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Arlington / Lewisville Alignement Update

The Arlington church leadership team met last week and gave a preliminary vote of approval to move forward with the alignment between the two churches.  The pastors of Arlington are working with the Conference to bring this together smoothly, as well as begin the hiring process for a campus pastor to serve at Lewisville, and the additional hiring of a media pastor, who would serve on the campus of Arlington, and be a blessing for everyone, include the Lewisville campus.  Things are looking well for this to come to fruition around January 1, and a new chapter of LSDA to begin.

As things progress, you will be kept in the loop, so nothing is a surprise to you when it happens.  In the meantime, feel free to check out the FAQ below, and if you have other questions, please feel free to also email in questions that can be answered below.

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The principle idea of multi-site is one church, multiple locations.  There are approximately 13,000+ such churches in the United States and Canada, and they allow the focus of resources and leadership to be shared in locations that might not otherwise be able to do the same on their own.  Some churches have a dozen or more campuses, all doing the same work, but unique to the context of their community.

Not enough, sadly.  At present, I can think of only two.  Beltsville Church in Maryland, and Crosswalk, out of California.  I had the opportunity in 2011-2012 to launch a multi-site initiative in Northern Virginia, and learned much from it.  I wish more Adventist churches would do this, and more Conferences would learn the possibilities of multi-site and encourage their churches to work together for effectiveness.

The sharing of resources - people, finances, programs - as well as the power and influence of the second highest tithe-paying church in the Texas Conference.  The training and programs available for children, youth, and young adults is quite strong from Arlington and will be shared with Lewisville.  Financial resources will be available as well when needed, as all that is done in Lewisville reflects on Arlington as campus of the primary church.

They are able to share what God has blessed them with, and share the resources and influence in a broader section of the DFW area.  They love to do this, and this is a concrete way to affect another congregation in a positive way.

Also, there are many who live close to the LSDA campus who go to Arlington for the experience and activities.  Some may choose to give their talents to the campus and stay closer to home, knowing witnessing to their neighbors and co-workers is much easier when the church is closer.  They will also have a campus that reflect much of what they love about Arlington, right there near them!

In many ways this is about going, just as commanded by Jesus.  The temptations are always to build bigger and grow larger, asking people to come.  But in this case, Arlington is making a strategic investment of resources and people to take what has made them a blessing to so many, further than just one location can do.

No.  For the purposes of this alignment, Arlington and Lewisville keep their finances, and property separate.  The property is all owned by the Texas Conference at the moment, only marked according to the church which occupies the property.  In the event an exit strategy takes place, the respective property remains the same which each individual congregation.

Yes and no.  While the name fo the church will change, hopefully, and the senior pastor will be Kevin Wells, much of the culture and beauty of what makes LSDA will remain the same, as it matches closely with Arlington presently.  The new name, to be chosen soon after the approval of the alignment, will reflect the multi-site aspect with Arlington by being noted as Arlington SDA Church, _________________ Campus.  For all practical purposes Lewisville will become part of the Arlington Church, and share branding, mission, vision, values, and more.  This is the beauty of multi-site.

However, the context of multi-site works best when the campus reflects the community it exists in, and the people it is reaching.  This is how the campus pastor becomes effective, bridging the ethos of Arlington with the culture and context of the South Denton County area LSDA ministers too.

Nope.  And there in is one huge misconception of multi-site.  Everything on the campus will be liver and unique to the context of the congregation and community, but the sermon will be streamed from the main campus, primarily Kevin Wells, the senior pastor of Arlington Church.  But all else, be it music, announcements, etc, will be live and done with excellence by the congregation and participants at LSDA.

You could, but you can’t.  Make sense?  Ha!  You could watch the sermon in your own home, it is true, but you wouldn’t get the live worship experience, and fellowship of others within the congregation and campus.  Many express doubts of watching a sermon streamed on a screen, but it is working for 13,000+ churches, and the doubts are erased after the first couple times viewing.

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