April 10, 2000
NAMB partners with Falwell to start 'flagship' church
___CHICAGO--The Southern Baptist Convention will give Jerry Falwell's Virginia church $250,000 over the next two years to help start a new "flagship" Baptist congregation in suburban Chicago.
___Falwell's Thomas Road Baptist Church will match the $125,000 per year allocation from the SBC's North American Mission Board, creating an instant pool of half a million dollars for the church start.
___Falwell and SBC officials said they hope the well-funded church start will create a congregation that within five years will duplicate itself through additional church starts.
___The partnership between NAMB and Falwell's church is the first of five such agreements recently negotiated with Southern Baptist mega-churches. Other churches signed on to the plan include two from Texas, First Baptist Church of Euless and Prestonwood Baptist Church of Plano. First Baptist Church of Woodstock, Ga., and First Baptist Church of Orlando, Fla., also will participate.
___"The basic thesis is that large churches know how to grow churches in cities and impact the cities," said Richard Harris, NAMB vice president of church planting.
___Sponsoring churches were asked to participate by NAMB President Bob Reccord during an annual meeting of mega-church pastors, said Doug Metzger, director of NAMB's strategic focus cities emphasis.
___Falwell said Thomas Road Church chose Chicago because "we have a strong television constituency in Chicago" and "many, many write us wanting a good evangelistic, Bible-teaching church in the area."
___The Chicago-area church will be the "first serious attempt to reach the affluent area of Lake County" with the gospel, according to Bob Ryan, director of missions for Lake County Baptist Association.
___Lake County lies at the northwest edge of metropolitan Chicago. Willow Creek Community Church, a non-denominational mega-church known for its "seeker-sensitive" approach and emulated by many Baptist congregations today, is located in the same vicinity, just across the county line.
___A pastor for the new Baptist church has been handpicked by Falwell and approved by NAMB. Another full-time staff position already has been filled, and a search is under way to fill another staff position.
___"There has just been incredible momentum behind this," said Pastor Kevin Garber, who is a member of Thomas Road Baptist Church and is scheduled to earn a doctoral degree this spring at Falwell's Liberty University. He and his family plan to move to Chicago in May.
___The four Baptist associations in the metro Chicago area are cooperating with the church start, as is the Illinois State Baptist Association. However, the state convention is not part of the funding.
___Falwell's formerly independent church joined the SBC in 1997 and contributed $10,000 that first year to SBC causes through Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia, a new state convention formed in opposition to the Baptist General Association of Virginia. Financial support of the SBC's unified budget during the coming year at Thomas Road will be at least $100,000, Falwell said, which will be the first time the Cooperative Program has been included in the church's budget. Prior giving has been designated gifts, he said.
___Since its founding in 1956, Thomas Road Baptist Church has sent out 2,100 members who are now senior pastors, Falwell said. About half serve in churches they have started.
___Thomas Road sponsored most of those churches without any outside support, although the church has participated in Liberty Baptist Fellowship for Church Planting, an organization Falwell founded 25 years ago for Virginia churches. No other organization the church supports focuses on church planting, he said, including a group of independent churches called Baptist Bible Fellowship.
___In a 1998 interview about joining the SBC, Falwell noted Thomas Road's emphasis on starting new churches.
___"We're training 1,000 pastors right now," Falwell said. "Church planting is a major priority with me and has been all of my ministry. It is with (SBC President) Paige Patterson, and we plan to coalesce with our graduates in planting a lot of new Southern Baptist churches."
___Based on an ABP report
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