Taking New Ground

Recently I received and email from a concerned Christian in the 5 Points area where we are starting a new BAF Church. She was concerned that we were just going to take Christians away from the existing churches. I do understand how she might feel that way, but I want her, and anyone else, to know that BAF has never been about moving Christians from one church to another. I've heard some similar things from some folks on the Island.

The amazing growth at BAF has not come from stealing Christians from other churches, it has come through a focused plan to reach the unchurched. Everything we do is designed to reach people who do not know Jesus Christ as their savior, or have left the church and don't attend anywhere. In pursuit of that vision, of course there are some Christians who leave a church and come to ours, but it's clearly not our goal to take people away from other churches. The fact is that a very high percentage of the people who left their church to come to ours, end up leaving us sooner or later too because they realized our worship style never really fit them very well.

Studies show that 50% of the people in most communities in the US have no church affiliation what so ever . We did some population studies in the 5 Points area for example, those studies showed that there is approximately 50,000 people in the surrounding zip codes. That means there is somewhere in the neighborhood of 25,000 unchurched, and maybe unsaved people, that need Jesus Christ, none of which are attending any church in the area. Our church's specific thumb print is to reach these folks. God uses different churches for different roles in the Body, our unique role is to reach the unchurched, and that's who were hoping to reach at these two new sites.

We are not moving into Padre Island and 5 Points to compete with other churches, were moving in to join an already existing team of awesome churches to reach all of God's people. We want to join other pastors and churches not as competitors, but as teammates serving the same awesome God. I hope to build some great relationships with some awesome pastors in both of these areas.

Were moving to these two locations to take new ground for Jesus Christ. New ground means people who are on the path to spending eternity apart from God. Reaching lost people is what drives us every one of us, and our multi site ministry is about taking our unique thumbprint to new locations all over South Texas and beyond.

John