Pastor Keith and the staff that "fit" perfectly marched into the Middleberry neighborhood ready to take on all comers. The congregants of Middleberry were excited as well. They were excited for two reasons:
(1) As I mentioned earlier the split (I'm sorry, the "plant" as they would like to call it) couldn't have come soon enough. The young pastor at GracePoint had caused much resentment amongst those who founded Middleberry. It all began when those at Middleberry still worshipped at GracePoint.
A few years back, GracePoint was coming out of a period of poor leadership from their Senior Pastor position. Men had attempted to lead the Church who were either under-qualified; immoral; or interim pastors. These men were unable to lead the large chuch of GracePoint effectively. The eldership stepped in and set a vision for the future of GracePoint. Two men felt qualified for the position: Pastor Keith and a young pastor who had grown up in the congregation and was currently serving a youth ministry in another state. With Pastor Keith there was a great amount of experience and a long-term realtionship; with the young pastor came fresh ideas and a change for the future.
The eldership of GracePoint racked their brains. Had the positions been open for both men to come on staff the decision would have been simple; however, the church needed one man to lead them into the next phase of their existence. The elders made a difficult call informing their associate pastor for years, Pastor Keith, that he would have to wait to lead a church. The elders chose the young Pastor from out of state.
This decision did not sit well with many in the congregation of GracePoint. So many were poured into by Keith during his time as their youth pastor. Others had grown in their relationship with him as he was the associate pastor in charge of discipleship. Keith had grown up with many of these people and they were staunchly devoted to him.
With the introduction of the new Pastor at GracePoint came changes throughout the church. What was asked of the congregation was stepped up. What was expected of members and how things were organized changed the way GracePoint operated. Support staff was realigned, leadership was called on the carpet and a vision for the future was instated which called for excellence and a new building! Pastor Keith was asked to grasp the vision set forth, but he desperately wanted to keep the status quo. "It had been working for 15 years..." was the thought that kept running through Keith's mind. He wanted nothing to do with this new vision, he wanted his sunday school class. Pastor Keith had begun the search for a new congregation to serve when the idea for Middleberry came across his desk.
When Pastor Keith was given the opportunity to lead Middleberry, this disgruntled faction of the church that was loyal to him followed. The phrases, "Come to Middleberry, we're like the Old GracePoint!", or "Middleberry is what GracePoint used to be!" became the rallying cry of this congregation. So the people of Middleberry were glad to be worshipping anywhere but at GracePoint...that is one reason they were excited. The other:
(2) The church of Middleberry was the new game in town. Their first event was a smash hit. There were people coming from everywhere to see this new Church in the middle of town. The people of Middleberry Church viewed this as the stamp of God's approval on them. They have successfully brought the religion of suburbia into the center of the city. The next couple events would have the same success. But while the leadership and staff of Middleberry celebrated the additions, they refused to see the revolving door that was happening at the back. They were losing these people as quickly as they came in. The revolving back door of Middleberry was a massive problem that the celebration masked and they would not let that rain on their parade!
This new body of believers at Middleberry Church were excited to be somewhere other than GracePoint and they were excited to be welcomed into the community by all the needs there. But the welcome would eventually wear out and the newness would wear off, and we shall soon see the shallowness with which the community surrounding Middleberry was offered would crumble beneath them. The old adage "What you win them with, you win them too" adequately explains the conundrum with which Middleberry was walking into!
Showing posts with label GracePoint. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GracePoint. Show all posts
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
The Tale Begins...
The First Church of Jerusalem arrived by a supreme act of God. The Middleberry Church had a much more tumultuous birth, or should I say rebirth. Seems that long ago the church grew to great numbers in a nice part of town. A split over doctrine and a natural disaster had the attendance nearing zero many years later. Through the good graces of some other bodies of believers; Middleberry Church was reborn. The graces was not money so much as people. The gift of congregants from GracePoint Church revitalized the sleepy little church that was now in the hub of the town.
Just a word about these congregants should suffice. Middleberry is significantly different from the rest of the town; especially the upper-middle class GracePoint area. Middleberry is a transient lower class neighborhood miles away from the GracePoint attender's doorsteps.
GracePoint people try to avoid the Middleberry neighborhood six days of the week but relish the fact that they are helping them by making the 20 minute commute in for 3 hours on Sunday morning (convincing themselves that they will raise the standard of living and the spirituality of the community, simply by proximity). Cultural differences and standard of living was overcame by the church in the book of Acts; but it was only done by dropping the cultural bias and speaking to people on their terms (Acts 17 style). Sadly enough GracePoint congregants brought their style; their money; their time frames; and their expectations and traditions to Middleberry; establishing what many on the outside would call "GracePoint North."
So this immigration from GracePoint provided the congregants for Middleberry's revival. The last question became who would lead them? GracePoint provided the answer.
Pastor Keith had been on staff for years. The people loved him (and it didn't hurt that the new lead pastor at GracePoint had fallen out of favor with many of the older congregants). Pastor Keith needed some new digs and he relished the idea that he would get to finally lead a Church. He took the job, his talents, his desire for preaching and his 200 congregants to Middleberry to lead.
The parishoners of Middleberry (formerly GracePoint) placed their trust (and continue to place their trust) in Pastor Keith and have set out to change a culture radically different from theirs, with the knowledge they think they already posses; the traditions they wish to keep intact; and a chip on their shoulder towards GracePoint and their new lead pastor...just like the First Church of Jerusalem!
Okay so maybe the First Church of Jerusalem wasn't at all like that. You can't fault Middleberry for wanting to help. The benefit of the doubt is given that the Middleberry congregation felt like they were ready for this challenge and with God all things are possible. Hindsight would hopefully help the church realize its oversimplification of this process and its lack of vision in this enterprise. Middleberry felt like they knew what is best for that community...they would soon find out they were mistaken.
Just a word about these congregants should suffice. Middleberry is significantly different from the rest of the town; especially the upper-middle class GracePoint area. Middleberry is a transient lower class neighborhood miles away from the GracePoint attender's doorsteps.
GracePoint people try to avoid the Middleberry neighborhood six days of the week but relish the fact that they are helping them by making the 20 minute commute in for 3 hours on Sunday morning (convincing themselves that they will raise the standard of living and the spirituality of the community, simply by proximity). Cultural differences and standard of living was overcame by the church in the book of Acts; but it was only done by dropping the cultural bias and speaking to people on their terms (Acts 17 style). Sadly enough GracePoint congregants brought their style; their money; their time frames; and their expectations and traditions to Middleberry; establishing what many on the outside would call "GracePoint North."
So this immigration from GracePoint provided the congregants for Middleberry's revival. The last question became who would lead them? GracePoint provided the answer.
Pastor Keith had been on staff for years. The people loved him (and it didn't hurt that the new lead pastor at GracePoint had fallen out of favor with many of the older congregants). Pastor Keith needed some new digs and he relished the idea that he would get to finally lead a Church. He took the job, his talents, his desire for preaching and his 200 congregants to Middleberry to lead.
The parishoners of Middleberry (formerly GracePoint) placed their trust (and continue to place their trust) in Pastor Keith and have set out to change a culture radically different from theirs, with the knowledge they think they already posses; the traditions they wish to keep intact; and a chip on their shoulder towards GracePoint and their new lead pastor...just like the First Church of Jerusalem!
Okay so maybe the First Church of Jerusalem wasn't at all like that. You can't fault Middleberry for wanting to help. The benefit of the doubt is given that the Middleberry congregation felt like they were ready for this challenge and with God all things are possible. Hindsight would hopefully help the church realize its oversimplification of this process and its lack of vision in this enterprise. Middleberry felt like they knew what is best for that community...they would soon find out they were mistaken.
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