For centuries, the local church has been the stalwart of the community and the conduit for politicians. Yet, in recent decades, churches of all sizes have taken that responsibility too far. Take Lakepointe Church in Rockwall, Texas, a suburb east of Dallas.
Before the massive six-campus body took root in Rockwall, the colossus’ name was Church on the Rock. (Yes, in Rockwall; no, it was only a coincidence.) In the late 1980s through the 1990s, the 10,000-member church was pastored by Larry Lea. As a well-known and sometimes-regarded televangelist, Lea carried influence with national adherents and local City Councils.
Back then, it was important to curry favor with the hyperlocal Rockwall policymakers and the more influential Dallas City Council. Separating the suburb from the city is a massive, 22,000-acre body of water, Lake Ray Hubbard. (Supreme bass fishing, if that’s your thing.) If you wanted to get to the 9:00 a.m. service, you had to cross a three-mile causeway–one way in, one way out.
However, getting off that bridge to the frontage road is tricky. And not even Larry Lea could get that fixed. Fast forward to today, Pastor Josh Howerton is up for the challenge with this game. Only, if this was Monopoly, Howerton would be the person who hoards all single properties, preventing everyone from buying hotels.
Red Light, Green Light
For Lakepointe Church, highway access to one of the fastest-growing houses of worship is a premium. Josh Howerton is fully aware of this, so his church commissioned a city-mandated study on traffic flow. The due diligence was essential for a new traffic light. Prayer, too.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.
This familiar passage of scripture comes up in conversation when asking God to move for a need. Pastor Howerton is aware of this too, only he wanted to trust in his flock a little as well. Religion News Service reports Lakepointe Church hired a Dallas engineering firm to execute the study. Then, its leader asked his church to manipulate the findings by “flooding the road by the church with extra traffic.”
Thanks to a leaked internal email on a local Facebook page, the strategy is causing severe blowback for the Dallas-area church.
The Lakepointe church email, linked to SignUpGenius.com, read, “Each shift is a commitment to drive the prescribed route 10 times within that hour shift. It’s great if you make more than 10 laps within the hour, but laps are only counted toward that specific shift.”
Following the DMs, calls, and news reports, an anonymous and “overzealous staffer” was hurled under the church bus for an “unfortunate decision” because “the church had the best of intentions.”
“That decision was made without knowledge by senior executive leadership at Lakepointe and the sign-up list was immediately taken down as we were made aware of what occurred,” Tim Smith, senior executive pastor, said in an emailed statement [to RNS]. “We immediately apologized to our city leaders who made the decision to postpone the traffic count. We are in the process of reaching out to all the leaders who received the sign up and are apologizing to them as well.”
Depending on which side of the bridge you’re on, the email is either extremely conspicuous or terribly unfortunate. Well, those apologies are provided with the best of intentions too.
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