Next Level Church - Charlotte

More Than Sunday - Week 5

Exhaustion has become so normal that most of us have stopped noticing it. We wear our busyness like a badge, push through the fatigue, and quietly assume that one day — when things settle down, when the project ends, when the kids are older — we'll finally rest. But the threshold keeps moving. And the pace never really lets up.

In this episode of More Than Sunday, Teaching Pastor Christian Nichles opens Matthew 11:28–30 and refuses to treat that pattern as a scheduling problem. Jesus's invitation to the weary and overburdened isn't a tip for better work-life balance. It's a revelation of something we've gotten fundamentally wrong about rest — and about ourselves.

The reason most of us can't stop isn't that we're bad at time management. It's that we don't fully trust what happens when we do. Somewhere underneath the productivity is a belief that our worth is measured by our output, that the world needs us to keep pushing, that rest is something you earn rather than something you receive. That's not an efficiency problem. That's a faith problem.

This episode recasts the Sabbath not as a spiritual discipline for people with more margin than you, but as an act of resurrection-grounded defiance. A weekly declaration that you are not what you produce, that God is still working when you aren't, and that you were never meant to run this hard in the first place.

More Than Sunday is a six-week series exploring what changes when the resurrection stops being a once-a-year event and starts reshaping every part of how we live.

More Than Sunday - Week 4

There are a lot of ways to measure what someone actually believes. But few are as reliable — or as uncomfortable — as money. The way we earn it, spend it, hold onto it, and give it away tells a story about our deepest convictions that our words rarely match.

In this episode of More Than Sunday, Lead Pastor Clay Monkus opens Luke 19:1–10 and sits with one of the most quietly radical moments in the Gospels. Zacchaeus doesn't get a stewardship sermon. He doesn't get a pledge card. He gets Jesus showing up at his house — and the first thing that changes is what he does with his money. Salvation and generosity happen in the same breath, without anyone asking.

That's the vision this message is after. Not a recalibrated budget. Not a guilt-fueled commitment to finally start tithing. A resurrection-grounded understanding of money where generosity isn't something you add to your spiritual to-do list — it's something that becomes natural when you actually believe a dead man walked out of a tomb and that nothing you're holding onto is ultimately yours anyway.

If your relationship with money and your stated beliefs have never quite lined up, this episode is an honest and generous place to start.

More Than Sunday is a six-week series exploring what changes when the resurrection stops being a once-a-year event and starts reshaping every part of how we live.

Cutting Room Floor Episode 14 – Identity: Who You Are Beyond What You Do

What happens when everything you’ve built your life around… is gone?

In this episode of the Cutting Room Floor Podcast, Clay and Christian have an honest conversation about identity and how easy it is to tie who we are to what we do, and what happens when that foundation starts to crack.

From ministry and career success to parenting, failure, and starting over, this conversation gets real about the subtle ways we build our identity on roles, titles, and performance—and why that never fully holds up.

Along the way, they talk about:

• Why success can quietly become a trap for your identity
• The difference between who you are and what you do
• What to do when you feel like you’ve lost your purpose
• How God defines you as a masterpiece—and what that actually means
• Why discovering why you were created changes everything
• The danger of believing you’re irreplaceable
• And how identity impacts everything from work to family to faith

You’ll also hear personal stories about:

• Ministry highs and identity crashes
• Parenting regrets and growth
• What it looks like to rebuild your life from the inside out
• And why being a “human being” matters more than being a “human doing”

This episode is for anyone who’s ever asked: “Who am I… really?”

More than Sunday - Week 3

Most of us are living inside an identity we didn't fully choose. It got built over years — out of what we achieved, what we failed at, what people expected, and what we learned to perform to stay accepted. And somewhere along the way, it started feeling like just... who we are.

In this episode of More Than Sunday, Lead Pastor Clay Monkus brings the resurrection into one of the most personal places it can go: your sense of self. Drawing from Ephesians 2:10 — written to people who had constructed their entire identity around a former life — Clay makes the case that a resurrection faith isn't just a new set of behaviors. It's a completely new foundation for who you are.

Not built on performance. Not built on approval. Not built on how productive you've been or how well you've kept it together. Built on this: you are God's handiwork, created with intention, for good works that were prepared specifically for you before you ever showed up.

This episode is for anyone who suspects they've been living someone else's definition of themselves for too long — and is ready to hear a different answer to the question of who they actually are.

More Than Sunday is a six-week series exploring what changes when the resurrection stops being a once-a-year event and starts reshaping every part of how we live.

More Than Sunday - Week 2

For most people, faith and work exist in completely separate compartments. Church on Sunday, grind on Monday, and never much overlap between the two. It feels normal. It might even feel responsible. But according to Paul, it's not how any of this was supposed to work.

In this episode of More Than Sunday, Teaching Pastor Christian Nichles opens up Colossians 3:23–24 — a passage written to ordinary workers with no great reason to care about their jobs — and reframes what it actually means to bring your whole self to work. Not as a strategy for workplace evangelism. Not as a performance. But as a genuine expression of faith in a risen Jesus who is Lord of all of life, including the 40-plus hours a week most of us spend earning a living.

If the resurrection is true, it belongs in your workplace just as much as it belongs in a Sunday service. This episode is about what it looks like when you stop leaving it at the door.

More Than Sunday is a six-week series exploring what changes when the resurrection stops being a Sunday category and starts reshaping every part of how we live.

More Than Sunday - Week 1

What if the most world-altering event in history has been hiding in plain sight — tucked into one morning a week, dressed up for Easter, and mostly left out of everything else?

In the first episode of More Than Sunday, Lead Pastor Clay Monkus opens a six-week journey with a message called "This Changes Everything." Drawing from Romans 6:4, Clay unpacks what Paul meant when he wrote that we were buried with Christ and raised to walk in newness of life — with the emphasis firmly on the word walk. Not sit. Not show up occasionally. Walk.

This episode is meant to unsettle you a little — in the best way. Because if the resurrection is true, it isn't just the headline of Easter Sunday. It's the foundation everything else gets built on.

More Than Sunday is a six-week series exploring what it looks like to stop sorting faith into a Sunday category and start letting the resurrection loose in the rest of your life.

Easter 2026

n this Easter sermon, Pastor Clay gets unusually personal — sharing the story of resigning his church in 2007, stepping back from faith entirely, and spending two years asking the hardest questions he'd ever faced. At the center of it all was one question he'd been avoiding: Did Jesus actually rise from the dead?

Using the analogy of a load-bearing wall, Clay makes the case from 1 Corinthians 15 and Luke 24 that the resurrection isn't just one belief among many — it's the belief that holds everything else up. He walks through the historical evidence, the eyewitness accounts, and why the disciples' own confusion and skepticism actually strengthen the case.

Wherever you are — skeptic, longtime churchgoer, or somewhere in the middle — this episode invites you to stop treating the resurrection as an idea and consider it as a reality.

📖 1 Corinthians 15:12–19 | Luke 24

Under Pressure - Week 5

Unmet expectations might be one of the quietest and most painful sources of pressure we carry. We expected God to show up a certain way—and He didn't. Or so it seemed. In the final week of Under Pressure, Teaching Pastor Christian Nichles brings us to the triumphal entry in Matthew 21, where crowds welcomed Jesus with enormous hopes—and He deliberately chose a different path than the one they had mapped out for Him. Not because He failed them, but because He was after something far greater. This Palm Sunday message is the perfect bridge into Easter—a reminder that when God doesn't meet our expectations, He's often exceeding them in ways we can't yet see.

Under Pressure is a five-week series exploring what Scripture says about anxiety, burnout, comparison, disappointment, and expectations—leading up to Easter.

Under Pressure - Week 4

Comparison is sneaky. It rarely announces itself, but it quietly drives more of our decisions—and more of our exhaustion—than most of us realize. In week four of Under Pressure, Lead Pastor Clay Monkus opens Galatians 1:10, where Paul flatly refuses to live for human approval. It's a short verse with enormous implications. When your identity is rooted in Christ rather than in how others see you, the pressure to measure up begins to lose its grip. This episode exposes comparison as a hidden source of chronic stress and points toward a more grounded, freer way to live.

Under Pressure is a five-week series exploring what Scripture says about anxiety, burnout, comparison, disappointment, and expectations—leading up to Easter.

Under Pressure - Week 3

Burnout doesn't always look like a breakdown. Sometimes it looks like a person who has given everything they have and simply has nothing left. In week three of Under Pressure, Lead Pastor Clay Monkus looks at the story of Elijah in 1 Kings 19—a man fresh off a mountaintop moment who collapses in total exhaustion and despair. God's response isn't disappointment or correction. It's compassion, presence, and quiet restoration. If you've been running on fumes and wondering whether God notices, this episode speaks directly to that place.

Under Pressure is a five-week series exploring what Scripture says about anxiety, burnout, comparison, disappointment, and expectations—leading up to Easter.

Under Pressure - Week 2

Trials are easy to resent and hard to make sense of—until someone reframes them entirely. In week two of Under Pressure, Lead Pastor Clay Monkus opens James 1:2–4, where James writes to scattered and persecuted believers not with an escape plan, but with a perspective shift. Pressure, James says, is the pathway to perseverance and spiritual completeness. The hard season isn't a detour from your growth—it might be the whole point of it.

If you've been asking why, this episode is worth your time.

Under Pressure is a five-week series exploring what Scripture says about anxiety, burnout, comparison, disappointment, and expectations—leading up to Easter.

Under Pressure - Week 1

We live in a time when the pressure never really turns off—and most of us are carrying more than we admit. In the first message of our new series Under Pressure, Lead Pastor Clay Monkus opens Philippians 4:6–9 to show us that peace isn't something that just happens to us. It's practiced. It's cultivated. And according to Paul—who wrote these words from inside a Roman prison—it's available to anyone willing to pursue it.

If anxiety has felt like your default setting lately, this episode is a good place to start.

Under Pressure is a five-week series exploring what Scripture says about anxiety, burnout, comparison, disappointment, and expectations—leading up to Easter.

Meant for More - Week 4

We've reached the finale of our Meant for More series, and Lead Pastor Clay Monkus brings a message that ties it all together: the Church is at its best when everyone is engaged in their God-given role.

Using Romans 12:4–8, Clay unpacks Paul's powerful metaphor of the body. Just like a physical body needs every part functioning to be healthy, the Church needs every member using their gifts with diligence and humility. No role is insignificant. No gift is unimportant. When we all play our part, the body of Christ becomes fully alive and effective in God's mission.

Over this series, we've discovered that faith isn't passive, that we're each uniquely gifted, that showing up matters, and now—it's time to act. Clay calls us to step into a serving role, both in the church and in the community.

You weren't meant to just observe God's mission. You were meant to be part of it. So the question is: will you play your part?

Meant for More - Week 3

Continuing our Meant for More series, Digital Ministries Pastor Bradley Medford tackles a common misconception: that serving God's mission is about having the right title, position, or platform.

Using Mark 10:42–45, Bradley takes us to the moment when Jesus' disciples argue about status and greatness. Jesus responds by completely redefining what greatness looks like—not authority over others, but humble service to others. He points to His own example: He came not to be served, but to serve and give His life for many.

Serving isn't about credentials or recognition. It's about availability and humility. It's about saying "yes" in the small, everyday moments where God places opportunities right in front of you.

This week's message will inspire you to see that showing up matters more than standing out—and that God uses ordinary availability to accomplish extraordinary things in His mission.

Reset: Experiencing Jesus in a Distracted World | Week 3

Jesus isn't just part of life; He's the One who holds life together.

Most of us treat Jesus like a helpful add-on—someone to invite into the hard moments, the Sunday mornings, the moral decisions. But the rest of the week? We're on our own. In this message, Digital Ministries Pastor Bradley Medford unpacks Colossians 1:15-17 and shows us what happens when we stop compartmentalizing our faith and start letting Jesus hold everything together.

A true reset doesn't come from asking God to bless the life we've already built. It comes from centering every part of life—work, relationships, schedules, goals—around Him. Join us as we learn how to move from fragmentation to integration, and discover the peace that comes when Jesus is at the center of it all.

Reset: Experiencing Jesus in a Distracted World - Week 2

Rest isn't earned; it's received.

Most of us are exhausted—not just physically, but spiritually. We're constantly chasing relief through distraction, entertainment, or just powering through. But relief is not the same as rest. In this message, Lead Pastor Clay Monkus explores Jesus' countercultural invitation in Matthew 11:28–30 and shows us what it looks like to trade temporary fixes for lasting refuge.

The soul doesn't find peace when life finally calms down. It finds peace when it returns to Jesus. Join us as we learn how to stop running from our weariness and start resting in the One who offers true refuge—no matter how loud life gets.

Cutting Room Floor Podcast Episode 9

In this episode, Clay and Christian talk about what it means to experience Jesus — not just know about Him.

They explore why our culture is starving for peace, why outrage and speed are spiritually corrosive, and why stillness and presence are essential to real faith. The conversation touches on peacemaking, prayer, shared spiritual experience, and how slowing down helps us hear God more clearly.

If you feel tired, distracted, or disconnected from God, this episode is an invitation to slow down and rediscover what it means to truly be with Him.

Reset: Experiencing Jesus in a Distracted World - Week 1

You can't rest in a God you never notice.

In a world that runs on hurry, noise, and notifications, most of us have forgotten what it feels like to be truly still. We believe in Jesus, but do we actually experience Him? In this opening message of our new series, Lead Pastor Clay Monkus explores Psalm 46:10 and invites us into a different kind of reset—one that begins not with doing more, but with waking up to God's presence right where we are.

Spiritual transformation doesn't start with a better plan. It starts with awareness. Join us as we rediscover how to quiet the chaos, tune out the distractions, and encounter the Jesus who's been waiting for us to simply be still.

Christmas Eve 2025

Join us for our Christmas Eve message given by Lead Pastor Clay Monkus. In this one, Pastor Clay discusses the wonder of Christmas, why many adults have lost sight of that wonder, and how we might regain it again.

The Promise Kept - Week 3

The waiting is over. The promise has arrived.

In this final message of our Christmas series "The Promise Kept," Lead Pastor Clay Monkus brings us to the moment that changed everything: the birth of Jesus in Luke 2:1–20. After centuries of prophecies, generations of waiting, and 400 years of silence—God spoke. And He didn't just speak with words. He spoke with a baby.

The arrival of Jesus in that humble manger was the fulfillment of every promise God had ever made. From Genesis 3 to the prophets to that starlit night in Bethlehem—God proved that He always keeps His word.

If you've been waiting on God for something—healing, restoration, breakthrough, hope—this message is your reminder: God finishes what He starts. He kept His promise then. He will keep His promise to you.

Celebrate with us as we close out this series by discovering why Jesus is the ultimate proof that you can trust God with your future.