COMPELLED BY CHRIST’S

WORK IN OUR LIVES, WE

ARE PASSIONATE ABOUT

SEEING THOUSANDS OF

PEOPLE IN OUR COMMUNITY

FIND JESUS...PEOPLE WHO

HAVE WRITTEN OFF CHURCH

AS BORING, IRRELEVANT,

AND JUDGMENTAL.

WE EXIST TO SEE PEOPLE COME TO CHRIST AND GROW IN CHRIST. THE

PEOPLE OF EMMANUEL HAVE EMBRACED THIS MISSION-THIS

RELENTLESS PURSUIT-AND CONTINUE TO INVITE FAMILY, FRIENDS,

CO-WORKERS, AND NEIGHBORS TO CHURCH.

IN THE PAST 5 YEARS EMMANUEL HAS TRIPLED IN SIZE, BUT MORE

IMPORTANTLY, THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE HAVE HAD THEIR FOREVERS

CHANGED. WE THANK GOD FOR EACH PERSON WHO WALKS THROUGH

OUR DOORS. WE ARE COMPELLED TO SHARPEN THIS VISION GOD HAS

SO CLEARLY CALLED US TO, BY DEVELOPING MORE AND MORE

OPPORTUNITIES FOR PEOPLE TO HEAR THE GOSPEL, AND THEN

CREATING NEWER AND BETTER ENVIRONMENTS WHERE THEIR FAITH

CAN FLOURISH.

ATTENDANCE

danny anderson

The people of Emmanuel responded to the vision and weekly attendance triples within the first 5 years.

GROWTHEmmanuel initiates the first two phases of Relentless Pursuit - expanding the auditorium and children’s wing (RP1) and undergoing a complete lobby/e-cafe remodel (RP2).

Danny Anderson becomes senior pastor in 2006. The vision of “Seeing People Come to Christ and Grow in Christ” is born.

LOCATIONS

BUILDING MOMENTUM

Based on demographic studies, the leadership chooses a location north of Greenwood for the first multisite, identifying that over 900 attendees commute from that area.Emmanuel launches its first multisite in 2013, ourBanta Campus.

EASTEREaster 2014 hits a record with over 5,900 in attendance.

Emmanuel continues to build momentum, reaching 85% capacity during the prime weekend service hour. The leadership formulates a new plan in an effort to solve the space dilemma. As opposed to once again expanding the current space, the multisite approach is researched and eventually agreed upon as a next step.

GROUPS

THE GOSPEL

Emmanuel makes astrategic decision to become a church of groups vs. a church with groups, determinedly changing the course of over 1,000 people’s spiritual journeys. Circles are better than rows.

BANTABanta is effective in ministering to its community and experiences growth with attendance currently averaging over 700.

At the beginning of 2014, Danny begins sharing the Gospel every weekend. As a result, 1,009 people accepted Christ in 2014.

“I don’t really have a tragic story of any type; I was just trying to be a supportive father to my two daughters…My oldest daughter has a boy-friend. His sister went to Emmanuel. My daughter ended up going two or three times and every time she would come home and say, ‘Dad, I’d love for you to come down to this church.’ Church wasn’t really part of my life. I’m not anti-church or anything like that, I usually have something better to do. But, being a supportive dad, she asked me a few times and I said, ‘Sure.’ We came and I was really interested in what Danny had to say. So, I thought I’d come back the next Sunday. And from there I really got to thinking about God and about Jesus Christ. I found myself wanting to come to church on Sundays. On Nov 8, 2009, service was about to end and Danny asked people if they want to accept Christ. I felt like I should; I felt like I needed to take that step. I followed the prayer, and I can tell you at the exact moment that I prayed that prayer, I felt a physical relief. I assumed that was just my relief knowing I don’t ever have to have this question of faith again. Nick, my daughter’s boyfriend was just doing what he was supposed to do by inviting someone to church. And it snowballed from there and I’m thrilled that it has.” -Sean, 2010

“It’s been five years since I’ve prayed that prayer. In the last five years, I feel like I’ve become a better husband…and I felt like I was a pretty good husband before that! I was a pretty good guy, I thought, before I accepted Christ. But now, God has given me a direction and a path. When I made that decision five years ago, the church program was called Relentless Pursuit and since then I’ve written two names on the stage that haven’t made the decision yet, and that’s something I’m still working on. It wasn’t called, ‘we’re going to try really hard for a little while pursuit’. It was Relentless Pursuit, meaning I will be relentlessly pursuing those two names until they are in.” -Sean, 2014

Sean is a great picture of our vision – someone pursued him to get him here and he accepted Christ. Now he is on a Relentless Pursuit to see the people in his life make that same life-changing decision. This is why we exist. This is why we will keep going. So that thousands of people like Sean and his friends, family, and co-workers will experience Christ and have their lives and forevers changed.

HOW

WILL WE

CONTINUE

TO FULFILL

OUR VISION?

BECOME A CHURCH OF GROUPS

We believe spiritual growth happens best within the context of intentional relationships where questions can be answered, community can be built, and the practicality of the Bible can intersect with our daily lives. As much as we love the rows in the weekend service environment, we know that small groups or ‘circles’ are where these intentional relationships and transformations take place. In the next 2 years, we want the question on every person’s lips to be, “Are you in a group?” We know that the best way we can effectively help such a large group of people grow spiritually is for the small group leaders to help us develop new leaders who are passionate and prepared to lead new groups. This will create a culture where the idea of group is not just something we expect our people to participate in, but rather, something that is part of our very DNA. In other words, if you say that Emmanuel is your church, you’re part of a group environment.

expand practical needs efforts

LOCALLYContinue to partner with our supported ministries - such as The Refuge, Shepherd Community, and Wheeler Mission - and identify additional opportunities for special projects in the community.

GLOBALLYIdentify special projects within our 3 global partnerships - SMI Haiti Hope Road Nicaragua Exodo Church in Columbia- and discover new potential global partners.

OU

R CO

MMUNITY OUR WO

RLD

raise the value of serviceAs believers, we are to become more like Christ, and in John 13, Jesus grabbed a towel and washed the disciples' feet in order to show them He came as a servant. Then, He told them in verse 15, "For I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you." Emmanuel Church would not exist without our volunteers! There are so many opportunities to be a part of the weekend – from leading a children’s small group to handing out cups of coffee to running a camera. God wants to use our talents to glorify Him! He doesn’t need our help, but He allows us to be part of His church by serving and giving of our time. Our belief is that as people choose to serve, the impact of that service will truly change lives!

We will continue to stress the importance of grabbing a towel, knowing that serving also creates connection to the church, which instills a sense of community and ownership. Our strategy will include addressing serving opportunities from the platform, within student ministries, and as part of each of our small group environments on a consistent basis. As Banta and Greenwood continue to grow and as we launch more campuses where God leads, we will need hundreds more people who are willing to grab a towel and start serving!

500 600 700 800 900 1,000

people serving

reach more people with the gospel

Emmanuel currently has 3 major global partnersministering in Nicaragua, Haiti, and Colombia. Our hope for the future is to do more in our current partnerships and also expand our international reach into Africa. Our heart is to meet the physical needs of the impoverished while also enduring to share the eternal love of Jesus with all. Our strategy is working! We’ve seen churches planted, the message of the Gospel being shared, and hundreds of forevers changed. We are confident that the seeds that have been planted will grow and, as a result, those ministries will reach more and more people with the life-changing message of Christ! Our approach will be to send more funds as well as more teams of people from Emmanuel to carry out the great work.

GLOBALLY

reach more people with the gospel

With our vision of multisite realized with two campuses (Banta/Greenwood) and the belief that this approach is what works best for our church, we are compelled to reach even more communities with the Emmanuel Experience, so we can introduce them to Jesus. Because of this, the development of the next multisite campus weaves itself into the fabric of our future.

Our attendance keeps increasing year after year, putting us on target to be reaching 5,000+ by 2016. Each multisite we launch creates a solution where we can give people in all of our surrounding communities the Emmanuel Experience in their own backyard.

God is leading us to seek opportunities for a multisite in Franklin! Much like when we launched Banta, from our research we know that hundreds of our current attendees travel from Franklin and its neighboring communities to attend Emmanuel. We are excited to

pursue this leading, expectantly moving forward with the urgency God has given us to reach even

more people with the Gospel, allowing that community a chance to invite their co-workers, neighbors and loved ones to an Emmanuel Experience at a close location.

locally

god’s leading

WHY MULTISITE WORKS

We believe God is calling us to partner with Him to reach the hundreds of thousands of people in the surrounding communities. The way we will accomplish this mission is through our multisite strategy.

This simply means taking the same Emmanuel Experience and DNA and setting it down in a new location. What we’ve discovered is that, while many of our guests may travel to one of our locations for a special service or accept an invitation, they most likely will not become regular attendees or start to invite their own friends unless the campus is 15 minutes or less from their house.

• The capacity to be a 1,000-person solution. • Live worship, full children’s programming, a coffee bar, and small groups. • Life-size, high-quality, HD video presentation of the weekly message (called “virtual teaching”). • Several of the same staff and volunteers. • The same goal: To see people come to Christ and grow in Christ.

A MULTISITE CHURCH IS ONE CHURCH

WITH MULTIPLE LOCATIONS.

Our future campuses will have:

MULTISITE ALLOWS US TO :

• Reach more people, expanding our impact to more of the surrounding communities.• Make seats available at our prime hour (11:15am) for guests at multiple locations.

God has given Emmanuel an incredible vision, and we are committed to empowering our people to help us fulfill this vision for His glory. We ask that you consider giving of your financial resources and your time - by joining a group, serv-ing at Emmanuel or one of our local community outreaches, or visiting a global partner on a missions trip.

As always, continue to INVITE YOUR FRIENDS to Emmanuel! There are so many unchurched or de-churched people all around us – people who have written off God as boring and irrelevant! Thankfully, God is allowing us to once again expand our reach and offer an experience where people’s expectations are shattered and barriers are broken! Partner with us as we take His message of hope to the lost.