Next Stop - Seacoast Church

Since there are only so may Sunday’s we can’t visit every church on the weekend, so while on our way south to visit Dick & Anne Tullie (former members who moved to SC) we stopped in on one of the sites of Seacoast Church. And wow, were we inspired.

Seacoast church started in 1980’s and blossomed into a large congregation. They made the decision in the early 2000 to go to a multisite model. They now have sites all over the Charleston, South Carolina area, and beyond. Lisa and I stopped in at the North Charleston church on a Thursday afternoon. We learned that this site is the center of a high level of mission outreach called the Dream Center.

They host a food pantry but also a huge array of services including a medical clinic that serves people who do not have Health insurance. In 2009, they served approximately 5,000 people saving the tax payers an estimated $10 million. In addition, they offer Pro Bono legal services, after school tutoring for children, and many other programs. The church is located at an old Church of God building that Seacoast leases from that congregation which moved on. Every Sunday they have 3 worship services in the morning, and one evening Spanish language service. It’s a congregation where homeless men worship next to professional women.

Lisa and I were so inspired by this church that we almost got in the car and turned around to come back to St. Andrew to start work. Check out more about the Dream Center and the North Charleston, SC places at their website here.

What we are starting to see in these congregations is a pattern. First, it is increasingly normal for churches to have multiple sites. Sometimes it’s a main campus at an old downtown church, that added a worship site in the suburbs. Sometimes it’s a church that wanted to help plant a new congregation, but instead went to the one church may locations model. The advantages are manly in the ability to reach a new population center in a new geographic location.

Second, is that the idea of an intense effort to make an impact in a local community through mission and social services is becoming very attractive to churches. Churches are rediscovering Jesus call to embody a servant life. What we did this past fall on the Be the Church Sunday, these churches are making a major, if not the only, thrust of their ministry.

I’ll post some photos later. Right now Dick and Ann Tullie are making a big southern breakfast and talking about the Alligator in their back yard – I don’t want to miss this!


.