Fastest-Growing Church Listing Includes 8 from Our Fellowship (Plus News Briefs)

Eight churches from our fellowship made Outreach magazine’s listing of 100 fastest-growing churches. Those churches include:

No. 11: Eastside Christian Church, Anaheim, Calif. (Gene Appel, senior pastor); attendance of 8,665; grew by 21 percent. (Eastside’s logo is pictured above.)

No. 12: Crossroads Christian Church, Corona, Calif. (Chuck Booher, senior pastor); 5,617; 24 percent.

No. 19: Mountain Christian Church, Joppa, Md. (Ben Cachiaras, lead pastor); 6,118; 19 percent.

No. 55: Christ’s Church of the Valley, Peoria, Ariz. (Ashley Wooldridge, senior pastor); 29,025; 7 percent.

No. 56: Traders Point Christian Church, Indianapolis (Aaron Brockett, lead pastor); 8,144; 9 percent.

No. 75: 2|42 Community Church, Brighton, Mich. (David Dummitt, lead pastor); 6,994; 8 percent.

No. 76: Compass Christian Church, Colleyville, Texas. (Drew Sherman, lead pastor); 5,138; 8 percent.

No. 80: Northside Christian Church, New Albany, Ind. (Nate Ross, lead pastor); 5,540; 8 percent.

Outreach did separate stories on two churches: No. 12 Crossroads (“Laser-Focused on Jesus”) and No. 80 Northside (“Among the People”).

In addition, of the 100 largest churches that participated in its study, Outreach lists 17 as being Christian churches. The largest among them is No. 4, Christ’s Church of the Valley (attendance: 29,025).

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News Briefs

After serving nine years as president and CEO of Kentucky Christian University, Dr. Jeff Metcalf will step down from those positions effective next Aug. 26.

Chairwoman Diane Mansfield expressed the KCU board’s deep appreciation to Metcalf, who has served with the university for more than two decades.

“His commitment to furthering the mission of KCU and his leadership during a challenging period in the life of the university have strongly positioned KCU for the future,” she wrote. “We respect his decision and appreciate his humility and thoughtfulness in allowing the board ample time to conduct a careful and deliberate search for his successor.”

A search has begun for Metcalf’s successor.

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Johnson University will host its “Pursue Conference” at its Tennessee campus in Knoxville Nov. 9-11 for rising juniors, seniors, and high school graduates who are interested in pursuing a career in ministry. Learn more at the university’s website.

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Cincinnati Christian University will celebrate its Homecoming on Saturday. A central event will be the CCU Eagles vs. the Kentucky Christian University Knights football game at 1:30 p.m. at Willard Stargel Stadium, three miles from campus.

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Dr. Carl Toney, professor of biblical studies at Hope International University, Fullerton, Calif., has published New Testament Foundations: An Introduction for Students. The updated commentary, originally published by the late Ralph P. Martin, “surveys the 27 books of the New Testament in light of their historical context and engages the wider scholarly conversation.”

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Harvester Christian Church, St. Charles, Mo., recently hosted “Bumper Bag” weekend. Church members each were given blue bags that they were told to fill with canned or boxed goods for the church’s food pantry and backpack program. Members left the bags behind their cars in the church parking lot before going to church services. The church then picked up the food and delivered it.

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If you have a news item to share with readers, send it to cs@christianstandardmedia.com.