Southern Baptists, Falwell eye partnership

Southern Baptists are hoping to plant a mega-church in an upscale Chicago suburb starting this fall, with more-than-a-little help from Moral Majority founder Jerry Falwell.

Falwell’s church, Thomas Road Baptist, Lynchburg, Va., has agreed to provide $125,000 for each of the next two years. The North American Mission Board (NAMB) of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) will match that amount.

It’s a new strategy for the Alpharetta, Ga., -based mission board, in which the agency seeks out partnerships with some of the SBC’s largest churches to provide the seed money for new “regional” churches in major cities.

The 22,000-member Thomas Road Baptist Church is one of the first five Southern Baptist churches to take part in the strategy, which has an immediate goal of starting a “regional” or “flagship” SBC congregation in four U.S. cities.

Other partners

The other four churches are First Baptist Church, Orlanda, Fla.; First Baptist Church, Woodstock, Ga.; Prestonwood Baptist Church, Dallas; and First Baptist Church, Euless, Texas. They will sponsor new churches in Philadelphia, Las Vegas and Boston.

Another 15 mega-churches have indicated they are interested in similar partnerships.

Richard Harris, vice president of church planting for NAMB, said the sponsoring churches and NAMB each agreed to fund the flagship church over a two-year period. Within five years, NAMB hopes the flagship churches will grow to the point they begin to plant other churches in their respective cities. NAMB’s funding stops after two years.

“The basic thesis is that large churches know how to grow churches in cities and impact the cities,” Harris said.

Southern Baptists have a presence in each of the cities where a “flagship” church is sought.

The Chicago area, for example, has four Baptist associations with more than 200 Southern Baptist churches.

The largest of the four, Chicago Metro Baptist Association, is composed predominantly of African-American and ethnic churches, Metzger said. The other three are in suburban areas to the north and west.

(ABP)