By Kent E. Fillinger
Shining a spotlight on challenges and successes at three churches . . .
More to Discovery
People fellowship in the lobby at Discovery Christian Church, Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania.
Did you grow up going to church? I did. Therefore, I don”t know what it feels like to walk into church for the first time as an adult with no church background.
Toney Salva, senior minister at Discovery Christian Church, Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania, on the other hand has used his personal experience of not growing up in a church to design a church that targets people who do not like church, or who have no church background. Through some internal surveys of the current congregation, Salva has determined 68 percent of its attendees had no church connection prior to coming to Discovery.
Ordinary People
The ministry team at Discovery focuses on demonstrating they are ordinary people who aim to take out the churchiness while staying true to the Bible. Salva says you won”t find people clapping or raising their hands during a Discovery worship service. In fact, the word worship is almost never used. The songs in the service are a mix of current worship songs and secular songs you might hear on your local radio station.
Music has been a key element in Discovery”s distinctiveness; its consistent, clear musical style has aided efforts to reach the unchurched population. The church”s band recently placed second in a battle of the bands competition at a local Hard Rock Café in Pittsburgh.
Discovery Christian is located in suburban Pittsburgh in the second-fastest-growing township in the state. The rapid growth of the area has contributed to the church”s growth. Through a partnership between Orchard Group and East 91st Street Christian Church, Indianapolis, Indiana, Discovery launched in a movie theater in 2003 with 300 in attendance.
Salva explained that much like a newborn baby immediately loses some of its birth weight, the church settled into an average attendance of about 225 after that first Sunday. But like a healthy baby regains her weight and continues to grow, Discovery reached its “birth weight” again after about two and a half years, and in 2009 it averaged 670 in attendance.
A growth strategy the church employed was to leave free movie tickets for the community at the box office with a note identifying the tickets as a gift from the church. Soon, Discovery became known as the movie church.
From “Movie” to Multisite
After outgrowing the movie theater, the church rented a local university”s adult education building. Then, in 2006, the church launched two additional campuses””one in another local suburb and one in an urban area of Pittsburgh.
After a year, the suburban campus was closed due to leadership issues, teaching Salva and his team some valuable leadership lessons. The urban campus continues to thrive as it reaches 20-something artisans in a postmodern alternative setting. The heart of the church is to serve the city, even though it is located in the suburbs.
Recently, the church added a third campus for Burmese-speaking refugees from Myanmar. Salva said the church stumbled onto this ministry outreach after it started to help some refugees find housing. Many of the refugees were already Christians, but did not speak English, so Discovery decided to help them start a campus where the worship would be in their own language. Groups from the church have even met new refugees at the airport to help them get connected to the church and the community.
Chemistry and Continuity
Another critical factor in the church”s consistent growth has been the chemistry, unity, and continuity of the ministry staff. The church started with three full-time and two part-time staff members, and after seven years every one of them is still part of the team.
The staff members are allowed to expand their ministries to fit their gifts and personalities, and have job descriptions that fit the strengths of each team member. Salva credits God for putting together the team. Currently, the church has five full-time ministers, three part-time ministers, and two administrative assistants.
Outreach has always been an important part of the church”s culture. The first staff person was called the community outreach pastor. His primary task was to find ways for the church to serve its community.
The lack of space at the rented facility has become a hindrance to continued growth, as 70 percent of Discovery”s members attend this campus. The church also realized its rent expense was greater than the cost of owning a facility. The church recently purchased 22 acres on the busiest corridor in western Pennsylvania, committing $1 million in what Salva described as a “very blue-collar effort.” Given the fact the majority of the church”s members had no prior church experience, and the fact the church does not have any sugar daddies, as they call it, they simply laid out the vision for the church and asked them to contribute.
The church will break ground in 2011. The new campus will include community sports fields for local children”s teams to use for free, a decision that thrilled the township.
In the midst of its own capital campaign, Discovery committed $25,000 to launch its first daughter church this fall on the south side of Pittsburgh. Salva envisions Discovery will continue to plant churches and add additional multisite campuses in the future as it strives to reach the unchurched in a fresh way.
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