Eagle Brook Church says hold yer horses on the new campuses

I got this in my inbox today from Pastor Bob Merritt of Eagle Brook Church:

Dear Church Leader:

You may have seen the recent article in the St. Paul Pioneer Press/Press Publications that focused on Eagle Brook's plan to add a multi-site church in both Blaine and Woodbury. We were surprised and even disappointed that some of the information in this article was misleading and based on some faulty assumptions. We are uncomfortable with the attention this article has created because it grates against our desire to lead with humility and be a church that works with other churches. Our desire is to partner with all of you as we all try to accomplish the great commission of reaching people for Christ and growing them in their faith. We are not in some kind of contest to see how big we can get. Therefore we felt it necessary to clarify a few things:

• Eagle Brook is not poised to become the second-largest church in the nation. We're embarrassed that this statement would even be made. The writer of the article made assumptions about our future growth that is not accurate or even realistic. We dream of reaching many people for Christ, but have no goal to see how big we can get. Our commitment to God is that we will remain willing and available to do whatever he asks of us. We humbly pray that God will use every church to reach people in the Twin Cities with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and we consider you to be a partner in this great mission.


• Though we have cleared the hurdle of city approval for our Blaine campus, we have many other hurdles yet to clear before construction can begin. The article gave the impression that the project is a done deal. It's not. We continue to explore options for funding and design, none of which are finalized. We remain hopeful for a Fall 2010 opening - and the city approval was a major step forward - but we aren't locked in yet. We had wanted to hold back on announcing anything until everything was finalized, but the paper beat us to the announcement. For that we apologize.

Our great hope is for God to use all of our churches to effectively spread the Gospel throughout the Twin Cities and surrounding areas; none of us can do this alone. This article put the emphasis on the wrong things, and frankly it makes us uncomfortable. We apologize if this article created any mistrust between us.

In Christ,
Bob Merritt
Senior Pastor
Eagle Brook Church