Home
Message from God: It's About Spirit-Filled Living, Not Buildings
by Craig Pinley
SANTA ROSA, CA (September 25, 2003) - Editor's note: This is the first of a six-part series exploring
Redwood Covenant's experience in spiritual transformation.
Ask Redwood Covenant Church senior
pastor John Strong why his church moved into an $8.5 million building
this summer and he'll tell you that God spoke to church leadership and
they obeyed.
Scott Peterson, the church's pastor of children's ministries, will tell
you the same thing. So will executive pastor Joanna Quintrell, youth
pastor Angie Tate and the other staff members at Redwood Covenant. The
elders will offer the same explanation. And chances are good that many
of the parishioners at the Santa Rosa, California, church will, too.
On June 22, Redwood Covenant moved into its new 43,000-square-foot
building and began worshiping there a week later. A dedication service
was conducted September 14 with Evangelical Covenant Church President
Glenn R. Palmberg as the guest preacher.
Redwood Covenant, a predominantly Anglo congregation founded in 1981,
has undergone many changes during the past 22 months. The church altered
the role of its elder board. It hosted a series of Sunday afternoon
spiritual training sessions to strengthen and encourage its leadership,
averaging more than 100 in attendance. It affirmed a new ministry
targeting local Spanish-speaking people and added an Hispanic pastor,
Alejandro Sotres, to its staff this summer.
The transformation at Redwood Covenant comes down to this, church
leaders say: God wanted the leadership of Redwood Covenant Church to
repent and rededicate their efforts toward making their growing
congregation more God-centered. And it started with a fall leadership
meeting – something that likely occurs in most Covenant churches about
that time each year.
In September 2000, church leaders met for a one-day retreat to discern
God's direction for the church. Associate pastor Peterson says he was
the recipient of a special message from God, a message to be shared with
the church. Peterson shared that message with Strong and later with the
church elder board – what has followed many consider as evidence of the
power of that message.
"We've been asking the Lord to pour out his spirit on us and make
changes, to do whatever needed to be done," said elder Jim Davenport. "I
think he's taken us up on
that, which is kind of scary." And we really feel like we've heard from
him that we needed to get our own house in order. It's not anything new,
but it's something we've taken very seriously. It's a humbling
experience and a little scary, but we acknowledge that's the way God works."
"It's a constant call to correction," Strong said. "God's put a finger
on this church and he's saying that being halfway there or 75 percent
there isn't enough." Peterson and other staff members are convinced of
God's leading in this transformation, too.
"Being able to see God moving in this church like we've never seen
before has shown us that there's really something to this," said
Peterson. "And ever since this has happened, our staff meetings, staff
retreats and staff relations are so different. We are such an incredible
team now." Quintrell agrees. "It's really been a refining process for
leadership, a purifying process. But I think the thing that we're going
through is revival."
In 1999, Redwood Covenant averaged 748 in church attendance, according
to the Covenant Yearbook. Staff and elders struggled with how to
fit 750 people into a sanctuary that seated just 210 per service. The
church conducted three Sunday worship services, using a satellite center
to hold the overflow crowds. Parking problems were evident, as well as
overcrowding of Sunday school areas - kids were packed into youth rooms.
A 10-acre piece of land had been purchased, but the church couldn't get
proper permits to build as they met for their leadership retreat on
September 11, 2000.
In preparation for the retreat, Strong formulated a list of questions
for leaders to ponder, including this one: In the midst of all of this,
is God trying to tell us something else? As Peterson pondered the
question, he says God told him that church space wasn't the key issue
for Redwood Covenant - it was the spiritual life of the congregation.
"I've always thought that if it was a word from God, it was probably
something you didn't want to do," said Peterson. "It didn't make sense
to me and I really hesitated to say this (to Strong) because I knew I
wouldn't benefit from this. We're backed into a corner (in children's
ministry). We're out of our bag of tricks. There is no more room for us."
Strong asked Peterson and another elder to spend three days in prayer
and fasting and report to him September 14. That's when God spoke to
Peterson about what the church needed to do. Soon, Strong and other
leaders would get their own "word from the Lord."
Tomorrow: the unusual way in which the message came.
Copyright © 2008 The Evangelical Covenant Church. |
