Metro Church Pastor Leads The ‘Generation Of Today’

Andy Swart leads a Rogers Church with a large focus on the millennial generation.

Swart is lead pastor at Metro Church in Rogers, which he launched in February 2008.

“Our mission is to love Jesus, love others, no bull,” Swart said.

When researching to start the church, he discovered that “18- to 30-year-olds were the leastchurched demographic in the U.S.”

“I thought, ‘If I’m goingto build the church of tomorrow, I’ve got to reach the generation of today,’” he said.

Swart said some people ranging from age 18 to 30 are either dechurched or unchurched. Dechurched means they grew up in the church at some point and then walked away, and unchurched are those whohave not been to church. If people are looking for a church or a community of Christian believers, “authenticity was the number one trait they were looking for in a church.” Swart noted that he finds the millennial generation to be really skeptical and “mistrust spiritual leadership.” Swart’s church approach is that, “We’re not perfect people,” he said, but they are honest about their struggles.

“All of our ministry leaders don’t have it all fi gured out,” he said. “We believe that Jesus does.”

Swart added that thechurch wants to make the services, teaching and songs about Jesus.

“For us, it’s all about Jesus,” Swart said.

Donovan Golden, mission pastor at Metro Church, said in an email it is evident that Swart’s relationship with Jesus is most important, followed by his love and commitment to his family and then the ministry.

“His goal is to make Jesus famous in our community by empowering the people of the Metro to do ministry in their neighborhoods,” Golden said.

MINISTRY JOURNEY

Swart has a family connection in the ministry. His father has been a pastor for 40 years. Swart said he grew up in a strong Christian family in east Dallas. The family moved to Conway the summer before his junior year of high school. He became a Christian himself while he was playing college football at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway, he said. Once he became a Christian, Swart said, it became crystal clear to him that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with a career in ministry.

After attending UCA, he went to a small Baptist seminary in east Texas. He then worked in southern Baptist churches in Texas for six years and was ordained in one of those churches. Swart and his wife Carman moved to Northwest Arkansas in 2006, and he became the senior pastor at First BaptistChurch in Cave Springs. While he was at this church, he felt the call to plant a church and left First Baptist in mid-2007. He assembled a group of 15 people to start Metro Church, which has now grown to between 250 and 300 members. The fi rst service was at the Clarion in Bentonville, which has since closed. The church has moved to a few diff erent locations, and it has been in its current Rogers location for two and a half years.

The average age in the church is 25, and the core members are singles and young families, he said. There are also members in their 40s, 50s and 60s.

The church currently has two worship services on Sunday mornings, and Swart is hoping to move up to three. He said the church is “big on the Bible,” so the services are oriented around the teachings from the Bible.

“We say that we’re putting the ‘fun’ back in fundamentalism,” Swart said.

The church staff loves the theology and teachings of old hymns, but they also remix these and write some of their own arrangements so they are culturally relevant to today’s music.

Seth Stamps, treasurer and deacon at Metro Church, said in an email that Swart’s approach to ministry is a very outward one.

“He truly believes that the church is not made up of four walls, but that it’s made up of the people in our church. It’s all of our jobs to take the Gospel into our communities, workplace, etc.,” Stamps said.

“One of Andy’s main goals is to equip the people of our congregation to take the Gospel into a dark world and to be light to those around us,” Stamps continued. “Andy truly believes lives are radically changed by the Gospel, and you can see that by the way he studies it, teaches it and lives it out.”LEADERSHIP, TRANSPARENCY

Swart has a pastoral staff of four men, and his predominant roles are preaching and teaching. He said he does 80 to 90 percent of the teaching on Sundays, along with leadership development. He spends time mentoring and coaching the church leaders on doing more lecture-style leadership. Swart oversees every part of the church, from administration to organization to community life, which is the church’s small group ministry.

Golden said he doesn’t believe anyone could “do a better job at leading a church plant than Andy.”

“His commitment, perseverance and love for Jesus is what propels the Metro to be on mission. He has grown immensely over the last five years and keeps a humble attitude, knowing that he still has room to learn and grow,” Golden said.

Golden grows “more impressed by his leadership every day.” Golden said Swart is very good at seeing where the church needs to go and then finding those people to help the church get there. He added that Swart is very smart, wellread and leads by example. Swart also keeps “big things big and small things small.”

“He has prioritized his lifein such a way that prevents burnout, bitterness or any of the other poor byproducts of being worked too hard,” Golden said.

Stamps added that Swart is very passionate, transparent and outspoken.

“How he comes across from the stage is exactly how he is in his everyday life,” Stamps said.

Swart said his favorite aspect of being lead pastor is seeing people come to know Jesus, discovering how God is goodness and love and watching them have an authentic relationship with Jesus.

“That is by far the greatest joy I have as a pastor,” he said.

Religion, Pages 8 on 12/28/2013

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