Churches think big by thinking small

Victoria Crosby, who's about to leave town for college in North Carolina, says she's had "a radical week." She's been praying "like crazy" for her friends, and one finally came to her saying he's ready to get off drugs and get sober. The exuberant young woman shares this answer to prayer with the dozen people at the Sunday evening service of His Way Inn.

Pastor Jack Deardorff then calls on the Lord to "fill us afresh with your Holy Spirit." And the group rises for worship, lifting voices in praise songs accompanied by a multimedia DVD.

Meeting in the Doubletree Hotel in Westborough, Mass., His Way Inn is a newly "planted" church – one started from scratch specifically for people who may have given up on church or who've never had a church experience.

Church planting is far from a new phenomenon, but enthusiasm for it has mushroomed in recent years, as populations have shifted and attendance has declined in many traditional settings, particularly among young people. Both Evangelical and mainline Protestant churches are birthing new congregations all across the United States. And some young pastors are striking out on their own to create worship communities in fresh forms. Some of the most vibrant new churches are sprouting in immigrant neighborhoods. The movement, if successful, has the potential to reshape American faith communities.

His Way Inn, sponsored by the Foursquare Gospel Church, is one of at least 100 plants in the Boston area since 2000, where local pastors talk of a "quiet revival."

"I know of 21 plants in the last six months," says the Rev. Ralph Kee, of the Conservative Baptists Association. Mr. Kee, who heads the Greater Boston Church Planting Collaborative, says perhaps a majority are being done by immigrants, from Puerto Ricans and Brazilians, to Haitians and Vietnamese.

Young pastors are also coming from such places as Illinois, Texas, and Arkansas. With one of the lowest rates of church attendance in the US, New England is considered ripe for evangelization.

While church planting is a national and global movement, it is fraught with challenges, and rates of success vary widely. Some speak of 60 to 80 percent failure rates in the past. But new approaches and models are proving more effective, and eager church planters now have more resource materials, training, and coaches to draw on.

Church plants come in many shapes and sizes, including traditional formats, postmodern experiments, house churches, "cell churches" that are planned to multiply continually, and a "purpose-driven model" based on Pastor Rick Warren's books.

Some aim for churches to grow as large as possible; others want to maintain small, intimate communities. But all are fired by the desire, in Mr. Deardorff's words, "to help people have a relationship with a living God and learn we can have a spiritual life filled by the Holy Spirit."

As with other mainline churches, the US Episcopal Church has experienced declining membership for some time. Its Tennessee diocese is growing impressively, however, thanks to a church- planting campaign spurred by Bishop Bertram Herlong.

Paying attention to shifting demographics, the diocese has targeted sites in rapidly developing areas, planting seven new churches since 1994. Its membership has grown from 12,000 then to 16,000 today.

In Brentwood, Tenn., a booming upscale suburb south of Nashville, the Rev. Randall Dunnavant started The Church of the Good Shepherd in 1995 with a group of Episcopalians borrowed from other churches. Today, its 700 members are worshiping in a striking new sanctuary. But they got there step by step.

A businessman before heading to seminary, Mr. Dunnavant knew how to advertise. They did four bulk mailings, and everything possible to get their name in the paper. But then, "it was a matter of being the church you are called to be," he says in an interview amid the clatter of the final stages of construction.

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