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A Congregation Is In Its Element

Tribune photo by JAY NOLAN

Bobby Triplett, pastor of The Element church, talks with members in his Riverview home. The new church will hold its first services in a warehouse on Causeway Boulevard Aug. 24.

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By D'ANN LAWRENCE WHITE

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 20, 2008

CLAIR-MEL - It was nothing as momentous as the biblical brothers Andrew and Peter casting aside their fishing nets to become disciples of Jesus.

Dave Miller happened to have some free time on his hands because he just got laid off from his job at Albertsons.

Davey Kolk just moved down from North Carolina three weeks ago and ran across the church's Web site while surfing the Internet.

Nate Raymond, director of the INSIDEout youth ventures camp in Lakeland, which does neighborhood revitalization projects, decided to loan his construction skills to a longtime friend because the summer camp had just ended and he had nothing better to do.

And 20-year-old Carly Davis had a few hours to kill because her fall classes hadn't started.

The four strangers were drawn to the 5,000-square-foot warehouse on Causeway Boulevard in Clair-Mel last week because of the vision of a 27-year-old former Christian rock band member sporting a goatee, spiked and blond-streaked hair and an earring.

Bobby Triplett, pastor of the newly formed Element church, has no illusions about who he is and what he hopes to accomplish.

"If I can be vulnerable, and God still uses a 27-year-old screw-up with spiky hair, he can use anybody," Triplett said. "Instead of going to church, we are the church. We want to reach out to everyone. Jesus didn't just hang out with the church kids."

For the past several weeks, whenever time has permitted, Triplett and members of the new church have transformed the unfinished warehouse building into their future place of worship using mostly donated materials. The result is a huge room painted chocolate brown with a stage at one end and offices at the other. Rolling warehouse doors flank both sides, and exposed air-conditioning ducts adorn the ceiling - hardly the Cathedral of Chartres.

Triplett is the first to emphasize that the place is unimportant. And, he said, finding the warehouse was pure providence. He looked everywhere for space for the new church and even considered leasing the former Harpo's Martini Bar on Town Center Boulevard in Brandon, but those plans fell through.

He was driving down Causeway Boulevard one day when he spotted the Causeway Center warehouse project under construction. He drove in and encountered developer Jerry Hoffman, a longtime Brandon resident who recalled struggling to get the church he attends built. That was St. Stephen Catholic Church, constructed 20 years ago.

The two agreed it was a perfect spot for Element.

"Jerry's bent over backward for us," Triplett said.

Church members haven't raised enough money for furniture, so they will bring their own lawn chairs for a preview gathering at 10 a.m. Sunday.

After meeting in small groups at various homes for the past five months, they're excited at the prospect of finally being together in one place.

"God is really working in this place," Jean-Paul Nicophene, 21, said as he put finishing touches of paint on bead board that will skirt the stage. He said he found Element through a fellow university student.

Nicophene's father is pastor of Bethel Haitian Church of Brandon, but he was searching for something different, something more in line with the interests of his generation, he said. "This is a community I can relate with."

A native of Seminole, Triplett was attending Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach when he decided to leave halfway through his junior year to tour the country with a Christian rock band he'd formed at the college. He later received his bachelor of science degree in Christian leadership, psychology and organizational management.

The band toured for two years and released a couple of albums. Along the way, Triplett met the Rev. Greg Dumas of The Pointe church in Riverview in 2002, who hired Triplett to be his music minister. The Pointe later merged with The Crossing church in Brandon, and, with Dumas as lead pastor, Triplett became senior director of young adults, a popular ministry that became known as Revolution, or simply REVO.

Things were going well. Triplett was making a good salary and had health insurance. He and his wife, Jill, had just given birth to their first child, Annsley, now 10 months old. "I had it made in the shade," Triplett said.

But he said God had other plans for him.

"I got a call to plant a different type of church, a church that focuses less on the building and more on the people," he said. "Instead of emphasizing going to church, we are the church."

With the blessing of his friends at The Crossing, who donated money to help Element take root, Triplett bid The Crossing farewell on Easter Sunday, March 23, and got a job working at DaSilva's Coffee House in Riverview to make ends meet.

"It's been a wild ride," he said. "Fun and scary."

Triplett and the 60 former members of Revolution who joined him met at eight homes weekly for Bible study. They also got together for community service projects, such as feeding the homeless in Tampa and collecting back-to-school supplies for needy children.

"We're very community-driven," Triplett said, noting that membership has increased to 147, mostly by word of mouth. "Our mission is to be the light of the world by helping others, that we love and care for people whether they go to church or not."

To that end, Element is planning a major art festival in September called "Canvas," with 40 artists and bands. Triplett also is working with local filmmakers to host the area's first film festival in January called "Motion."

"We want to invest in the community of inspiration," Triplett said. "We're not trying to Christianize anyone. We're just trying to create a relationship with people."

That's what attracted Davis to Element.

"I just think the people here have a lot of the same values and goals as I do," she said. "There's a lot of community involvement. It isn't just talking about what we should do. It's doing it."

Although affiliated with the Tampa Bay Baptist Association, Triplett describes Element's ministry as simply following the path of Jesus.

"About 80 percent of our members are in their 20s and 30s, though we have some younger and some in their 40s and 50s," he said. "The music is pretty much rock 'n' roll. Music is a big deal to me. We have some incredible musicians in our church. And on Sundays, we aren't going to take ourselves too seriously. I want this to be engaging to the community, even when we don't have our crap together."

Miller, 29, admitted he really has no basis for comparison. Until a friend brought him to The Crossing, he'd never been to church. Meeting Triplett changed his life. Triplett introduced him to his wife, Alicia, and performed the wedding ceremony. Triplett also baptized Miller.

"I trust Bobby as a leader," Miller said. "He thinks outside the box. He wants to break down the walls of the stereotypical church and get the Word across through art and other forms of media."

Triplett said he has no visions of becoming a mega-church.

"We don't want to get too big for our britches. Ten churches of 1,000 people can reach more than one church of 10,000 people," he said. "There's less overhead, less staff and fewer expenses."

In two years Triplett plans to hire an apprentice pastor for a year and plant him with a team of 50 people.

"And then he has to do the same thing in two years, and so on," Triplett said.

As he pieced together wood for what will be the church's stage, Kolk, 23, said he has no doubt he's exactly where God intended him to be.

"I just met Bobby Friday," said Kolk, who worked as a music minister in North Carolina. "I was online and I found his Web site, and it looked like something I'd be interested in, so I called Bobby and we had lunch. We clicked right off. I knew God meant me to be here. Now, six days later, I'm here building a stage."

Element is at 2702 Causeway Center Drive in Clair-Mel, six blocks east of U.S. 41. For information, visit http://bobbytriplett.blogspot.com or iamelement.org.

Reporter D'Ann Lawrence White can be reached at (813) 657-4524 or dlwhite@tampatrib.com.

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