North Point Church, Springfield, MO
Jenny, Taylor, Tucker and I had the privilege of going to North Point Church yesterday! We decided on Saturday night that we would go because it was a different denomination than ours, we have heard good things, but really the deciding factor was the noon service! Everyone got up earlier than expected, so we decided to go to the 10:30 service. I have passed by the church on the highway going to the airport, but had not actually driven to the location. I thought you could go to the Chestnut Expressway/Airport exit, turn right immediately, to get to the outer road. . . I was wrong. There weren’t any signs that we saw, but we continued as you would go to Willard. We decided to turn right on Farm Road 123, at Evergreen Church (backup church if we were too late, couldn’t get in, etc.) and followed that road and just see where it might lead. It ends up winding around and ending right in front of North Point!
Their parking lot greeters were GREAT! Smiling and welcoming us with a big “Good Morning” and wave. We went in and got Tucker checked in after having a lady from the Hospitality Desk walk us to the nursery check-in. We left Tucker with them, took our security number, and headed to the sanctuary.
Visiting churches with children is pretty much a beating, we decided. (If it isn’t a beating, it sure isn’t as easy if it was just adults!) Taylor, our 5 year old Kindergarten student, rethought his initial “deal” with mommy the night before to be her “undercover agent” for the children’s ministry! Just too much sensory overload with a pretty busy lobby, didn’t know anyone, kind of shy kid anyway. . . so we got to take him into the service with us. He actually did really good . . . he loves worship and therefore loved the band.
When we got into the sanctuary, there was an usher asking how many in our party. He then sent us down to the next aisle down, where another usher pointed us toward the front, where a final usher was at the row ushering us to our seats. I was quite impressed indeed. Well oiled machine. I know that stuff like that doesn’t just happen. . . especially on a Sunday that weather and power outages could have kept many people, and workers away.
The worship was very good. The transitions were excellent from element to element. You could tell it was something they probably worked on a lot. At the first transition, the pastor showed his humor in saying, “welcome to North Point Church, powered by the Spirit of God, and a big honkin’ generator out back!” Sweet line in the midst of a very difficult time of power outages all around that north side of Springfield. Then he tells us that if you are a first time guest, you can go by the Hospitality Center and get a Viewmaster with pictures of the church and the people. No way!! Yeah, it is cool, and a conversational piece sitting in my office!! What a cool idea!
Then the parents’ worst fear. . . NURSERY # 74712 flashed as big as possible on the screen. Tucker Liam was not happy to be at North Point, it seemed! So I set Taylor down, put my head down as to not make eye contact with anyone, and headed back to rescue Tucker from his fit. Again, the usher was really cool as I asked if it was alright to bring Tucker into the service. . . “oh, you bet.” I missed the offering as I was out getting Tucker, but Jenny said “they just skipped us.” Don’t know if that was on purpose because we looked like guests, but interesting. Taylor was all freaked out that we weren’t ready for the offering. . . getting into mommy’s purse to give to the offering. Funny, even the 5 year old knows what is going down when we break out the plate (or buckets in this case)!
Pastor Tommy’s message was absolutely great! God couldn’t have brought a better message topic to tie into Regeneration and what God has been teaching me lately! They are in the middle of a series called “The Winning Hand”– series based on cards. Really cool. . . definitely not a Baptist series, ha! The message was “Learning to Read the Cards,” based on Nehemiah 1-4. His transparency came through as he read excerpts from his journal as they were getting ready to plant the church 3 years ago. His passion, humor, and care for his people was really refreshing to see! It was nice to hear, “great, Tommy. 6 points from Nehemiah. . . great story . . . but what about for me. . . tomorrow . . . in my life.” APPLICATION of Scripture!! One of our core values. And then to top it all off. . . they handed out a jack of hearts playing card with the series art on the back to each person leaving the sanctuary! A memory devise to carry around, put up in front of you, etc. . . . awesome!
On the subject of graphic arts, of which I am a self-proclaimed graphic arts nerd. . . really nice pieces. The graphics used with the worship were subtle, but nice. They had banners in the sanctuary that were five playing cards to go along with each sermon. The “bulletin” was a normal size piece of paper–full color. . . very nice. The informational piece for guests was really well done as well.
Overall, I think it was a great visit for us. It was a good exercise in what it feels like to be a guest. If I weren’t so sure of my calling at Finley Crossings, and lived a bit closer, I would definitely put them on the top of my list of relevant churches that I would love to be a part of. You can’t argue with their unbelievable growth as well as their outreach into the community. Thank you North Point Church for a great visit!
January 23rd, 2007 at 9:37 am
Now you can see why I enjoyed going there so much! A great place to be involved. And yes, if God hadn’t planted me at CFC, and it were closer, it is a great place to call a church home. I’m glad to hear your visit was so good. Makes me proud to have been a part. And for the nursery, we really try to keep them settled, but we don’t want visitors to come pick up their children who have red-rimmed eyes and runny noses from crying! We try!!! :0) You know I’m just kidding.
January 31st, 2008 at 3:39 pm
can you tell me what denomation north point church is?? i am having trouble finding any in depth info!! thanks a million..
ameygirl88@yahoo.com
February 8th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
I have a friend that was inviting to NPC, but very quickly found that he was not about to attend this Church. He stated he somehow got on there mailing list and called NPC to have it stopped. Not only did it not stop but when he called back to try to get it stopped he was treated rudely. Even though I think this is his excuse not to attend any church and believe God is working on this young man. The flyers he receives it the mail should stop. Can someone help with this? Please ? His name is Joseph Gehlbach. My E-mail address is jg4837@earthlink.net I can’t talk to this guy about how good a church this is when this is going on. Thanks so much.
February 9th, 2008 at 9:14 am
Seriously, we did this little experiment of Regeneration OVER A YEAR AGO!! I have no idea why Joseph is still on the mailing list. I am disappointed that he was treated rudely, but I think you ought to chalk it up to a bad day at the least or simply a terrible church on the worst. I am going with the former–as a pastor myself, I hate it when people have a bad experience. But the experience of an individual shouldn’t all fall on his shoulders. It could be that a part time employee didn’t do their job well. I know also as a pastor that CFC isn’t a good fit for everyone. I’m sure Tommy feels the same way about Northpoint. Surely you could find a good church in this area that some have called “Churchville.” I can’t believe that the leadership would willfully want for people to have a BAD experience at their church. For my family and I, back in January of ‘O7 anyway–we had a good experience at a church way on the north side of town, not even in our denomination or tradition (which we went there on purpose to stretch ourselves.) I realize that finding a good church takes a lot of work, but as a pastor–let’s give them a break!! Just my 2 cents.
March 31st, 2008 at 11:05 pm
I attended NPC for 2-1/2 years. What an awesome place. My family and I would still be there had God not called me into the ministry to plant a church during our time there. FYI, NPC is affiliated with the Assemblies of God.
Per the mailing list complaint, NPC mails their fliers to specific households in a handful of zip codes. If you get a mailer unsolicited, this is why. One shouldn’t complain to NPC. Instead, complain to the USPS.
April 27th, 2008 at 8:27 am
I was treated very rudely from the staff of NPC not tommy specifically but by two of the other associate pastors. I have a problem with the purpose driven life i believe that rick Warren denies Christianity by way of works instead of Faith in Jesus Christ IMHO NPC models after the “purpose driven Church” being seeker sensitive anyways i called expressing my concern and one of the pastors called me back told me my “problem” was that i read the KJV version of the Bible and that is why i didn’t get it because he stated drunk kings wrote that version. right. can anyone say apostasy????? how can a professed man of God say such a thing? (wait he’s truly not a man of God) then he proceded to tell me that Pastor tommy was my spiritual leader and not to question him etc… doesn’t the BIble (kjv and other versions say specifically to test people? are we supposed to be spoon fed about everything? i think not!!! I wrote pastor tommy my concern he wrote back saying sorry not seemingly concerned that someone did those things or said those things to me and i knew God was speaking i left and never looked back (praise the Lord)
September 25th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
just a word for the disgruntled former NPC member: You may think that you have the gift of discernment, but it appears from your tone and your comments that you more likely have the very unrighteous gift of dissention. I have seen people like you come to church…not to give and serve…but to critique, and correct. No church is perfect, and NPC is far from it, but they are trying to reach their community for Christ. Perhaps if you spent a little more time praying for them and serving with them, you would find yourself less inclined to try to slander and malign them. By the way, I too am a former NPC member.
December 29th, 2008 at 2:35 am
I’ve been a member for a little better than three years and I’ve heard pastor Tommy say from the pulpit the first bible he read was the king James version and he didn’t have any thing bad to say about it he even said he was only 18 when he became a christian and he understood it just fine which spoke to me because I’m a king James fan.my family and I have been going to baptist churches most of our married life (20 yrs)nothing against baptist churches whatsoever but the day we visited north point our lives began to change. Pastor Tommy is without question the real deal.there is rarely a Sunday that passes when he hasn’t spoke on something i am dealing with or studying myself.i thought i was pretty bible savvy.but man most of his sermons blow me away I’ve learned more in the past 3 years than i have on my own or at other churches in the past ten years.the staff is great if you ask a question they tell it like it is and some people cant handle an honest answer without it being sugar coated but i appreciate the honesty.but above all else in the three years we have been going we have literally seen hundreds of people come to know Christ that doesn’t happen every where.and never have i seen so many people in one church so willing to donate there time and serve there community I’m so proud to be a part of that GO NPC God bless.PS.The youth ministry is phenomenal Troy and Lacy are the best my kids actually love church and have become very active themselves.
April 27th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
We visited North Point for the first time this past Sunday. I agree. The worship experience was wonderful and the entire family was blessed by our visit. I was soooo impressed. We’ll definately go back…next Sunday.
April 29th, 2009 at 8:48 pm
Northpoint is a great church! The preaching is great, music is very contemporary, and there are a lot of ways to get involved…. If you are good looking. If you want to be involved in the music ministry looks a much more important than talent. I know this from experience.
May 3rd, 2009 at 10:53 am
to troy i assure you i am not trying to cause dissent on anyone. How can i not be upset by receiving that information? I am not trying to hinder God’s movement but i really question how “true” people’s experience’s with God are there. Just saying. I tried to serve so it’s funny you should say that i just never got a phone call back , i served at the former churches i attended doing something called adopt a block where we went door to door witnessing for Jesus, i don’t sit back and complain i actually share JEsus Christ as the Holy Spirit leads, don’t assume what you don’t know. I just don’t agree with rick warren or the churches platform and i believe i received this information from the Lord, not man.
May 20th, 2009 at 1:14 am
One thing that grabbed me from the start at NPC, was doing something out of love for Christ, rather than just talking about how much I loved Him, made me see that I was just a hypocrite. Now I focus on helping anyone I can, rather than me going into my prayer closet and asking God to send someone. Now I realize He did send someone,… ME! Just wanted to send a shout-out to my Sibs in Christ!
June 7th, 2009 at 9:27 pm
I have been at Npc since the beginning minus the first month. I have have grown up in the youth group starting at 6th grade. We had recently moved from another springfield church that had hurt us. I was a broken pastors kid that as questioning gods existence. When I stepped into the youth room I knew something wonderful was happening in that place and with the leadership of the church. Pastor Troy has now been my mentor for the past 5 years. He truely loves every single student that walks through our doors. His wife Lacey is amazing along with all the other youth leaders that we have at our facility.I am truely sorry to anyone that had a bad experience at Npc. Our goal is to help the community connect with a god and have a true healthy relationship with him. One of main values is to serve the community that we live in and I believe that our pastors have done a great job with setting up different opportunities each month.
By the way new saturday service at 530
Sunday services still 830 10 1130 and 1.
February 10th, 2010 at 11:15 am
We attended NPC for a year. WE loved the music of course, the preaching was good although not as deep as I would have liked. The reason we are not still there is that it was so big it was just like a business. My son couldn’t get involved int he kids programs because there were so many kids there, most coming to win an xbox or something. We tried to lead a home group and everyone moved away. We didn’t feel like putting a bunch of brand new member or Christians together without any “link” to the church was working. It felt very clique-ish… and we could be gone and no one would ever know. No one knows now. We still get mail and we haven’t been in over a year, yet no calls, nothing. It’s lacking the personal relationships with each other. Great show, but not great fellowship and accountability.
February 10th, 2010 at 10:51 pm
Amanda, Sorry to hear that about not feeling like you can be a part of a church family to call your own. Ironically, I was talking with a colleague today about churches that are lacking in personal relationships. That is something we really strive to do…connect people to the Lord and to each other. However, to their credit, it is really difficult, especially as you begin to grow. I hope you and your family have found another great faith family in Springfield…there are a lot of great churches there.
April 21st, 2010 at 5:06 pm
I would like to know what this church believes. Can’t find it anywhere on their website.
April 24th, 2010 at 2:27 pm
No definitive statements about what the church believes, unfortunately, is by design. It’s all part of the “seeker-sensative” model made popular by Rick Warren. Get them in, don’t offend them with the Gospel, and hopefully they wil stay. It’s a very popular concept fueled by market research in to what people are looking for out of their church experience. The fact is, the research is accurate and if the model is followed it will produce the desired affect. A giant church with very little personal accountability among its congregation completely dominated by “programs” while Christ stands outside the door and knocks the way he did with the luke warm church at Laodicea in Revelation.
April 29th, 2010 at 10:02 am
@ John Huff & bgtf
If you’d like to know what the church believes, it’s on these pages in the “I’m New” and “About Us” sections:
Leadership: http://www.northpointnow.org/pages/page.asp?page_id=41594
Values: http://www.northpointnow.org/pages/page.asp?page_id=41593
There is a video on this page, I’m New: http://www.northpointnow.org/pages/page.asp?page_id=42504
What kind of “definitive statement about what the church believes” are you looking for?