Ed Young = spreads his=20 Fellowship to Florida

12:09=20 AM CDT on Saturday, September 16, 2006

By JEFFREY = WEISS /=20 The Dallas Morning News

SOUTH MIAMI =96 On = most=20 Sundays, the Rev. Ed Young takes the stage at Fellowship Church in = Grapevine.=20 And at Fellowship churches in Plano, downtown Dallas and Justin.=20

And in South = Miami, Fla.=20

He's live in = Grapevine. The=20 other "Ed Youngs" are recorded =96 projected in high-definition on = screens so=20 large that the images are life-size, almost holographic. =

Live or high-def, = "Pastor=20 Ed" leads a new and growing style of American church: multisite, = high-tech,=20 evangelical, and widely dispersed.

Experts count at = least 1,500=20 American churches operating on more than one site, including a quarter = of the=20 nation's largest congregations.

Only a handful = jump time=20 zones like Fellowship.

So far.=20

What Mr. Young and = a few=20 other pastors are offering is a religious take on a successful business = model,=20 like that of Wal-Mart or Burger King. Instead of the old tradition of = big=20 churches planting new, independent churches, these congregations are = using their=20 size and power to duplicate themselves over and over. =

"Let's leverage = the=20 technology. Let's save a heap of money. Let's take the church to where = the=20 people are," Mr. Young said in a recent interview. =

That doesn't mean = that the=20 Fellowship "franchises" all look exactly like the massive Grapevine=20 headquarters, a building that says "office park" more than church, on = State=20 Highway 121 north of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.=20

Fellowship = Downtown Dallas=20 is an industrial box, with bare concrete floors and a dimly lit = sanctuary that=20 echoes like a dance hall. Sunday morning doughnuts are served in the=20 air-conditioned lobby. The praise band is horn-heavy, wafted by a = smoke-maker=20 that helps the colored spotlights show up.

Mr. Young's books = are=20 prominently on sale at the bookshop, and "Ed's Favorite Oatmeal Cookie" = is on=20 the menu of the Starbucks-style coffee shop.

Fellowship Miami, = less than=20 2 months old, is set on a traditional neighborhood church campus = surrounded by=20 tropical landscaping. Cuban pastries are offered in a covered outdoor = breezeway.=20 A conga player thumps out a Latin rhythm behind the melodies.=20

The site's "grand = opening"=20 was last Sunday. Mr. Young preached in Grapevine on Sunday morning and = flew to=20 Miami for the 7 p.m. service.

On recent = weekends, services=20 at both the Dallas and Miami churches started with upbeat live praise = songs and=20 announcements from on-site staffers. Then Mr. Young, appearing on the = video=20 screens, delivered his high-def message, recorded on a previous Sunday = in=20 Grapevine. The collection plates were passed to the accompaniment of = another=20 song or two.

And with a live = benediction,=20 the services were over.

If Fellowship = succeeds in=20 taking its message and style across the continent, that success will = surely be=20 copied by more large churches. That could change the way Americans = worship, said=20 Scott Thumma, a professor of society and religion at the Hartford = Institute of=20 Religious Research in Connecticut.

"It is as radical = in some=20 ways as the Methodist strategies of sending pastors out on horseback" in = the=20 early 19th century, he said. "That revolutionized the way church was = being=20 done."

The potential = upside can be=20 huge, he said.

"What you have is = a local=20 congregation that has one of the most gifted pastors in the world = preaching at=20 it. It has the ability to do things on a national level like a = denomination=20 would," he said. "But it's your own church."

And the downside?=20

"I don't want to = go down the=20 line that it's all about the hubris of the senior pastor, because it's = not,=20 necessarily," he said. But multisites can't offer on-site pastors the = same=20 leadership opportunities as a like-size independent congregation, he = said.=20

Successful large = multisites=20 will also kill some existing churches. Some congregations of 200 to 400 = members=20 =96 too large for automatic intimacy and too small to offer the = advantages of a=20 new multisite =96 could be in trouble, he said.

Not every church = that's gone=20 multi has been successful, though. Even the enthusiastic Mr. Young = acknowledges=20 the challenges:

=95How will sites = reflect=20 different populations? Grapevine is not downtown Dallas, much less the=20 multiethnic stew of South Florida.

Fellowship is = trying to=20 localize with on-site staffing and differences in decorations, musical = style,=20 and the kinds of programming offered beyond the Sunday services. The = Miami site=20 offers a simultaneous Spanish translation, delivered through headphones. =

=95Will Mr. Young = need to=20 homogenize his message? A Dallas Cowboys reference that would wow the = crowd in=20 North Texas would not go over so big in Dolphins country. =

The sermons shown = in Miami=20 and downtown Dallas during recent weeks were edited to remove some = overly=20 specific Grapevine passages.

=95Is there a = danger of=20 "Wal-Marting" nearby competing churches into oblivion? =

"That mentality is = like ants=20 fighting over which one is going to eat the elephant," said Mr. Young, = who=20 believes there are more than enough people now attending no church to = support=20 many new congregations.

Multisites are = news in the=20 United States, but not in Asia or South America, said John Vaughan, a = former=20 Southern Baptist minister and founder of the newsletter and Web site = Church=20 Growth Today. Even in this country, congregations including First = Baptist Church=20 of Dallas were experimenting with low-tech versions of separate sites in = the=20 1950s.

Dr. Vaughan agrees = with Mr.=20 Young that multisites help fill a void. Even towns that seem thick with = churches=20 have room for a vibrant new congregation, he said. =

"Two-thirds of = churches in=20 the average city are plateaued or declining," he said. =

Most multisites = are not=20 megachurches, said the Rev. Geoff Surratt, co-author of The = Multi-Site Church=20 Revolution. But recent interest from large congregations seeking to = go multi=20 has been dramatic.

For instance, = Plano's=20 massive Prestonwood Baptist Church has just cloned itself in Prosper, = about 30=20 miles from the main sanctuary. Rockwall's Lake Pointe Church has sites = in=20 Mesquite, Garland and Sulphur Springs.

Prestonwood and = Lake Pointe=20 have followed the typical pattern: Bud the new church in communities = that are=20 nearby, but not too nearby.

Far less common = are=20 long-distance multisites like Fellowship. Of those that do exist, = several have=20 North Texas connections.

Lifechurch, led by = the Rev.=20 Craig Groeschel, started in Edmond, Okla. It now has four Oklahoma = sites, one in=20 Arizona, one in Tennessee, and one in Fort Worth.

NewSong Church, = led by the=20 Rev. Dave Gibbons, may set the record for distance, with four sites in = Southern=20 California and one in Bangkok, Thailand =96 and plans to build in India, = London=20 and Dallas.

The NewSong Web = site stakes=20 a claim repeated by many multisite congregations: "One church, multiple=20 locations."

But what does it = mean to be=20 "one church," spread across hundreds or thousands of miles? A member of=20 Fellowship Grapevine is unlikely to spend any time with his or her = fellow member=20 in downtown Dallas, much less someone at the South Miami branch 1,400 = miles=20 away.

And how likely is = it that=20 someone from Miami will get a moment with Mr. Young? =

Very likely. At = least that=20 was the case last week when Mr. Young preached at the 7 p.m. service. He = said he=20 plans to visit about once a month.

The Texas pastor = is no=20 stranger to South Florida, though. Mr. Young went to Florida State = University in=20 Tallahassee. While there, he made friends from South Florida and fell in = love=20 with the area on vacations, he said.

Mr. Young, the son = of famed=20 Houston preacher Ed Young, started Fellowship Church in Grapevine 16 = years ago=20 with 150 people. Nominally Southern Baptist, Fellowship sought out = people turned=20 off by denominations and traditional churches.

By 2005, Mr. Young = was=20 running a megachurch that overstuffed the current Grapevine facility. = The=20 headquarters church sees about 18,000 worshippers every weekend, with = about=20 40,000 people attending at least one service a month, Mr. Young said.=20

So he decided to = go multi.=20 Plano, Justin (in Denton County north of Fort Worth Alliance Airport), = and=20 downtown Dallas (in the Arts District) quickly followed. About 5,000 = people=20 attended services at those sites last weekend.

A few months ago, = a pastor=20 friend in Florida told Mr. Young about a dying church that was looking = to merge=20 with another congregation. The First Baptist Church of South Miami had = dwindled=20 from more than 500 members to about two dozen.

The site is near = the=20 University of Miami, a large black neighborhood, a thriving yuppie = shopping=20 district, and a huge Hispanic population.

That diversity is = one thing=20 that drew Mr. Young to South Florida.

"If you touch = Miami, you=20 touch the world," he said.

A total of 600 = people=20 attended the two services at Miami's grand opening. =

Traditionally, = American=20 Christianity has used at least three ways to create new congregations: A = denomination official decides a location is ripe for a "church plant." = Or a big=20 church plants a new church with the idea that the sprout will one day be = its own=20 independent congregation. Or a pastor feels called to start a new church = on his=20 own.

Multisiting works = better=20 than any of those methods, said Mr. Surratt, the multisite expert who is = also a=20 pastor at Seacoast Church, which has six sites in South Carolina and one = in=20 Georgia.

"Multisite = locations grow=20 faster, reach a place of health and are self-sustaining much faster than = traditional church plants," he said.

In South Miami, = Fellowship=20 is already a modest success.

Even before = Sunday's grand=20 opening, services had swelled from a couple of dozen to a couple = hundred.=20

Ann Tomlinson had = been a=20 member of the old Baptist church for 29 years.

She loves Pastor = Ed on the=20 big screen. "It was so real, so natural," she said. =

She thinks = Fellowship's=20 informal style and emphasis on community outreach will succeed in its = new home.=20

"My sister and I = are=20 inviting people in the neighborhood. We tell them, come as you are," she = said.=20

E-mail jweiss@dallasnews.com=20