What's the Association of Related Churches all about?

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ResidentAlien

Well-known member
Apr 21, 2021
8,230
3,572
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#1
The ARC is something that's recently shown up on my radar. From what I can tell, it's a sort of church franchising operation like fast food restaurants. The headquarters is the Church of the Highlands in Birmingham, Alabama. So what are they all about? Is it something we should be concerned about?

The ARC is involved in planting churches all over the US and the world. At arcchurches.com there's a church finder at the bottom of the page.

The bottom line seems to be, as usual, $$$. They will match the first $50,000 raised toward a new launch. After that, churches are expected to invest in future launches of new churches. The information on new launches at arcchurches.com states: "The funding you receive has been given by pastors that have gone before you, and we ask that you re-invest those dollars through your missions giving so that others coming after you will have this same opportunity." The details on how much a church is expected to invest are probably in the fine print. Existing churches can also become members in the ARC.

After a church is established, "coaches" are provided for ongoing training and to answer questions. It appears there's a blueprint or formula that "franchises" are expected to follow, like McDonalds or Burger King.

As far as what they teach, I don't have a lot of particulars. From the video clips I've watched it all seems pretty shallow. I know they're big on pastoral authority and, of course, tithing. Prosperity is a big part of it.

The ARC is different from the New Apostolic Reformation in that it has a recognized headquarters and leadership.

I'm all for church planting, but do we really need a huge network of shallow (even more shallow than usual) so-called Christian churches cropping up all over the place? In a certain sense it's like a pyramid scheme: those at the top are the ones raking it in.

This video is the best one I've watched so far, as far as naming all the major players. Some names I recognize but others are new to me. I skipped the first 15 or 20 minutes of the video because it's just his commentary. Once he starts talking about ARC it gets good.

 

Dino246

Senior Member
Jun 30, 2015
25,353
13,722
113
#2
This sounds very similar to the "New Covenant Ministries International" group based in South Africa, though NCMI works to "adopt" existing independent churches as well as plant them. I was in one such adopted congregation, and am glad to be free of it. It seems to appeal to people who prefer a controlling style of leadership rather than a liberating/empowering style.

Churches are acting consistently with Scripture if they are pooling money to start new congregations, but doing so as a loan and expecting payback (payforward?) in any time frame is doing it incorrectly, and any organization that preaches 'tithing' is off-kilter from the outset.
 
Mar 4, 2020
8,614
3,691
113
#3
The ARC is something that's recently shown up on my radar. From what I can tell, it's a sort of church franchising operation like fast food restaurants. The headquarters is the Church of the Highlands in Birmingham, Alabama. So what are they all about? Is it something we should be concerned about?

The ARC is involved in planting churches all over the US and the world. At arcchurches.com there's a church finder at the bottom of the page.

The bottom line seems to be, as usual, $$$. They will match the first $50,000 raised toward a new launch. After that, churches are expected to invest in future launches of new churches. The information on new launches at arcchurches.com states: "The funding you receive has been given by pastors that have gone before you, and we ask that you re-invest those dollars through your missions giving so that others coming after you will have this same opportunity." The details on how much a church is expected to invest are probably in the fine print. Existing churches can also become members in the ARC.

After a church is established, "coaches" are provided for ongoing training and to answer questions. It appears there's a blueprint or formula that "franchises" are expected to follow, like McDonalds or Burger King.

As far as what they teach, I don't have a lot of particulars. From the video clips I've watched it all seems pretty shallow. I know they're big on pastoral authority and, of course, tithing. Prosperity is a big part of it.

The ARC is different from the New Apostolic Reformation in that it has a recognized headquarters and leadership.

I'm all for church planting, but do we really need a huge network of shallow (even more shallow than usual) so-called Christian churches cropping up all over the place? In a certain sense it's like a pyramid scheme: those at the top are the ones raking it in.

This video is the best one I've watched so far, as far as naming all the major players. Some names I recognize but others are new to me. I skipped the first 15 or 20 minutes of the video because it's just his commentary. Once he starts talking about ARC it gets good.

In my opinion, it depends how they are attempting to extract money from congregants. If they just come out and say, "We have a clause in our contract with ARC that requires us to encourage donating. We need the money for church bills and donations payed forward to ARC headquarters." then I think it's the correct approach.

If they are attempting to extract money from congregants through guilt-shaming, fear-mongering, and prosperity-gospeling then it's the wrong approach.
 

GaryA

Truth, Honesty, Love, Courage
Aug 10, 2019
9,796
4,302
113
mywebsite.us
#4
If there is a contract involved, something is severly wrong already...
 

Nehemiah6

Senior Member
Jul 18, 2017
26,074
13,770
113
#6
So what are they all about? Is it something we should be concerned about?
From the scanty information available, this is a group of false teachers who should be avoided. One cannot even access their website at the moment.
 

ResidentAlien

Well-known member
Apr 21, 2021
8,230
3,572
113
#7
In my opinion, it depends how they are attempting to extract money from congregants. If they just come out and say, "We have a clause in our contract with ARC that requires us to encourage donating. We need the money for church bills and donations payed forward to ARC headquarters." then I think it's the correct approach.
Theoretically, I agree. However, the amount of money those at the top are raking in seems quite excessive. In the video, the figures he gives for salaries of some of the top pastors is way over the top.

I believe he said in the video that churches are required to pay 10% of revenue received in each service back to ARC. But I'm not 100% on this, I'll have to re-watch the video. The going mortgage rate right now is only about 3%.
 
Mar 4, 2020
8,614
3,691
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#9
Theoretically, I agree. However, the amount of money those at the top are raking in seems quite excessive. In the video, the figures he gives for salaries of some of the top pastors is way over the top.

I believe he said in the video that churches are required to pay 10% of revenue received in each service back to ARC. But I'm not 100% on this, I'll have to re-watch the video. The going mortgage rate right now is only about 3%.
What's their stance on spending their income on assisting the poor and needy? I would like to think they factor that in somewhere and are involved in charities, missions, and other works, but we can't take for granted they do that. Maybe their primary goal is church planting through contracts and prosperity gospel. They're sus, imho.
 

ResidentAlien

Well-known member
Apr 21, 2021
8,230
3,572
113
#10
What's their stance on spending their income on assisting the poor and needy? I would like to think they factor that in somewhere and are involved in charities, missions, and other works, but we can't take for granted they do that. Maybe their primary goal is church planting through contracts and prosperity gospel. They're sus, imho.
In the first part of the video below he says their primary objective is in bringing in new people, growing their numbers. That might be considered a mission. But if they're not fed with the truth once they're "in," I don't know how much good it does them (the new member I mean).

I haven't dug deep, but so far I haven't heard anything about helping the poor and needy or anything like that. Some of the franchises may do that, I just don't know.

 

Dino246

Senior Member
Jun 30, 2015
25,353
13,722
113
#11
If the ARC is primarily concerned with self-replication, but does not disciple those whom it draws, it is really just a multi-level marketing scheme.

That said, my sentence intentionally begins with "If", because I don't have any information beyond what has been shared here.
 

ResidentAlien

Well-known member
Apr 21, 2021
8,230
3,572
113
#12
I believe he said in the video that churches are required to pay 10% of revenue received in each service back to ARC. But I'm not 100% on this, I'll have to re-watch the video. The going mortgage rate right now is only about 3%.
Yup, 10% (See video above in post #1 at 52:50). At least according to John Maxwell, a teaching pastor at Christ Fellowship Church in southern Florida. They have several locations so he might be involved in all of 'em to some extent.

I looked at their About page (https://christfellowship.church/about) and it doesn't tell you much. In the Our Values section it says: "Live to Give, Stewarding our lives for eternity," and "Passion for People, Impacting humanity with the love of God." Okay, whatever that means.

They seem to be big on the baptism of the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts.

I looked at their Past Messages and they're all about self-help of one kind or other. Joyce Meyers appears frequently. They also have Celebrate Recovery.

It appears to be a typical seeker-friendly charismatic church, trying to swell it's numbers through "acceptance" and "love."
 

ResidentAlien

Well-known member
Apr 21, 2021
8,230
3,572
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#13
arcchurches.com/about says: "ARC church plants give over $15 million each year to missions." But it doesn't explain. "Missions" could be anything.
 

ResidentAlien

Well-known member
Apr 21, 2021
8,230
3,572
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#14
Here's an interesting clip. This is Chris Hodges from Church of the Highlands in Alabama. He's one of the senior pastors (they have 23 senior pastors!). Watch 13:36-13:46. "No, you're not gonna hear that here, ah-right."

 

Aaron56

Well-known member
Jul 12, 2021
2,749
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#15
I spent 20 years in the Behavioral Health industry, 1st as a practitioner and then as a CEO. Over the time, my colleagues and I saw many "pastors" and church leaders who admitted that they were in their professions simply as a j.o.b.
 

ResidentAlien

Well-known member
Apr 21, 2021
8,230
3,572
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#16
He's one of the senior pastors (they have 23 senior pastors!).
I keep forgetting they have a bunch of different campuses so it's not like all 23 pastors are at the same franchise. :giggle:
 
S

SophieT

Guest
#17
well they won't make it in Fl

we are pretty flat here :sneaky:
 

wattie

Senior Member
Feb 24, 2009
3,228
1,124
113
New Zealand
#18
Trouble with conventions and associations is if the authority running them holds to much sway over individual churches.

So for eg... a church having to report back to other churches or lose their funding from other churches.

Accountability is good.. but if the reporting back is based on measuring congregation size, amount of people saved, amount of money in the bank .. that is not measuring faithfulness.... and the church being measured may give figures that are not true to keep their funding.

Also when a church wants to be truly independent, the governing authority becomes a major hindrance.

If the Holy Spirit is prompting an individual church in a direction.. they need to follow that without outside interference.
 

ResidentAlien

Well-known member
Apr 21, 2021
8,230
3,572
113
#19
The missing link that explains a lot about ARC is Life.Church and its senior pastor Craig Groeschel. I don't think it's any coincidence that the ARC calls it's franchises "life-giving churches."

I've heard from several sources that Life.Church is the largest church in the US, so it doesn't seem much of a surprise that the ARC would want to imitate them. In fact I've watched video clips where Chris Hodges of ARC says his inspiration was Groeschel and Life.Church.

Life.Church is famous for its satellite churches around the country where Groeschel's motivational speeches are broadcasted online on Sunday mornings. I had the opportunity to attend one of these satellite groups once when a friend invited me. There was plenty of live, loud contemporary worship music, followed by Groeschel's motivational talk on the big screen. I say motivational talk because that's the way I remember it; it wasn't the gospel. I read one of Groeschel's books at one point when it was the only reading material I could get my hands on. It was more of the same self-help motivational tripe.

I'm a bit surprised that Groeschel has been able to fly under the radar for so long. He's a big-time prosperity preacher and is good friends with Steven Furtick of Elevation Church in North Carolina. Furtick is another wolf in sheep's clothing.

In 2013, Life.Church actively started silencing anti-abortion voices among its members. Taking a stand on such controversial issues would no doubt be bad for business. You can offend anyone you see and expect them to keep coming back and giving you their $$$.