A feature Wall Street Journal article "Strategy for church growth splits congregants" has received a lot of press through other newspapers and blog sites. The Mississippi Baptist Record picked up on this story and allowed an opportunity for clarification. The following article about the events at Iuka Baptist Church was written by Jim Holcomb and published in the September 28 edition of the Baptist Record.
Iuka Baptist Church and ‘sunspots’
In 1610, Galileo Galilei made the first European observations of sunspots. Sunspots are relatively cool areas on the Sun that appear as dark blotches. Who would think the brilliance of the sun contains dark blotches?
Jesus referred to His church as “the light of the world.” Sometimes the church experiences “sunspots” or “dark blotches.” Such is the case with the Iuka Baptist Church. This lighthouse for Jesus is experiencing “sunspots” due to recent news reports falsely accusing the church of following Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven model.
This great church has experienced phenomenal growth over the past few years. Growth makes adjustments necessary. In January, 2004 the church voted 195-7 to begin a second morning worship on a three-month trial basis to meet space needs in the sanctuary. Easter Sunday, April 11 was the day it began. The church voted in July, 2004 to continue the second worship service by a vote of 333-23. This reflects a growth rate of 76% in a six-month period!
Iuka Church has an awesome choir that leads during the 11:00 service. Choir members were polled in the beginning to see who would be willing to attend both services. Some agreed to, others did not. Instead of breaking up the dynamic of the choir the decision was made to form a seven member ensemble to lead the 8:30 service. They lead worship blending the great hymns of old and popular praise choruses. The only accompanying instrument is the piano.
Assimilation of the new members took place through Sunday School. Adjustments were made using Arthur Flake’s formula to accommodate this need. In 1927, Arthur Flake challenged Baptists to build churches using his five laws of Sunday School. This took place 68 years before Warren’s work was published.
A Long Range Planning Committee (LRP) was later commissioned by the church. The Chairman of the committee used Truman Brown’s manual, Planning for the Next Five Years in a Southern Baptist Church, as a resource. Brown’s work was published in 1989, six years before Warren’s work. One of the first recommendations Brown encourages is for the church to have a clear mission statement. The LRP studied this issue, developed a mission statement, and brought it to the church for approval.
Any church that is reaching out to the lost and seeing them come to saving faith in Christ will have to make adjustments. Adjustments do not mean that a church is following Warren’s model as the aforementioned examples prove. This is not to say there is anything wrong with Rick Warren’s book, The Purpose Driven Church. His book reveals his heart to reach a lost and dying world with the gospel of Christ. His work received high recommendations by great Southern Baptist leaders of yesterday and today -- men like W.A. Criswell, Adrian Rogers, Jack Graham, Thom Rainer, O.S. Hawkins, Jerry Sutton, Ronnie Floyd, Ike Reighard, to name a few.
A church that faithfully serves Jesus will face opposition. They will have their critics. Jesus said, “Woe unto you when men speak well of you!” In spite of Jesus’ words, it still hurts when men do not speak well. This is where Iuka Baptist is for now. They are a shining lighthouse for the Gospel. The news media has sadly misrepresented them.
Iuka Church is experiencing “sunspots.” Our prayer needs to be that these temporary “sunspots” do not allow them to become “cool spots.” May they continue in the power, grace, and mercy of the Lord Jesus seeing their community won to saving faith.
