By Tim Pallesen
Christ Fellowship will open at the former Dillard’s store at the Boynton Beach Mall, making it the second regional church to beam Sunday worship services to Boynton Beach by satellite.
The Boynton church will be the fourth satellite site for Christ Fellowship, which has its main campus in Palm Beach Gardens. Other sites that receive the satellite feeds of Pastor Todd Mullins’ sermons are in Royal Palm Beach, Stuart and West Palm Beach.
“We felt called and led to minister to the people of Boynton Beach,” Christ Fellowship executive director Dave Lonsberry said. “We quickly identified Dillard’s as our location in late 2011.”
But Christ Fellowship was delayed trying to acquire the site last year, allowing another regional church to be the first to beam satellite sermons to Boynton Beach.
Calvary Chapel, based in Fort Lauderdale, began satellite feeds to its congregation on Hypoluxo Road last year.
Is this competition between megachurches?
“We welcome all churches proclaiming the good news of Jesus,” Lonsberry responded. “The more churches, the better.”
The Calvary Chapel pastor in Boynton Beach agreed.
“We are always in favor of healthy churches launching because there’s always a need for people to be reached with the gospel,” Pastor Charlie Halleran said.
About 20,000 people watch Calvary Chapel sermons by Pastor Bob Coy each weekend. That includes 600 who attend worship in Boynton and 2,200 who attend at a Calvary Chapel congregation in Boca Raton.
About 18,000 attend Christ Fellowship services. The regional church already has members who live in the South County and worship at its Royal Palm Beach campus.
“The new Boynton location is a natural extension into an area where we already had people attending Christ Fellowship,” Lonsberry said. “We know these people can establish a momentum right away.”
About 1,300 now attend Christ Fellowship services at Boynton Beach High School since that temporary site began last December.
The congregation will move into the 127,000-square-foot renovated Dillard’s store late this year or in early 2014, Lonsberry said.
Christ Fellowship expects the move to a permanent Boynton Beach location will duplicate the attendance surge that occurred when its Royal Palm Beach congregation moved from a school into a newly renovated Target store.
Attendance jumped from 1,500 to 6,500 each weekend.
“We have every expectation that our Boynton campus will easily have that kind of reach,” Lonsberry said.
Lonsberry said Christ Fellowship, Calvary Chapel and a third megachurch often collaborate on satellite technology to spread the gospel. LifeChurch, based in Oklahoma with 40,000 members, opened a $6 million satellite church in Wellington last year.
“We are all moving in the same direction and sharing our insights,” he said. Ú
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