I started at my church in the fall of 2000. When I arrived, we were worshiping at around 550 on a Sunday. Two and a half years later we hit a low of 179. What happened? Several things.

By far the most significant was the moral failure of our senior pastor. For a number of people, it was impossible to enter the building without thinking of the trust they had placed in him and how that trust was betrayed. It took me at least two years before I could enter the building and not think about it.

But a secondary factor was the emergence of a local mega church. It was exploding with growth and nearly 200 of our former attenders ended up there over a period of time. Their preaching was (and is) great and the momentum was contagious. Many people are envious of the mega church and it was hard not to be when friends are leaving your church for a mega church.

“Losing” them to this church was easier than it might have been in some cases. I know several of the pastors well and admit that I was glad that it was the place they were choosing to worship. They have a desire to know and serve God. They seek to make a difference and are not out to glorify themselves.

But I, and the rest of the staff, were disturbed too. We hated to see people leave and we refused to believe that God was done with our church. I would say these things forced upon us a moment of crisis where we had to ask, “what are we going to do?”

Making a little diversion. I heard recently that when Starbucks comes to a town some coffee shops lose business and ultimately close their doors. But others, well run coffee shops, actually see their business improve when Starbucks comes to town as the competition forces them to become better at what they do. I think a similar thing happened to us.

While I don’t think that we are, at least in a spiritual sense, competing with a mega church, the fact that so many people were leaving to a specific place forced us to look at ourselves and see how we could improve. We discovered it was not just a matter of the scandal, but a matter of being poorly led. Simply put, if we were going to survive we had to become a better church. And I think we have.

Today we have rebounded to worship at around 400 a Sunday. But more importantly, we have a sense of direction and hope for the future. We know who we are, what God has called us to in the community (and globally!), and are moving towards that future.

I think if there was not such a powerful draw for people in our church, many would have stayed and we probably would not have been forced to ask the tough questions about who we are and where God wants for us to go.

We are thankful for the local mega church. There are hundreds of people in our community that would not worship any where were it not for them. And we would probably be plodding along without ever having found our place if they were not in our community.