Wall Street Journal Article
By Stovall Weems
This past weekend, Pastor Stovall referenced an article in the Wall Street Journal in which Celebration Church was mentioned. I wanted to share the link with you, it’s a really interesting article.
Here’s a quick excerpt:
“At least half a dozen U.S. mega-churches have opened international branches in recent years, and plans are in the works for many more.” If Starbucks can start four stores a day, why can’t churches?” says John Bishop, the pastor at Living Hope Church. His congregation in Vancouver, Wash., which has a weekly attendance of 6,000, has 23 satellite churches, including new sites in New Zealand, India, Mexico and the Philippines. The Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge, La., has eight U.S. branches, and in the past year opened churches in Mozambique and Swaziland. Celebration Church in Jacksonville, Fla., with 10,000 members, recently launched branches in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe and Atiquipa, Peru.” We try to keep consistent what we call the DNA of our church, much like a business would,” says Celebration’s pastor, Stovall Weems.These super churches have the resources to expand overseas, as only mainstream denominations could in the past. With a large base of followers, the biggest independent churches have” as much money as a small denomination, so they’re creating denominations of themselves,” says Dana Robert, co-director of the Center for Global Christianity and Mission at Boston University.”
You’ll notice this article is written through a business filter, which matches today’s fast paced world of numbers, markets and budgets. And as Pastor Stovall mentioned on Sunday, all of that of course does matter, and technology has indeed changed the way we can do church. But the big picture, the very reason we look to expand nationally and overseas, is that each church plant, each campus that launches, and each door that opens up where people can come in and experience God, these all represent souls that are being reached for the kingdom of heaven.
Isn’t that awesome?
Lives are given over to Jesus, and changed, forever. These people are then empowered to reach their own community for God. It’s all about eternal impact, not just the here and now. The greatest investment we could ever make is one that will live on forever, which is to continue reaching lost souls for Jesus.
Click here if you’d like to read the rest of the article.
Written By: Linda Riddle, Executive Assistant to Pastor Stovall Weems
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5 Responses to “Wall Street Journal Article”
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It is remarkable that as relatively new our church is we are now called a “Mega Church” and
written about in the Wall Street Journal. It says a lot of the leadership with Pastor Weems heading
it, and fellow pastors. The growth is “awesome” and deserves national attention as pointed out.
I love this article. I am constantly reading the news of the world and have been more and more excited in the last year as I continue to read more about the acceptance of faith in large parts of the world.
But as a member of Voice of the Martyrs I also read those stories and know that we have a long way to go. Mission trips are great I think but I believe that the only way to grow and to spread God’s word as far into the world as possible is through the satellite churches. I do think it is the best use of our resources and enables us to empower future leaders in diverse locations.
I have seen the empowerment that our own local church has given just to our youth. My own son now wants to be a minister because of the leadership of his youth pastor Josh from last year. It is so important to continue to build up the youth’s passion in Christ.
I thank God every day I found Celebration Church and the response and changes I have seen in my own life and my son’s just go to show me as always that God has a plan and a path for all of us.
God bless!
I think it’s a great idea to have satellite branches all over the World. It would be amazing to be able to see how others hearing the same message worship!
We should be actively learning about our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ in neighboring parts of the world!
Romans 1:12
Linda – Thanks for pointing us to the WSJ article and giving your perspective on how/why we are to grow !
I LOVE IT! Even the business world has to take notice of God’s mighty work. He’s coming back and his people are preparing the way by preaching, reaching, and teaching of God’s word and love in spite of the devil’s efforts to steal, kill and destroy.
GO GOD!!!!!!!