New Model of Church Growth

[Dave Roberts]

I am seeing a new model of church growth (tic). What I am seeing is a fairly large church which is offering an unbelievable deal filled with God-talk to small and struggling churches. A few months ago, I supplied for a church that had just lost its pastor. A church some distance away came with an offer that they could take over the church, beam their special music and sermon into this church every Sunday, and revitalize its programs. The two churches were not at all theologically compatible, but this takeover move even involved the offer of money for calling new staff compatible with the church that wanted to take them over. In turn, this struggling congregation would deed its property to be used by the new parent congregation as they chose. (The property value was probably in the $2-to 3-million range. After sitting down with several parties that had no interest in their decision, the church decided to reject the takeover offer and call an intentional interim pastor.

What do you think of this type of proposal and the attached "will of God" talk being proposed? How would you deal with this? Is it ethical?

[Haruo]

The Lord works in strange and mysterious ways, but I'm inclined to think that this is not one of them. But I'd have to see more details of the offer to be sure. Now, the leadership of the large church may honestly think that God has called them to reclaim, revitalize, and reenvigorate small churches (I'm guessing this one was not as small as the one I went to yesterday morning, where I was slightly more than 10% of the total attendance).

[Tim Bonney]

We've had some large UM congregations help out struggling smaller congregations by providing staff and help. But not like that! This looks like "help" in the same way someone "helps" themselves when they steal my wallet.

[William Thornton]

I heard a megachurch pastor say that he got calls to take over and revitalize struggling churches regularly. I am also aware that some non-SBC megachurches gobble up, close, and then sell some churches like the one in your example.

If a church needs to close. Then close. Sell the property to the thriving mega and let them have a go at it. Donate the proceeds to the association or mission board.

[Tim Bonney]

[Dave Roberts]

[Tim Bonney]

[William Thornton]

[William Thornton]

Since churches are big into sattelite locations, getting a prime spot for no rent or property costs is a big plus and money talks in megachurches...

[Tim Bonney]

[Sandy]

The satellite congregation has become a new model of extending the influence of a particular church or pastor's ministry. We have a couple of churches in our area where the worship is led by a local team, then a curtain opens or a screen drops, and the sermon is beamed from some mega church somewhere else. I know there's one here connected to Andy Stanley. In Houston, both Second Baptist and First Baptist are doing the same thing, approaching churches with developed facilities that have gone through a transition or decline in order to pick up a satellite location. The satellites aren't really reaching people, they just become gathering places for the cluster of members of the mega church that happen to live nearby.

When I was still in Houston, during John Bisagno's pastorate, FBC was offering to take over the bills and maintenance on the property of many inner-suburban and city churches that were dying, and "revision" the ministries. Most of those churches were dying groups of a remnant of old people driving in from the burbs. In one case, First moved their deaf church into a facility, and then launched a Spanish speaking church there, and in another case, not too far from their own campus, they turned a church facility into a "mission center" with three or four ethnic congregations meeting there, plus serving as the headquarters for its apartment complex ministry. In many of those cases, now that the core of their members have moved away, they've closed the property down and sold the building. There was a lot of controversy when Second Baptist took over the property of Forest Cove Baptist, which was a large, suburban church on its own, during a controversy with the pastor over his independent preaching and media ministry. The church leadership jumped into the agreement when a split happened that put them in a bad position on their mortgage and maintenance, and it was supposed to be a merger, but most of the Forest Cove people wound up leaving.

If this strategy produced evangelistic results, it might be viable for churches that are struggling or have had problems that have become serious enough to effect their ministry and existence, but all I see is that it becomes a way for a larger church to either grab up property with monetary value to add to its own ministry later on, or to develop a satellite congregation for the convenience of its members who already live in the area, and have probably contributed to sucking the life out of the existing churches by competing with them through gimicks and giveaways.

[Tim Bonney]

That is the thing Sandy. What is the motivation behind what the mega-church is doing? If they are there to help a smaller church then there is no need for them to get possession of property and take over the church. Are they there to help build the kingdom of God or their own little kingdom?

[Dave Roberts]

[Sandy]

A church is a body of believers, not a location or building. So if one needs to be revitalized, it often needs people resources to use their gifts in ministry that lead to, among other things, the church functioning as a body that minsters, and through ministry, winds up preaching the gospel and reaching people. I'd say that a lot of the decline and regression that churches are experiencing today is the result of losses of people who go off to a mega church to be served, and wind up doing little but sitting and "supporting Pastor so and so's ministry." Maybe collecting a group of people who are committed to using their spiritual gifts, and sending them to serve in an existing church, without transferring property or ownership, and not expecting them to "come back when they are done" is the way to revitalize churches. That would certainly be consistent with the Biblical model.

What we have are churches that get increasingly larger, as the kingdom itself gets increasingly smaller, because the one to one, neighbor to neighbor, individual contact and relationships that are part of small churches (which are the essence of the body of Christ as far as I am concerned) are gone, and the mega churches don't come anywhere close to reaching the lost, except for baptizing their own kids. There's no one left to do evangelism, they're all gathered together in the big church sanctuary having their own needs met, but not meeting anyone elses.

[Tim Bonney]

In agreement with what you've said Sandy, often small and medium sized churches are berated for not being larger when often those churches are doing significant hands on ministries in their communities.

I think we need more churches and bigger and bigger churches. I'd rather see several churches in a community running a couple hundred in worship than one big church running a thousand or more.

[William Thornton]

Dave reported that the takeover pastor said somethink like, "The Lord put it on my heart to..."

That is code for, "You've got some land and buildings that we could use. Why not give it to us?"

Did the Lord put any of the dozens of other struggling chuches on his mind to help, or just the one with attractive real estate?

I'd document and expose this publicly.

[Dave Roberts]

[Sandy]

There are a lot of reasons why churches decline. Demographics, leadership and pastoral issues, conflict, all can cause circumstances which lead to decline. I wouldn't have a problem if a larger church pastor approached a small, struggling congregation with an offer of help, not for the purpose of acquiring property, but to make some sacrifices and find some people in their own church who want to do ministry. Provided it is accepted by the leadership of the struggling church, since mega churches are, in some places, partly responsible for church decline, I wouldn't have a problem with it, if it's not seen as a "satellite" campus, but a genuine effort at restoration and recovery.

But doing ministry in the mega church way requires the consumption of massive amounts of resources. I've seen mega churches with a "business plan" that provides for financial resources which go beyond what people in the congregation can give through tithing and giving, because often that is not enough to sustain the indebtedness on facilities, or the expense that is created by the theatrical performance called worship each week, or the telecasting and broadcasting necessary to generate funds. If a church disbands and offers its building, that's one thing. But I think if another church wants to use it for a satellite campus, they should pay for it.

[Tim Bonney]

We actually got a flyer from a local mega-church asking for us to help them.

Basically the flyer was asking churches in the area to send people over to their church to provide free baby sitting while they held their adult small group meetings.

Yes really, one of their church members dropped by our office to give us the flyer to post.

Needless to say we didn't post it.