| By
Michael Wacht
ORLANDO — The Rev. Adam Hamilton, senior
pastor of United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Kansas City,
Mo., said the foundation of church growth is purpose and passion among
the people.
“If your church is going to be vital, you have
to be clear about why it exists…,” Hamilton said. “If people can’t
talk about the purpose with a certain amount of passion, the church
will never grow.”
Hamilton was at St. Luke’s United Methodist
Church here Feb. 8 for a seminar on how large churches become regional
churches. The Rev. Mont Duncan, the Florida Conference’s director of
New Church Development and Church Redevelopment, said a regional
church reaches out to the culture and population in large numbers.
“A regional church serves an area of high
population and high diversity,” Duncan said. “It would be a church
with an average attendance of about 1,500 to 2,000 per weekend and
serve many different constituencies within a larger geographical area.”
Hamilton’s church is 11 years old and one of
the largest, fastest-growing United Methodist churches nationwide. It
has six worship services attended by an average of 8,000 people
combined, 2,500 people attending Sunday school, 350 active small
groups and an annual operating budget of $8 million. The campus sits
on 72 acres of land with 114,000 square feet of building space and
another 150,000 square feet planned for construction later this year.
When he first agreed to start the Church of the
Resurrection Hamilton said he was the first person who had to get
excited about the church’s purpose. “There were three questions
that I wrestled with,” he said. “Why do people need Jesus?…Why
do people need the church?…Why do people need this particular
church?”
Once the purpose is established it needs to be
reinforced to the congregation on a regular basis. “Your folks need
to know why your church is the greatest thing since sliced bread,”
Hamilton said. “They also need to know that God didn’t call us to
build the Christian version of Cheers, where everybody knows your
name.”
Hamilton said his church has grown because its
purpose is to reach unchurched and nominally churched people. “Twenty
percent of the people in your community know nothing of God,” he
said. “Most people have some experience or background in the church.
Many are nominally Christian, almost 50 percent in every community.”
Inviting people to church is not enough,
Hamilton said. The church needs to be ready to accept and accommodate
visitors. “If you invite, but you’re not ready, they may never
come back,” he said. “How do you personally feel about lost people
in your community? Do you look at them with compassion because they’re
lost sheep without a shepherd, or do they just irritate you? Would the
people of your church run to meet the lost, or would they shut the
doors and take care of their own?”
Facilities, worship and preaching are the three
keys to making a church inviting, Hamilton said. Parking and signage
need to accommodate people who have never been to the church. The
interior needs to have an updated look and not look like “an antique
store,” he said.
“Worship is the main vehicle to which you’ll
attract people,” Hamilton said, adding it needs to be relevant and
connected to people’s lives.
“Experience is the key word for the younger
generations,” he said. “They want to know ‘What am I supposed to
feel? Help me understand it.’ Translate traditional worship for
unchurched people and they will understand and enjoy it.”
The job of the senior pastor also changes as a
church grows into a regional church. Hamilton said the senior pastor’s
job is to pursue preaching excellence; be the chief visionary;
remember the church’s purpose; recruit, develop, motivate and
inspire leaders; raise the money; and set the spiritual tone for the
congregation. “You cannot lead a congregation where you are not
going,” he said. |
