Downtown Pres (Greenville)
It all started when…
Downtown Pres (in Greenville, SC) was founded as a mission church in 2005. Over the next decade, the church and its lead pastor Brian Habig would see the congregation grow from a few dozen to hundreds, and to its attendance today near 800.
ALIGN’s first engagement with the church was in the fall of 2014, when together we captured the church’s identity in clear and meaningful language — an identity that still guides the church to this day.
EXECUTIVE ROLE CREATION + EMPOWERING PROJECTS
By late 2020, it had become clear that the leadership structure that had worked for 150 members was no longer sustainable. It was time to restructure.
Over six months, ALIGN led extensive work, first to identify what restructuring best fit Downtown Pres, and how it could refocus Brian Habig in his gifting.
Will Gray then served as Interim Executive Director for a period of months while a search began, and completed significant projects during the same stretch, including:
A Church-Planting Playbook, to capture the wisdom that had been gained through DPC’s first two plants
A new onboarding process and Guide Book, to support future and existing staff team members
During these interim months, Will also partnered with Brian to
strengthen how Session meetings were prepared and run,
established weekly “Same-Page Meetings” between the Executive and Lead Pastor,
and work 1-on-1 with each staff team member to begin unlocking their best work.
God had already been preparing an existing elder at Downtown Pres to pursue the role of Executive, and in April 2021 the Search Committee recommended him—Scott Hultstrand—from the 15 candidates who had applied, to become the church’s Executive for Church Leadership.
“With ALIGN, we experienced an extremely unique, God-given blend of gifting and energy, figuring out connections and smarter ways to be who we’re called to be.”
“ALIGN really set our church up for success by first understanding us, and then by giving us a really helpful sense of direction. What they do is really special. It’s unreal the way they’re able to understand who a church is and what a church needs.”
“I felt deeply respected, empowered, and supported in my work through ALIGN’s leadership. There are times I still lean on some clarity I learned from our season together.”
“Our church and Session are stronger and healthier because of ALIGN’s work. As someone who has experienced Will and ALIGN in his business consulting as well, I’m grateful that churches can benefit from the same level of guidance, listening, and wisdom as any business could.”