Articles for tag: Multisite Model

SPOTLIGHT: ONE&ALL Church (San Dimas, CA, and International)

More Than Just a Name Change Until recently, ONE&ALL Church was known as Christ’s Church of the Valley. The church changed its name when it began expanding its multisite model outside of Southern California’s San Gabriel Valley. Today, ONE&ALL Church has campuses as far away as Australia, New Zealand, Bahrain, and Pakistan. Its worship services are also broadcast daily on Christian radio into many other countries, including the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Indonesia. Through partnerships with various Christian radio networks, ONE&ALL Church is transmitting the gospel to remote parts of the globe—what senior pastor Jeff Vines calls “unreachable places.” Vines explained

Making an IMPACT in Indy

By Jim Nieman On June 24, the Fairfax Christian Church family in inner-city Indianapolis celebrated their final weekend of worship together under longtime minister Tom Richason, and on July 1, the church became the newest site of Mount Pleasant Christian Church’s IMPACT Ministry. Chris Philbeck, senior pastor of Mount Pleasant—a church of about 4,700 located in Greenwood, Ind., about a dozen miles south of Indy—says MPCC hopes to “bring renewal to this new ministry opportunity.” Fairfax voted unanimously to transfer ownership to MPCC on Feb. 25, but no ministry changes occurred until the first of this month. Like many urban

Large-Church Insights

By Kent Fillinger I”m excited to share key metrics and findings of 94 large churches (average weekly worship attendance of 500 to 999) from our recent church survey. The August issue of Christian Standard will provide an overview of the 88 medium-size churches surveyed. And if you missed the big picture snapshot of the 133 megachurches and emerging megachurches, check out the May issue online. Growth & Attendance The large churches we surveyed grew 4.3 percent last year, faster than any other segment of churches. Large churches have grown an average of 4.4 percent annually over the last three years.

Growing Over the Long Haul

By Kent E. Fillinger John Scott is a longtimer. He started as youth minister of Community Christian Church in Hemet, California, in 1987, and became the lead pastor in 1990. In 2012, CCC grew to an average worship attendance of 1,126, a 22 percent increase over the previous year. “The momentum has been building, but we busted loose last year,” Scott said. “Our staff and elders are simply amazing,” he said. “Truly gifted and big-hearted servants who have totally bought into what we”re trying to do here. The cohesiveness of this team has allowed us to stretch and risk and

What About Southeast?

By Darrel Rowland A renowned church leader wonders if Bob Russell stayed a little too long at Southeast Christian Church. The rapid growth of the megachurch in Louisville, Kentucky, plateaued a bit in Russell”s final two years there””he stepped down in June 2006″”and successor Dave Stone”s first two. Russell seemed a little slow to move to a multisite model, which in the past few years has sparked renewed growth to nearly 21,000 a week meeting in three facilities. And, frankly, near the end of his 40-year run at Southeast, Russell didn”t show as much energy as he did before. Who

MEDIUM-SIZED CHURCHES: Measuring Growth at Medium-sized Churches

Kent E. Fillinger Some readers may wonder why there is an entire issue devoted to medium-sized churches with an average worship attendance of 250-499. This special issue featuring medium-sized churches reports on far fewer congregations than we had anticipated. There are obviously more than 32 Christian churches/churches of Christ that fit into the medium-sized church category. We hope to include many more of them in next year”s report! Despite its small sample size, this report still provides a one-of-a-kind, detailed snapshot of medium-sized churches that will serve as a sound starting point to develop in the future. If you are

Megachurches: The Church of the Decade Is Real Life Ministries (Web-only Feature)

By Kent Fillinger Real Life Ministries is currently the sixth-largest Christian church/church of Christ in the country. Started by Jim Putman with only four families in 1998 in Post Falls, Idaho, Real Life has grown to an average worship attendance of 8,500. Real Life first appeared on CHRISTIAN STANDARD”s megachurch list in 2001 with an average attendance of 1,497. Real Life has remained focused on “making disciples in relational environments” and resisted chasing fads or shooting for “the big show” like some other churches. “The church should not be a gathering place, but a launching pad,” said Putman, who believes the

Salt Lake City Church Planting

by Douglas J. Crozier In my 12 years of service with Church Development Fund, I have been blessed to participate in international missions in Chile and India. I have also been privileged to work closely with the team at Impact Canada to expand the kingdom north of our border. I am sold out for global missions that continue to expand the kingdom. But in late 2007, a phone call from Steve Edwards, executive director of the Intermountain Church Planting Association, opened my eyes to a mission field right in our backyard. I had never met Steve, but he challenged me

Multisite Momentum

By Kent Fillinger The second coming of the megachurch appears to be the multisite movement””or perhaps the next generation of multisite ministry arrived before you were even introduced to the original version. Dave Ferguson, lead pastor of Community Christian (Naperville, Illinois), is an often quoted and passionate proponent of multisite ministry. He introduced a new concept””the “polysite church”””in an article in the February 24 Christian Standard. He described the polysite church as the next wave in church reproduction. A recent article in Rev! magazine titled “Mega, Schmega” (March/April 2008) described multisite ministry as the answer for the future church. Some

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