CONGREGATION FINDS NEW WAY TO SHARE THE GOSPEL
One leadership, one vision, one plan for ministry, and one staff—but two church buildings. This is the new approach that St. Andrew, which now has sites in both Middleton and Waunakee, Wis., is trying to reach out to more people.
“[This multi-site approach] grew out of a vision that we gathered about three years ago now,” says Randy Hunter, pastor at St. Andrew. “We said, ‘We’re blessed with a new, beautiful facility, but we just know there are people that would never come here. So let’s get out of the building, go into the communities, and see if we can reach them in other ways.’ ”
After a two-year study, the congregation decided a satellite ministry might work. They also thought about different ways in which to present the gospel and came up with an approach that Hunter refers to as “casual about church; serious about God.”
“We studied our culture: its movement away from church and its movement toward community and the desire to get together at a café or a Starbucks,” says Hunter. “Our goal was to recreate that atmosphere and bring the gospel to it.”
St. Andrew looked at possibilities for its new satellite location, such as storefronts in area strip malls, but instead was able to acquire an existing church building.
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| How much synod and grant money has been wasted on this farce, while others were struggling? |
Hunter says that approximately 50 to 60 people attend each week, many of whom had not been attending any church. “Several families are very interested in growing in the faith with us and partnering with us,” says Hunter. “We’re trying to keep it from becoming the thing that turned a lot of people away from church. We’re trying to provide a casual atmosphere where you’re free to talk about what this means to you and how it applies to your life. We get the chance to give the same teaching that we do in any church, but just in a different setting.”
Hunter says this new venture is a great addition to St. Andrew’s services in Middleton, which features a more traditional liturgical style. The congregation has a thriving music ministry—more than 150 musicians and soloists perform throughout the year. The congregation also reaches out to Middleton and surrounding communities through its school, where more than 60 percent of the students are nonmembers.
“The most important thing is determining what it is going to take to reach people that aren’t coming to us,” says Hunter. “Anything that isn’t unbiblical is fair game. Let’s just try it! It’s up to our churches to step up and see what we can do to get the gospel out there.”
For more information, visit www.st-andrew-online.org.
The only problem was the interior didn’t match their “casual about church” approach. So the congregation hired a popular coffeehouse designer—coincidentally someone who didn’t attend church—and asked him to design the kind of place where he’d feel comfortable coming to hear about Jesus.
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| Slurp, slurp. Mmm. Need more fake cream in the latte. How could this flop? |
Hunter says the result looks and feels like a café, complete with chairs, couches, coffee tables, and coffee machines in the back. In the front of the room is a simple altar and a screen where Hunter’s prerecorded sermons are projected.
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| Their logo was a cross in a cup of coffee. A WELS member changed the motto to fit the congregation's blasphemies. Where were the leaders of the Milwaukee Sect? The ELS? Mequon? MLC? Bethany Lutheran Seminary? |
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AC V has left a new comment on your post "Ripped from the Pages of FICKLE. The Latte Church ...":
FAILURE:
"see if we can reach them in other ways"
"thought about different ways in which to present the gospel"
"casual about church; serious about God"
"We’re trying to keep it from becoming the thing that turned a lot of people away from church"
"casual atmosphere where you’re free to talk about what this means to you"
"Anything that isn’t unbiblical is fair game"
"looks and feels like a café"
"simple altar"
"screen where...prerecorded sermons are projected"
"worship Jesus in your living room—that’s the atmosphere."
