MID WEEK MOTIVATION - September 23, 2026 "How A Church Moved Campuses Without Losing Its Heart" (Mark Manning)

You're listening to the Midweek Motivation Podcast from DeSoto Hills Baptist Church in South Haven, Mississippi.

Here's your hosts, Mark Lewis, David Burgess, Laura Ulrich, Hunter Smith, and Pastor Grant Diegall.

Welcome to the Midweek Motivation Podcast for Wednesday, September the 23rd, 2026.

As we continue looking ahead to DeSoto Hills' 20th anniversary, we're spending a few weeks hearing from some of the people who helped shape the story of our church.

Today I'm sitting down with another person who played an important role during those early years and the transition that brought us to where we are today.

All right, and we are here with Brother Mark Manning.

How are you doing today?

I am good.

You've had a long day at the farm already.

Glad to be out of the sun.

Yeah, yeah.

Um, when did you arrive at Carriage Hills?

I don't ri remember exactly.

I felt I feel like I was in college or came or just out of college.

It was in 2001.

Oh, okay.

So I was still in the middle of college.

Right.

Just after shortly after 9-11.

Well, actually, yeah, just shortly after 9-11, yeah.

Okay.

And when did you realize okay, this move is going to start happening as far as moving over to this property?

Because th there was planning that happened for a while before any of that happened.

Right.

Before I got there, you know, land had already been bought.

And it was just a matter of uh when was the right time.

And so I was at Carriage Hills about five years before that actually happened in 2006.

Yeah.

Yeah.

A lot of good times over there too.

Uh you were involved in much more than just the music ministry during the transition.

What role did you personally play in getting the new campus ready?

Well, I just was a I guess walked along with Paul Wardlaw when it was being built.

Feel like you were the liaison, sort of, for the staff.

Yeah, and yeah.

But Brother James was right in there on it all the time too.

So uh but um You had that hard hat in the truck, man.

I did.

They wouldn't let you come in here.

About every afternoon.

I feel like when you got off work, you probably swung by and dad probably did too.

Right.

And throughout the day too.

Um just to see what was going on.

Uh especially when certain things that I would be involved with in the worship center and sound and all that, acoustics and so forth, choir room and all that sort of stuff.

Well, that was bringing me to my next question.

How involved were you in the design and planning?

Because this thing that this church went through multiple drawings.

Yeah, it did.

Um it changed ever not a lot, but some.

Well, and some things we wanted to do, the orchestra pit and all that.

Well, it got scratched, you know, due to budget matters.

And so but everything turned out good and w has worked well over the the years.

So Yeah, it's funny, but a lot of the the core design elements have not changed.

I mean, we've altered the the look of things, but but uh when you're looking at the drawings on paper, it's one thing.

What was it like seeing those drawings actually come to fruition in the building process?

You know, everybody was ready to move out here and um get the ministry moving in in this direction.

So um yeah, it it was exciting to see everything come together.

Yeah.

Were there things you caught during the construction and you thought, hey, we need to fix this before uh Yeah.

Pro probably more things I was going, man, I wish we had this.

Why can't we do this?

You know.

Right.

So what were some of the biggest challenges or unexpected problems that came up during the construction?

Do you remember anything specific?

Um not really.

It it I think as best I remember, it went pretty smoothly, you know.

Paul mentioned some things getting stolen theft, which I didn't even remember any of those stories.

Yeah, I think yeah, I do remember that.

Yeah.

But I I it I wasn't a major hole back, you know.

Right.

So was there ever a moment you wondered if everything would actually get finished in time for the move?

I don't I I it's been so long I can't remember if we were even on track or if we made the deadline.

Yeah, I think yeah, we did.

Um I think everything ran pretty smooth, you know.

A few things we waited on.

I remember waiting on the flooring, the f the gym floor.

And um, which worked out well, but the building has never been really used for a gym.

At all.

Just uh a multi-purpose facility for sure, but uh no sports ever were played.

Well, with the amount of expensive stuff we have on the stage and having no curtain to pull in front of it.

Right.

Which was part of the plan to begin with was be a big um net that would drop down from the catwalk and cover keep balls from going up there and everything, but never needed it.

Right.

Well, I also suspected over the years that people decided it might be more trouble than it's worth to move all these chairs everywhere.

The chairs were a big decision on that, yeah.

Yeah.

From a music and worship standpoint, what were you thinking about when the new sanctuary was being designed?

What did you want the room to be able to accomplish or do?

Aaron Ross Powell, Oh, the main thing with me was acoustics, you know.

And um Memphis Audio uh took care of all that, did a good job uh testing the room and uh a lot of acoustical panels around that facility to help on the acoustics and then sound and air.

Now that was always a problem kind of.

We we it it's worked fine, but not real smooth, you know.

But um real important part of the puzzle is making sure everybody's comfortable, you know.

Oh I remember dad saying the things the two things that have got to be okay is everybody's gotta feel cool and comfortable and they've gotta be able to hear.

Hear.

Yeah.

Those are the two things And that's what we majored on.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well those those um socks, air socks in there, they were a real popular thing right when this church was being built.

Yeah.

And then now I see people taking those out.

Hopefully they'll be gone for too long.

What was it like preparing the choir musician, sound system equipment, everything else while the building itself was still being finished?

Well, again, Memphis Audio had a perfect plan for that room that we still use today.

We've added a little bit, but um the acoustics in there have always just been great.

Musically, um not a problem at all.

Uh you know, uh a lot of times gymnasiums can be the worst.

Will be horrible.

But uh not really using it for sports, we did a little bit more the other direction as a worship center, and um just uh really worked out well, all of it.

Was there anything in the new facility that seemed like a huge upgrade at the time?

Oh yeah.

From the audio console for sure.

Yeah, from carriage heels, yeah.

You know still um it wasn't digital over there, and you know, we moved to that when we got here.

And just the quality of everything was just way higher.

Yeah.

Yeah, we had I I do remember we didn't have very many uh wireless microphones over there.

The board was completely out of space.

There was no right expansion over there.

So interesting.

Do you remember walking into the building on that first Sunday morning?

Be honest, I can't.

No, I really can't.

Um I still remember you had the women's ensemble.

You had several things planned.

Uh obviously the choir did some specials, and I seems like I remember us having to come in uh for some sort of rehearsal before that first Sunday.

We came in and did all sorts of sound checks and stuff.

Right, right.

To make sure, you know, everything was gonna work like uh we'd planned.

Right.

So uh yeah, it it was a good day, a big day for everybody.

I remember everybody just being really, really excited.

And lots of people who came to the church who had not been at Carriage Hills, it's like they were waiting for this church to open and those first um those first few weeks, we had so many people, you know, we couldn't see to everybody.

We had some people had to sit out in the halls or they left and came back for another day.

Yeah.

Trevor Burrus Looking back, what do people today probably not realize about how much work went into making that transition happen?

Yeah, it was a lot of work, but it, you know, it was more prayer than everything.

The biggest thing was uh one church splitting into two churches, and I I don't mean split as in trouble, right.

Just uh a new church out of an old church, moving to a new location.

And in the latter days, some of those members that were in that church for a long time at Carriage Hills wanted to stay there and keep that church going.

And so uh with wise leadership from Brother James and the deacons and a lot of prayer, it was a real easy transition there.

And um I think everybody that came out here was ready to come here, but um uh um a very good uh moving uh move away from Carriage Hills.

And we've been always those two churches have been real close and and stayed close.

Was there somebody or a group of people working behind the scenes uh whose contribution you think deserves to be remembered?

Well, I mean Paul Warlaw for sure.

And we had him on the podcast a few weeks ago and he talked a lot.

But yeah, he was he was in in incredible help.

Definitely.

Uh Ben Smith, you know, who is an engineer himself, and his input in on all of it was very uh very big.

And then the architect, uh Doug Thornton, uh was a member of the church and um did a did a great job.

Yeah, he did fantastic.

Twenty years later you walk into the building, what are some things you look around and think?

Oh man.

I guess the first thing is I got old.

Where does time go?

Yes.

But uh it's great years.

Um I you know, building the orchestra like it is today, uh getting all that done was a very a big highlight and a big goal that I had.

And uh the church just received it well and uh has gone over uh really, really well.

Choirs have been great.

But I have to tell you now, one of my biggest joys since being here, but it it started at Carriage Hills, was a youth choir.

And um the kids um wa it wasn't a big youth choir when I came.

And it started and it grew and grew and grew and grew.

And uh all the time we had together, watching those kids learn to sing, um, sing harmonies.

It it was just a real thrill.

And uh they were real committed to it.

And um we did lots of choir tours.

Oh, we took some big trips.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

And just busload.

Just r really some of the best times I have had at Carriage Hills and DeSoda Hills.

Yeah.

I finally remember the um St.

Louis one because you took the live praise band on that one.

That was that was crazy logistic wise.

But it but it was good.

Oh, it was a lot of fun.

Went over real well, yeah.

It was a lot of fun.

I'm just glad um you see new faces here every day.

And uh since I've retired and now I help out, you know, some other churches.

So I'm in and out of here.

I don't really know everybody like I used to because we've gotten a lot of new people uh as I've been out.

But it it's exciting.

And uh And this is from your church home?

I've heard this.

It this is my church home and uh and will be until the Lord takes me or I move out of this area, you know.

But um yeah, just because I leave for a little while and uh help some other churches um doesn't mean this isn't home.

Right.

Well we love having you around here and thank you so much for chatting with us today.

Appreciate it.

Thank you, Mark.

All right.

We're now going to shift to our devotion portion of the podcast that we call the Midweek Moment.

Today's midweek moment comes out of the book of Exodus, Exodus 35, verses 10 through 11.

Exodus 35:10–11

It says this Let every skillful man among you come and make all that the Lord has commanded, the tabernacle, its tent and its covering, its hooks and its boards, its bars, its pillars, and its sockets.

You see, when God commanded Moses to make the tabernacle, he told Moses to hire the most gifted and skilled craftsmen in all of Israel.

He then commanded them to build his dwelling place and fill it with intricate and ornate decorations.

This shows us that God cares about excellence, and not only excellence, but excellence in all of the fine details.

And that's certainly something that I can relate to, all of the small details in whatever I'm working on.

Think about all of the beautiful and intricate seashells at the bottom of the ocean that no one will ever see.

God cared enough to create each one with intentionality and precision.

We should seek to do the same, to approach our craft with excellence and attention to detail and thus reflect God's very nature as we make wonderful and beautiful art just for him.

Thank you so much for listening today.

If you don't have a church home, we'd love to see you here on Sunday mornings.

You can catch our services online at DeSotahills.com, our YouTube channel at DeSota Hills Baptist Church for all of our church family.

We love you.

We'll see you back here next Wednesday morning, bright and early.

God bless.

This has been your midweek motivation.

We'd love to have you join us in person on Sunday mornings.

Our services are at 9 and 10 30 a.m.