Church Health Award winners commissioned to mentor churches worldwide
By Tobin Perry

2005 Church Health Award Winners Photo by Craig Pulsifer

LAKE FOREST, Calif. (PD)--Last week Purpose Driven Ministries honored 68 churches from around the world as 2005 Church Health Award winners. The honorees -- who all use a variety of worship styles -- represented 29 denominations and came from 16 different countries and 29 U.S. states.

"I don't know how to tell you how proud I am of each of you," Rick Warren told the award winners at a special dinner during the conference. "It's like we are a family. We come from so many different backgrounds and places and religious traditions, yet God is doing something in this world and he has chosen to use you."

The award winners were chosen on the basis of how well the churches balanced the five biblical purposes of worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry and evangelism. Keeping with Warren’s long-standing belief that size is not an accurate reflection of church health, churches with an average weekend attendance ranging from 50 to more than 10,000 were selected for the award.

Nearly 70 church leaders were given church health awards for the balanced faith community they have developed using Purpose Driven approaches. Here, recipients file into the worship center to be honored by their peers. Photo by Craig Pulsifer

“This award not only makes us proud in the Lord, but most importantly it has touched our desire to do more and to reach more lives with the joy of the Lord,” said David Omaha, pastor of the Tororo Town Church in Tororo, Uganda.  Tororo Town Church averages 115 people in attendance a weekend.

Each Church Health Award winner was featured in a book handed out to conference attendees. The features will also appear in upcoming months on PurposeDriven.com and Rick Warren’s Ministry ToolBox.

The 68 award-winning churches received two all-expenses paid trips to the conference, a reduced price for other church members to attend, and were given a small grant to aid their church’s ministry.

At the dinner in their honor, Warren encouraged the award winners to model the Purpose Driven paradigm to other churches in their community and around the world. He noted that Saddleback’s size often makes it an ineffective mentor for smaller churches. That’s why other churches are needed to mentor churches looking to become more purpose driven.

Then he commissioned the award winners to train other churches in the paradigm, giving each of them copies of his notes from the Purpose Driven Church Conference.

The award winning churches included:

• West Kendall Baptist Church, one of the fastest growing churches in Miami. After serving as a struggling church planter for more than 18 years and seeing several new churches in Virginia and California fold, Rob Myers took the Purpose Driven paradigm to West Kendall Baptist Church, a traditional, mostly white Southern Baptist church with around 250 in attendance each weekend. When Rob launched 40 Days of Purpose during his first Easter services at the church, God begin to do something incredible. More than 3,450 people attended those Easter services and the church attendance is now averaging 1,000 people per weekend. Now more than 90 percent of the church has an Hispanic background, which better reflects the community the church is reaching.

• English Lutheran Church in Ellsworth, Wis. When Senior Pastor Harlen Menk took over the church 20 years ago, it wasn’t growing at all. Menk and other church leaders began looking for ways to help the church better reach its community. When he found the Purpose Driven paradigm in 1996, God began to revitalize the church through C.L.A.S.S. 101, 201, 301, Celebrate Recovery and, in the fall of 2003, 40 Days of Purpose. Through the 40 Days of Purpose campaign the church connected 294 people in 37 small groups. "That number astounded us," Menk said later. "That was pretty close to our average weekly worship attendance."

Warren told the award winners: “God chose you. Little did you know when you planted that seed of purpose in your church that God was going to use it in a global way, but he is.”

If you’d like to nominate a church for 2006 Church Health Award, check PurposeDriven.com for nomination information in the coming months.

-PurposeDriven-