Guest Blogger: Dave Anderson is Lead Pastor at Crosspoint Community Church in Decatur, Alabama.
I'll never forget my first church plant. God called us to "the fastest growing city" in America. We lived in the "fastest growing county." We went to an Ed Stetzer Church Planters bootcamp, crafted our mission statement, designed mailers for our relevant church, opened our bank account and published our web site. And of course we practically memorized Rick Warren's book - "Purpose Driven Church".
We were going to be the next successful church plant. Anyone should be able to plant a church in those conditions!
A year later we shut it down having never had a service. It was painful.
The call of God was clear though. The location just changed. Back to our mid-sized town of 50,000 people. This time in the bible belt where its easier to find a church than a liquor store. No people, no money, no support organization. Just the painful reminder of what its like to fail.
Six years later as a bi-vocational pastor with about 120 people I thought - lets do something our town has never seen. I quit my job, moved our church from a rented building into a movie theater hung out door hangers and rented billboards and planned my next great sermon series and thought - we'll explode. That almost happened! We "relaunched" our church and grew immediately to 178 people.
It wasn't long till we pushed through growth barriers and hit 93 a few months later.
Discouraged and nearly defeated, I went back to work full time wondering if we might have to shut down yet another church "plant" and I began to ask God - "what's wrong and why can't a church grow in Decatur, Alabama?"
16 months later, on Easter Sunday 2009, while working 40 hours a week as a government contractor, The Crosspoint Community Church had 580 in attendance!
How you ask? Find out at THE STICKS CONFERENCE. I will be leading a break-out specifically designed for those in bi-vocational and smaller churches that will help them navigate the challenges that are faced in those unique contexts.
With God anything is possible in any town of any size and any church of any size for any pastor. Are you going to sit there - or register now?
Dave Anderson is Lead Pastor at Crosspoint Community Church in Decatur, Alabama.
2 comments:
Super Dave! Left traditional pastorate (two church plants both 0-500) to serve instead of have services. Run a charity with about 150 volunteers in Corinth MS, town of 30Kish. We have a churchy feel but are staying a mission to stay on mission. We have pastoral teams in subsidized apt complexes to preach the gospel to the poor, heal broken hearts and set captives free. We want to save the city not grow an organization (local church). Passionate abt it. Follow chazdaddy like a girrlfriend on twitter. Love to see what God's doin in your next of the Sticks.
BC www.crosswind.ms
scary Bobby, scary. [the twitter thing :]
and dang...would love to hear more about what YOU are doing...that is amazing.
keep up the great work! see ya in Georgia?
Post a Comment