Earlier this year, we reported how the fastest-growing large United Methodist congregations in the USA are overwhelmingly led by evangelical senior pastors.
In this series, IRD’s UMAction Director John Lomperis interviews some of these leading pastors about why their churches are growing while the rest of our denomination shrinks in this country, and about what other churches can learn from them.
This interview is with the Rev. Bryan Collier, founding and lead pastor of the multi-site, multi-lingual United Methodist congregation, The Orchard, in Mississippi. Bryan is a co-founder of the Wesleyan Covenant Network.
Why does your congregation exist?
We believe that God has called The Orchard to “bear fruit” (John 15:16) for Christ’s Kingdom. This is the reason for our name. The Orchard is devoted to the cultivation of fruit for Christ’s Kingdom. We do this by helping people Grow Deep in the love of Jesus (“Abide in Me” – John 15:1-8) and Branch Out to others with that love (John 15:18-27).
Please share about your congregation’s recent history with growth. To what do you attribute this growth?
The Orchard has been in a growth season for its entire 16 years. Admittedly, some of those seasons have been of rapid growth and some of them have been steady incline. About 10 years ago we felt a call to neighboring communities, but weren’t sure what that looked like. It was the front edge of the multi-site phenomenon and we learned a lot and adapted a lot but have been blessed to not only reach people in our community but in communities 50 and 30 miles away. In addition we have planted to demographic (instead of geographic) sites—one “next gen” and one Spanish-speaking. Though these groups are integrated into every orchard site, we see a greater capacity to connect with them at these targeted sites.
Why do you think the United Methodist Church has been facing such steady membership decline in this country for half a century?
Let me answer this by articulating what I believe are the two most important principles I know about why churches grow (and why denominations grow I believe). The first is, “If you will do what is right for the Kingdom of Christ it will always be what is right for your church/Church. But if you get in the habit of making decisions with your church/Church in mind it will not always be what is right for the Kingdom of Christ.” The second is, “If you lift up Jesus Christ, He will draw all people to Himself” (John 12:32).
The United Methodist Church for the most part has failed miserably in both of these things. We are denomination/church-focused and we are not Kingdom-focused; AND we are always looking for a quick fix or program or strategy when Jesus has told us what to do. Our Christology is weak and our worship is misdirected. These are the essential reasons and root causes for our decline.
Has your congregation implemented any particular practices for the process of receiving new members or for the selection and training of leaders that have been especially helpful for your ministry?
We have a family-wide attendance of 2600 weekly, but our membership across the family is only about 800. We have covenant membership that asks people to attend a class about who we are and what God has called us to do in the world. They then are asked to commit to an annual covenant that includes: (1) profess faith in Jesus and have been baptized; (2) pray for the Orchard its staff and ministries; (3) tithe their income; (4) commit to Growing Deep (discipleship) and Branching Out (mission); (5) assent to our Core Values; (6) develop relationships, especially with the unchurched, and invite them to join them at an Orchard family gathering (worship, outreach event, block party, etc.).
Many other United Methodists around the country would look at your congregation and wish that their own was experiencing such growth. What would you say to them? Are there specific principles, practices, and programs you would recommend?
- Do what is right for the Kingdom of Christ…it will always be what is right for your church.
- Lift up Jesus…and he will draw all people to himself.
- Work hard at communicating the Gospel as it is. Not as you wish it were or weren’t…as it is.
- Focus on reaching people no one else is reaching.
What could your congregation do if you received a new grant of $50,000 every year, over and above your regular budget?
Every June we run a free reading support program for the lowest 25% of the readers in our public school. Not surprisingly, these lowest performers are also very low socio-economically. We can only house about 120 of them and statistically there are almost 500 of them. It costs us $40,000 annually to run the program–I would invest the money in helping other churches pick up some of the remaining 400 low performers. Most of them have the heart for it—most of them lack the funds to make it happen.
These relationships with these kids give us relationships with their families. When they see we love their kids and when we love on their kids—they want to know why. Out of that, we get to live out and share the Gospel with the marginalized in our community while making a long term and eternal difference in someone’s life.
What are some of the primary ways in which our United Methodist denominational structure could be reformed to be more conducive to, or at least less of a hindrance of, the sort of growth your congregation is experiencing, and which we would like to see in other United Methodist congregations?
Close the whole thing down and start over? Really, the General Church including the structure is aimed at survival of the General Church and structure and not at the advancement of the Kingdom. The general church should be restructured to serve the local congregation in its efforts to advance the kingdom. As far as boards and agencies…they should be done away with completely. If they had to prove their worth by contracting for their services they would implode.
Do your sermons and teachings ever include hot-button culture issues currently affecting the church and culture, like attempts to redefine marriage to include same-sex pairings? What do you teach? What do you do to try to teach it in a sensitive way?
Our approach has been to not say what God’s design is NOT, but to be continually lifting up God’s design for marriage, human sexuality, etc. We believe this creates crisis moments in which we can have conversations on a personal level after the sermon or in relationship or by appointment.
We never really want to teach about those issues in large gatherings that seem like a monologue. We want to be in a dialogue context in which we are clearly articulating God’s Word and truth on the matter and letting people interact for clarity.
How would you respond to those who say that, since polls show that American young adults have increasingly favorable views towards homosexual practice and pre-marital sex, the church needs to loosen up on its traditional teachings if we are going to be relevant and growing in the future?
The Gospel is not accommodation…it is witness. Jesus never accommodates, but always offers hope and life that really is life—life on the Gospel’s terms, not life as the world or culture defines it, because that is counterfeit life. Our aim to be relevant should always be governed by our desire to be faithful and useful to God in his work in the world.
What further advice do you have for pastors of declining United Methodist congregations?
Do not become weary in doing what is right for at the appropriate time we will receive a harvest of righteousness if we do not give up. (Gal 6:9).
Comment by ConfessionPastor on June 4, 2015 at 2:30 pm
Unfortunately our leaders within our denomination will give no heed to these words. Why can’t we look at what is working in the African church and learn there also? It’s sad we think we know so much and yet we really know very little. We need to get back to following Jesus and stop listening to the program peddlers!
Comment by Horatio Hornblower on June 4, 2015 at 5:42 pm
nice glad to know he is sticking to what he was taught