Substance is officially five years old but it really has taken off in the last year.  About a month ago they went multi-site by adding a 10:30 am service at Northwestern College in addition to their standard location at Fridley High School.  In their first service at Northwestern they had 500 people in attendance and of those only about 100 had ever been to a Substance service prior.  After 4 weeks the audience at Northwestern has grown to over 800.

I have attended a few different types of events over the last month and each have had a large turnout of members & visitors that show the same passion, friendship and commitment to building community that is quite impressive.  The pastoral staff, led by Pastor Peter Haas, truly encourages everyone to step forward and be a leader.  They have the support systems and training to help members be successful and lead.  It is an amazing group to look at both from how to build a successful organization as well as develop the next generation of leaders.

Since first hearing about Substance I have started listening and am surprised how many times it has started to come up in conversations with other young professionals already involved in the Twin Cities community.  It is gaining great momentum and overall membership is approaching 3,000.  I encourage you to listen for others who mention Substance and check it out if you have an interest.  You can find out more about their sub groups at http://www.beingsubstance.com or about the church itself at http://www.substancechurch.com.  The website includes both video and podcasts of sermons as well as details on their next sermon series which starts this weekend – “When Life Gives You Lemons”

Featured Upcoming Events:

Torch Community Building

Wednesday, October 7th – 5:30 – 8:00 @ International Market Square ($25)
Torch Community is a new organization focused on connecting young and young thinking professionals into community around three values: career development, diversity and inclusion, and social responsibility.