April 9, 2001
LAKE POINTE BAPTIST CHURCH
Great expectations
___By Ken Camp
___Texas Baptist Communications
___ROCKWALL--Nobody becomes a member of Lake PointeBaptist Church without counting the cost and understanding the commitment.
___"You can't join Lake Pointe unless you're a fully developing follower of Christ," Pastor Steve Stroope tells candidates at every monthly membership workshop.
___This particular evening, about three dozen candidates for membership attend the three-hour workshop. Prospects must attend the workshop--or view a video version of it--and agree to abide by the expected requirements before they are accepted as church members.
___Candidates for membership gather around café-style tables in the "town hall" room. It is one of many meeting spaces on the church's sprawling 36-acre campus near the eastern shores of Lake Ray Hubbard. The church's 365,000 square-foot domed facility is something of a landmark to travelers on Interstate 30, marking the divide between rural Northeast Texas and the eastern edge of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.
___At the beginning of the membership workshop, Associate Pastor Dennis Richardson asks candidates what initially attracted them to Lake Pointe Church and what kept them coming back.
___"I started coming about two years ago," one woman says. "I appreciate the practical messagesI have heard here."
PASTOR STEVE STROOPE greets a new member who has just completed the church's mandatory membership workshop.
___A man who admits he was initially unsure about attending a church that draws 5,000 worshippers a week says he was surprised by how he came to feel at home there. "This is the biggest little church you'll ever see," he says.
___Richardson smiles, agreeing that the church seeks to be the place where many small, intimate care groups come together for worship.
___After prospective members see a brief video telling "The Lake Pointe Story," Stroope introduces the vision, strategy and culture of Lake Pointe.
___"Our mission is to share God's love with the unchurched people of the Lake Ray Hubbard community and the world in such a way that they have the best opportunity to become fully developing followers of Christ," he says.
___"Lake Pointe is not for everybody. Our focus is on reaching the unchurched. We appreciate churched people who choose to join us. They are the seasoned part of the team. We're grateful for the maturity they bring us. But we're not structured to reach them."
___A fully developing follower of Jesus, he explains, demonstrates four characteristics: (1) worshipping God individually and in community; (2) living under the authority of God's word daily; (3) contributing to God's work systematically, proportionally and sacrificially; and (4) impacting God's world by reaching out to the lost through missions, prayer and by inviting at least three unchurched friends to church each year.
___"Every church you would ever join expects these things of you. The difference is that they just won't tell you. We let you know up front what is expected," Stroope says. "The only difference is communication, not expectation."
___The church also strongly encourages each member to work at least four hours in the children's ministry during his or her first year of membership. Stroope leads by example in that area, serving at least 20 hours a year in child care with bed babies.
___"I'm not going to ask you to do something I'm not willing to do myself," he tells candidates for membership. "We have three babies born each week in our church. That's just the demographics of who we are--young families with children. Everybody has to pitch in."
___Once the expectations of membership are clarified and prospects have an opportunity to complete a survey of their talents, gifts and interests, Stroope invites them to make their pledge.
___"If you're not willing or ready for whatever reason to make the commitments required, there are no hard feelings. We want you to keep coming back as a regular attender for as long as you want, and we'll love you," Stroope assures them.
___"But if you're going to be a member of this church, you can't remain a spectator. Don't call yourself a member unless you're willing to be on the team."
___Following this forthright explanation, those who agree to make the commitment that membership requires meet with a Lake Pointe volunteer. Over a catered meal, the volunteer helps the new member plan his or her first year of involvement at the church.
___This process, which many Baptists might assume would drive people away by droves, actually has the opposite effect.
___Lake Pointe Church has more than 4,300 adult members. Nearly three-fourths regularly attend an adult Bible fellowship, and more than half contribute financially.
___Members of the church not only give cooperatively to Baptist missions causes but also do hands-on missions in partnership with the inner-city Dallas Cornerstone and Christian Stronghold Baptist churches and with Buckner International Services. Lake Pointe also has ongoing relationships with churches in four other states and with groups of believers in Mexico, Cuba, East Asia, Russia and West Africa.
___From its beginning, the church has been committed to focusing on reaching the unchurched and creating fully developing disciples of Jesus.
___Seven families commissioned by First Baptist Church of Rockwall started the church on Father's Day 1979. The mission congregation initially met in a bait shop. When they called Stroope as their first pastor in January 1980, the young church had 57 in weekly worship.
___As the Lake Ray Hubbard community has grown from a series of sleepy villages to an upscale suburban area, and as Lake Pointe's membership has grown exponentially, the church has continued to change.
___"Everything gets evaluated. Everything is up for grabs except for the principles of the Bible," Stroope says. "We have a regular habit of having funerals around here for programs that are no longer working."
___About 10 years ago, Lake Pointe changed its polity to become what Stroope describes as "congregation-led, elder-ruled and staff-managed."
___The church moved to a system in which each year, five people are elected by the congregation to serve with the pastor on the elder board. Each elder must be re-elected by a minimum 85 percent vote each year, and no elder may serve more than four consecutive terms.
___In addition to electing elders, the congregation votes on the annual budget, building and land purchases and constitutional changes. The elder board makes all other decisions.
___ "The congregation has delegated its authority to the elder board," Stroope explains. "It is delegated democracy."
___That willingness to depart from the traditional Baptist style of congregational governance is not unusual for Lake Pointe. The church makes no secret of its Baptist identity and heritage. But Lake Pointe does not feel bound by its traditions.
___About four years ago, the church discontinued public altar calls after the sermon. Instead, those who wish to make a faith commitment are invited to stop by a hospitality room after the service.
___"What about their public profession of faith? They do it. It's called baptism," Stroope explains.
___Since moving from a public invitation to private spiritual counseling in the hospitality room, the number of baptisms has risen from an average of about 200 a year from 1993 to 1996 to 420 a year in 1997 through 2000.
___A new believer does not have to go through the three-hour membership workshop before being baptized, Stroope adds. "We'll baptize non-members. There's nothing in the Bible that says you have to attend a workshop before being baptized."
___As part of its commitment to effectiveness, the church has continued to change its worship style over the last two decades. A praise band that includes guitars, electronic keyboard and drums leads the music, offering a balance between upbeat, celebrative choruses and more reflective songs.
___But Stroope--who preaches in casual attire--avoids the term "contemporary" in describing the worship style. He prefers "authentic." A few years ago, the church turned away from the term "seeker-sensitive."
___"We moved from being seeker-driven to being seeker-aware. We saw that believers needed to worship, so we made our services more participatory and less presentational. Lost people are not turned off by authentic worship," Stroope says.
___When seekers come to a church service, they are not surprised to find believers worshipping, he adds. The key is to break down barriers that would keep non-believers from understanding and appreciating what the Christians are experiencing.
___"We want to make it appropriate for visitors so they don't have to crawl over several centuries of culture to get there."
___
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