After ‘Tired, Broken’ Megachurch Pastor Leaves, Church Sees Major Drop
The various locations may serve more than 5600 congregants, but Cross Point Church attendance and giving are down significantly since founding Pastor Pete Wilson resigned last year.
“How much you feel that kind of depends on what location you’re at and what service you attend. Some places feel it more than others. We’ve definitely felt it here at the Nashville campus a good bit,” Campus Pastor Chris Nichols said. “It’s been difficult to see friends go.”
Wilson founded the Nashville-area church almost 15 years ago. In September 2016, he resigned, saying he was “tired and broken.”
“I believe the best days of this church are ahead, and I believe that more today than I ever have. I believe God has a really, really important role for this church to play in our world. So, do good. Be kind. Take risks. More than anything else that we’ve hoped and prayed for here, it’s that the unloved would feel loved,” Wilson said when he resigned.
Six months later, Nichols addressed just how much the church had changed since the pastoral shift.
Overall, the multi-campus church has seen about a 21 percent decrease in attendance and 19 percent decrease in giving since Wilson’s resignation. But the staff reportedly expected a 15-20 percent drop in both areas after Wilson’s resignation.
“For us to cease doing good is to cease to be Cross Point. And for us to just do church and just to have a service and come together and for us to back off with the things that we do in the community or in these other corners of the world,” Nichols said, “that is not probably what brought you here, and it’s not what brought me here, and it’s not Cross Point and it’s just not really an option to us.” {eoa}
