Seeker Insensitive?
Posted by Todd Rhoades in Outreach on Mar 9th, 2011 | 9 commentsTwo Rivers Baptist Church, a prominent Southern Baptist congregation in Nashville, is changing its name beginning March 20 to the “Fellowship at Two Rivers.” The church says the name change was driven by a desire to distance itself from controversies from the past few years that made headlines in local media. The controversy involved church members who were dissatisfied with former pastor Jerry Sutton. Some of them sued. Sutton retired early, telling members in a letter, “Although we have won court cases and church votes, the conflict continues.”
The church said in a January letter to members, “The past few years our name and church have been dragged through the sewer. Just do a search online and you will see what we mean. A new beginning and identity is needed. This name communicates that we are different as a church. We are still Baptist. Legally we are still Two Rivers Baptist, but identifying that in the name is not important. People will be drawn to our ministry by our actions and love. That is what matters.”
The church said it is not becoming “seeker sensitive.”
via Baptist Press
The letter can be read here.
The letter states that the church is transitioning to ‘one service and one style’ that would most effectively reach people *unchurched and lost non-believers” (as opposed, I guess to ‘saved non-believers’ or ‘lost believers’).
That said (which sounds good to me), the letter goes on to say that they are ‘not dumbing down the church’. And that ‘we are not becoming a ‘seeker’ church’. If anything, they say, ‘we are raising’ the bar.
OK… I get it. The church obviously has some people in it that don’t like the word ‘seeker’. They equate the word ‘seeker’ with ‘dumbing down’ and ‘lowering the bar’. Instead, the leadership has decided on the path that would most effectively reach people (unchurched and lost non-believers). For the sake of sanity though, we won’t call those people seekers.
The other word people in the church are pretty sensitive to is the word “Baptist”. ”We are still Baptist” is the only thing bolded in the letter other than the new service time. But the renaming from Two Rivers Baptist Church to the “Fellowship at Two Rivers” has some upset.
All this comes out of a bad few years for Two Rivers. They’ve been dragged through the sewer (their words). And they are seeking to revive a church that has been dealt some death blows in the media and community. No doubt, a tough task.
I applaud the leadership at Two Rivers. Change is hard, and they are deep in the throws of it. The waves are crashing. And the people upset about the words “Baptist” and “Seeker” add to the strife.
I LOVE the last paragraph of the letter:
It is imperative that through this transition we don’t give the lost and un-churched people more of a reason to not go to church. During this time, we ask for a positive spirit of unity and excitement. While we want each person at Two Rivers to make this transition and be a part of the exciting places God is taking us, we understand that everyone will not make this transition. We ask that each person see the vision and pray about where God would have them serve to accomplish His purposes and mission. While not our desire, if God leads you to another place we understand and wish only the best for you.
Brilliantly played. I’m’ sure they have realized in the past years that everyone won’t make the journey to the other side. The same is true here… but it’s seemingly the right step to revitalize a crippled church.
Would you have played it any differently?
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9 Responses to “ “Seeker Insensitive?”
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The Tim Keller article you posted earlier is a great answer to this. It is always difficult to revitalize a church that has entrenched leadership who refuse to do what it takes to win those without. I would imagine this is why there are so many church planters who are only trying to do what the church was originally intended to do.
Hi Todd, I’m a follower of yours on twitter and appreciate your consistently interesting posts! I was wondering what the church/pastor was sued for? If it is personal I do not care to know, but if it could help other pastors prepare or avoid (without giving in to the call God has given them) the issues, I was wondering if you knew and would mind sharing. Thanks!
I thought it was really funny that the church issued the statement saying it was fine for church money to pay for the pastor’s daughter’s wedding reception because it was “approved by church committees.” NOW THAT IS FUNNY!
Something that we (my husband and I) have learned since planting and pastoring a church is that you, your leadership and the people attending need to be very clear on two things about the church:
1) What defines our church….what are our beliefs, values, vision, purpose and yes….PHILOSOPHY
2) What we DO ( ministries, target groups we are reaching etc..) and what we DON’T DO
Then the question that needs to be answered is this:
Is this my tribe? In other words, am I ready to put the jersey on and join the game? Do I believe in and stand behind what this church believes?
If the answer to that question is “no” then it is much better for everyone involved to release people to go find a church with a vision they can answer “yes” to.
Many churches don’t know the answer to the first 2 questions about themselves. If your leadership doesn’t know the answers it can allow for a lot of confusion and dis-unity of all kinds. People will come to your church with all kinds of answers to those questions, many of them differing and on opposite ends of the philosophy spectrum.
It sounds like Two River’s Baptist Church has just figured those questions out and are now inviting those who can stand behind that to come along on this journey with them. I don’t think it will be easy for them but in the long run I think they will be glad they took this route.
Way to go Two Rivers! It’s never easy that’s why many churches stay stuck. It will be worth it over time & they’ll be glad they made the change.
The most reasonable and wise thing they did besides giving the church a fresher title, was to assume that some people would be upset enough over a few key words to consider leaving the church if they don’t get their way. To present that ahead of time will hopefully save some arguments and hurt feelings. And just like I have seen in other churches who has seen key people leave over little things, that church will see new faces and vision.
I appreciate the way Two Rivers leaders have put forth a communicative effort. I know I’ve been sorely lacking in the past on this myself, and it tends to allow for more than one message to get out about why we are doing something, or why we aren’t doing another thing anymore.
I wish the entire Southern Baptist Convention would change their name as well since they have long ago chosen to be something other than Baptist. For instance, Baptists (real Baptists) support the separation of church and state. See if you can find that principle echoed in SBC pulpits today. So go ahead and rename yourself and leave the word “Baptist” for the Baptists.
Yup, good play. too many churches are being held back by bad history or even bad labels. hopefully they will make even deeper changes than the superficial though. thanks for posting.