“We believe the church is the roundtable to bring everyone together in order to focus on the issues and come up with workable solutions [for meeting the needs] of the community,” Orr notes. “We have partnerships and outreach programs in the medical community, government, law enforcement, schools and local business to make that happen.”
The valuable partnerships the church has with its community have made it a household name in the area. Many of those people have come to make it their church home, but when people do join the church, a plan is in place to help them grow deeper in their faith walk.
Orr believes spiritual growth and maturity come from simply being in the Word. “Once they’re in the Word, everything else begins to fall into place.”
That’s something the church has prioritized for many years via a digital discipleship program that closely links Orr’s preaching plan with the churchwide reading plan.
It works like this: Members read about a chapter of the Bible each day and receive on their phones a daily devotion from Brown about the reading. Each devotion follows the REAP model: Read, Explain, Apply and Pray. Wednesday’s reading is always the topic of that week’s Bible study, and Friday’s reading becomes the focus of the weekend’s sermon. In that way, the reading and preaching plans work together to help cement the Scripture into the minds of congregants and create an attainable path toward reading through the entire Bible.
Today the church is up to 6,000 attendees every weekend. Last year, it saw a 20% increase in baptisms, a 50% increase in new members, and 2,600 new donors. It’s seen the 80/20 giving ratio (20% of members doing all the giving) start to equalize. The church continually increases its own giving, with over 11% of its tithes and offerings currently going toward missions and benevolence.
“We are making sure we create that warm, family atmosphere of unity,” adds Orr.