Is going small really the way to reach a big city? The answer is yes for church planter Eddie Kirkland and The Parish in Alpharetta, Georgia.
“We will never be the next big thing.” Church planter Eddie Kirkland says it with quiet certainty. Though the former worship director of North Point Community Church came from packed auditoriums and finely tuned worship services, he believes smaller neighborhood communities are exactly what the millenials in his hometown of Atlanta are longing for—and one way God is bringing renewal to their city. It’s why he is pursuing ordination and simultaneously planting The Parish, a network of small neighborhood congregations modeled after the early church, with C4SO.
“We are small, trying to figure it out, stumble our way through it,” he says frankly. “The past two years have taught me so much about following God, what simplicity is about and how to be content and not chase the platform or the next leadership opportunity.”
Eddie and his wife Danielle had the platforms: he as an acclaimed songwriter and worship director at North Point, she as a coordinator of conferences like Catalyst and Q. But they couldn’t forget what they’d experienced in an Anglican neighborhood parish in Oxford shortly after they got married.
“The worship was not all that good but it was great at the same time. The spirit felt raw and authentic,” Eddie recalls. “We sat in the front row at St. Aldate’s and were blown away by the community, how people loved each other deeply and richly. ”
Without even knowing it, Eddie was starting down the Canterbury Trail. After reading Accidentally Anglican by Bishop Todd Hunter in 2012, Eddie made a phone call to C4SO, sharing a deep desire to become a pastor and plant a church. He had resigned from his position at North Point and dreamt of small, familial gatherings that would multiply throughout and renew Atlanta. In C4SO, he met his match, both in the rich Anglican culture and missional Diocese.
“I think being Anglican is a perfect vehicle for God’s work in this area,” he says. “At first, coming from a non-denom, I got a lot of questions about placing ourselves under the Anglican authority and structure. But we felt strongly that it was what we were supposed to do. We wanted to reach people in the next generation, and there is a sense of safety that comes in the stability and authority of the Anglican Church. It has protected our people from myself and anyone else in leadership trying to be the next great thing, and protected my wife and me from the stress and pressure of trying to create the next biggest, best thing.”
Through a series of conversations and relationships, a core team of 20 friends and family joined Eddie and Danielle in their vision. A year later, they’ve formed a Parish church in the Alpharetta area and are learning together what it means to be Anglican through classes and table groups. They hold services in a school three Sundays a month while readying for their official January 2015 launch date, and on the off Sunday, gather in homes for a meal and fellowship. There is no Bible study, just talking and sharing with neighbors they see mowing their lawns or going to work each day.
“A Mormon family across the street has started coming to our table group,” Eddie says. “We’ve been inviting them for six months, and they finally started coming and love it. The community has been really cool. That’s been a really encouraging piece of what we’ve been doing.”
Though his initial goal was to branch into five neighborhoods in five years, Eddie says God has a different timeline. Each time they cast a lofty vision, within months He leads them to pull back and slow down, wait and listen for His direction. But regardless of how many churches are eventually planted out of The Parish, Eddie says they will always maintain a local size.
“We are not going to be the next huge church on the block. I would love for people, no matter how many churches are planted out of us, to feel like it’s a size manageable for community, that they can walk in our doors and feel known.”
Learn more about The Parish.
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