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A Vision for Growth @ Granger Community Church
By Riley B. Case

We were approaching the small city of Granger through the Indiana countryside when I rounded a corner and came upon a traffic jam at a four-way stop. A traffic jam on a hot August Sunday morning in the country? Then I realized, of course, that these cars were going to my intended destination: Granger Community Church.

Within a few moments, we were directed into a huge parking lot. We followed the crowds—most seemed to be under 35 years old—past a covey of greeters into the church’s atrium. There was a cafe, a bookstore, and a welcome counter. Children were making their way to different stations where colorful slides, like old-fashioned fire escape chutes, delivered them to another level. TV monitors followed their progress so that parents would not think their children were disappearing down black holes. The children’s center resembled a McDonald’s playground. In this environment, however, children were learning about Moses, David, and Jesus instead of Hamburglar and Grimace.

Despite only being planted 20 years ago, Granger was recently declared in a survey conducted by Church Report to be the 16th most influential church in America. Among United Methodist congregations, only Adam Hamilton’s Church of the Resurrection in Kansas City ranked higher (at 14th). Granger is known for the high value it places on creatively communicating the gospel, as well as its innovative children’s program, stunning use of visuals, dynamic ministry to young adults, and mission outreach.

Even though we were a few minutes early, the band was already singing as we entered the worship center. At the front was what appeared to be a 100-foot-long stage (not your normal United Methodist chancel area). After twenty minutes or so of worship through music, Pastor Mark Beeson greeted the people and spoke of the current worship series around the symbol of the TV remote (not your normal kind of sermon series). The message was called “Record, Get the Right Stuff Inside,” and emphasized reliance on the Scriptures. But what does that mean?

A short (church-produced) video featured a man in an office setting who had memorized a lot of the Bible and quoted a verse in every conversation, inappropriately and obnoxiously. That illustrated how not to use the Bible. Beeson then explained that the Bible was God’s revelation to humanity; and through making this story our own we come to know Christ and gain a new perspective of life. With humor and winsomeness, he walked the congregation through the Bible that began with Genesis, moved to the Fall, Abraham, Moses, the Ten Commandments, the Promised Land, the prophets, the coming of Jesus, the cross, the early church, and the promised Second Coming—all in 32 minutes. We were caught up in the drama of it all. After the service, Mark explained that his concern was the appalling lack of Bible knowledge among new and seeking young Christians.

On another occasion, I visited Granger on the final Sunday of a series of six sermons addressing Jesus Christ as the bridge between God and humanity. A platform had been built on one side of the stage representing God; a platform on the other side representing humanity. The previous sermons dealt with the gap (sin), various ways people try to bridge the gap on their own, and how God has bridged the gap (through the cross). On the sixth Sunday, the platforms were connected by a bridge—the cross of Jesus Christ. Persons were invited to come to God by way of the bridge (the cross) while the band played an old Methodist invitation hymn, “Come, Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy.” More than 650 people walked the bridge in five services. Families wept. The service had the feel of an old-fashioned revival meeting.

A vision for growth
Was this really a United Methodist church? If so, how is it possible for a church to grow in twenty years from only a vision in the mind of a few people to one with an average weekly worship attendance of 5,560 (2006 figures)? A closer look at Granger and the factors that have led to its growth should offer hope to a denomination that has suffered 40 straight years of membership decline.

1) The right kind of pastor. The story of the Granger church goes back to when a young boy, Mark Beeson, found Christ (and was called to preach the same week) at Camp Adventure, the junior high camp of the North Indiana Conference. Mark Beeson never forgot that experience. And even today, while pastoring a megachurch, Beeson directs two weeks of that same junior high camp. Mark was always enthusiastic for Christ, so much so that he did not fit in well with the liberal culture of one of United Methodism’s seminaries. He transferred to Asbury Theological Seminary, an environment more conducive to his vibrant spirituality. His enthusiasm produced dramatic results in his first two appointments after ordination. The bishop and the district superintendents on his cabinet were faced with the challenge of how best to use the gifts of a young man so motivated for Jesus Christ. 

Mark Beeson himself was quite certain how to use those gifts. He believed God was calling him and his wife Sheila to start a new church. Not just another neighborhood church, a megachurch. He was certain such a church would grow.

His brother-in-law, Joel Hunter, had already taken a church to an attendance of 1,800 in the South Indiana Conference (unfortunately, Hunter later met such resistance from his own conference in the growth that he left and started a megachurch in the Orlando area, now one of the largest churches in the nation). On his own, Beeson took all the training he could find in seminars and conferences at places like Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church and Robert Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral. He was ready. But denominational leaders in cabinets generally are reluctant to let pastors make their own appointments.

At the same time there were some in the conference leadership who believed it was time to change strategies if there was to be a future for the church. Consultant Carl George from the Fuller Institute of Evangelism and Church Growth examined the situation and counseled that while the church did not need a big outlay of money to start a new church, it did need the right person. After he described the needed personality, Mark Beeson convinced the cabinet he was the right man. Thus, with only $25,000 of conference funds and the commitment of two district superintendents (Harold Oeschle in Elkhart and Don LaSuer in South Bend), who served as mentors and each agreed to raise $25,000 from the surrounding districts, the appointment was made in June 1986. Beeson was given the opportunity to pick his own spot. Granger was the only city in the two-district area not already overrun with United Methodist churches. It was in a growing area east of South Bend and close to Notre Dame University. By fall, the church held its first service. For ten years the church met in a theater. In 1996 the church moved to a new facility on a 30-acre plot.

“God birthed in me a vision for new ministry, in a new place, with new people,” he told Good News. “That vision is as bright today as it was more than twenty years ago.”

2) A clear understanding of mission. The vision statement of the Granger church is “helping people take their next step toward Christ…together.” The “next step” for some persons is entering into a relationship with Jesus Christ for the first time. From there “next steps” lead to spiritual growth, to witnessing, or to service. Granger’s target audience is either those without Christ at all, or those no longer attending church and stuck in a rut of spiritual complacency. “Next steps” imply change, and change is everywhere apparent at Granger.

A major focus is on the needs and aspirations of the oncoming generation (sometimes called “millennials”). According to 24-year old Jason Miller, the coordinator for the Merge (young adult) ministry, Granger has a data base of 3,500 names in the 18-25 year-old age group. From this group, approximately 750 worshippers are involved in services each weekend. Between 100-200 gather for monthly Merge worship-study-fellowship times.

In the children’s ministry, 1,200 to 1,500 children from birth to the fifth grade are involved in worship-learning groups that are very different from traditional Sunday schools. All this adds up to lots of young families. The average age of adults over 18 who attend Granger is 36 (for Willow Creek in South Barrington, Illinois, the average is in the mid-40s; for United Methodism as a whole the average is close to 60).

With messages referencing films and rock musicians, Beeson and his staff are determined that the gospel will never be boring, or dull. “At Granger, we use the arts to illustrate the questions posed in contemporary culture and then we teach God’s Truth regarding those topics,” says Beeson. Not only does Granger keep up with the ever-changing culture, the church makes an effort to lead it.

3) Faith into action. Six years ago Ron VanderGriend started attending Granger. VanderGriend is a staff person for the Bible League, a Bible distribution mission. His presence led providentially to a partnership between Granger and the Bible League in Tamilnadu, the southernmost state in India, where the door is open for the proclamation of the gospel. Every year, four or five teams from Granger (with anywhere between 3 to 20 persons on a team) travel to India to conduct training modules for pastors engaged in church plants in an effort called Life Missions Initiative. Besides the training, some team members are involved in AIDS intervention, literacy initiatives, micro business initiatives, the rebuilding of homes destroyed by the tsunami, and accompanying the pastors in church planter edification work. Because many of the pastors are lower caste in terms of their social class, the presence of Americans makes it easier for them to make village contacts. To date, hundreds of churches have been started, and during 2006 alone, over 7,000 baptisms have taken place, 14,000 people have come to Christ, and 11,000 have completed Core Class 101 to be received into church membership as a result of the ministry.

Locally, Granger is working out of South Bend’s Monroe Circle Community Center. The ministry is described by the acronym VALUE—Vocational training, the Arts, Leadership development, Unique health and wellness, and Education. The church partners with the group Good Will in vocational training and with a group called Crossings, which operates an alternative school for 20-25 at risk and drop-out middle and high school students.

For persons with limited time to volunteer in an outreach project the church offers Second Saturday, a once-a-month day of service, which involves as many as 500 volunteers who scatter throughout the South Bend/Elkhart/Mishawaka area to help where they are needed. Groups may travel farther and some groups have gone to Chicago to work with Good Seed Ministries and in housing rehabilitation. Several months ago several busloads of persons worked to clean up debris at Albright United Methodist Church, which had been destroyed by fire.

Between 1,000 to 1,500 persons are involved in these mission and outreach ministries every month. The program is big enough that it takes two full-time staff and one intern to administer. The importance of this for developing Christians is reflected in one young person’s testimony: 

“I came to the area to pursue my doctoral degree at Notre Dame. While I love thinking hard about my faith, I am so thankful to be a part of a church…that puts ideas into action. This church has been a place where I can do the things that really matter: reaching the lost, loving the disadvantaged, and learning how to be good at life.”

4) Impact for Christ. Many people who would not be attracted to a traditional church are attracted to Granger. The testimonies (which are shared frequently at Granger) are often from persons who previously had no interest in religion, who were disaffected or discouraged about religion, or who were simply seeking more out of life. Many were curious about the music, or the drama, or about things they heard were happening at the church, and were enticed to visit because of the invitation of a friend or advertising—the church often mails to 25,000 local residents. They were welcomed and accepted and many found a spiritual home.

How does this impact the community and other churches? Herb Buwalda, pastor at Clay United Methodist Church, less than a mile from Granger, believes that Granger’s success has a spill-over affect on other churches. Clay, which itself is one of the significant churches in the North Indiana Annual Conference, has grown from an attendance of 200 a dozen years ago, to over 700 today. Buwalda indicates that at one of Clay’s recent membership classes, every one of the 34 prospective members indicated they had visited or attended Granger at one point in their spiritual journey. While Granger is not the church for everyone, it has nudged numbers of people to explore the claims of the gospel.

“People are looking for connection and community; they long for a place where their life has purpose,” states Beeson. “They want real friends, real faith, and a personal experience that transcends their temporal existence. If they don’t find it at church, they simply go elsewhere. Millions are more passionate about PETA and recycling than they are about church.”

Granger is known in the area because of its willingness to be involved in community problems and needs. In the larger Christian community (much of it beyond just the United Methodist Church) Granger is known for its church conferences and its willingness to resource other churches and Christian groups. For many who attend, it is the place where Christ was made real to them.

“We love them right where they’re at,” says Beeson. “We just love them too much to leave them there. It’s an experience they can’t get anywhere else. It creates buzz and people tell their friends.”

Riley B. Case is a Good News contributing editor and member of the Good News Board of Directors. He is author of Evangelical and Methodist: A Popular History (Abingdon) and How Hackleburg Became A 13-Pie Church (Bristol).For more information on Granger visit GCCwired.com.

 

Q&A with Mark Beeson

It is a rare pleasure to visit a booming and innovative United Methodist church. Men with smiles in the parking lot directing traffic. Children running around the spacious atrium. A vibe of expectation rippling through the congregation. The presence of God. These are the characteristics of Granger Community Church in northern Indiana—a few miles from the campus of Notre Dame.

To get a better feel for the life and energy behind the congregation, Good News editor Steve Beard interviewed the pastor, Dr. R. Mark Beeson.

 

What specifically sparked the vision to plant Granger Community Church twenty years ago?

Though we had not planted a new congregation in North Indiana for more than three decades, irrefutable evidence from the Church across America convinced me that new ministries attract new people. If our United Methodist Church continued working strategies that didn’t work—let’s agree that decades of unrelenting decline in the UM Church’s missional impact, worship attendance, social services, and fiscal power could be defined as “not working”—our market share would dissolve. Our witness to the saving power of our Lord would become vacuous, even perceived as tripe.

So, as the grandson of a Methodist preacher and a lifelong member of this great denomination, I found myself unwilling to go quietly into the night.

 

After twenty years of growth, what are the key ingredients to see a ministry expand?

Agree on the definition of success. Clarity of vision, and the metrics defining progress and mission parameters, will enable your team to pull together for the preferred future you have in mind. Be clear and write it down. People will not rally to an uncertain trumpet.

Never pay people to be Christians. The church is filled with servants of Christ; some are unpaid and others are paid. Only pay for high-capacity teammates who deliver more than they take. Your paid staff must add value and demonstrate the loyalty, ability, chemistry, and desire to take your ministry to the next level.

Get feedback. Hard data matters. Soft-sided information helps when your team has the emotional intelligence to weigh the implications of deep sentiment. Growing leaders know, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick.” Don’t just guess; know the condition of your flock.

Be willing to correct and redirect. Every person operating outside of their shape reduces efficiencies, inhibits innovation, and degrades morale. If you have the right people on the bus, make sure you get each one into the right seat for them—and for you! Sometimes that translates into helping them get on another bus altogether.

 

How do you stay fresh and motivated?

Sprint, rest. Sprint, rest. Sprint, rest. Ministry is not a marathon. It is a series of sprints. Get a strangle-hold on the experiences, people, and locations that renew you. Maximize your restoration opportunities. Stay fresh or you will rust out, flame out, or drop out. If you are out, you are out, no matter how you went out.

Clearly define the “what” and let your leaders determine the “how.” You will develop innovative thinkers and success-oriented leaders if you bless them with the freedom to develop strategies and structures for their ministry’s success. Empowering your leaders will enrich your future. Vested leaders who feel ownership of the agreed upon vision will be as committed as you. Let your leaders lead, and every time they succeed recognize their efforts, celebrate their success, and publicly praise them.

 

What are the largest obstacles to church growth?

Lack of vision. When the leader has no vision it is impossible to call people to radical sacrifice for a worthy goal. No one offers talent, time, energy, and support without good reason. The vision is the reason, and where there is no vision people won’t align their resources and collaborate. Confusion is a barrier to growth; clarity brings focus and ministry intensity, and that yields a great reward.

Weak leadership. When leaders think they can’t do the right thing because someone might become angry, they betray the mission. Our churches are surrounded by people living without Christ, and without hope. The pastor who won’t lead a congregation through a process to introduce a new song or a new teaching method (to reach new people) because some lady in the third row complains, “That’s not how we do things here,” has mistaken kindness for weakness. The kind thing to do is to offer Christ to the masses. The weak thing to do is to defer to a few critics and, in so doing, condemn their neighbors to an eternity without Christ.

Confused leadership. For too long pastors have believed they are appointed to a local church with the assignment to pray, pay, and get out of the way. The insidious belief that local churches lack the power and responsibility for transforming their surrounding communities makes congregations impotent. UM pastors are appointed “in charge” and when they degrade their responsibility to mere “fundraiser for the denomination,” the butterfly effect sends ripples across the entire church.

Once people sense the local church exists merely to raise funds for the corporate denomination, they feel like spectators rather than players. Such confusion about the role of the local church (and the people in it) topples the first domino in a cascading failure that degrades a denomination from “mainline” to “sideline.” This is a hands-on society comprised of individuals who’ve lost trust in institutions; people today want to do it themselves. There is a deep pool of volunteers with the desire to personally experience meaningful service. They know they only go around once in life and they want to drink deeply of the adventure…not send money to someone else so they have all the joy.

Instead, they will divvy up their offerings among the various organizations bombarding them for money. As that happens, the tithe is pulled from the local church, God removes his blessing, and the local church becomes a pale shadow of the biblically functioning community scripture describes. Congregations become sick and stop growing. Healthy grows.

The local church is the front line of the UM Church’s ministry delivery system. When local church pastors take seriously their vows to reach their communities for Jesus Christ, growth becomes more likely. When denominational officials ask local pastors to report the number of baptisms, conversions, and social-action initiatives, before they ask whether they paid their apportionments in full, local pastors will begin to shift their priorities from funding ministry elsewhere to ministry success right there—right where they are!

How do you attract so many seekers and young people?

I read a recent survey that reports most Americans believe the “most boring place to be” is church. It may have taken us 2000 years to get here, but we’ve done it. We have made the winsome and wonderful Jesus boring. Jesus was a people-magnet. People loved him. They made astounding efforts to be near him, to hear him, and to receive his touch. He most often taught as a response to the inquiries of his students. People asked him questions and he responded with God’s Truth. It makes me ask questions like:

Is it possible that we have designed church services and protocols that do more to keep people from Jesus than to bring them near? Have we cloaked Jesus in vestments that hide him, or in truth that reveals him? What about our songs, medias, and dramas? Do they illustrate his goodness, compassion, and majesty, or veil him with antiquated colloquialisms?

 

What are people looking for in a worship experience and church home?

We are all hard-wired with a sense of destiny; the church that helps people value life (their own and others) will help people find their significance in God and fulfill their destiny.

We understand people want:

… to hear about the most important

      issues of the day.

… a place they don’t have to check their lives (and issues) at the door.

… to see Jesus, not go to church.

… help, not just entertainment.

… honesty, even if that involves    Mystery.

… the Truth, even if it hurts.

… to be loved right where they are.

 

What is your model or vision for discipleship?

No one ever drifts to greatness. Want to be a great musician? Methodical practice is required. Do you long for athletic prowess? You must train, and train methodically. Building a great marriage, a great family, a great friendship, or a great career requires the ongoing discipline of methodical effort. Wesley had it right; the methodical practice of scriptural holiness is the way to maturity.

Just as God calls us into community, Wesley called those who had been “awakened” to live in community. Iron sharpens iron and Wesley knew the best strategy for discipleship included the honesty (and sharpening effect) of Christ-centered friendships. At Granger, we embrace that pattern. Our vision of discipleship resonates with the inevitable results found in the synergistic power of collaboration and community.

Our best practices for discipleship are rooted deeply in Wesley’s model for advancements made through methodical community disciplines. Determined followers of Jesus, routinely gathering for prayer, worship, service, study, and accountability experience dramatic growth in a remarkably short time. At Granger, we envision discipleship as the consequence of similar life-on-life experiences.

We help every person at Granger to do five things:

1. We want everyone to have friends who follow Christ and to be a Christian friend. We launch new groups for new people every month.

2. We want everyone to serve at least once a month. We offer an easy “first serve opportunity”—called 2nd Saturday—to help everyone get involved.

3. We want people to read their Bibles on a regular basis. Every weekend message is accompanied by a daily devotional guide that helps people consider the Scriptures each day.

4. We want every person to invest in the lives of others and to invite them to church. We make every weekend a safe place for newcomers to experience a dangerous message…that just might change their lives.

5. We want everyone to worship God. We constantly reiterate the value of doing the next right thing. We teach everyone to take their next step toward Christ…together.

After decades of decline, United Methodist leaders are now openly talking about church planting. What is your advice?

When I am building a team to accomplish a worthy goal, I look for people who love to win. If I can’t find any of those, I look for people who hate to lose. We need to find leaders who do not need our help. These are the potential-laden pastors we must help. We need to give these pastors more support, praise, assistance, and freedom to innovate. When we start feeding what is growing, the harvest will increase.

Stats on our recent decades of decline indicate we are not reaching new people, young people, ethnic minorities, or Emergents. Our church is comfortable and we like it the way it is.

Let me offer three reasons to plant new churches.

First of all, we are losing our culture and our heritage. America is in moral decline. Fewer people worship the Lord Jesus. The accepted vernacular of our contemporary culture is base, crude, and degrading. Blatant acceptance of behaviors the Bible labels “sin” has the fearful wringing their hands and the emboldened reveling in bold, lewd license. Welfare entitlements weaken the general public, diminish productivity, and pull our culture towards a socialist redistribution of wealth that undermines Christian generosity and the Protestant work ethic. So, there is a cultural reason for planting new churches.

Secondly, big government assures individuals they are less and less accountable for their own condition. Whatever the problem, the government is to blame and the government will fix it. This unbiblical transference of responsibility—away from the individual—conditions people for projection, blame, and the exemption-of-self from all responsibility. We will all stand before the judgment bar of God and give account. We are answerable to the King. If we allow the people for whom Jesus died to believe they bear no responsibility for the condition of the lives and souls of their neighbors, we have failed them! If we have any compassion at all, we must offer the life of a Christ-follower to everyone! In so doing, we give every woman and every man the opportunity for a life of purpose, meaning, and fulfillment as they participate in the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. There is a compassion reason for planting new churches.

Lastly, Jesus said to “Go make disciples….” There is a biblical reason for planting new churches.



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