For a denominationally-affiliated church to launch additional campus locations, as in a multi-site church, there may be particularities of denominational governance and polity that makes it different than non-denominational churches. From what I know, there are multi-site churches in many denominations, including United Methodist, Presbyterian (both PCA and PCUSA), Southern Baptist, Evangelical Covenant, and others.
Yet, there are times when a church's leadership may decide to change its denominational affiliation to be more strategic or more effective for its ministry vision. Of course, transitions and changes are rarely ever easy when it comes to churches and denominations. Some people will misunderstand.
One church's leadership decided to leave its denominational ties under apparently good terms. This is an excerpt from The Wichita Eagle article, "Worshippers attend two GracePoint churches after congregation splits":
Several hundred people -- church leaders said more than 700 -- attended the first worship "experiences" at GracePoint Community Church at Northwest High School. The non-denominational church formed when leaders of GracePoint United Methodist Church left the denomination last week.
Meanwhile, GracePoint United Methodist church had its service as usual in the auditorium of Maize South Middle School. More than 150 people attended, including visitors who came to support the church. The church had a Sunday attendance of about 700 before the split.
The Methodist congregation greeted its new minister, the Rev. Steve Spencer, with applause.
"I can tell you today there is going to be a solid foundation for ministry at GracePoint," Spencer told the UMC congregation. "Good things are ahead."
At Northwest, the Methodist church's former pastor, Bryson Butts also received applause when he talked about a "special day" of coming together for the first time as GracePoint Community Church.
On another note, Pastor Bryson Butts of the new GracePoint Community Church blogged about his thoughts behind the change:
We want to reach people far from Jesus Christ and have plans for multiple locations. A non-denominational structure will allow us the liberty to spread the message of Jesus - and our campuses - across the city.
... We are all on the same team when it comes to reaching people who do not know Jesus Christ. ... our competition is all the other things people have to do with their time, not other churches! There is well over 60% of people in Wichita who are not in church on Sunday mornings. No one will reach all of them. We want to partner with anyone and everyone who has a passion to reach people for Christ. Let’s work together to set off a revolution by starting more new churches all over this city.
Each denomination does have its own distinctives. This might be over-generalizing, but it seems to me that denominations often provides additional resources and support, yet may not have as much flexibility or fluidity as an independent non-denominational church.
What success stories have you heard of denominational churches effectively launching additional multi-site locations? How can a local church that's going multi-site better navigate within a denominational structure?
// DJ Chuang is a Director at Leadership Network, launching digital initiatives, and connecting multi-site churches and Asian American pastors.
I think its odd that you chose this church for your "case study" since it would not have existed without its denominational ties. It seems to me that it is a break of covenant by the pastor and that the "new" congregation owes more than a "debt of gratitude" to all of the little old ladies who tithed in rural Kansas churches to pay their start up costs.
Posted by: Marty Cauley | March 10, 2009 at 06:26 PM
Marty, thanks for your comments. This blog post was to invite feedback from our blog's readers based on a recent news article. Since I am not well-acquainted with a denomination like United Methodist, I would like to learn more about a denomination's expectation for their churches.
Posted by: djchuang | March 13, 2009 at 05:39 PM