Whatever It Takes: How Chad Fisher Built One of America’s Fastest-Growing Churches (Part 2)

Don’t miss Part 1 of our interview, where Chad Fisher talks about being inspired to plant a church by observing bold Nepalese Christians in the Middle East, doing ‘whatever it takes’ to start Rock Church, and why he and his wife chose Columbus, Ohio, for their church plant.

How did you go about building a team for the plant?

We moved to Columbus with seven other adults. We had no real plan, but we’d met ARC and had the support of CedarCreek Church in Toledo, which played an important role in helping us realize our dream. At our first launch team meeting, there were 14 people. It took from June 2010 to April 2011 to build a team of 40 people.

That period was important because it gave us time to fall in love with our city. We met people. We learned how to fundraise. But most of all, it taught us about trust. When you have a vision to build a church and reach a city and you’re in a room with 14 people and all you have is a dream, it can be a daunting task. God gives you small wins along the way that build your faith and prepare you for the bigger wins.

Tell us about April 3, 2011—your first Rock City Church service.

Our team of 40 went to sleep the night before not knowing if anyone would show up the next day. We were ready. We’d done everything we knew how to do. We woke up, walked into the doors of the AMC Lennox Town Center movie theater in the heart of our city right next to the Ohio State University. What we saw stunned us—430 people attended the service and 43 people were saved.

I think a rare part of our story is that we were able to plant in the heart of our city and grow from the inside out. I think there’s something unique about the city of Columbus—the atmosphere, the vibrancy. We started to grow. We had about half those people come back the next week, so we had about 180 to 200 attending.

You had watched so many of your friends leave the church you grew up in. How did that affect your strategy in Columbus?

We targeted millennials. We asked them the last time they had been in church. We asked them if they had left the church and why. And it wasn’t just young people who left the church we talked to, but also the unchurched. One of the reasons our church has continued to grow is we are laser-focused on lost people. We’re not interested in catering to churched people. Between December 2018 and February 2019, we grew by 2,000 people. But I think the statistic that best reflects us is that between Jan. 27 and June 2 of this year, we had 2,073 decisions for Christ. Close to 100% of our growth is from conversions.