A New Voice in a New Church

Some people find their calling in life when it comes to them through a gut feeling. That was the case for Brian McMillan, lead pastor and one of the founders of CenterPoint Church in Bellmore.

"I was driving home from a road trip and I felt God said to me to give up the pursuit of a business life and step out into vocational ministry," he said. "When I got home, I told my Mom and she started to cry. She said, 'I felt that for you for a while, but I thought you would laugh at me.' I knew through her tears I was right."

CenterPoint is a non-denominational Christian church. The name was specifically chosen for that purpose.

"We want to give people a safe place, a non-confrontational place and let them see that the Christian faith is bigger than they imagined," he said. "A lot of religion is common sense, but we are not taught that. Without a community to encourage you to grow spiritually you are not going to grow. Without a place to belong we don't. Without that we are complacent at best," he said.

McMillan attended church as a child, but said he was not entirely sure what he actually believed.

"It wasn't until my freshman year at Edinboro [in Pennsylvania] that I came to the understanding that God is real," he explained. "I had questioned that before college. Then one Sunday morning I had an epiphany that God wasn't happy with me. I wasn't living out the Christian life in a real way. I had to make some changes."

First he became involved with a campus ministry. At 19 he moved to Long Island to join his parents and began attending services at their church, Living Faith Christian Church in Farmingdale.

"I started leading a young adult ministry, studied to be a pastor and became one there for the next four years," he said. "I learned through that experience that I am good at pastoring, and I also wanted to find a way of contextualizing the disenfranchised."

McMillan and four other men left Living Faith to start CenterPoint. Services started as a group of 25 people meeting at his parent's home, but expanded to 200 people at the American Legion Hall in Seaford in less than three years. In 2006, the group purchased the Bellmore location. Today, McMillan said the congregation exceeds 500 people and, like most churches, it relies on the donations of its congregation to survive and to flourish.

"We have an amazing group of volunteers who help with everything from clubs, events and meetings," he said.

McMillan, who was married seven years ago and now lives with his wife and two young sons in Bellmore, admits his position is somewhat daunting.

"It is very scary," he said. "It is exhausting, the emotional burden. You put yourself out there. None of us are perfect, but we are trying to grow. But I have seen so many people fall."