Pinelake Church

Pinelake Church is the largest evangelical Christian Southern Baptist church within Mississippi [1] with six campuses in central Mississippi: Clinton, Madison, The Reservoir (Brandon/Flowood), Starkville, Oxford, and an Online campus reaching tens of thousands weekly; More than 12,000 people attend campus services each Sunday adding over 1,000 in attendance through the Online Campus.[2]

Pinelake Church
Pinelake Church Logo. Learn. Live. Lead. (graphic by Pinelake Church)
LocationBrandon, Mississippi Clinton, Mississippi Madison, Mississippi Starkville, Mississippi Oxford, Mississippi and the Online Campus
CountryUnited States of America
DenominationSouthern Baptist
Weekly attendance12,000+ (as of December 2019)
Websitewww.pinelake.org
History
Founded21 March 1971 (1971-03-21)
Architecture
GroundbreakingNovember 2000
CompletedEnd 2003
Clergy
Senior pastor(s)Pastor Chip Henderson, and Executive Pastor Tim Smith (Pastors in Charge)
Laity
Music group(s)Pinelake Worship

History

Pinelake Church was established in February 1971, starting in a home on Bay Park Drive in Brandon, Mississippi. The first worship service was held on March 21 as Rankin Baptist Chapel with 32 people in a mobile chapel on Spillway Road.

JC Renfroe, Director of Mission for the Rankin County Baptist Association, served as the first Interim Pastor from 1971 until February 10, 1974. The church's first full-time pastor, Gary Watkins, served from February 17, 1974 until 1976. Subsequent pastors were Lannie Wilbourn, who served from August 1977 until July 1995, and Tommy Politz, who served from March 1997 until July 1998.[3]

Chip Henderson took over as pastor in January 1999, and the church began to grow quickly. In February 2000, church leaders began to look for a new location. In November 2000, the church purchased 170 acres of land on Lakeland Drive. The church began to build a new facility on the land, and opened this new campus with services in November 2003.

Through 2004 and 2005, weekly attendance increased by 1,500 people, bringing the Sunday attendance to more than 4,000.

In the fall of 2006, the church opened a second campus in the Madison/Ridgeland area, meeting in Ridgeland High School. More campuses followed: in Clinton in January 2009, in Starkville in 2011, in the Gluckstadt community of Madison County In April 2012, and in Oxford in 2015.

The church has also expended funds to train new ministers, expand its global mission, and develop resources. It runs an 11-month Ascend internship program and a Church Planting Residency.

Ranking

In 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2016, and 2018 Pinelake was ranked one of the fastest-growing churches in America by Outreach magazine. Outreach also named Pinelake to its "100 Largest Churches in America" list in 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019. At the completion of 2019 it was ranked the 22nd largest church with over 12,000 in attendance each week.[4]

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gollark: The PinePhone has a somewhat sanely sized LCD screen, replaceable battery and some other bits, and USB-C with video output capability, so it seems pretty great
gollark: Heresy™!
gollark: I don't like phone-calling people.

References
  1. JOHNSON, TAYLOR. "Massive Churches in Every State". Stacker. The Stacker. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
  2. Pinelake Church, official site.
  3. Buckner, Bob. A History of Pinelake Baptist Church, 1971-2003.
  4. Outreach magazine releases an annual issue, featuring the 100 largest and the 100 fastest-growing U.S. churches.

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