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Dalton’s Rock Bridge Community Church of the fastest growing congregations in the U.S.

By: Clint Cooper
(Contact)

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Joann Middleton

The pastor of a Dalton church listed this week as one of the fastest growing churches in the United States said the designation is meaningless if lives aren’t being changed.

Rock Bridge Community Church increased its worship attendance 59 percent — adding 664 members — in 2007-2008 to land at 46th on Outreach magazine’s list of the top 100 fastest growing churches.

“I don’t know if it says anything significant about us,” said pastor Matt Evans, 33. “Numbers don’t tell the whole story. It’s more an affirmation of what God has been doing in our church for the past six years.”

Rock Bridge Community Church, which meets at the Wink Theatre as well as a separate site in Calhoun, Ga., averages around 1,850 in attendance. It’s the only congregation in Northeast Georgia or Southeast Tennessee on the Outreach list.

In 2004, Chattanooga’s Highland Park Baptist Church was 37th on the list with an increase of 2,900 people, and Cleveland’s First Baptist Church was 76th with an increase of 756 in 2006.

Mr. Evans said the Dalton church has grown rapidly because it began with the concept of reaching unchurced people; because it uses a worship experience that is people friendly; because it stresses the relevance of the word of God and its application to the lives of its members; and because volunteers are given a large stake in driving its work.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW

Chattanooga’s Highland Park Baptist Church was 37th on the list of the fastest growing church in the United States by Outreach magazine. According to the magazine, the Bailey Avenue church grew by 2,900 people in 2003-2004. In the 1980s, when the church completed its auditorium, newspaper stories listed its membership at 57,000, including missionaries and out-of-town members. Today, the church has 8,000 or 9,000 members, plus those members who do not live locally, and is growing, associate pastor Scotty Marcum said in June.

Cleveland’s First Baptist Church was 76th on the Outreach list with an increase of 756 people in 2006, but co-pastor Jim Gibson said those figures were a bit deceptive. He said the figures weren’t incorrect, but the denominational reports from which they were taken made the increase look bigger than it actually was. He said church officials had no contact with the magazine and had no idea the congregation would be listed. Today, the church has an approximately membership of 4,500 people and a 2008 weekly attendance of 1,905 people, Mr. Gibson said.

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