Community Christian Church

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Suburban Churches Reach National List

Three places of worship mentioned as part of 50 most influential in America

Published Sunday, July 16, 2006 - The Daily Herald

By: Meilssa Jenco - Staff Writer

As Dave Richa tells it, he was on a mission from God. After spending eight years as student minister for Community Christian Church in Naperville, he and 35 other members pulled up stakes five years ago and started a new church in Thornton, Colo. Their new church, Jacob’s Well, now has a weekly attendance of about 270. It was the first church “planting” by Community Christian, but only the start of the trend. A half dozen more, from Boston to California, have been finished or are under construction. “It really was being driven, I really believe, by my relationship with God,” Richa said of his decision to move cross-country to a place where he had no roots.

That type of innovation is one key reason Community Christian Church vaulted onto the list of the 50 most influential Christian, non-Catholic churches in America. It ranked 13th in a survey in which more than 2,000 churches were polled nationwide. Two other churches in the metropolitan area made the list. South Barrington’s massive and famed Willow Creek Church was ranked No. 1 by its peers, and historic College Church in Wheaton was 37th.

All are considered megachurches, with weekend attendance of 2,000 or more worshippers. But College Church barely meets that criteria, while Willow Creek draws 10 times as many people. “You have three churches right there within a stone’s throw of each other that pastors across the country are looking to,” said Jason Christy, publisher and editor-in-chief of The Church Report magazine in which the survey appeared. “It says, number one, that your part of the country is highly influential in church life across the country.”

The Church Report is a monthly magazine circulated to 50,000 pastors and Christians across the country. The survey, in its second year, was done by John Vaughan, an author and consultant for Church Growth Today, a church research center. Vaughan contacted leaders of about 2,000 of the largest non-Catholic churches in the country as well as several smaller congregations. He asked each to name up to 10 churches they consider the most influential. “An overwhelming majority are churches known for evangelistic outreach in communities in cities where they are, or else they have national impact,” Vaughan said. Almost all of the churches on the list are megachurches. Eighteen of them are non-denominational.

Willow Creek’s status as most influential is not surprising to many. With an average weekend attendance of roughly 20,000, it is widely known for its ministry programs, national leadership conferences and penchant for attracting celebrities. For instance, Mel Gibson premiered his “Passion of he Christ” movie at Willow Creek. Bill Hybels, church founder and senior pastor, said the key has been blending creativity and practical biblical teaching. “We’ve tried to open up people’ s hearts with the arts in a tasteful and touching way, and follow that up with a relevant message from the Bible that people can apply to their lives starting on Monday morning,” Hybels said.

Community Christian and College Church, both new to the list this year, have weekend attendance of about 4,500 and 2,000, respectively. Community Christian lead pastor and founder Dave Ferguson said he initially found the list a little strange — he usually associates rankings with sports — but he’s pleased to be on it nonetheless. “As far as our dream and our mission, I really feel like we’re just getting started,” Ferguson said. “It’s hard to believe we’re so influential because it feels like there’s so much more God wants us to do.” That’s manifested by starting new churches, like Richa’s in Colorado, known as “church planting.” Community Christian is also a pioneer in the multi-site approach — operating numerous campuses of the same church. It has seven branches in the Chicago area and several more on the way.

Through its New Thing Network, it has helped train more than 1,000 others to open multiple sites. To keep connected, church leaders teleconference at least once a week. They discuss one main topic to bring to their members that week and creative ways to present it, a program called The Big Idea. “They’re new on the block, but they have become a national leader in multi-site ways of doing church,” Vaughan said. “This is not new globally, but it’s new to the U.S.”

College Church, the smallest of the three honorees, is dedicated to planting new churches as well. In the past 10 years it has started two new churches — Holy Trinity in Chicago and Christ the King in Batavia — and hopes to open a third. The church, which is not officially tied to Wheaton College, is also known for its social outreach programs and music concerts. “College Church, it seems like for decades, has been a premiere Christian influence to multiple Christian leaders in the world,” Vaughan said.

Tom Kay, a retired Wheaton College professor of history, is one of five generations of his family to belong to College Church. He attributes the church’s success to its long history, traditional worship services, its draw from Wheaton College and Kent Hughes, who has been the pastor for more than 25 years. “My wife and I certainly appreciate the more traditional approach to worship and quality of music that is there,” Kay said. “That’s certainly a current consideration. The stability and influence of the current pastor is a factor in a broader-based identification and recognition of the church.”

It’s not uncommon for megachurches to be open to ideas from others, said Christy, The Church Report publisher. “When somebody has a good idea, there isn’t that notion that they’re competing,” he said. “It’s actually the antithesis of that: ‘We’ve got something that’s working out here, and we want to get the word out.’ “At the end of the day these pastors want nothing more than to have more believers in their churches and bring more people into their church that believe.”

•Ed Fanselow and Jill Jedlowski contributed to this report