANDREA DE LA CRUZ

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“

A

nd the funny thing is we had met two or three times?”

“Yeah, we didn't know each other real well.”

But, I would have guessed that these two women had been friends for far longer. reGROUP is a small-group community of healing and recovery designed to help individuals walk through their personal stories and get to the root of what is stopping them from living as the person God created them to be. While everyone who is a part of reGROUP is there for their own unique and different reasons, glimpses of similar lies and longings can be seen as every person picks apart each brick of their walls.

Nicole and Susanna recognized each other the first time they walked into reGROUP. “Oh, a familiar face! But like, is it awkward?”

Susanna laughs.

They’d met through a mutual friend before but didn’t know each other well. Still, the familiar face was comforting in an unfamiliar setting, so they stuck together.

Susanna explains, “There's a stigma we carry with us, I think, of admitting like, ‘I am a person who sins and needs help with that.’” She describes such a human thing. We make assumptions often with no context or proof. When we see people asking for help, we assume weakness when really the act of asking shows strength.

These assumptions make just getting there one of the hardest parts of reGROUP. Both women agree that the first few weeks were terrifying. They were warned that eventually it would feel either impossible or unnecessary to go on. Doubts about the validity of their struggles and need to be there nestled in their minds, but Susanna says that she recognized those as lies from the enemy.

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“Once you're there, then you feel like you're not alone ... ,” Nicole says. “And it may be different or the same as what you're going through, but everybody’s got problems. And it was so comforting to just go there and sit there and be … like, ‘You're broken, you’re broken, I’m broken.

We’re all broken. And we can sit here and it’s fine.’”

Sitting in the brokenness can be messy. It’s a strange but refreshing comfort, like finding a reflection of yourself in someone with whom you assumed you had nothing in common. It’s understanding. It’s realizing there can be safety in the scary.

Susanna says that she didn’t begin reGROUP for what one might think of as a typical addictive behavior. She walked through the doors because she was sensing that her affinity for escapism was beyond her control. She was going through her days and doing all the things she was committed to at church, but the truth was, she felt distant. She felt like she was hiding the true expanse of this distance from the people around her. “I felt like I'm not engaging with the world around me fully, and I’m also not feeling close to God,” she reveals. She did not want to give up on her relationship with God, but she realized that taking a perfunctory approach was not solving the problem.

Nicole’s reasons, though different, had similar roots. After a rough breakup, she found herself in what she calls “a really dark place.” And although during this time she experienced a blip of hope after getting baptized, she soon realized that her relationship with God ebbed and flowed in waves throughout her life. She was again feeling the riptide pull her away. She remembers returning to that place of feeling lost, empty, and alone. She also realized that her biggest struggles are around relationships. “I was true to myself when I was by myself and with friends and family,” she explains.

“But then when I got in a relationship, I lost myself … and I just didn't know how to operate.”

CONNECT

"IT CHANGES YOUR PERSPECTIVE, YOUR OUTLOOK, THE WAY YOU THINK ABOUT YOURSELF, AND THE WAY YOU FEEL ABOUT YOURSELF." -NICOLE

NICOLE

SUSANNA

Both women stepped into reGROUP because they felt invited in. They felt OK to admit they weren’t OK. Nicole identified with concepts in reGROUP Director Kailey Newkirk’s sermon on a reGROUP Sunday. Susanna remembered someone she was close to had been through reGROUP. Though indirect, these invitations made it easier. “reGROUP felt like a way to be forced to … confront it, even with myself. It felt like, I don't know what else to do—this is the only thing I could think of I haven't already tried,” Susanna says. So they both confronted their struggles; although, putting these into words, saying what they needed to say, was hard in front of others at first.

“When did we have dinner?” Susanna asks.

“It actually was! I don’t think it’s dramatic to say that … was life changing.”

Over sushi and a budding friendship, Nicole and Susanna decided that they would go back and both talk about (or more accurately, blurt out) whatever was most difficult to say. They established accountability, giving themselves and each other the push they needed to move forward in reGROUP. “And we both did and that was—” “Awful.”

“—huge,” says Susanna, with Nicole adding her honest opinion.

“It was pivotal,” Nicole says.

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Sharing was both awful and huge because it was a confession. As Susanna points out, “Sometimes there's things that we do that we don't even want to say inside our own heads.” She says that it made a big difference to be there with people that could remind her that what she shared matters too. The act of speaking these unthought things places them in the light. Sharing takes away the shame.

“I don't have to carry this burden. I don't have to live in the dark—I can live in the light,” Nicole says. “It's OK that I've done these things. God still loves me anyway.

And that realization and that feeling in that moment of just sharing it and saying it out loud, things that [God has] carried for me for years that I just hid and buried and didn't want anybody to know. ... It changes your perspective, your outlook, the way you think about yourself, and the way you feel about yourself.”

Throughout reGROUP, both Nicole and Susanna experienced stepping out of a lingering darkness as the power of their shame was lost. But this doesn’t mean the process was easy. “When I realized I believe these lies about my value, and why people like or don't

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like me, and what I'm worth and how God feels about me—that was months later,” Susanna says. And Nicole concludes, “It didn’t fix me, but it did change me.” Change is where we struggle. We struggle to make change, accept change, and even know we need to change. But the deeper we look into our stories and the more we dig up the roots of our behaviors, we find that taking the time to invite personal change is the most important work we’ll ever do.

Life really can change, but the road to change in and of itself is always in motion—back and forth. Real life change takes committing to tackle our struggles every single day.

“I want to continue to be more open and more vulnerable, and share my story and help others ... but it's still really hard. It's still hard on a day-to-day basis,” Nicole admits.

Our time in this broken world is speckled with both conflict and celebration. While God gives us the tools we need to live the life he planned for us, we have to decide to use them.

Because it’s worth it.

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Home

Feels Like

CONNECT

WRITTEN BY SARAH MCDONALD

Warm. Inviting. Safe.

PHOTOGRAPHED BY KATE BOSSE

As I gaze around this Connect group meeting, those are the first words that come to mind. About 12 women are gathered in this living room—some sit on the sofa, others along a bench by the window, and one or two in folding chairs placed between the gaps. Some are dressed up as they came straight from work, while others sit cross-legged in sweatpants. The smell of freshly-baked brownies combined with the scent of a Hearth & Hand candle are perfect complements to the soft acoustic music playing in the background. The sound of a tennis ball bouncing off the hardwood floor becomes the

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soundtrack of the night, however, as the resident dog takes turns sharing her most prized possession with everyone in attendance. The scene is comforting and imperfect all at the same time.

This Connect group was born of the “For Her” speaker series and contains women of varying ages, backgrounds, and seasons of life. In addition to meeting weekly for Bible study and prayer, this group has also volunteered to be a Care Community. This means that they have been paired with a foster family who they serve through delivering meals, aiding with chores, and checking in regarding prayer

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requests and other basic needs with which they can assist. At the moment, the group is supporting a young woman who cares for a child in transitional foster care. This is a part of the Foster Care System that places unaccompanied children entering the U.S. from another country with a foster family until a sponsor is approved—typically a biological family member.

This process can take anywhere from six weeks to several months, depending on a variety of factors. As they learned more about these short-term placements, this community was given a unique opportunity to understand this part of the Foster Care System as well as learn how to best support the family with whom they have been paired.

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When Ambia, one of the members of this Connect group, heard about the opportunity to partner with a foster family in this way, she knew she wanted to be involved. Ambia’s first job out of college was as an investigator for the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office, where she specialized in assisting children who had been abused and neglected. After that, she moved into a position at the Florida Department of Children and Families, where she aided youth aging out of the Foster Care System transition into adult life by teaching them basic life skills, such as balancing a checkbook, going shopping, and enrolling in college. Her experiences in both of these positions, as well as her current role as an elementary school counselor, have given her the opportunity to form a deeper understanding of what

children experience while in foster care. Ambia longs to use her gifts and past experiences to continue to engage with and create safe spaces for children in the Foster Care System.

Because of her experience and passions, Ambia was eager to jump into a mentorship role when her group was paired with their first foster family. However, she did notice a slightly different dynamic in this situation as it involved children in transitional foster care. The group knew the placement would likely be for a shorter window of time as they waited for legal placement with a sponsor. The foster child would also be adjusting to living in a new country in addition to being in a foster family. Keeping all of this in mind, Ambia and her group came up with a system to both encourage and help provide basic needs for the foster mom Gloria and the child she is fostering.

In this particular situation, the group decided to serve this family by pouring into Gloria and helping her to create a safe and loving home for the child currently

Ambia with some of the women in her Connect group.

Left to right: Sheri, Ellie, Ambia, Keely, Julia, Barbara, and Courtney.

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“...the true feeling of home is ultimately found in the people who are gathered in that space.”

placed with her. On a spiritual level, this involves regular communication as they inquire about specific ways they can be praying for her each week. They also decided to invite her to the “For Her” speaker series and had the opportunity to engage with her regarding the various topics discussed in that setting. Providing basic physical needs is another way these women have been able to support Gloria as they regularly take turns cooking and bringing meals to her home. The group also contributed a few small gifts for the child’s birthday to help make the day extra special. Lastly, the mere presence of this Care Community and their willingness to consistently show up is undeniably an encouragement to this family and a daily reminder they matter.

When asking Ambia about the way her group is able to accomplish all of these things during the week, she credits their group’s leader, Sheri, with keeping up constant communication through various platforms (texts, a Facebook group, and email). Each member of the group also brings their own individual gifts to the table. Whether it be through cooking a meal, delivering

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an item to the house, or sending some money to help pay for groceries, everyone is willing to jump in and help when they can. Ambia states that while she often wants to commit to helping with various items, it can be hard to find the time, given her schedule. However, the group is always willing to work together and make things happen, providing support and encouragement along the way.

As this group of women pours into Gloria and her foster child, they also intentionally and consistently pour into one another. While she was initially nervous about joining, Ambia now describes her Connect group as feeling like a family. Grace is always present, vulnerability is always welcomed, and prayer requests are always followed up. As much as brownies, candles, and dogs can be comforting, the true feeling of home is ultimately found in the people who are gathered in that space. May this community continually create a space that is warm, inviting, and safe for one another as well as this unique and precious family in which they have invested.

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Fresh and Honest Eyes WRITTEN BY KARI FREEMAN PHOTOGRAPHED BY L J JUDY

“

T

here was an initial sense of this would be really cool to do with my wife,” Michael Kaplan recalls of his decision to go to Malawi. “And then, more importantly … as I learned more about it, [I] felt a calling. This was something I was almost supposed to do, in a way. It felt like every time an obstacle came up, as quickly as it came, even quicker [it was] pushed aside.”

Michael didn’t know for certain why he had this feeling—that it was time to take a trip to Africa with his church—but he knew he did. There were plenty of reasons to go. He had been a partner at Summit for a while and hadn’t been yet, he knew several other people going, and he and his family had been sponsoring a child who lived in Malawi for years, so he would have the opportunity to finally meet him.

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“...WHAT GOD MOVES YOU THROUGH IS SO TRANSFORMATIVE THAT IT'S LIKE, HOW says. “Obviously, I didn't have to tell myself that. But I didn't want them to see me as [thinking] that.”

COULD YOU JUST BE STILL AFTER THAT?” —JULIA But there were plenty of reasons not to go as well.

Work, financial obligations, and family all made the list.

Michael’s wife, Julia, recalls with a chuckle of when they both decided to go. “We were like, who's gonna want to watch our kids for two weeks?” she says. But one way or another, in the summer of 2019, they both found themselves on a plane, marveling at the fact that this was actually happening.

Before the trip, Michael and the rest of his team spent time preparing for what they would see in Malawi and how they could strive to view a new culture with open hearts and minds. They even discussed some difficultto-accept realities of how Americans often struggle to interact with people from impoverished communities overseas. “The constant inner monologue was, ‘You're not better than these people.’ And I knew that,” Michael

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The team expected that they would struggle to see past the lack of material resources available in Malawi. They anticipated it would be hard to refrain from comparing what they saw there with their own lives in the U.S. “There were several instances where the material part of the poverty … was pretty overwhelming to me,” Michael recalls. “And then … as the trip went on, I was able to see through that and see past that. … I was, in a way, inviting God into that situation. I wasn't seeing that ‘these people have it so rough’ and then stopping there.”

Michael and the team, while in Malawi, discussed nightly how their personal perspectives might be blinding them to things beyond material needs. One of those things that Michael was able to identify during the trip was the beauty of experiencing something as simple as church from a new perspective.

“God's Church abroad was so powerful to me,” Michael describes. “I think, for me, it's so easy to get in the bubble of church in America, which is primarily one way with a group of one type of people—you know, this demographic worships over there in that neighborhood, and we worship over here. They do it this way, and we do it that way. Being a part of [a Malawian] church service and seeing different

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types of worship and different people and being welcomed was such a picture for me of how it's not all about us. This is what heaven's gonna look like; it's going to be all these people and lots of different languages and lots of different styles of worship. And it all makes sense. There's not one way to do it.

That was such a powerful reminder to me—it was like heaven on earth was in that service.”

out on a whole world happening around us—without even noticing that we’re doing so.

As Michael experienced Malawi through fresh and honest eyes, he admits that he found both astonishing beauty and sobering pain, but neither he nor Julia would have wanted to take one without the other. “On the other side of it, what God moves you through is so transformative that it's like, how could you just be still after that?” Julia reflects. Because no matter where you are in the world, everything can change with a shift in perspective, but sometimes, maybe everything should.

Julia agrees, adding, “Our view of church weighs really heavily on certain things and … not on other things … like we all desire community, we all want somebody to know us. But to really see [community] lived out [in Malawi]—whether it was in the church service, just seeing expressions of worship, or in devotional time in the morning—every single day there was just this sense of, this is what [community] is supposed to look like. [It was] kind of visionary. What would it look like for us to lean into those areas we lack, like community?”

As Michael and Julia both practiced setting their personal perspectives aside and opening up to see this part of the world through a different lens, the unexpected beauty continued to pour into their lives. From a new understanding of their sponsored child’s family life to a view of how true joy looked, they both felt their eyes opened to see Malawi in a new way.

This new perspective didn’t only reveal nuances in Malawi, it also started to shed light on their lives back home. Julia describes being reminded of just how important it is to wisely steward the resources she’s been given. She also expresses a new understanding that being a good steward does not only apply to how she and Michael use their financial resources but also to how she spends her time and welcomes others into their home.

As Michael has reflected on his time in Malawi since returning home, he can now articulate how deeply his time there impacted how he views the ways he spends his time here.

He credits a “broadened worldview” as the catalyst for what has become a driving question in his life: “What can I do as the person that I am [now] to try to combat some of the stereotypes and bridge the gaps between different races and different demographics here in the U.S.?”

Michael and Julia meet Grey (left), the child they sponsor through COTN. They now also sponsor Grace (right), who they met for the first time on this trip to Malawi.

The magnitude of that question is not lost on Michael.

“Logistically, I don't know exactly what I'm supposed to do or where I'm supposed to go. But I'm trying to keep that door open because I feel like that's where I'm called to be,” Michael explains. As he and the team worked to set their perspectives aside to understand Malawian culture better, he realized that those skills translate to his daily life in the U.S. with just as much impact. He now sees how we can sometimes elevate our own perspectives to the point that we completely miss

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WRITTEN BY LAURA FREELAND DESIGN BY BEAU WINGFIELD

Community Over Capacity Three months ago, I could come home from work, cook dinner, fold the laundry, get a little more work done, and still whip up baked ziti for the foster family my Care Community supports. Three months ago, I sent an encouraging email to my Care Community that said, “We have so much more capacity than we realize.”

Three months ago, I was not three months pregnant with twins.

When I was asked to write about our capacity to serve, I was honored. But when the conversation ended, I thought, “What have I done? I am not your girl. I can’t heat up a frozen meal for myself right now, let alone prepare homemade baked ziti for a party of seven. I don’t believe that I have any capacity anymore.” Before I exposed myself as a total fraud, I figured it would be good to get Jesus’ take on this whole capacity thing.

In full transparency, I admit that the first thing I did was a Google search.

“Was Jesus ever too tired to serve?”

I perused the results and was reminded of what I already knew: Jesus rested. In Matthew, Chapter 14, after he heard of John the Baptist’s death, Jesus withdrew.

In Mark, Chapter 4, with work still to be done, Jesus gathered his disciples onto a boat, left the crowds behind, and went to sleep. In the Garden of Gethsemane, with a heavy heart, Jesus leaves his disciples so he could spend time alone with God.

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Not only did Jesus rest, but he also allowed himself to be served. The book of Luke mentions three women— Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Susanna—who served Jesus during his ministry on earth. Luke also tells us of an unnamed woman who bathed Jesus’ feet with her tears, anointed them, and dried them with her hair (Luke 7:36-50). Martha hosted Jesus (Luke 10:38-42). Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house (Luke 5:29).

The Savior of the world rested when he needed to and he allowed himself to be served, but the Savior of the world also laid down his life in service to his friends.

His priority was a life of service, and he didn’t live this way because it was fair or balanced. He didn’t live this way because he felt he had the capacity. He lived a life of service because he is God and God is love and love is an action word.

I don’t often question my capacity to love, but I question my capacity to act in love almost daily.

When my husband Jerod and I decided we wanted to join a Care Community (a team of people who provide emotional support and practical, tangible help to a foster family), we found ourselves on a team that needed a leader. My gut response was, “I don’t have the capacity for that.” But without a leader, we would fail to launch.

So I said yes on the condition that Jerod would lead with me. I asked him to do his thing—relationship building— and I would do mine—project management.

Watching our Care Community serve together showed me that capacity isn’t about what one person can do on her own. None of us could provide a meal, mentor a child, pray, check in, send an update, and manage a calendar every week. But together, we really do have so much more capacity than we realize. It’s about our willingness to allow God to use us in whatever capacity we do have.

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"When faced with another opportunity to serve, maybe Sometime in the last couple of years, in the margin of my Bible, I wrote the question: “What would it look like to give him [God] more than I can manage?” I recently came across the note in the margin again, and it felt so applicable to my recent struggle with capacity. I am guilty of relying on myself and forgetting what we are capable of in Christ and in Christ-centered community.

the question is not, 'Do I have the capacity for this?' but rather, 'Do I have the community for this?'"

And if we look around, it’s obvious that we can accomplish more together than we can on our own. As a church, we’ve seen it with our church-wide service project, niceSERVE, year after year. We’ve seen friends step up to provide meals for new moms or grieving families for months. We’ve seen community come together to send their friends and loved ones to serve in places around the globe. And all it takes—every time—is an ask.

“Want to serve with me?” “Can you deliver a meal next week?” “Will you support me?”

Even Jesus served in community. In Matthew, Chapter 14, Jesus’ disciples were ready to send the crowds home so they could go into the village to buy food for themselves. Jesus responds, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat” (Matthew 14:16).

Jesus not only tells them to serve with him—he invites them into the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand.

The Savior of the world—a man with perfect capacity— invited his people to serve alongside him.

When faced with another opportunity to serve, maybe the question is not, “Do I have the capacity for this?” but rather, “Do I have the community for this?”

We all have moments when we feel there’s nothing left to give, but I’ve found when we invite our people to serve alongside us, we discover capacity we didn’t know we had. Together, we can give more than we think we can manage.

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WRITTEN BY REAGAN PERKINS DESIGN BY LJ JUDY

Now You See It Is it a duck or a bunny? Do you see an old woman or a young girl? Is the dress blue and black or gold and white?

We all love those moments when we relax our eyes or turn our heads and suddenly see something new. It feels like magic! (Except that last one. If you see anything but a black and blue dress, there’s something wrong with your eyes. That’s what science says.)

When I was a kid, those 3D Magic Eye posters were all the rage. You would walk through the mall and see people of every age, color, and demographic standing side by side trying to relax their eyes enough until they would exclaim, “I see it! It’s a limousine being driven by a giraffe!” Or, if you were me, you would wait for someone else to proclaim what it was and then chime in, “Oh yeah! I see it too!”

Regardless, we love that moment, that moment when your perspective shifts and you see something brand new. It’s a pleasant surprise to see something that was

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once hidden but is now so obvious to you. And if you are like me, you enjoy relaxing and shifting your eyes back and forth so you can see first one object and then another, a duck and now a bunny! It almost feels like being bilingual—as if you are speaking two languages at once in your head. It’s a thrill!

gazing upon an expression of God. If you aren’t willing to admit the duck lives in the same sketch as the bunny, you will never find his clever little bill. If you insist that the painting contains only one animal, you eliminate your ability to ever see more than what you believe is already there. You will deprive yourself of the magic.

It’s a thrill, at least, when it’s a harmless drawing on a page. A true shift in perspective, though, the kind that gives you an instant gut check, can feel uncomfortable as you realize a belief you have held all your life has another side to it. When a joke you have always found clever, you suddenly realize is offensive. When an act of kindness you intended with absolute innocence is interpreted as condescending or self-serving. With so many of us on this planet, experiencing life through so many different sets of eyes, it is inevitable that we will find ourselves in the midst of a shift of perspective or two.

Even more so as we dive deeper into community with one another, as Jesus commands.

Sometimes when your perspective shifts and you see that hidden-in-plain-sight different side of the story, there is a sudden discomfort. Your own arrogance or ignorance might hit you with a one-two punch of shame and guilt. “How could I have never seen that before?”

Let me encourage you to sit with that discomfort for just a moment. Don’t sit in the discomfort but sit with it. Turn it over in your hands and ask yourself the hard questions of “Where did this come from?” and “What is the bigger truth here for me?” Sit for a few minutes in that uncomfortably hard moment, asking those hard questions, and then wait expectantly for God’s grace to wash over you.

“Grace joins hands with

Healthy perspective shifts always end with grace. In order to provoke change in us, they have to. If not for grace, we might become lost in the overwhelming weight of how wrong our world can feel.

When we face our pride and arrogance and see the bunny for the first time and realize there was more to the picture than we originally thought, grace comes rushing in. Grace joins hands with humility and asks how you will change because of this new image you have seen.

And these kinds of perspective shifts, while not as much fun on the surface as an old woman appearing where a young one stood before, are so much more valuable, not only to improving our world but also in following Jesus more clearly and ardently. To hear the story of a person who grew up on the other side of the world from you, on the other side of the country, or even on the other side of the city, and realize how their beliefs about you, our nation, and even God are just as true or meaningful or valid as yours also feels like some brand of magic. Even more thrillingly intimidating is when you realize their viewpoint is in complete opposition to yours, and you are suddenly presented with an opportunity to see them in the exact way Jesus sees you.

humility and asks how you

will change because of this

new image you have seen.”

It’s like magic. It leaves us wanting more and marveling at how much more there is to see. It’s not always easy.

The 3D giraffe chauffeur doesn’t always come right away. Those hard conversations can feel an awful lot like work. They can bruise our egos, hurt our feelings, and landmines seem inevitable with every footfall. But when they emerge, when you find yourself saying, “Ah! I see it now! I see there is another side to this coin,” you find the magic. You gain perspective, and you might even gain a friend. You most definitely gain further insight into the limitless grace and humility of our Savior. And the work suddenly seems invaluable.

It requires not a small amount of humility to allow our perspective to shift, even in the slightest. We have to be willing to admit we may not know all there is to know.

We have to be willing to admit our life experiences are not universal. And we have to truly believe that all are created equally by God. We have to leave our pride at the door and admit when we gaze upon a stranger, we are

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WRITTEN BY ANDY SIMONDS DESIGN BY GREG PERKINS

Thoughts Become

no one responds to the Spirit of God calling us to be the people he intended us to be, the world is doomed.

But if everyone were to respond with any measure of real obedience, his kingdom would come on earth as it is in heaven.

I wrote a good number of songs during my high school and college years. It seems like a hyper-creative time for lots of people—before trials and errors place too many filters on the process of bringing something new into the world. The lyrics for these early songs, almost without exception, make me cringe when I think about them now. (Makes me wonder how I’ll feel about what I’m writing these days in another 20 years—yikes!)

But on one particularly lovely day in the fall of my senior year at Belmont University, while walking across the campus courtyard, a single line for a song not yet written popped into my head: “If you change the world by changing me, make me whatever you want me to be.”

I still kind of like that lyric—it still rings true.

It’s a fairly simple thought at first glance, but it was the first time a profound connection was made between two dots that had, until that afternoon, existed in my mind as unrelated truths.

First truth: God is in the process of transforming my heart. Second truth: God is in the process of making everything that is wrong with the world right. Connected dots: You can’t have one without the other. The world doesn’t get any better if I don’t get any better. And in what sense have I really gotten any better if it makes no difference for anyone but me?

I remember my head spinning with the epiphany that my obedience to God was not just some arbitrary thing that only had ramifications for my relationship with him. In a very real sense, the fate of the world depended on how seriously I took his call on my life! Because if

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I remember feeling that day both overwhelmed by the enormity of the challenge and yet astonished at the simplicity of God’s plan for fixing the world. Fixing the world is about fixing human beings, who will then get busy fixing the world. It’s as simple and as grand as that.

Something as small as a singular thought can become an avalanche of good or evil in the world. When we are admonished to “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5), there is so much more at stake than our personal sanctity.

Thoughts become apathy or action. Thoughts become pride or humility. Thoughts become lust or generosity.

Thoughts become hatred or forgiveness. What then flows from this? Hearts that are humble and forgiving and generous and prone to action in the world will build communities that look like the kingdom of God. Hearts that are full of lust and hatred and pride or prone to apathy waste away in a hell of their own making.

We will inevitably work to create a world around us that is a reflection of the world within us. If we aren’t engaged with God in the process of inviting him to transform our hearts, we may do more harm than good as we try to engage in his work in the world. You can’t have one without the other, and we don’t have what it takes to change ourselves—we need him.

Dallas Willard, in his book “Renovation of the Heart,” writes, “The revolution of Jesus is in the first place and continuously a revolution of the human heart or spirit. It did not and does not proceed by means of the formation of social institutions and laws, the outer forms of our existence, intending that these would then impose a good order of life upon people who come under their power. Rather, his is a revolution of character, which proceeds by changing people from the inside through

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"We will inevitably work to create a world around us that is a reflection of the world within us."

ongoing personal relationship to God in Christ and to one another. It is one that changes their ideas, beliefs, feelings, and habits of choice, as well as their bodily tendencies and social relations. It penetrates to the deepest layers of their soul.”

In 2019, we spent the year learning as a church what it might look like to see God’s kingdom come more fully in our city and in our world. This year, we will look at the profound intersection between who we are called to be as followers of Jesus and the coming of that kingdom. We will come to realize that how we engage in the spiritual disciplines that form our character matters not just for us, but for all. And it’s my hope that many may find, with both surprise and delight, that the most impactful thing we can do in the world is to quietly surrender ourselves completely to the One who will ultimately save it.

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REFLECTING

Love

WRITTEN BY LAURA FREELAND PHOTOGRAPHED BY LJ JUDY

I

f you ever look at today’s students and worry about the future of the church or the future of the world, I know a girl who may spark a little hope. I’ll admit, as the student ministries coordinator at the Herndon Campus, my love for middle and high school students runs deep. I may have more optimism than most, but I also have more relationships with students than most. All I have to do is look around on Sunday evening at Surge, our middle school ministry, or Edge, our high school ministry, and I know God’s got their hearts. We’re going to be OK.

mom. As she’s grown older, Ailani has continued to serve in Base Camp. She especially loves serving alongside her siblings Gabby and Jonathan. “We are kind of like a power team,” she tells me. Together they focus on building real relationships with kids.

She remembers how powerful it was for her to have someone older than her know her name and make her feel like she mattered, and she strives to do that for her Base Camp kiddos.

Spending time with Ailani Herrero makes me happy. She is beautiful, passionate, and a great conversationalist.

As she filled me in on school, theater, and sports on our drive to brunch, I was struck by her personality and how awesome God made her to be.

It’s no surprise that Ailani became the youngest person to star in a Summit musical and perform in the family production, Base Camp Live (also known as BCL). In 2018, the team was planning to put on the musical “Godspell,” but one of the cast members found herself unable to meet the demanding rehearsal schedule for the show. Ailani’s talent, experience in school productions, and desire to serve in this capacity made her a natural fit, so she was asked to audition for the part. It was an exciting time for her, but it was also a challenge.

As the daughter of a staff member, Ailani grew up wandering the hallways of Summit and in the rooms of the children’s ministry, Base Camp. She’s been serving here so long that she can’t even remember the first time she served, but she does remember that it was long before she was technically allowed to. When she was still Base Camp-age herself, she would spend a second service each Sunday serving in Base Camp with her

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“My mom really did a lot,” Ailani says, acknowledging that—while she was the one starring in the musical—it was a joint effort to make it happen. As a student, Ailani was balancing academics, athletics, school theater, and

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Ailani performs in the musicals "Jonah & The Wavebreakers" (left) and "Godspell" (right).

this musical. She relied on her mom for transportation to and from rehearsals that often ran into the wee hours of the morning. Even the hard stuff was worth it, because they knew people would be paying attention and learning more about who Jesus is and how much he loves them.

After “Godspell,” Ailani asked if she could join the Waterford team for BCL, Summit’s 20-minute production kids get to take their parents to after worship service on certain Sundays. Ailani’s experience in the musical gave her the confidence to jump in, and the role of Coco was born! Coco is the sassy fashionista of the Clubhouse bunch.

When I ask Ailani what her favorite part about playing Coco is, she is quick to respond, “Shopping for her costumes!”

She shops at popular children’s clothing stores, so her tiny fans often let her know that they have a matching dress or outfit! “This silly character brings them so much joy,” Ailani adds when I ask her if there’s anything else I should know about Coco.

In the summer of 2019, Ailani played the role of Lex in Summit’s original musical “Jonah & The Wave Breakers.”

Lex—an absentminded guitarist who loves tacos—was more of a main character than Ailani’s role in “Godspell.”

It was exciting to land the part, but Ailani confesses that she wondered, “Do they look at me like I’m younger and treat me differently than the adults?” She wants to be held to the same standard as the adults—even though it can be intimidating sometimes. Despite the doubts and intimidation, her desire for growth and her passion for sharing God with others from the stage are bigger than any fear she feels.

When I ask Ailani what she would say to students who are hesitant to serve, she tells me, “I don’t think a lot of people understand what [serving] helps you with.” Through serving at Summit, Ailani has become more aware of how her actions and the way she treats people can reflect the love of Jesus to others. She’s learned that there are so many different ways to share the gospel and respond to God’s call to serve one another in love. “You can serve with kids, with tech … you can find what works best for you and something that you can enjoy,” she says, appreciating how many different ways there are to serve and be served here.

“We are kind of like a power team.”

-Ailani Ailani acknowledges that “theater people” can be stereotyped as “weird,” and those stereotypes can lead people to undervalue the art form and the many purposes it can serve. For her, being able to get on the stage at Summit and do it for Christ brings a whole new value to something she is already so passionate about.

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If you hang around this place long enough, you’ll hear someone say, “There’s no height requirement to mattering to God.” And when you talk to the students—like Ailani— you’ll also find there’s no age requirement for contributing to his kingdom.

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WRITTEN BY LEXI WINSHIP PHOTOGRAPHED BY MYA BLANTON

More Than a

Moment A

t this point, I think everyone who participates in social media has seen the often posted, tweeted, and shared (for good reason) Mr. Rogers quote about helpers: “When I was a boy and would see scary things on the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’ To this day, especially in times of disaster, I remember my mother’s words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers—so many caring people in this world.”

I love this quote. The positive reminder it provides has served as the spoonful of sugar that I’ve swallowed down, the light peeking through the tightly drawn curtains after witnessing terrible events occur both within my own community and all over the world.

Lately, though, I’ve realized more and more that just as much as we need helpers in the dark days that follow senseless acts of violence, natural disasters, and beyond—the really BIG bads—we also need helpers in the smaller valleys in between. We need helpers in those day-to-day valleys that don’t make the news but carry major weight in the lives of those whom they affect. We need helpers on the sad days, the I-don’t-know-who-I-am days, and the no-one-understands-me days.

Jerod Freeland is one of these such helpers, and he has been for quite some time now. If awards for helping were more commonplace, he certainly would have received countless by now.

In January of 2012, Jerod started serving with Surge, Summit’s middle school ministry, but he didn’t want to. He wanted to work in Egde with high school students because of his own experience being ministered to by some older guys when he was a high schooler himself. He’d always wanted to give back by pouring into high school guys now that he was one of those “older guys.”

Middle schoolers? Not so much.

But, after hearing then Student Ministry Director O.J. Aldrich talk onstage about needing volunteers, Jerod learned there was an opening for a leader of a sixth grade boys’ group that desperately needed to be filled. OK, he’d do it—how bad could it be?

Famous last words.

Within three weeks, his co-leader had quit, leaving Jerod responsible for 20-25 unruly 12-year-old boys. “Chaos,” is the word Jerod uses to describe the situation.

“Utter chaos.”

Jerod contemplated leaving too. He felt like he was having absolutely no impact amid the chaos, but he also knew that he had made a commitment and felt bad leaving a group of kids without a leader. So, more out of obligation than passion, he decided to stick around.

Slowly but surely, week after week, connections were made. Jerod realized that sixth grade boys weren’t all that receptive to serious talks (or serious anythings for that matter). So instead of trying to perfect the art of ministering to SU M MIT

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middle school boys, he decided to take a different approach and focused on building relationships—just hanging out with them and showing up consistently. “Organized chaos,” is how Jerod describes the resulting dynamic, which I personally believe is the very best you can hope for with a group of that specific demographic.

As his students finished sixth grade, Jerod decided to continue leading their group.

Midway through the boys’ seventh grade year, Jerod noticed a shift in maturity in his group. Through the organic connection that had been built through accumulated shared time, it became natural for conversations at Surge to go from the completely silly to the slightly less so. The boys became more receptive to talking about real things, and they felt comfortable doing so with Jerod because he was a consistent presence in their lives. For some of them, he was the only such presence.

“I started to see that just through me constantly being there and letting them just be themselves, they realized that they could count on me,” Jerod says. “They could trust that I would be there, and through that process, they learned that they could be honest with me and I wouldn’t judge or condemn them—no matter what they brought to the table.”

Six years later, in May of 2018, if you were looking for Jerod, a good place to start would be at any Orlando-area high school graduation ceremony.

FAMILY

After putting in his three years of middle school ministry, Jerod had an easy out. Anyone would have respected and admired the time he gave and been completely understanding of his decision to step back once his middle schoolers became high schoolers.

Our favorite shoes start as the ones that feel a little too stiff or too tight. But then, slowly but surely, as an act of necessity or duty at first, you break them in. And somewhere along the way, you find yourself wearing these shoes day in and day out.

When did the change happen? When were they really, truly broken in? It’s hard to say—but the end result can’t be denied.

It wasn’t the student ministries team who asked him to keep going; it was the boys. “Are you gonna come with us?” they asked. “Are you gonna come with us to Edge?”

Before he realized it, these middle school boys had gotten under Jerod’s skin. They had nestled into a corner of his heart that he didn’t know existed. It was a calling different than the one he expected—and he still wasn’t even sure it was a calling—but he realized it had become extremely important to him to be there for them, with them. Through all of the precious hours given on Sunday evenings, all of the frustrations, and the highs and the lows, the reality was that he cared about these guys. And what drives service better than that?

In talking to Jerod, I realize that perhaps where we get serving (and ministry in general) wrong is when we start looking at it through a microscope, taking each and every day as a unique specimen in which quality and impact must be judged, when we should instead view these things on a more macro level.

Can we really expect every single hour of our ministry to feel miraculous? Or should the whole matter more than the individual moments themselves?

Though Jerod has now started leading a new group of Edge students, his first group still holds a special place in his heart.

They are nearly two years out of high school and all have pursued different paths. Some keep in touch and some don’t, but Jerod feels confident the ones who do will be a part of his life, in some form or another, for years to come.

Sometimes, when you’re in the thick of it, you don’t feel the impact that your service is making—both on your own heart and in the hearts of others. It doesn’t always feel good. It certainly isn’t always easy. Sometimes it smells overwhelmingly of farts.

Children and student ministry can often feel like a thankless and unproductive task. But then one of the guys asks you to be his reference when he’s writing college essays or you get a card from a mom thanking you for being a positive role model to her child and it feels like a Super Bowl ring. And you find yourself wondering, "When did this start to matter so much to me? When did this become so important?"

“Did I ever feel adequate to lead these kids? No,” Jerod admits.

“But when I constantly questioned what I could possibly offer them or how I could speak truth into their lives, God showed up for me over and over again in the moments where I just didn’t know what to say. And as they got older and we got closer, we were able to talk it out and search for that truth together.”

That bond—the development of real, genuine relationships and care—is maybe the most surprising and hope-filled part of it all.

Jerod with his current group of high schoolers.

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ALL the WORLD’S A STAGE I

t’s inevitable. You’re watching a movie and all of a sudden, the thought pops into your head: “There’s NO way THAT would EVER really happen!” Maybe you’ve been so lucky as to watch a character in a play, film, or TV show that resonates with you so much that the line between fiction and reality becomes a bit blurred. Believable characters captivate us as they journey through their stories. But how is a “real” character born?

For Ryan Blackburn, there’s an art to developing characters. He and his wife Erin have attended Summit Herndon for 12 years and have served with Base Camp Live (also known as BCL) for the last few. But it was while playing a game called “No Thank You, Evil!” with their children, 8-year-old Ava and 5-year-old Ender, that Ryan got an idea to bring that art to BCL. The interesting thing about “No Thank You, Evil!” is that the outcome of this game wasn’t determined just by chance or luck—the Blackburn children had to make choices along the way. Those choices developed the denouement: the moment when all the moving pieces come together and resolve—or at least can be seen with clarity. Ryan watched his children make their own decisions throughout the game rather than passively rolling dice and moving their pieces along the board. They were fully immersed in the game and it showed.

This experience gave Ryan an idea. What if he created a similar game for BCL actors to have an opportunity to immerse themselves in their characters by way of a living, breathing, unpredictable adventure? He reached out to Darling Heldt, the productions manager for Base Camp, and she encouraged him to go for it!

Ryan wrote this new game himself and led groups of actors across Summit’s campuses in the character development workshop. Participants showed up with a character in mind and interacted in an unfolding scenario that allowed them to improvise and have the freedom to make choices along the way. These choices impacted the other actors in the workshop and determined the progression of the game.

WRITTEN BY SARAH LAND PHOTOGRAPHED BY RACHEL VASQUEZ

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Tucker Kemp, a high school senior who has served with the Base Camp productions team for seven years, says, “It gave volunteers a fun opportunity to learn and practice improv so that we can perform better on Sunday mornings.” As groups of actors made their way through the adventure, the game took different twists and turns for each group.

those characters then … .” Erin shrugs her shoulders as if to ask, “Then what’s the point?”

Talking with the Blackburns about this topic, it’s obvious how much it means to them. Their awareness of choice, flaws, and freedom is at the forefront of this workshop. Maybe this awareness comes from the lessons learned in Erin’s background in theater as a kid. Or maybe it’s from the conversations that came up with their kids during that one board game that inspired it all or during a Sunday afternoon driving home after watching BCL. Or maybe it’s a moment from many years ago that shifted the concepts of acting and reality for Ryan.

“Much of the work that we do as performers is working on being ‘present’ or ‘in the moment,’” says Darling. The entire workshop was a practice in just that: letting go of control and learning to act in the moment as the character would.

It’s interesting to think, too, of the many stories in the Bible when Jesus is traveling somewhere only to be interrupted by someone sick or by the friends and family seeking him out on behalf of their loved ones. These “hiccups” of the Gospels, when something unexpected happens, are right where Christ’s character is on display. The same is true for actors. When something happens that isn’t in the script, it can sometimes result in a moment of panic, but it can also result in a beautiful moment for the actor’s skills to truly shine. For followers of Christ, the invitation is there too. When the car breaks down, the keys get lost, the disappointment creeps in—these are all moments, no matter how big or how small, that God freely invites us to be fully present in and promises to walk through with us. When God invites us into his kingdom, he invites us in just as we are.

If we show up without being fully present, we miss the invitation into the parts of ourselves we aren’t even aware of that God can redeem, restore, and bless.

While in college, Ryan had an opportunity to reflect on his childhood and realized he had struggled with depression. “I had sort of put on this mask and was role playing this character that everyone wanted me to be. So it was that classic, like, living in depression but being the entertainer. So coming to the realization of what I was and what I felt wasn’t the same—there was a big disconnect. I had been doing it for so long that I didn’t really know who [I] really was or what [I] really wanted,” Ryan explains. He ended up cultivating a sort of role-playing practice in his mind. To help himself grow in his understanding of who he truly was, he would ask himself if he wanted to respond to a situation as the “funny entertainer” or if there was something else he truly wanted to say or do in the situation. Ryan remembers how this allowed him “to break that down and restructure and reorient how I relate to myself.” Through that experience, Ryan says

"So if they don’t believe that the

The amount of time and intentionality that Ryan put into the workshops was undeniable, and the actors walked away having learned a lot about how to create more believable characters.

But then a new question surfaced: Are believable characters really that important anyway?

characters are possible, then they don’t relate to them…" -Erin that his relationship with Christ truly solidified and as a result, he had the freedom to rediscover himself, as he says, “in the midst of Christ.”

“The purpose of [BCL] is to give the kids [characters] they can recognize and watch them work through their problems,” explains Erin. “So if they don’t believe that the characters are possible, then they don’t relate to them, and it’s hard for them to apply [the lessons] to their own lives. The idea is that you watch them figure out how to solve a problem and if you can’t relate to

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Characters aren’t the only ones who develop in stories—we develop in ours, too. God gives us an invitation into his kingdom just as we are, but once that invitation is accepted, there’s almost no way to remain the same. The growth will be inevitable, come what may.

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the blessings

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or years, my husband John and I have dreamed of taking our whole family to Ethiopia. We have six kids, all adopted from Ethiopia. Having such a large family, this dream was put into the “only-God-can-do-it” category. And this past summer, God did it. He provided for our entire family to travel to Africa for six weeks during John’s sabbatical. When I heard the news, I was overjoyed, shocked, and instantly started making lists of all we would need. I’m a list-making, get-it-done type of girl, and I went into a productive overdrive. I spent the month preceding the trip carefully packing everything my family would need for six weeks into eight suitcases and eight carry-ons. I went to Target and thought over tiny details, like how many hand sanitizers and socks to bring per person. I was so busy preparing for the trip that I never really thought about what I would do when I got there.

everyone else’s books, too. As I sat, I listened to my kids as they wanted to talk through some very big issues and some small ones—like the trials of African plumbing. I sat around the table night after night over the most amazing Ethiopian dishes and laughed with my family. I laughed until I cried, and I laughed until roomtemperature soda flew out of my nose. I sat and marveled at how our kids loved each other and supported each other through challenges and even entertained each other during the long, daily power outages. When I was no longer distracted by the busyness of life and mobilizing a large family, I was left with a gift.

I was able to just be. It’s a gift to sit quietly, to look out the window for an hour, to notice the beautiful rhythm of the breath of the child who just fell asleep next to you. It’s a gift to be still enough to notice that the creases on the back of their neck are the same creases that were there when they were little. It’s a gift to take a break from perpetual motion and enjoy the people around you.

After spending so much time preparing everything for everyone, my time in Ethiopia was an unexpected reality. I had time. I had my family to be with and nothing else to do. I didn’t even have to drive anywhere. I had no errands to run.

Everything we needed was already there, carefully packed and inventoried in one of the suitcases.

All I had to do was be. Be a wife. Be a mom. In the absence of busyness, the sudden stillness was deafening—in the best possible way.

Another thing I learned in this time away was a refined view of hospitality. I consider myself a hospitable person. I have folks over for dinner all the time, and my home is always filled with my kids’ teenage friends. Last summer, I learned that hospitality is so much more than making an amazing lasagna and setting the table. As I spent time with my Ethiopian friends and later with my Kenyan friends, I realized that real hospitality is about welcoming others in and communicating their value.

I just sat. I watched my kids play endless card games. I read every book I brought with me and

of stillness WRITTEN BY BRANDY PARKER PHOTOGRAPHED BY WHITNEY KEILMAN

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Now, our friends in Ethiopia are busy people just like us—with careers and families and sports schedules. Time and again, we were greeted in a way that made it feel like us coming over was the best thing that ever happened to them.

There was a pause in whatever else was happening, a warm greeting, smiles, hugs, and an invitation to join in. Sometimes it would be an invitation to join the meal prep or the driving errand and sometimes it was to sit for a cup of tea. Hospitality is not the fanciness of the dinner spread. It’s an attitude of inclusiveness, of drawing others in without any pretense of inconvenience.

After Ethiopia, we flew to Kenya, and our friends there from Nairobi Chapel welcomed us at the airport with an entourage of staff. They brought us all silly glitter wigs and flower wreaths for our heads. We were travel weary, but we all cracked up, wore wigs, and felt so welcome. When we got to our guest house, they had a basket waiting with little gifts for each of us and a box of chocolates.

(Now, we had not had chocolate in more than a month, so those disappeared quickly.) Another thing I noticed is that our friends would introduce us to their friends as well. We would sit around their living rooms or around a campfire and hear their stories of long ago—stories of how they met in college and the hilarious story of their first apartment—and marvel together over what God has done in their lives.

Hospitality is an action of anticipating what the others would need and would like, and it’s doing the little things to show them how valuable they are. It isn’t about making the perfect meal, and it doesn’t matter if your house is decorated like Joanna Gaines from (HGTV’s “Fixer Upper”) lives there. Real biblical hospitality, that we as believers are called to, is about communicating worth to others; it’s about setting aside our own agenda for just a moment to really notice others. Hospitality is an invitation to usher God’s kingdom into your home—and into your living room.

This sabbatical time taught me the blessings of stillness. In the break of perpetual motion, I noticed my family in a fresh way. And I found that when we look up from our own lives for a second, that’s when we can invite others in.

The Parker family reflects on their time in Africa during Lead Pastor John Parker’s sabbatical.

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"IT’S A GIFT TO TAKE A BREAK FROM PERPETUAL MOTION AND ENJOY THE PEOPLE AROUND YOU."

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her.BIBLE

WRITTEN BY AMY KAUFHOLZ

Jenny has always had an innate desire to break down barriers for women.

She has held multiple positions at Cru, an organization that facilitates many different Christian outreaches. While working there, Jenny spent a year in Africa. She also spent years promoting “Magdalena,” a film depicting the life of Jesus from a female perspective. In working on that project, Jenny’s awareness of the needs of women around the globe increased greatly. There were a few more job transitions which led to long commutes that gave her plenty of time to discover diverse storytellers through audiobooks and to listen to audio versions of the Bible so she could spend time in God’s word.

It was in listening to the audio Bible that Jenny noticed something. The voices reading the Bible were all men. Jenny began seeking audio Bible recordings that had the same diversity she experienced in the audiobooks she enjoyed. But her search was not as simple as she would have hoped. After searching multiple apps, she discovered that most seemed to have the same handful of male voices reading the Bible. And learning this irritated Jenny.

It was on those commutes that Jenny noticed the clear lack of representation of all God’s people when it came to listening to his word.

And then three years ago, while Herndon Campus Pastor Zach Van Dyke was on stage sharing stories from his recent trip to Africa, God put all the pieces in place.

As Zach shared stories of how impactful his time was with Summit's global partner in Ethiopia, Children’s HopeChest, he posed two questions to the congregation.

“What has God designed you for? And what is the world waiting for you to do?”

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Jenny felt God telling her that he had given her the background to create an audio Bible using exclusively women’s voices. The thought of taking on such a large project scared Jenny, but the call from God was clear.

While she knew her background would help her accomplish this goal, she also knew projects like this required resources, and she didn’t know how and when it was going to happen. So began years of trusting in spite of misconnections and rejections from possible partners that felt this project just “wasn’t a great fit.” Through connections at Cru, Jenny was eventually directed to a special projects group that would adopt the project. With the resources she needed, Jenny’s dream of her.BIBLE was born.

One of the most important pieces to get the project going was finding the female voices that would bring the Bible to life. Instead of spending time trying to find one ideal voice to read the entire Bible, Jenny wanted to include multiple voices that would represent the ethnic diversity that we can find here in the U.S. Using a Christian voice network, Jenny very intentionally and strategically paired voices with the different books of the Bible to bring the emotion of God’s word to the forefront. When asked about why it is important to have multiple voices represented, Jenny says, “The goal is for women to connect to the heart of God. To express God’s heart in a new way through how women feel and how women communicate him.” While the Bible is not new and they are not saying anything their male counterparts aren’t saying, Jenny says it’s important because “having an audio Bible available in women’s voices gives women a voice.”

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You can now visit her.BIBLE online to listen to select books in the Old Testament and the entirety of the New Testament.

is to create a model that can be duplicated on a global scale. Jenny and her team are working to keep this model simple and easy to follow so that women around the world can adopt this idea. The hope is that they could record the Bible in their own language to share with others. To see this succeed globally would look like women recording the Bible in their heart language and sharing it with women in their country, especially those who may not know how to read. Giving these women access to a recording may even be giving them access to the Bible for the first time. The work being done at her.BIBLE is so important—giving women a place to listen, connect, and share. By saying yes to God’s call to start her.BIBLE, Jenny has boldly accepted her invitation into God’s kingdom and is now working to extend that invitation globally.

This whole project is truly created by women for women. Jenny has incredible women and a couple of great guys working at every level of this project: from helping with strategy to editing the audio to listening to the books as they are read to make sure the spoken words align perfectly with the written Scripture. The team is working diligently, and as this project continues to grow, the future is big and full of possibilities.

Jenny is currently working with her team to record the rest of the Old Testament as well as to develop a mobile application. But Jenny doesn’t want to just stop there. One of the long term goals for her.BIBLE

Jenny (right) with Jewell (left), who is one of the voice artists working on the her.BIBLE recordings.

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POEM BY AMANDA ADAIR

This Is Worship I am never separated from Your love It is always available and near to me Often, I do not let it in

Burdened by my saddle, bit in my mouth, blinders on The jockey of self sufficiency and success pulls on my reigns I declare truth! You are Sovereign Lord of my life Gentle Father—not domineering taskmaster

I push myself like a racehorse Ignoring my exhaustion I whip myself into action Forgetting that You are Sovereign

When I am still, the blinders are removed I hear You whisper My invitation is always the same Come to Me if you are weary And rest

You are Sovereign Your ways are higher You are holy, above all else

PAINTING BY LAURA CANDELETTA-BURKLIN

Your invitation is always the same Come to me if you are weary And rest

This is worship I have been limping through life, starving for love I do not know how to receive a prize You give freely

This is worship In my fear and mistrust I have lost my first love What is this sadness?

I long for when I can feel Your love fully To focus on it, to live in it No longer racing toward the distractions of this fallen world

For today, in this moment I give You my whip You remove the saddle, the bridle, the bit You lead me off the race track, away from the roaring crowd

Teach me to be still, to stand in Your truth To step aside, allow You to fight my battles Teach me to let go of the outcome

In the quiet, You tell me Receiving is an act of faith Meditate on Me, train your mind Believe in the full measure of My love

This is worship

I let it in

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I

f you’ve been attending any Summit campus for any significant length of time, it’s likely that you can hear the list-like cadence of what we do here according to our vision: “... reach lost people, connect in Christ-centered relationships, teach truth, serve others, and worship God.” And I think we all assume that these things just happen at the other Summit campuses much like they do at our own. But it’s rare that we would feel the need to consider how it happens, specifically how it happens at the 33rd Street Jail.

Together in Prayer

And don’t get me wrong, we do hear about the 33rd Street Campus—their unique service opportunities during niceSERVE, stories from volunteers of great times of worship and revelation, personal connections that are made when former 33rd Street Campus participants attend other Summit campuses. But for those who have never been inside a jail, there is an unfamiliarity surrounding the intricacies of day-to-day life there. Those intricacies greatly inform not only church services but the lives of our brothers and sisters at this campus. These unfamiliar aspects of life and church may end up leaving a blind spot when it comes to understanding this part of our church family.

The 33rd Street Team, however is uniquely positioned to offer valuable insight into just how this campus reaches, connects, teaches, serves, and worships. “We are seeing lives transformed in 33rd, and we can measure that by seeing how their prayer requests have changed,” explains Team 33rd Men’s Worship Coordinator Dan Taylor. “The gist of the change is that ... requests go from being about dropped charges … and being released soon to praying to be a better parent, spouse, or sibling and for the men and women around them as well. [Some] begin to pray for their character to change, and that is the work of God.”

During a time of life that can easily be overwhelmed by very legitimate personal concerns, we see this campus using their prayer request cards to lift up those around them just as much as, if not more than, requesting prayer for their own circumstances. “As they accept and cultivate a personal relationship with Christ, it then becomes part of their own personal mission to reach the lost around them in their bunks or dorms and family members,” says Team 33rd Administrator Lisa Jamison. “The men and women also have the opportunity to hear truth through the messages and, in turn, apply that truth to their circumstances, then share that truth with others inside 33rd and on the outside, like their families.”

So I invite you to take a moment to dive into the heart of the 33rd Street Campus—into the prayer requests of those inside who are taking seriously the invitation that God is extending them, right here and right now.

Prayer requests are shared by the inmates with the intention that others will see and lift up the requests to God. They are printed under the discretion of the 33rd Street Team.

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WRITTEN BY KARI FREEMAN

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Artist Feature

N I C K \ S A R A S T Y

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WRITTEN BY ADAM HARRIS PHOTOGRAPHED BY L J JUDY

Summit’s worship, since the beginning, can appropriately be viewed as a target sitting at the other end of a lawn.

\ This illustration appoints the volunteer team of musicians as the archers. Only, on this lawn, there are a number of flaming hoops that the archers have to shoot through to hit the bullseye. I don’t say this to inform you all about how meticulous a process it is making the worship happen or to tell you that anything that doesn’t hit the bullseye gets the chopping block. On the contrary, the bullseye gets hit at every campus, week after week, without fail. Summit’s archers are excellent shots, and while the bullseye gets hit each week, Nick hits the bullseye from an entirely different lawn.

Nick Sarasty grew up in the kind of musical household that didn’t have the traditional scattered instruments around the living room but rather a vast, expansive library of classic and standard records introduced to him by his dad. Nick grew up on a healthy diet of The Beatles from his dad and Peter Gabriel, UB40, Hall and Oates, and Huey Lewis and the News for himself—these are the artists that Nick cites as true inspiration for his work today, and for falling in love with music in the first place.

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For those who have been around Summit for a while and don’t know who Nick is, I can assure you that you do, in fact, know him; you just don’t know what he looks like. In all the years of worship at our church, many wonderful artists and musicians have come through and painted their own personal colors on the worship, and Nick has been no exception in adding his unique strokes. He brings the vivid colors and creativity of Andy Warhol’s contemporary palette to Summit worship’s classic Da Vinci.

Nick had been around the church for a number of years before getting plugged into the worship program. He enjoyed the music at church, but it wasn’t what he was listening to on his own time.

Nick got into beat making and music production going into high school. “I had this PlayStation game called ‘MTV: Music Generator,’ and there were all these premade loops and tracks that you could copy and paste and make your own songs out of,” he says, “and I would take the AV inputs from my TV that my PlayStation was

Find Nick's newest release, "Blue Electric Eyes," wherever you listen to music!

hooked up to, and I’d go to Radio Shack to figure out how to run those tracks from my PlayStation to my 4-Track. That was my first foray into beat making and producing.” He took this production mentality into college at the University of Central Florida, picking up a few more trades along the way. With a newly acquired skillset in playing keyboard and a music theory credit, the sky was suddenly the limit.

He explored arenas that ranged from hip hop all the way to power pop. This was exciting, but it wasn’t fulfilling—he knew there was more to be done. That year on New Year’s Eve, he felt sluggish, and didn’t feel up to your standard NYE party, so he stayed in. His house was rarely empty, so a window of opportunity presented itself. That night, he wrote four songs of his own—something he’d never done before. This gets his gears turning: “Maybe I can take this and make my own thing.” It was in this very moment that his band, Neon Niteclub, was born.

Neon Niteclub is the home in which Nick’s musical ideas live. Whenever he writes a new song, or rearranges an existing piece, he files it under Neon Niteclub. He’s even remixed other artists’ tracks! When you listen to Nick’s work, you can hear that high schooler figuring out his 4-Track. There is a cheer that drives his songs, that grabs you by the hand and invites you into the celebration. There is great music that doesn’t feel great, and there is not-great music that does feel great. Neon Niteclub is great music that feels great. His music isn’t rocket science; you don’t need a bachelor’s degree in creative writing to listen. You’re simply supposed to listen.

In 2007, Nick joined Summit’s worship team. Many of his friends were serving, and he wanted to participate with them. This is a time in the church’s history when the musicians played in many different bands and expressed unique arrangements of the music. Nick auditioned on piano but noted that he was competent in electronic music and was curious if his particular style could work in a church context.

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\ "

He brings the vivid colors and creativity of Andy Warhol’s contemporary palette to Summit worship’s classic Da Vinci."

Fast forward to today and Nick can regularly be seen (and heard) at the Lake Mary and Waterford Campuses— and at the Herndon Campus, on special occasions. His work is special anywhere, and at Summit it’s simply unmistakable. Today, his music is made up of an evolving roster of players, unlike the concrete group of yesteryear. Neon Niteclub is more about a sound than a specific group of people, after all.

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When Nick gets scheduled, his chosen instruments include a key-tar, a Moog synth bass, and his laptop.

He is the only active volunteer across all campuses that represents this corner of music. A multitude of players paint wonderful, vibrant colors on the tapestry of Summit’s sound, but Nick tends to paint with a different palette. After all, he’s the resident Warhol.

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QUESTIONS

INTERVIEWED BY ZACH VAN DYKE

Tracy Beeson HERNDON EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

What is your favorite word?

Hope.

What is your least favorite word?

Should.

What's one thing you know about our lead pastor, John Parker, that the rest of our church family doesn't know but needs to know?

He definitely has a habit of climbing too high into trees and breaking bones when he falls out. Or chopping his own finger off with axes when he's camping. Things like that. Yeah, but do people know that?

What did 8-year-old Tracy want to be when she grew up?

A doctor.

What's your favorite food?

Pizza—any kind but Hawaiian. I'll eat anything on pizza other than pineapple. That’s too weird. No fruit on my pizza—that’s weird.

What are some things you are looking forward to for Summit?

Our staff team is fantastic ... and the people who show up to serve and the congregation that shows up are just fantastic. I feel like we're on mission together and we all want to reach our city with the hope of Jesus.

And that's really fun to be a part of.

What kind of movie could you watch over and over again?

Honestly, anything in the Avengers series. I'm a big superhero movie fan. Good wins over evil every time.

It's fantastic.

Why did you first show up at Summit?

I had some friends invite me when I was in college. I had been looking for a church for, like, months. And I had gone to every Presbyterian church in the area ‘cause that's how I grew up. And Summit was meeting in a cafeteria at the time, and I thought that was really weird. So I kept telling my friends no, and then finally I went and never went anywhere else.

What do you like best about our city?

Orlando feels really vibrant. I feel like people really care about the city and they invest in it. People stick around, and people who grew up here come back.

People ... open up cool restaurants and cool shops that not only benefit them but benefit other people in the community. I think that's really rare. It's really special.

What job titles have you held at Summit over the years?

I’ve been the children's ministry administrator, the children's ministry director, the multisite children's ministry director, the family ministries director, and the Herndon executive director.

What gets you fired up?

Lots of things—I’m an Enneagram [Type] Eight—so lots of things! I mean, any sort of injustice definitely gets me fired up. Anything I think isn't right but could be right that maybe I have or someone has the power to make right but isn't—that will really get me going.

Three words to describe what Summit means to you.

Belonging, innovative, and special.

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735 Herndon Avenue Orlando, FL 32803

Want more stories?

Visit summitconnect.org/blog

Locations Summit Herndon 735 Herndon Avenue Orlando, FL 32803

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Summit Waterford 11602 Lake Underhill Road Suite 110, Orlando, FL 32825

Service Times: Thursdays, 7 p.m.

Sundays, 9 a.m.* & 11 a.m. (*ASL interpreters available)

Service Times: Sundays, 9 a.m. & 11 a.m.

Service Times: Sundays, 9 a.m. & 11 a.m.

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Summit at 33rd Street Jail Men's & Women's Services: Sunday Afternoons

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