defying the odds
A declining urban church reaches beyond its borders
By Chris Crain, senior pastor , South Roebuck Baptist Church and North Valley Church
I began my ministry working in an established, small-town/rural church. Many of the churches I’ve served over the years were integral parts of the small, everyone-knows-everyone communities in which they were located. But my ministry setting dramatically changed four years ago when I was called to be the senior pastor of an inner-city church in Birmingham, Alabama.
The church was suburban at its founding in 1955—later to be gobbled up into the expanding 1960s Birmingham landscape. A product of the Southern Baptist Convention’s “A Million More in 54” campaign, my church has been the epitome of a solid Southern Baptist church for just over 50 years. It has a reputation for doing things with excellence. However, it plateaued in attendance in the 1970s and began a sharp decline in the early 1990s. In the late 1980s, the surrounding area went into a rapid demographic transition—not an unusual phenomenon in medium-sized and larger cities.
Having never experienced the dynamics of urban ministry, I was confused about how to lead the church. I had sensed a distinct, divine calling to my church. Yet, that calling did not come with a step-by-step manual on how to lead a declining city church.
The questions spiraled around me. How do I lead a church that’s been numerically challenged in a community that’s demographically changing? How do I, as a twentysomething relate to an aging congregation (with a majority in their 70s and 80s)? How do I lead this unlikely-to-succeed church in a way that would help to inspire a sense of purpose to defy the odds?
I gathered a group of 21 seasoned leaders in our church to think about our future. We studied the trends of our area. We prayed in focused ways about how to respond to the changes we were experiencing. We cried; we found it easy to cry when the majority of the surrounding churches were either in steep decline or had closed their doors.
In our searching, we made a key discovery: a majority of the churches reaching people were new churches. These new churches were planted in places where people were moving. So, we led the church to take a leap of faith.
I, along with our church leaders, challenged our small, committed congregation to engage with God and to give financial and people resources to be used to start a new congregation in a fast-growing community 18 miles away from our immediate area. The congregation voted almost 100 percent to try this venture They pledged a large sum of money and commissioned 25 of their youngest and brightest leaders to accomplish the task.
Today, the new location has a completed facility on 30 acres of prime real estate. It’s located in a booming county adjacent to the original location. In just over one year since the start, we have more than 200 people in worship. How many established churches have had almost a ten-fold increase in a year’s time? The new location has been a tremendous success that has resulted in many changed lives.
Now, I have the coolest job in the world. I preach on two campuses every Sunday. I’m at the new location at 9:30 a.m. and the original location at 11:00 a.m. The people in the new location have resonated well with a contemporary worship style and format. The original location has maintained its more traditional feel.
On the original campus, there is a sense of accomplishment. On Wednesday nights, we have baptisms at our original location. Most of these baptisms are people who have become Christians through the ministries of the new location. Our long-time members are amazed when they realize that our church, now on two locations, has doubled in attendance over the course of one year. Also, we’ve planned for the new location to serve as a catalyst for beginning vital, culturally-relevant ministries at the original location in the future.
I’m convinced that I could not have led an established congregation to make this radical change alone. I’ve succeeded because I gathered a diverse group of committed people to help make the right decisions.
I’ve learned that every church, regardless of how difficult the circumstances may be, has an opportunity to receive a vision from God and leverage her strengths to reach new people. So, if you’re a church leader, don’t sit and wring your hands in despair. Avoid resting on the visions of the previous pastors of your church. Receive God’s vision for your church today! God’s will for your church may be beginning a new location to reach new people. Don’t miss the opportunity to see God defy the odds and do something amazing for your church’s future.
5 steps to preparing your congregation to plant a church
Sometimes pastors experience difficulty in attempting to lead their church to consider planting another congregation. In many cases, the pastor has not led the congregation through a process of preparation or discovery. The pastor has done little more than pitching the idea to the congregation. For the majority of churches in North America, there is a very necessary initial stage of preparation or cultivation through which the church must be led before they are ready and motivated to plant a new church. Here are five proven steps for leading a congregation through this preparation stage:
1. Establish a Prayer & Research Team How this team is actually established will vary from church to church, depending on church size, polity, and structure. The purpose of this team is to discover the unreached/unchurched population segments in the area which established churches have been unable to reach. This is accomplished through intentional prayer and research. Often there are unreached population segments within blocks of the church. They are the people whom the church has invited repeatedly to attend special services, Vacation Bible School, or to take part in a social event; and month after month, year after year, they still do not come. Pastor, resist the temptation to tell the team who these unreached people are – let them work through the discovery process.
2. Experience the Need Once the unreached population segment(s) is identified, the team needs to “experience the need.” This can be done by conducting prayer walks, doing door-to-door surveys, or through any ministry activity that requires church people being in direct face-to-face contact with the persons in the community. Today, more and more people are kinesthetic learners. To really “get something” they must “experience it.”
3. Extended Prayer Strategy Once the need has been experienced by a handful of church members, the prayer strategy can be passionately extended to other areas within the church. Those who experienced the need should communicate specific prayer requests in their Bible study classes, small groups, with prayer ministry coordinators, and others. An organized and intentional effort is necessary to make this happen.
4. Testimonies/Communicating Need Enlist a few persons who have experienced the need and who have an obvious passion for these unreached people to share brief testimonies in a worship service. This is often effective by having one 3 to 5 minute testimony per service for three weeks. Testimonies can also be written and published in the church newsletter or bulletin.
5. Congregational Experience of Need Finally, after the congregation has been asked to pray for these people and has heard passionate testimonies from fellow church members regarding the need, they need to experience the need for themselves. Try hosting an evangelistic block party, conducting more prayerwalks, or doing any number of ministry evangelism activities among the people needing to be reached.
Once the congregational preparation has been done, a pastor will not have to “convince” a congregation to do something. They will be motivated by the need, and through the leading of the Holy Spirit will desire to invest time, energy, and financial resources to start a church specifically designed to reach those for whom they have developed a deep compassion. This is the key to a people whose heart beats for lost with a healthy understanding of what it means to be the Church!
The gospel is impacting Mormon Utah
By Stanton Felder
Almost 160 years ago, after being chased out of Missouri, Brigham Young brought his small band of
weary Mormons to the Great Salt Lake valley and set up camp. For almost 100 years his church (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints—usually referred to simply as LDS) reigned virtually unchallenged in Utah. Fortunately, however, the evangelical Christian population slowly began to wake up and recognize this huge mission field right in our own back yard. Taking on one of the largest and best financed religious organizations in the country, Southern Baptists, along with other evangelicals, have been hammering away in Utah with the life changing message of Jesus Christ. Their efforts seem to be making a big impact on the LDS church.
According to recent articles in the Mormon-owned Salt Lake Tribune, the state of Utah has been experiencing a slow but steady decline in church membership. “Within the next three years,” says Matt Canham of the Tribune, “the Mormon share of Utah’s population is expected to hit its lowest level since The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints started keeping membership numbers. And if current trends continue, LDS residents no longer will constitute a majority by 2030.” Since 1989, every county in Utah has experienced a decline in its percentage of Mormon adherents.
In the most populous county in Utah—Salt Lake County with 980,000 residents—the LDS church is reporting a membership of only 53 percent of the county’s population. This percentage also includes a large number of inactive and “jack Mormons.” A “jack Mormon” is a person who has family ties to the LDS church but no longer attends or supports its teachings. This means that the majority of the populace are not devout LDS and are essentially open to the message of Jesus Christ.
Southern Baptist churches have the second largest number of congregations in Utah and the third largest membership behind the LDS and Catholic churches. But we’re a long way from being done! According to 2000 estimates, less than 2 percent of the population of Utah are evangelicals. A major emphasis is currently underway in both Utah and Idaho for the establishment of new congregations and an increased number of believers and baptisms in all our existing churches.
The field in Utah is very ripe for a great Christian harvest. The masses of the Mormon church have slowly been coming to the realization that “something isn’t quite right with the LDS church and its teaching.”
Every day the bulwark of Mormonism is showing more and more signs of cracking. It’s easy to see that if and when the LDS dam fully breaks, we won’t have near enough evangelical churches to adequately handle the influx of new converts.
We need strong families to move here and live and work among the people. We need church planters to come and begin new congregations in order to disciple new Christians. We need churches and associations to send volunteer mission teams to help with outreach efforts and to encourage our new church planters.
Just like the Apostle Paul in Acts chapter 16 where he saw a vision of a man calling unto him to bring the gospel to Macedonia, we also are pleading with Southern Baptists to “come help us spread the message of Jesus Christ to Utah.”
If you have questions, please contact Stan Felder, catalytic minister of missions at the Salt Lake Baptist Association, sfelder@slba.org or call (801) 419-4274 or go to www.slba.org.
situations that would prompt regular church attendance among the unchurched
58% Felt it was time to return
41% Invitation from a friend
35% People like me are there
31% God calling me to attend
25% Invitation from an adult family member
25% Invitation from children
Source: LifeWay Research, www.lifeway.com/research
top 3 reasons americans don't go to church
24% Don't agree with organized religions/what they preach
21% Don't have time/Don't get around to it
16% Don't believe in going to church
Source: The Gallup Poll, April 6, 2007
