DEVILLE – For more than 10 years, Philip Robertson, pastor of Philadelphia Baptist Church in Deville, had a vision for starting a second campus.
During that time, he watched, prayed and waited for God’s timing, when in March 2015, Horseshoe Drive Baptist Church in Alexandria asked the 750-active-member-strong Philadelphia congregation for help in staying viable.
Robertson knew that coming alongside this smaller congregation, which had dwindled to about 35 active members, was “God’s will for Philadelphia Baptist Church.”
His faithfulness to the multi-site vision God had given him resulted in a re-launch celebration Sept. 18 with 338 in attendance on the Horseshoe Drive campus, now Philadelphia Baptist Church, Horseshoe Drive.
A combined 1,022 worshipped on the two campuses that Sunday, and Philadelphia Baptist Church became one congregation in two locations.
“It’s very humbling and an honor they would see us as someone they could reach out to,” said Philip Robertson, entering his 21st year as pastor at Philadelphia Baptist. “I have had multi-site ministry on my heart for more than a decade…. It became apparent very early on that God was in this conversation. There began to be affirmation upon affirmation that this was God’s doing.”
REVITALIZING IS MULTIPLYING
“Multi-site church development is a great tool for revitalizing churches and multiplying,” said Lane Corley, Louisiana Baptist Convention’s Church Planting Strategist and pastor of Bridge Church in Madisonville.
Dennis Watson, pastor of Celebration Church in New Orleans, which has 6 campuses and is planning three more said the multi-site campus strategy enabled Philadelphia to “provide Horseshoe with a new church vibe with a big church punch.”
“Multi-site is not a tool for helping a church to grow,” said Corley, “but to multiply a church’s growing DNA to a new community.”
A JOINT EFFORT
While the Deville location continued with well-established ministries in its community, a re-launch team was formed to help re-grow the Alexandria ministry, starting with house-to-house visits in the surrounding neighborhoods. Meanwhile the Deville congregation joined with Horseshoe Drive members to contribute more than $400,000 to renovate the facilities.
“The thing that has been so exciting about Alexandria is there are so many more people to reach than in Deville, and so many unchurched people,” Robertson said. “We were at an apartment complex near Horseshoe Drive, a huge one, where we had teams going door to door. My team alone on that one night knocked on the doors of probably 20 different apartments.
“We probably talked with 12 families, and all of them were unchurched,” he said. “We’re just excited about having the opportunity to continue to reach more people and see them come to know Christ and have their lives transformed by the Gospel.”
A GROWING TREND
The methodology of multi-site ministry has a similar missional impact in terms of effectiveness, Robertson said. Rather than being an on-his-own church planter, Clay Fuqua, the campus pastor at the Horseshoe Drive location, has all the resources available to him that are available at the Deville site, which is staffed by eight vocational ministers and six support staff.
At the same time, the Deville site now has an established base in Alexandria from which to do ministry, and it has committed Christian disciples eager to put their skills together for God’s use in an urban setting.
“There’s a wonderful match in the DNA of both sites, in terms of ministry and traditions,” Robertson said. “We have 100 people from the Deville site who have made a one-year commitment to go and serve at the Alexandria site, which provided a good strong core group.”
Philadelphia Baptist Church is not alone in its efforts to start a multi-site location.
Since 2010, at least 18 multi-site Louisiana Baptist churches have launched. Other churches launching a multi-site location include Celebration Church, with eight campuses in the New Orleans area, and First West, which has locations in West Monroe and Fairbanks and plans to start another campus next year in Calhoun.
Corley believes the concept is gaining steam because this strategy offers limitless potential for growth, a natural way to multiply and a lower cost of maintaining a facility.
“When a church begins to grow, buildings and property usually become a limitation,” said Corley. “A church that buys in to multi-site strategy begins to see the limitless potential of growth in new communities as they look beyond the single site.
“For a church that has found a way to grow, it makes sense to multiply their systems to other locations,” he continued. “We have a saying in church planting ‘in every apple there is an orchard.’ It’s a reminder that God has built in a desire to reproduce and multiply for all living things. When churches grow, the desire is rightly and naturally to multiply their efforts.”
Philadelphia Baptist Church reaches out to surrounding neighborhoods through such events as this recent block party.
TOUCHING LIVES
The Deville church’s well-established community ministries have made a tremendous impact on the community. PBC ministries include nursing home visitation, home repair, a food bank, the associational Main Street Mission, direct benevolence, a motorcycle ministry, Sunday school evangelism, school supplies and clothing distributions, a media ministry for the homebound, and a special needs ministry.
They also do a lot of local and national outreaches including helping Baton Rouge residents impacted by the August floods, a week-long mission’s outreach in McAllen, Texas, attended by 68 youth and leaders, and the fourth consecutive mission trip to Brazil with the Louisiana Baptist Convention – that led to more than 3,200 professions of faith this July.
Horseshoe already had effective clothes closet and food pantry ministries, which are now expanding into a multifaceted homeless ministry which provides limited hotel stays, bus transportation to other cities, employment preparation such as resume writing, job application assistance, and computer training, with plans for an afterschool care and tutoring ministry.
THANKFUL FOR STAFF
Robertson credits the Deville staff and committed lay members with providing the leadership and staffing that allowed the expansion into Alexandria.
“The Lord has blessed me with some incredibly gifted people I have the privilege of serving with every day,” Robertson said. “You can’t do this alone…. You have to have people who are willing to catch the vision and commit to serve.”
Fuqua is the only paid staffer at the Alexandria site, Robertson said, but he is supported by the volunteer efforts of the worship leader, children’s director, prayer minister and first impressions coordinator.
“How blessed we are to have such faithful committed lay people,” he said.
FORMULA FOR SUCCESS
The Deville congregation has grown with an emphasis on evangelism training, music ministries and discipleship training that prepares members to live their faith.
Robertson said the congregation also has a heart to give generously through the Cooperative Program.
It is the best global tool to see lives transformed by the Gospel, he said. That is why the church gives 10.25 percent of undesignated offerings to missions through the Cooperative Program, and it is why he is leading them to make incremental increases toward giving 12 percent in the near future with a goal of eventually giving 25 percent of its undesignated income to ministry outside the four walls of the church.
“I believe in the Cooperative Program,” said Robertson, whose congregation is active in two local Baptist associations (one for each site) and in the Louisiana Baptist Convention. “I’m sold on the fact we can do so much more together, and have greater impact for the Kingdom of God, working together as churches, than we can individually and apart. It makes practical sense to me.
Robertson noted the CP’s support of state, national and international missions, and the six Southern Baptist seminaries. “I’m a big believer in the methodology of the Cooperative Program in terms of missional impact.”
The church has also completed $4 million of construction debt free and is currently building (with some minimal debt) a multipurpose fellowship hall that will eventually host a third on site worship venue.
“We want to maximize our space as much as possible without building a new multi-million dollar worship center,” Robertson said. “The thing that keeps me motivated and excited about Philadelphia Baptist Church every day is that I believe with all my heart that there’s nothing God can’t do in this church that He can do anywhere else.”
Based on reporting by Karen Willoughby in an article published by Baptist Press, the news service of the Southern Baptist Convention.
