Local Church IMPACT! – Why Our Church is Starting A Second Location tagged: , , ,

Local Church IMPACT! – Why Our Church is Starting A Second Location

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Woodland Creek West. That’s what it is. After 2 years of planting our little church in the Atlanta suburb of Dacula, in the planned community of Hamilton Mill, we are starting a second site in Snellville, across from the retail mecca called Webb Gin, 15 miles away from our campus. Mega-church? Not us. We have 85 people in worship, about 60 members.

So why are we doing this again?

Let’s recap. I came to Northside Baptist in December of 2005, having agreed to lead the remnant there to be the core group for a new church plant. We inherited about 20 folks, 13 acres of property, a parsonage and a converted barn/sanctuary. Oh, and a mortgage of $400,000. We started the new church, Woodland Creek, in March of 2006, and by August, only had 10 of the original 20 folks left.

But we had gained 30 more. And since then we have gained about 40 or 50 more, giving us about 85 folks on campus on Sunday mornings. Woodland Creek has a sweet fellowship, a reputation for “authenticity”, dynamic worship, a weekday preschool, and a multi-generational fellowship with a high number of 20-somethings, some families, several boomers, and a few senior adults. We have a heart for missions and church planting, and have helped plant two other SBC churches in the last two years.

A few months ago, God gave us the opportunity to begin discussions with Freedom Baptist Church in Snellville, a four-year-old church plant that never really took off. The bivocational pastor who lived thirty miles away had resigned and the five families left had few options. I had recommended they find a church that was evangelistic and like-minded in approach, and offer to become a second ministry site of that congregation. They liked my suggestion and asked if we were willing to take them on. I had been speaking hypothetically; now I had to do some praying about whether our little church was ready to expand ministry into a second location.

To make a long story short, we prayed, and God said, “Yes.” He provided a couple in the Snellville church who are called to lead, some money and resources from the existing congregation, several prospects from the family and friends of our Woodland Creek folks, and He gave us a vision for a different kind of church; one with two locations, one with a heart for God’s glory in all peoples, in all places.

Our new location will start January 13th. We still do not have a place to meet, but I am trusting God to provide. We will meet at the new location on Sunday nights for worship, and on Sunday mornings, while we are worshipping in Dacula, the folks in Snellville will be ministering to those who are working retail on Sunday mornings, and sharing Christ with those who are anywhere but church. I am excited about what this will do for our overall evangelistic DNA, for the new people we can reach, and for the new families who are signing on to be part of the team at Woodland Creek. I am concerned about my use of time, scared about getting fatigued or spread too thin, and anxious about overburdening my wife and other friends and leaders.

But I expect God to do great things, mostly because I have seen him do great things before, as revealed in scripture, in history and in my life. For six-and-a-half years my family and I served as church planters in Maine. We had few people, fewer resources, and no idea what we were doing. And we watched God do so much with so little. So part of the reason we are doing this is because we want to see God do miracles. We want to witness his majesty as He does things only He can do.

Another reason we are planting a second location is because people don’t go to church anymore. The church must go to them. I estimate that 1/4 of the people in our area work or are out of town on Sunday mornings. Those are people who need Jesus, too. And we’d like to see God work through us to reach them with the gospel. Our teams will be passing out candy to kids working at The Gap, putting newspapers on doorsteps in neighborhoods, and praying with waitresses at the start of their busy day. I love this stuff. And it works. People don’t care Who we know till they know how we care. And when we do care, they wonder why and give us opportunity to share with them about the one who loved us first.

Another reason why we are starting a second location is that we need an evangelistic shot in the arm. Our folks are getting sleepy. Yeah, we want to reach lost people, but we sure do like hanging out with each other. And even though our campus is a model for good stewardship and community outreach (weekday preschool with 80% unchurched families, homeschool group meetings, HOA meetings, movie nights, and sharing space with another new church), we need to do more to reach out beyond 1452 Auburn Road. And having teams go out every Sunday morning to share Christ in Snellville will make us more inclined to do that here, there and everywhere the other six days of the week, especially since we are requiring all our members to take a turn on Sunday mornings next year.

So here we go. I don’t have any ambitions except that we be faithful to what God has called us to do. But I do ask you to pray for us, and to consider whether your church should consider going multi-site, sending outreach teams on Sunday mornings, or utilizing some other evangelistic tool to reach people with the gospel of Christ.

I will keep you posted, Impact! friends. We covet your prayers.