Perry Noble is Coming to Town!

This Easter, folks in Spartanburg and Boiling Springs, SC will be able to go to church with Perry Noble via 3D imagery at a local campus.  Now, nobody in their right mind would deny the popularity of New Spring Church and the Charisma of Pastor Perry Noble. 

The incredibly fast growing New Spring Church makes a move into a community and within 12 months, they have booked out the largest convention center and droves of twenty-somethings are rocking out to the beat of songs that get your blood pumping,  your heart soft and your brain thinking.

Having visited the Greenville campus, I know first hand it is an exciting experience. 

This isn't really a problem for the already existing church - right?  I mean, all those twenty-somethings are unchurched kids that don't go to more traditional churches anyway - right? 
Seems like a church campus with a video pastor would be very welcome.  But that doesn't seem to be the case.  At least not here in Spartanburg, SC. 

There seems to be a slight anxiety in our minister circles when the subject comes up.  Instead of singing "Perry is coming to town" to the tune of "Santa Clause is coming to town."  I hear more folks running around like Chicken Little, shouting to the tune of "the sky is falling!"

Alas, there is some good news.  Apparently, the trend with Millenials is away from the video-venue, multi-site church.  But that doesn't mean they are moving away from multi-site churches.  Actually it would appear that tomorrow's church attendee will be extremely open to the multi-site concept, with one caveat; they will look for multi-site churches with local teaching pastors. 

Don't believe me?  Then check out Highrock Community Church in Salisbury, Lexington, Denton, Kannapolis, and Albemarle, NC.  Yes, each campus of this multi-site church has a campus pastor that actually preaches live.  No video's, no 3D Andy Stanley, rather a flesh and blood person with a wireless microphone dangling loosely from his head.

Why?  Well it turns out that the folks stumbled onto something.  Apparently, people prefer the intimacy of a real live person.  The best of the best of teachers are available at anytime on the internet, but you just can't beat going to a real building with real people and listening to a real live person.  There is something incredible about the availability of staff.

So how do they do it?  Highrock has developed a preaching team.  They study collectively and individually.  Every week, they meet for an entire day to prepare the message for that Sunday.  Then they take turns preaching it to each other.  On Sunday, they have a very common message filtered through the personalities of each teaching pastor at their respective church sites.  Amazingly, people show up and lives are changed.  The administrative costs, programming, etc. are fixed, so the cost of opening an additional facility is reduced drastically! 

Well, the sky is not falling.  But for the Lone Ranger church/pastor, the sky is growing dark.  I'm glad that Perry is coming to town.  It will force us to consider how we do ministry and specifically how we do outreach.  I expect that we will see more churches pulling together to reach our world for Christ.