The Zone Gathering

NCC adds staff faster than Pastor Mark creates new words. So today, we leave the zone team to shine the spotlight on our newest staff member, David Russell. David and his wife Missy joined our team in early 2006 when they answered God’s call to leave Sweet Home Alabama and move to DC. The first words David ever said to me (after the obligatory first greetings and pleasantries) were, “I don’t know if you are an Alabama or Auburn fan, but all I can say is ‘War Eagle.’” I liked them immediately.

David is the kind of person who understands the superiority of SEC football, seeks the source of good sweet tea, and knows the correct spelling of the word y’all. That makes him a great guy in my book.

Today, we caught up with David to talk about life, ministry, and British comedy.

How long have you attended NCC? What brought you to NCC?
I’ve attended NCC for three months. Last Summer, Pastor Dave called me asking about a domain name that I owned. Pastor Mark had been brainstorming some ideas for NCC and wanted to secure the domain that I had already secured for myself. I love being on that side of a deal. But I really wasn’t interested in selling, so I politely declined. Over the course of the next couple of months, Pastor Mark stumbled across my personal blog–somehow. He sent an email that began the conversation that ultimately led to our arrival here.

Tell us a little about the small groups that you have lead and how that experience has impacted you.

Wow. Quite a question! In 2002, I had my first experience in a small group based church, Church of the Highlands in Birmingham. The church launched in 2001 and for most of its life, Highlands’ small group attendance has been greater than Sunday service attendance! After joining the Highlands college service worship band, I felt God urging me to launch a small group on the campus of the University of Montevallo where I was involved in my undergraduate studies. I partnered with three other like-minded UM students from Highlands and we launched journey, a weekly gathering of God-chasers determined to impact Montevallo with God’s love. Though we expected to build a simple eight- to ten-person small group, 19 people showed up to the first meeting. We quickly modified our strategy to incorporate a larger group and by the end of the first semester over 50 people were attending journey each week. As leaders, we could only marvel at God’s favor. Students who once struggled against the temptations of college life found a home and strength through God and the fellowship of other Christians. It was a great place for group members to bring their unsaved friends—much less daunting than a church and free pizza once a month. It was amazing to see the exponential results of a simple decision to stand for God and follow His call to action. Later that first semester, we developed a small group micro-network through journey in order to keep things “small” and allow spiritual enrichment to continue at that level. Needless to say, my experience at Highlands through journey was a major factor in my decision to work in full-time ministry.

Where can you be found on Sunday mornings?

Union Station - Where can you be found? Oh, sorry. Forgot I can’t ask back. Or can I?

When did you start following Christ and what have been some of the spiritual turning points in your life?
I found Jesus at quite a young age—five. In high school, my faith was challenged significantly through friendship choices (you are who you hang with) and I found a great revival of heart in the summer before my senior year. College life was certainly was no picnic, but God was able to strengthen me through the positive friendships I had made.

If there was ever a moment in my life where God burned in my heart a call to compel others to salvation, it was on March 3, 2001. Convoy of Hope anchored in Montgomery for an inner-city outreach to the poor and hopeless.

I have one memory of that day that is still so vibrant, as though it is happening even now. I saw a family whose physical hunger had been cured by the Convoy, but whose spiritual hunger had yet to be nourished. In the final prayer tent, the father led the family to the altar of repentance and the course of their spiritual lives changed forever. It was in that moment that I knew God wanted me to fulfill His Commission through full-time ministry.

My ultimate blessing came during my senior year in college. I met my wonderful, beautiful wife Missy. We pledged our love and life to one another on Valentine’s Day 2004. Our story is pretty darn romantic too! Ask me for the overview. Ask her for the details.

Tell us a little about your background.

I was born in Montgomery, Alabama on March 4, 1981. It’s the only date of the year that is also a sentence. “March forth.” Right. Fourth, forth. It’s always good to start your day with a homophone.

My family lives in Orlando, Florida. My dad, Grady Russell, pastors First Assembly of God in Winter Garden. Dad has been an incredible spiritual leader and precedent setter in our family. By far, his influence has made the greatest impact in my life. His leadership ability is admirable and contagious.

My mom, Joyce, is the creative type. She grew up in a pastor’s home and she’s gifted artistically through music and design. She is such a wonderful example of a godly wife and mother.

Jennifer, my older sister, is also gifted musically and leads worship for the church in Winter Garden. She recently found love (and a husband) in Keith Hudson. He’s a cool brother-in-law, too.

My brother Jonathan is the youngest in the Russell fam. Jon is in the Air National Guard and plays bass guitar. He also likes to fish for bass, but not while he’s playing bass. Bass without the bass. It’s always good to learn a new heteronym around lunchtime.

I graduated from the University of Montevallo in 2003 with a degree in Speech Communications (emphasis Rhetorical Studies).

What is your favorite Scripture passage?

I love passages that deal with God’s view of us and His plan for us. Jeremiah 29:11 I also love the book of Psalms for its proclamation of love to God through song.

What are your favorite books?

The Bible is awesome. I like all 66 books including Leviticus. Also, I generally love all of the books from my favorite authors:

• Christian Living
• C.S. Lewis
• Watchman Nee
• John Ortberg
• Rob Bell
• Craig Groeschel
• Leadership
• John Maxwell
• Jim Collins
• Erwin McManus
• Bill Hybels
• Malcolm Gladwell
• Ed Young
• Andy Stanley
• Productivity
• David Allen
• Web Industry
• Dan Cederholm
• Andy Budd
• Jeffrey Zeldman
• Molly Holzschlag

What are your favorite movies?

• The Passion of the Christ
• The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
• Back to the Future Trilogy
• The Bourne Trilogy
• Monty Python and the Holy Grail
• War Games
• The Italian Job
• Oceans Eleven
• Catch Me if You Can

What is your favorite fast food?

Chick-fil-a

What is something that most people at NCC would not know about you?I love everything about Great Britain. I love British Comedy (like Red Dwarf, Fawlty Towers and Yes, Prime Minister). My first car was a 1970 MGB GT. I am a British car nut and I love going to car shows and meetups. One day, I hope to own another MG, or an Austin Healey or Triumph TR6. It’s kind of a closet obsession with England really. I have never been, but would love to vacation there someday. I owe Missy a trip to the Carribean first. There are a couple of other funny, mostly geeky things that I’m into that most people (other than Missy) don’t know about. But I won’t let you in on even one of those. Cartography.

Tell us a little about your day job. What is your dream job?

Throughout the day, I manage the digital communication of NCC—the website, video and audio podcasting and internal electronic communication. I also work closely with Pastor Dave supporting the current IT infrastructure at the office and brainstorming new solutions to old issues. My dream job is managing the digital communication of a cutting-edge church that meets in movie theaters at metro stops in Washington, DC. But seriously, I love what I do right now. And it’s what I dream about. Truthfully, I love my job! In fact, it’s not a job at all; it’s an honor doing what I do to serve God and NCC. If I was forced to answer the question with any other answer, I’d say that my dream job would be one of several things:

• Conversationalist.
• Designing cars for Ferrari.
• Reviewing/critiquing systems, business processes, organizational communications or restaurants.
• Quality control.
• User experience designer.
• Professional blogger.
• Professional reader or learner.
• Professional guitar player. (But with normal paychecks, like regular people get.)

Who is your hero? You can’t say “Jesus” or any other member of the Trinity.

There are so many heroes of the faith represented in Scripture and in the modern day that I would love to use. Very difficult question.

I love David because he had some major, major issues to overcome and yet he was a man after God’s own heart. We do share a name and in many ways I identify most strongly with him. He was a musician and worshipper as well. I love the tension over David’s life. The murderous dark quelled by the marvelous Light of God and David’s reckless pursuit of God’s Majesty. I’m no murderer or adulterer, but a liar and a thief are just as sinful in God’s eyes. I was guilty of those and a few others. David’s redemption is ultimately no more miraculous than my own. Or yours.

My modern day hero would be my dad—for all the reasons that a dad should be a hero and for so many more. He inspired me to live out the call of God and he has faced Goliath like no one else I know.

What do you do in your free time?

I hope the point of these questions is to prove how much of a geek I am. You are successful in doing just that.

I enjoy coding websites from scratch using web standards to achieve good syntax and accessible content. I also enjoy photographing things, reading technology and web periodicals, reading books on leadership, productivity, technology or web design and development and listening to music and podcasts. I read no fiction, except for Robert Ludlum’s Bourne series. I’m not a huge entertainment buff (hence my disdain for fiction), but I am hopelessly addicted to Lost and I have almost every episode of The Andy Griffith Show on DVD. When Don Knotts (”Barney Fife”) recently died, I almost cried. I’m also an avid blogger and blog reader and host my own podcast. I try to get an hour or two of guitar in per week as well.

In NCC:THE MOVIE who would play you? Who would play Pastor Mark?

Matt Damon in the style of Jason Bourne from the Bourne trilogy and Tom Hanks in the style Carl Hanratty from Catch Me if You Can. Respectively.

The goofy way would be David Spade and Chris Farley from Tommy Boy …respectively. …sir.

What is your favorite Pastor Markism?

Not enough job security yet to answer this one. Plus I don’t want to dig any deeper than that last response.

Peace out.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 23rd, 2006 at 5:37 pm and is filed under Spotlights, Staff. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.