“When ‘success’ is measured by ‘numerical growth’ we have abandoned what the gospel says flourishing is.”
Scot McKnight, New Testament Everyday Bible Study: 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus, and Philemon (Grand Rapids, MI: HarperChristianResources, 2023), 98-99.
This year, I’ve been taking our Mantua Creek Church family through the pastoral epistles and Scot McKnight’s new concise commentary has been optional reading. Every family has a book and each week I send a text with the passage I’ll be preaching on, along with corresponding pages from McKnight.
As we’ve begun 2 Timothy, the quote above has captured my attention, helping me refocus and clarify our mission. Throughout the last three months, our internal relationships have continued to deepen. We’ve also worked hard to get a weekly service offering, along with nursery care, up and running. It’s been challenging, however, as far as numerical growth.
We started in our new facility on February 18th with 15, a third of our number who were not going to church regularly or at all four years ago. To date, we’ve had ten visitors, although three of these came to assist with the service, and six were previous core group members (now part of another church) who just came back on Father’s Day to give us a hug and say “hi.” What a joy it was to see them and hear that, despite struggles, they’re doing well!
As we’ve discussed how to grow more as an invitational community, one of the pain points we’ve identified is our 4:00 p.m. Sunday service time. For a variety of reasons, it has not worked well; further, it’s been a barrier to inviting others. Easter was the toughest, as because of family meals, we had to cancel our service and go to separate churches. That was a weird day not to be together as a church family. Following this and after a formal request, our host church, Southwood Baptist, was gracious enough to let us have an 11:00 service on Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.
As I’ve turned my attention to measuring success more by stories of flourishing than numbers, I’ve been encouraged. Last week, one young lady gave a moving testimony (see below) about how, since coming to Mantua Creek, she has experienced healing in her relationship with God. Through friendships at our church and some counseling I did with her and her husband, they are now more unified and have begun to take steps toward full-time vocational church ministry. Another of our members, a 17-year-old, young man, recently told me he’s ready to be baptized. These stories have helped us persevere.
In further analyzing metrics of both numbers and stories of flourishing, I’ve realized we’re a bit of a hospital. In other words, we’re a place where individuals experience the church as a healing community but often don’t stay for the long haul. They come to Mantua Creek with hurts, often from a rocky relationship with the organized church, evangelicals, etc.. Our church family, then, provides a safe place where “talking, tears, and time” begin to take place. These individuals and families begin to grow, heal, and attend church more regularly, but, later, may move on to a larger context that is better able to meet their needs.
Here are our plans for the next six months. Please pray that we will:
- Find a place where we can worship on Sunday mornings at 9:30. Ideally, this would be a place where we have 24/7 access, at least on Sunday mornings and one or two weeknights. Regarding our location and space, here’s an important update and challenge we’re facing: Southwood Baptist, where we’re meeting, is planning to give its entire church complex to a CMA church called Cross Bridge. Once this happens, it is almost certain that we won’t have access to it on Sundays—especially in the morning. Again, since meeting at 4:00 on Sunday afternoon is currently our biggest pain point, we need to prioritize finding another space for Sunday mornings by September.
- Grow as a core group, challenging each other to become more of an invitational community.
- Maintain and slightly improve the quality of our weekly worship service.
- Raise funds for next year. On this, please pray that the carpentry work I do three days a week to help supplement this vision will stay steady.
- Identify a practical need in the community/county that we can meet or, better yet, join with another church or church cooperative in what they are already doing.
- As of September on a weeknight, prioritize a small group space where more “talking, tears, and time” can take place. I plan to begin “constructive conversations,” a course called “The Afterparty,” Christianity Explored, and/or a seminar on marriage or parenting. On this last item, we just had a clinical psychologist offer to donate/pay for this so our church plant could offer it to the community.
- Celebrate a baptismal service hosted by our parent church, Ashland.
***One more thing: I’ve just finished a booklet I’m really excited about on Christian Nationalism. Although you’ll hear more in the coming days, it represents the most important thing I’ve wanted to say to the American church in this cultural moment. It’s also intimately tied to my journey as a national leader in the pro-life movement for six-and-a-half years, as well as Mantua Creek’s DNA. As it’s being prepared for publication, please pray in advance for God’s anointing and a wide hearing. Thank you!