Hey guys. The conference is actually just now beginning to get underway. I spent some great time with the ex MU campus pastor of Revolution Ministries Danny Byrd and his wonderful wife Tara. Thanks for lunch and even more for the great encouragement and conversation and great title for this post. It was Dan’s idea. I took a pic of his giant goatee, but don’t have it on me. I’ll get it up on here later.
But now to the important thing. This church is huge. Talk about a city within a city! They have 14000 members their website says, but since they’re baptist that means that about 5000 folks worship here. The name of the place is First Baptist Church Orlando which is located on First Baptist Chruch Drive. That isn’t a joke. They have a full Christian school,
a sports center facility that was purchased by Payne Stewart, now deceased PGA golfer,
a lake with their own ducks,
a loading dock for their food and other sundry goods,
a prayer garden
shuttle buses for their parking,
tennis courts,
and I haven’t even seen their cafe, bookstore, and soccer fields. Again not a joke. You know how I feel about spending 5 million dollars to pay a staff of folks to oversee buildings and grounds and run a Christian school, but can you name some benefit to this type of ministry. How is this better than taking the same 14,000 or I mean 5000 and planting 500 churches all around the state? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
“a lake with their own ducks”
I wonder if their ducks were purchased out of that $5 million budget to complete the scene of serenity.
You should be ashamed. I’ll bet you never took the time to actually attend a service and worship at this church or visit and check them out for yourself for real (not just driving by and making assumptions). This is an incredible church that serves the community, city, state and even the world in an evangelistic and serving manner than not many others have. If they say they have 14K members, then they do. They’re just like all other churches that keep membership records: People attend a few times and move, change their mind, decide church isn’t for them, die, etc. It is also located in the largest tourist destination in the US so to say their community members are transient is an understatement. They use their money and staff to lead the people to serve others and they are able to serve and show God’s love to many more people than smaller churches can.
Does that make it wrong? I think not. You wouldn’t fare well in the Old Testament times. Payne Stewart was not only one of the best and most loved golfers in the world when he died, he was a devout Christian who wore his “WWJD” bracelet proudly in his last few tournaments. He and his sweet family were members there and his two children attended the school. His son played football for the school. So what is wrong with him donating money for their sports facilities? Are you against Christian schools too? It saddens me to read of anyone from any church criticizing another church in the way that was written here, especially a church that reaches people for Christ who are untouched by other churches. One last thought: The reason they have a loading dock for the food (and any other equipment they may need such as equipment for concerts, huge donations to the food bank, etc.) is because they have a school for crying out loud! Not to mention the food bank, soup kitchen and other services for the needful community.