Church on the Move: 11 Things We Regret About Relocating (Part 1)

From 1928, the Highland Church of Christ in Memphis, TN grew from a suburban church plant of 24 to a large urban congregation with four Sunday AM services, two Sunday Schools, five church plants, and all-time high records in 2001 in Sunday School (1419), Sunday AM worship (1855), and membership (1806).  With the building capacity maxed out and the property landlocked, in 2001 leaders privately investigated an alternate property for the purpose of relocation.  By 2003, the relocation discussion went public and the congregation voted to move.  Nine years after the initial investigations, the Highland Church of Christ re-launched in a new facility on forty acres in a suburban location. 

Almost everything that could go wrong during a church relocation did go wrong with ours.  Yet, many things also went right.  In this series of posts, I’ll explore that which went wrong–the things we regret about our relocation journey.  In the next series, I’ll explore what went right–the things we rejoice in about our relocation journey.

#1 – We regret that the journey was more difficult than we had anticipated.  When an internal task force in 2001 first recommended relocation, we could have never anticipated the cost of embracing that recommendation.  

• We tried and failed 4 times to purchase a Christian school property. 
• We tried and failed 3 times to purchase a large retail property.  All seven failures were deflating and spiritually confusing.
• The journey took 9 years–much longer than any would have dreamed.
• From the time the relocation decision went public in 2003 until the time of the grand re-opening, we lost 657 members and our Sunday AM worship attendance plummeted from 1309 to just under 800.
• The financial impact of membership loss forced gut-wrenching decisions about ministry: Highland eliminated its campus ministry (part of Highland’s DNA since the 1950’s), could not replace her singles minister nor her co-preacher (both of whom left congregational ministry for other forms of ministry), and reduced the hours of four other staff members.
• The transition brought an end to a long-lived community ministry called Parents Night Out and significantly impacted two other much loved ministries: our School Store and our Day School.

#2 – The journey caused us to turn inward.

• The baptism of outsiders (people who were not family members of Highland members) dropped at an alarming rate during our relocation journey.  Highland’s all time high for baptisms was 1999 (82).  From there, however, baptisms dropped markedly.  From January  2004 (just after the public decision to move) through 2009 we experienced these baptisms: 2004 (45), 2005 (46), 2006 (23), 2007 (29), 2008 (17), 2009 (23).
• We realized during this time that much of our growth during Highland’s “glory days” of 1986-2001 (when Sunday AM attendance increased 49% and Sunday School increased 82%) was transfer growth, not evangelistic growth.  And now, because of the uncertainty, tension, and instability brought about by the relocation journey, the transfer growth (Christians placing membership) slowed significantly.
• Our most evangelistic ministries coasted to a stop as energy was consumed with the move.
• We went from ten to twenty first time guests each Sunday morning to one or two–sometimes none.

—-to be continued (don’t worry, things do get better :))