Field of Dreams

Highlands NCD employs new paradigm for church development

July 2006

Even if you don’t build it, they will come.

Such was the unexpected Easter morning surprise experienced by the Rev. Graham Baird, organizing pastor of the Highlands Presbyterian Church in Paso Robles, Calif., a new church development on the central California coast in the Presbytery of Santa Barbara.

“Easter morning was rainy and cold this year,” Baird said, “perfectly miserable weather for a service outdoors.”

While conventional wisdom told Baird to put up 25 chairs on the majestic hilltop site where the new congregation’s inaugural worship service was to be held, he decided instead on 200.

“At 8:45 a.m., there were maybe 25 people there for the 9 a.m. service,” he said.  “Then, at 8:50 a.m., a stream of cars came to the property.  By 9 a.m., there were 200 people there.  Many have since returned.”

Baird, who accepted the call to Highlands in the spring of 2006, always knew he wanted to be a new church development pastor.  “I’ve always felt that my call was to reach outside of the church,” he said.

Paso Robles is one of the fastest growing communities in California, and home to many “dechurched” people, according to Baird.  In contrast to those who are “unchurched,” Baird defines “dechurched” people as those who may once have had a familial church association, but who have long since withdrawn from any religious affiliation.

Baird has expressed his vision for the new church in one sentence, “to turn ‘dechurched’ people into fully devoted followers of Christ.” 

To that end, he has hired his younger brother, Jamie, as the church’s outreach director and its coordinator of small groups ministry.  The challenge of reaching “dechurched” people by utilizing the latest technologies – including the launch of a brand new blog geared toward those outside of the church – excites the younger Baird   “Having a director of outreach, a person whose only job is to reach outside of the church, is such a new model that I’m not certain whether there’s even an outreach conference yet,” Jamie Baird said.

Together, the Baird brothers – along with Graham’s wife, Star, the church’s interim Children’s Ministry Director – are investing the many, often exhausting hours needed to launch the new church.  “Every day, you’re making major adjustments and changes,” Graham Baird said.  “It’s amazing how many things you have to do off the cuff.  You have to engage people or you lose them.”  

The Highlands new church development receives generous support from the members and staff of the Presbytery of Santa Barbara, whose Joining Hearts & Hands fundraising campaign will provide funds for staffing, interim facilities, site preparation, construction planning, and building.

“Joining us for worship on that first Easter morning was the trinity of new church development,” Graham Baird said, “our executive presbyter, Ken Working, Chuck Ford, and John Chandler.”  Chandler, who retired as presbytery executive for Los Ranchos Presbytery, currently serves as a church development consultant to three presbyteries, including the Presbytery of Santa Barbara.

Chandler and Ford, who is a member of the national steering committee of Joining Hearts & Hands, were instrumental in selecting the building site for the Highlands church.  “We’ve looked at sites for twenty years,” Ford said, “and this is probably the best we’ve ever seen.  It’s simply ideal, and we’re excited about it.”

“I could never emphasize enough,” Ford added, “the involvement of John Chandler in the Highlands church.  There is no one who knows more about new church development than John.”

Grading of the property is already under way, with work on the church building projected to begin in September.  The project is scheduled for completion no later than Easter of 2007.

For now, there is an imposing 18-foot, 800 pound cross on the property, marking the site.  Graham Baird spoke of the “uproar” in Paso Robles when the cross had to be taken down for several days because of the grading.  “My brother, Jamie, went to the Wal-Mart across the road and just started recruiting people to put the heavy cross back up,” Baird said.  “There they were, all manner of people from all walks of life, walking up the hill, lifting the cross together, and putting it back up.”

Until the building is finished, the Baird family has accepted its own physical demands of setting up and breaking down weekly worship at a local movie theater, a five-hour process each Sunday.

“I wasn’t prepared for the physical nature of the job,” Graham Baird said.  “A new church development is a 24/7 thing, like having kids.  It’s a living thing that you have to take care of.”

For further information, visit The Highlands Church Web site