Starting Point

This Sunday will be the last opportunity to connect into a Starting Point group this year. If you are interested in learning more about Starting Point, we would love to talk to you at one of our three orientations this Sunday, November 18, at 10:15 a.m., 12:15 p.m., or 7:15 p.m.

Over 425 people have participated in Starting Point groups through Buckhead Church this year! While numbers can be exciting, they do not begin to tell the story of Starting Point. Erin is one of the 425 people who experienced a Starting Point group in 2007. Here is Erin’s story:

Growing up my family was a “go to church when we could or when a holiday rolled around” kind of family. We were told to be Christians, but never practiced it at home. I attended Catholic and Christian schools on and off until high school, and even then, I wasn’t really in it with my heart.

I spent the last 15 years as an adult simply relying on myself and my own moral code, wondering if there really was a God above, an afterlife, heaven, etc. I had so many questions and did not know where to turn for accurate, unbiased answers. I went down a road that I shouldn’t have gone down, because I had no faith in anything outside of myself. The last few years I could tell that something was bothering me deep inside and that something was missing spiritually from my life. I had even been looking at other faiths outside the Christian faith to see if I felt some sort of connection at all, and it wasn’t until I started attending Buckhead Church, cautiously, that I felt a real stirring in my soul to explore the Christian faith that I had been away from for so many years. I signed up for Starting Point about eight weeks after I first came to hear Andy Stanley speak. The one continuous theme I heard from his messages week after week was to “LEAN INTO GOD . . . not away from him,” and I just knew I wanted to learn more.

I went into the experience telling my friends that I was going to remain completely open-minded about it, because I knew that the curriculum would be slanted so far toward what Buckhead Church wanted me to know. I was afraid I would be judged by other people in the group that might have been further along spiritually, and I couldn’t have been more wrong about either scenario. The information was simply presented for exploration and I was free to choose it or not. I felt completely accepted by every single member of my group. We all helped each other every Sunday by digging deep and opening up about our experiences. I made connections I never dreamed of and Starting Point really jump-started my faith and desire to learn and know more about God’s plan for my life.

I am thankful for Starting Point. It has forever changed my life for the better.

Erin Thruston

If you would like to learn more about Starting Point, we would love to meet you at one of our orientations this Sunday in the Starting Point space on the first floor!

Steve Giddens
Director of Group Life

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