July 16, 2001

Should churches build for the future or for today's crowd?
___David Stevens
___Special to the Standard
___Three years ago, the Bethlehem Baptist Church near Farmersville was averaging 30 Sunday morning worshipers. They sat on worn-out pews in a worn-out building that could hold maybe 50. They didn't even have a baptistry.
___The 135-year-old country church, located near a Collin County cemetery, didn't really need a baptistry since it had almost no candidates for baptism. The membership was struggling to pay utility bills and was considering closing its doors.
___That's when Pastor Billy Harris inspired an old-fashioned visitation program.
___"We go out and knock on doors," he said. "Most churches don't do that down here."
___Almost overnight, the tiny church began to grow. Average attendance--as little as two in the weeks before Harris was summoned--swelled from dozens to hundreds. As a result, a 5,000 square-foot building--complete with a baptistry--was constructed in about five months.
___"We'll seat about 250," Harris said. "We have more (members) than that."
___The new building, with its furnishings, cost about $250,000, Harris said. The membership, which already has paid for the facility, is focused on a promising future with more growth expected.
___"They were so excited about seeing something happening out here, nobody complained (about the costs) at all," Harris said. "They were thrilled with what was happening."
___Now Bethlehem Baptist is working to build an auditorium that will seat up to 600. Harris expects it to be completed by this time next year. Cost for the latest project will run about $600,000, he said.
___But will the church grow into this facility as quickly as it has outgrown its existing space? Is this latest venture too optimistic?
___"You always have a few say that's a lot of money," Harris said, "but there's been no fussing about it, no complaining that would amount to anything.
___"You can't predict the future. A lot of things can happen. But you have to build to grow. My desire is for every little boy and girl you can reach to be talking about Jesus. So we're building for growth. We're doing what we think God will sustain."
___Most of Bethlehem Baptist's decisions these last three years have been easy; it had little choice but to build new facilities in hopes of accommodating an ever-growing membership.
___But growth can create complications for some churches, said Keith Crouch, director of the office of church facilities for the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
___"It's more difficult when relocation is involved," he explained. "If a church starts talking about relocation, we tell people it takes 36 months to 60 months to go through all that process.
___"It is sometimes controversial for the older, more established churches to make changes. If it's a newer, younger church, and there's less history to it, change is usually not a problem at all. They just don't have any money."
___Overflowing metro churches often opt for multiple worship services or more than one Sunday School hour before they consider building or moving to larger facilities. In theory, the addition of an 8:30 a.m. worship service, for example, should alleviate overcrowding in the traditional 11 a.m. service. Change, however, is not always easy on a congregation.
___"If you're selling tickets to the circus, it's real easy to add another" showtime, Crouch said. "But you have to consider the emotional side and cultural side of a church.
___"Even though you're not asking somebody to stop going (at a particular time), they don't always like that you're offering another time. In the metro areas--Houston, Austin, Dallas--it's usually easier to do that. When it's a more rural setting, ... it usually takes a lot of planning and time for a congregation to buy into that."
___Some churches adopt multiple services as temporary solutions to overcrowding while building plans are in the works, Crouch said. And those temporary measures often produce surprise endings.
___"Many times they don't want to combine back to one service," he said.
___Southcrest Baptist Church in Lubbock has three Sunday morning worship services and three Sunday School hours.
___The scheduling is necessary because attendance has nearly doubled in the past five years--from 700 in an average morning worship service to 1,300.
___A $2.5 million building project, which should be complete in about a year, will add 35,000 square feet to the church space, Southcrest administrator David Bloodworth said.
___In the interim, crowded church members sometimes wonder why church leaders can't make people go to a different hour in Sunday School, Bloodworth said.
___"We haven't figured out how to force people to do what they don't want to do," he said. "We want to let people do things when they want to do them."
___The church's growth is about 18 months ahead of its building project, Bloodworth said.
___"Most of our people are of the opinion that as soon as we get this finished, we ought to start preliminary work on the next phase, which will be a new worship center," he said.
___Southcrest members have been patient through the growth, which was spurred when the church relocated about five years ago, he said. "Most people say if they know something is happening and there's a possibility of change, they can live with it."
___The alternative is not a serious option for most growing Texas churches.
___"If you don't want to grow, and you're satisfied, then (attendance) will level off and you won't need more room," said Harris, from Bethlehem Baptist.
___"But we think the main business of the church is reaching the lost--and that means growth."

Get printer-friendly version of this story


Send this story to a friend

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

---

Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!