How Fast-Growing Churches Help Other Churches Thrive

For many fast-growing churches, their thankfulness toward God is expressed in how they serve other congregations. But receiving thanks from the churches they helped wasn’t the reason they decided to care for other congregations. Their motivation flowed from sources much deeper and more intrinsic to their identity.

Motivations

Dudley Rutherford became senior pastor of Shepherd Church (No. 59, fastest-growing; 39, largest) in Porter Ranch, California, almost 40 years ago. Coming from Iowa to the San Fernando Valley, he didn’t know anyone in the area. His Independent Christian Church had 150 people and lacked significant support. But megachurch pastor Jack Hayford welcomed Rutherford, spent time with him, and encouraged him. 

Hayford had no reason to embrace Shepherd Church like he did. But for Rutherford, having a more seasoned pastor reach out and believe in him helped him during early discouraging times. It also shaped Shepherd Church to extend that same open hand to help other churches.

This mindset is one that Phillip Christiansen, operations pastor at Canvas Church (No. 20, fastest-growing) in Kalispell, Montana, understands. “When your goal is to make Jesus famous and not your church famous, you have that community mindset to be free with information, to equip as many people as possible, to work together to reach your community.” 

Executive Ministries Pastor Ryan Britt, who serves at The Church of Eleven22 (No. 1, fastest-growing; No. 9, largest), has two motivations to help other churches. First, he wants Eleven22 to be a good teammate. Drawing from Henry Blackaby’s Experiencing God, church leaders at Eleven22 look around to see where God is working and then seek to join him in that work. “We want to be a part of what God’s doing wherever he’s doing it.”

The Jacksonville, Florida, church’s second motivation comes from their history of being planted out of a healthy local church. 

“[Beach Church], located five miles down the road from us, put themselves very much in the position to be helpful to us, to be our biggest cheerleader, to help us [to become] healthy and strong,” Britt says. “We stand on their shoulders.” 

Matt Mason, executive pastor at Community Bible Church (No. 28, fastest-growing; No. 15, largest) in San Antonio, explains that their lead pastor, Ed Newton, had spent 16 years as an itinerant preacher before becoming a lead pastor in 2016. He never took his eyes off those small churches where he had preached.