| Church struggles with growth issues
By Michael Wacht
ORLANDO — Most people would say a church with
more than 4,000 members, more than 2,000 in worship, a 40-person staff
and ministries that are touching lives throughout its city is not a
struggling church. Yet the Rev. Bill Barnes, pastor of that church,
struggles with what it means for his church, St. Luke’s United
Methodist Church here, to be a regional church.
“We should have some benchmarks,” he said.
“Is it attendance, budget, membership?”
A regional church, sometimes called a megachurch,
is a church that draws in and ministers to people in large numbers,
according to the Rev. Mont Duncan, director of the Florida Conference’s
New Church Development and Church Redevelopment office. Duncan says a
regional church has 1,500 to 2,000 people in worship each week.
The 20 largest churches in the Florida
Conference each have more than 2,100 members and 1,000 in worship each
week. St. Luke’s is one of two with more than 4,000 members and the
only one that tops 2,000 in worship.
Barnes says St. Luke’s is a regional church
because of its draw and ministry. “People drive from as far as 30
minutes away,” he said. “We don’t limit what we do in terms of
outreach to Southwest Orlando. We’re in ministry all across greater
Orlando and Central Florida.”
Barbara Reems, a member of St. Luke’s and
leader of one of its outreach ministries, says she believes a church
moves into a dangerous time when it gets to be a certain size. “It’s
not the people that make it too big,” she said. “It seems to get
commercial if it gets too big. You have to watch what you do with the
assets…so assets don’t become more important than people.”
Reems said a large church must be careful of its
attitude toward the community and other groups. “We have to set a
good example for the community,” she said. “We have to share our
expertise and resources, but it’s good to be humble and don’t
think it’s your way or the highway. We have to be careful when we
work in conjunction with other churches that we don’t overwhelm…or
think we’re more important…”
Barnes believes St. Luke’s members have the
passion and purpose the Rev. Adam Hamilton says are necessary for a
church to become a regional church (see related article, front page).
Hamilton is pastor of United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in
Kansas City, Mo.
“What we’re trying to do…is provide
ministry opportunities and discipleship growth to as many as we can
while connecting them in an intimate setting and small groups,”
Barnes said. “Our vision is ‘Building the kingdom by building
disciples.’ The kingdom is God’s gift to us. Jesus says the
kingdom is within us. Our discipleship makes the kingdom a reality
around us.”
Reems believes her church does make God’s
kingdom a reality in Orlando. “St. Luke’s is friendly, accepting,
and there’s room for divergent beliefs,” Reems said. “We’re
accepting of people in their journey where they are. Accepting makes
it big. Groups make it small, like churches within the big church.”
Barnes says St. Luke’s has not become too
large because it has not lost sight of its roots. “People spent a
lot of effort discerning through the Spirit who they wanted to be,”
he said. “We’re trying to figure out how to allow ourselves to go
to the next level and not lose what we’ve cherished for the past 23
years.”
The church’s identity is closely related to
its namesake, St. Luke, who was a physician. “We’ve identified
ourself as a healing place,” Barnes said. “Healing, wholeness and
salvation are all connected theologically. Our focus is on the power
of Christ and the need of the individual. This is a place where you
can find love and care.”
Keeping that focus is harder as the church
grows. “Being big makes it harder to keep our identity,” he said.
“As we get larger, it takes more focused energy on bringing people
into who we are. We are becoming more intentional as we get bigger
that we are able to communicate who we are for Christ in our unique
setting.”
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