Southland stays mum on 'It'

By Rochelle Haliburton - rhaliburton@herald-leader.com

You might have seen the pink and black advertisements on the backs of buses around Lexington, the stickers on cars or the white signs in yards. They all have cryptic messages about "It" and how "It will change this city" and how passersby should "Look for It."

What is "It"?

It is a five-week sermon series at Southland Christian Church in Jessamine County, the source of the ubiquitous signs and posters. The first installment, which will kick off the series at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, is titled "See It," and subsequent weekends' themes are "Be It," "Do It," "Share It" and "You're It."

Beyond that, leaders at Southland are remaining tight-lipped.

"We didn't want to disclose anything about 'It' until Aug. 1," said Chris Hahn, senior executive pastor of Southland. "Our main purpose was to get people to think about what 'It' is. There are members of the church who have no idea what 'It' is, and that to me is awesome.

"If I attend a community function, people will say to me, 'OK, you're from Southland so you must know what 'It' is, so tell me,'" Hahn said. "I just tell everybody to visit the church on Aug. 1 to find out what exactly 'It' is."

"It" has apparently been able to intrigue people. More than 550 people are following "It" via Twitter, and the "It" Facebook group has more than 3,000 members.

Hahn said his church has worked hard to create a secretive buzz around Lexington to drive people to the Web site for "It," www.itlexington.com, to pique their curiosity about what "It" might be.

Derrick Purvis, Southland's communications director, said the experience of getting the word about "It" out to the community has been one of the megachurch's most interesting projects yet. "In trying to keep 'It' a mystery, we are not trying to hinder people from coming to find out what 'It' is," he said. "Our hope is that 'It' will pull people in on Saturday and that people will embrace 'It' wholly."