We Can't Do Megachurch Anymore
What happens when an "attractional church" is compelled to go in a different direction?
Wade Hodges with Greg Taylor
January 1, 2007
One day a preacher said to a friend, "We have just had the greatest revival our church has experienced in many years." "How many did you add to your church membership?" "None. We lost five hundred." —Brennan Manning,The Ragamuffin Gospel When I considered the possibility of moving from Bellingham, Washington, to Tulsa, Oklahoma, the question wasn't just why I would exchange Mount Baker for oil country. I'd come to a fork in the road. Was it time to plant an emerging type church? Or could I help an existing modern-ish church position itself for ministering to the next generation by developing some emerging sensibilities? Rather than giving up on existing churches, which is what the prospect of church planting felt like to me, I wanted to believe that an existing church could make the transition. So I came to Garnett Church of Christ and set the transition in motion. The results have been astounding. 850 members in 2003. 550 members in 2006. Everyone told me that church planting would be hard, but I don't know if anyone warned me how difficult making this kind of church transition, with its epistemological, cultural, and sociological elements, would be. After the Boom
Garnett was once a flagship congregation in our denomination, quite visible in the community with JOY buses fetching children city-wide and splashy events that captured national attention, including a segment on Good Morning America. Garnett was blessed with a location in the growing edge of East Tulsa, and it had visionary leadership in Marvin Phillips, a gifted evangelist and motivator. Our facilities were built with a megachurch in mind. With a 3,000-seat auditorium built in the center of forty acres, Garnett was positioned in the mid-eighties to grow exponentially ...
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