A pastor, the Reverend Denny Davis, pastors the St. John Missionary Baptist Church of Grand Prarie TX that has three (3) locations, hence the motto One Church, Three Locations. Any comments?

Be Blessed

al paris

-- Anonymous, October 20, 2004

Answers

I hope Rev. Davis is able to be in three locations at one time or else somebody is going to fell short-changed if he's not. QED

-- Anonymous, October 20, 2004

The concept is not new at all. In Atlanta we have had churches with more than one campus for several years. Among these are our own Antioch A.M.E. Church in Stone Mountain, which has two campuses, and Turner Chapel A.M.E. in Marietta with two campuses as well. The pastor, associate ministers, officers and members work out the logistics of how each campus will be served. To my knowledge there has never been any problem with it.

BTW the first African American and the first woman ever to be nominated by the voters for the US Senate from Georgia, Denise Marjette, is a member of Antioch. If elected, on November 2, she will become the second African American woman in the history of the USA to serve as a US Senator.

-- Anonymous, October 20, 2004

Why two or more campuses?

-- Anonymous, October 20, 2004

Reverend Paris,

While I can’t give you all the reasons why these churches have two or more campuses, I will attempt to shed some light on the one I know about. Antioch moved several miles from its original location in order to accommodate the increase in their membership. Yet because they had an innovative ministry they quickly out grew their facility once again. Additionally the property, which they bought, had two different buildings of congregations who also relocated their church. The facilities were about a quarter of a mile apart but on streets back to back, separated by a wooded lot.

Turner Chapel also built a larger facility but had not yet sold the original property, which they owned about a half mile away. They also grew by leaps and bounds. Being located in a metropolis the size of Atlanta meant that if they moved again and found a location large enough to accommodate their expansion and growth, they would be 30 or more miles from the present location of the church. This more than likely would be detrimental to the church and adding additional services did not accommodate the growth. So adding concurrent service in two locations was the solution, which they chose---the ministerial staff being large enough to handle it.

The other congregation I know that did this 30 years ago was Free For All Baptist Church. They too moved into a larger facility approximately 20 miles from their original church. The original church was in the inner city where many of the members were elderly and unable to drive. This meant the church and congregation they had come to know and love were abandoning them. Thus, Free For All also kept its original site, rotating the ministerial staff, programs and services of the church so that the needs of these members were also met.

I am also aware of three other inner city A.M.E. congregations, which had to move because of growth. However they left behind the older members of the church who simply could not travel to the new location of the church. The Conference eventually assigned a pastor to each of them. But they are struggling and facing hardships not felt by the churches, which have and operate on two campuses.

-- Anonymous, October 20, 2004

Makes sense to me. Now I can understand how this happens. However in the description above we have One Pastor, three or more churches in three or more locations.

-- Anonymous, October 21, 2004