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BYLINE: WALTER WOODS
DATE: May 6, 2005
PUBLICATION: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The (GA)
EDITION: Home; The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
SECTION: Living
PAGE: C1
The Rev. Andy Stanley believes if you're going to build a church in Buckhead, it ought to look like an office building.
North Point Ministries, Stanley's business-casual, Christian mega-congregation in Alpharetta, plans to spread its word to Atlanta's business address by building a $40 million, 3,000-seat sanctuary at Tower Place on Lenox Road.
Services should start late in 2006.
But like the ministry's 83-acre campus in Alpharetta, which looks more like a high school than a worship hall, church leaders wanted a new sanctuary minus the steeple, pipe organ and stained glass.
"We wanted it to look like an office building," said David McDaniel, director of campus expansion at North Point Ministries. "One, because it's in an office park."
More importantly, "having the building look like the office a typical [person] would enter five days a week is right in line with what we're trying to do," he said, adding that's making people feel more at ease about church.
Andy Stanley is the son of Charles Stanley, senior pastor at First Baptist Church Atlanta. Ten years ago, the younger Stanley started his own ministry, offering nondenominational Christian messages, skits and live Christian rock to thousands of young professionals every Sunday.
His three live services in Alpharetta draw about 12,000 people.
In Buckhead, where a branch of the ministry has been holding services in an empty Harris Teeter since Easter 2003, parishioners watch a life-size image of Stanley.
Five Buckhead services bring about 4,000 people, which has the grocery store busting at the seams, and parking is an issue, said Scotland Wright, a founding member of the Buckhead congregation.
Stanley delivers his messages in khakis and golf shirts. His opening act is a live band jamming Christian rock music. The laid-back elements, like the architecture, are designed to put people at ease, McDaniel said.
Many people expect to be uncomfortable during Sunday services -- they don't know when to sing, when to kneel, they don't know the rules -- particularly those who haven't been in a while, McDaniel said.
"We've tried to remove any obstacle, whether it be tradition or whatever, from the experience," he said. "We present Jesus Christ and the New and Old Testament as written but with no other obstacles in the way."
The music is "like what you'd hear on the radio," McDaniel said. "You don't have pipe organ music in your CDs. Why would you subject people to that on Sunday?"
The new 185,000-square-foot sanctuary will have 350 parking spaces, plus a license to use Tower Place's parking.
The church is still working through the Atlanta's permitting process, but the city already has amended its zoning to allow a church to mingle in a mixed use development. The presence of a sanctuary won't change alcohol sales at Tower Place restaurants.
Buckhead is not North Point's only expansion site. The ministry has a 2,000-seat sanctuary under construction in Cumming as well as congregations worshipping in Athens, Peachtree City and Dothan, Ala.
MEGA-OUTREACH
North Point Ministries is building a satellite sanctuary in Buckhead's Tower Place.
Map shows location of church. Inset map outlines area of detail in metro Atlanta. / JEROME THOMPSON / Staff
Graphic
North Point Ministries, based in Alpharetta on an 83-acre campus, plans to begin having services in an "office park"-style church on Lenox Road at Buckhead's Tower Place late next year.
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