Troy Gramling is the creative visionary of Potential Church, formally known as Flamingo Road Baptist Church. I met Troy shortly after Church Unique was released when his leadership team attended a Church Unique Workshop. In the years following, Troy continues to lean into their uniqueness and pushes the envelope with bold creativity and shock-and-awe vision.Here are four ways that that Potential Church models the principles of Church Unique:
#1 Potential Church let's their Kingdom Concept shine through their mission. The big idea is unmistakable as it is repeated clearly and boldly everywhere the church speaks. The church's mission is to partner with people so they can reach their God potential. In addition, on 10-10-10 the church made the single word of their Kingdom Concept the church's name—Potential. If you had to fill this sentence in with one word for your church, what would it be: "Our church exists to glorify God and make disciples by _______________."
#2 Potential Church communicates vision visually. The pink seed is their defining symbol. The seed is a picture of potential as the video story (below) of their name change and vision communicates. The pink pulls from the "Flamingo" of their heritage as Flamingo Road Baptist Church, and sets the tone for creativity and the unexpected in worship. A few highly creative and uber relevant sermons series that Troy has done include: The Bed, RationaLies, and a very edgy series called Spin The Bottle. How many churches have dealt with questions like, "Is it okay to watch porn with my wife?"
#3 Potential Church keeps their strategy simple. Actually for a gigachurch (over 10,000 in attendance) it is one of the simplest you will find. In addition to worship at one of six campuses, you will find only "three doorways" for further involvement.. The most important is Connect Groups. In addition to groups, they have a monthly event called Next Step and Volunteering. Check out their guest brochure here.#4 When you cast vision, stretch minds with audacious faith. The mind-stretch is one of the six elements of a simple and dynamic tool called the Vision Casting Spider Diagram. Potential Church has raised the bar here. Just when you thought a gigachurch was big, how about going terachurch! They are looking to a day when 100,000 people attend worship. Specifically its the 50-100-150 vision; 50 campuses with 100,000 people with a 150 million dollar budget.
Don't get distracted with the size. Go back to the one word. What's your potential? What's your one word?