Next Level Church
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Next Level Church is an interdenominational Christian church located in the suburb of Matthews, NC, near Charlotte, NC. Public worship services began on September 11th 2005 at Community House Middle School, with Dan Southerland as lead pastor. In November of 2006 Todd Hahn transitioned into the role of lead pastor and Dan Southerland remained (and is still currently) on staff.
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[edit] History
Next Level Church initially began meeting as a launch team in January of 2005 at Park Church South in Lancaster, SC. Meetings were on Sunday nights and drew a crowd of around 40 people. The church held its first public worship service on Sunday morning September 11th, 2005 in the gymnasium of Community House Middle School located in the Ballantyne area of Charlotte[1]. Due to damage done to the wooden gym floor Next Level Church's lease was terminated in July of 2006. The search for a new location yielded a campus with three buildings, 16 acres, and another church named Tri County Community Church (TC3) located in Matthews, NC which was meeting weekly on Sunday nights. Next Level Church met in the Matthews facility[2] for the first time on August 20, 2006. TC3 and Next Level are currently in the process of merging into a single congregation.
[edit] Mission & Values
Next Level Churches stated mission is to "Encourage people to take the next step in their relationship with God." (citation needed)
The three core values of of Next Level are:[3]
- Living Life Together
- Giving Ourselves Away
- Connecting Disconnected People
[edit] Organization & Structure
[edit] Staff Team
- Todd Hahn - Lead Pastor
- Dan Southerland - Teaching Pastor
- Mark Gillming - Executive Pastor
[edit] Vision Team
The vision team serves an advisory role especially with financial and other big picture matters. It consists of three members of the staff team (Todd Hahn, Mark Gillming, Dan Southerland) and three lay members including Glenn Wagner who is a former vice-president of the Promise Keepers organization and also the former pastor of Calvary Church (Charlotte). His tenure there was cut short due to charges of plagiarism. Wagner admitted that he used sermons that were not his own, although he claimed that they were used with the permission of the authors.[4] He resigned from his position there in September, 2004[5] and currently works through his leadership development company FutureLead[6]. Glenn has written nine books including: The Church You’ve Always Wanted, Escape From Church, Inc., and The Heart of a Godly Man. The other two lay members of the vision team are Tim Cool and Jay Johnson.
[edit] Church Planting
Next Level planted one church in November 2006 known as The Journey which meets within a few miles of uptown Charlotte. The lead pastor is Mark Griffith.
On January 28 of 2007 Next Level planted Element, a church led by Brian Phipps, along with Bill Babson and Frank Hamrick in the Southwest suburbs of Charlotte. Element had an attendance of approximately 330 on their first Sunday of public worship services.[7]
[edit] References
- ^ White, R. "Taking Faith to the Next Level" Charlotte Weekly, page 2s, September 1, 2005.
- ^ Moseley, D. "Music Instructor Takes His Talents To Church" The Charlotte Observer, January 28, 2007
- ^ http://www.nextlevelchurch.org/index.cfm?SECTION=932
- ^ Suzanne Sataline; "That Sermon You Heard on Sunday May Be From The Web" The Wall Street Journal; Eastern edition; Nov 15, 2006; A.1;
- ^ AP; "Pastor resigns, admits to plagiarizing sermons" Deseret News, September 11, 2004
- ^ http://www.FutureLead.org
- ^ Valle, K. "New church starting at Ayrsley theater" The Charlotte Observer, January 25, 2007
