(CP) – Pastor David Chadwick was torn when he raised the question as he stepped down from Forest Hill Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, in the final weeks of winter. “Churches all over the country are doing it with videos shown on the screen in other places,” he said in March. “Elevation (Church) is probably the primary example here in Charlotte. You know, I just began to wonder more and more — how effective is that?” For nearly 40 years, Chadwick had led the 4,000-member, six-campus ministry which he had built from a 180-member congregation.
As he ended his tenure at the church, however, Chadwick revealed he had started to have doubts about Forest Hill’s multisite model where lead pastors mainly connect with the congregation through video. “I know I’m a good communicator … I can have people come and listen. But doesn’t a pastor need to speak to his people? I began to struggle with that,” he admitted. At the time, said Chadwick, Forest Hill had already begun considering making each of the church’s campus pastors more autonomous. READ MORE
