Highpoint Collierville and The Church at Schilling Farms: So Was It a Merger?

Special thanks to one of our readers, Mark Long, who sent us this 6:33 minute video on the founding of Highpoint Collierville. View it quickly. I bet it is going to be taken down faster than you can say "If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything."  We will have anther post today as well.

Highpoint Collierville Origin Story from Highpoint Church on Vimeo.

 

Comments

Highpoint Collierville and The Church at Schilling Farms: So Was It a Merger? — 20 Comments

  1. Kind of like a dating relationship? Well, there’s your problem – authentic, Gospel focused Christians are supposed to kiss dating goodbye.

  2. Dee, at least twice in this video I noticed people referencing Community Church of Memphis.

    So who is that church in relation to The Church at Shilling Farms and HPC?

  3. @ dee:

    Of course not! He’s my homeboy. (Along with Calvin and Jonathan Edwards.)

    But in a moment of seriousness, what is/was the point of this video? To convince members that God was leading in the merger? The only evidence given were a few opinions that God was lining things up, increased attendance (always a sure sign of the divine), and feeling “the presence of God.” All subjective, none completely convincing.

  4. A few odd thoughts during the video:
    1. Only one woman spoke and she was paid staff.
    2. All the speakers were in leadership roles (and maybe paid employees). When they spoke of “we” it often felt that they were only referring to the leadership, not the congregation. Beyond getting the sheep comfortable with their new fleecers, it didn’t seem important what their thoughts might be.
    3. Why did they stand in front of a stack of clear-cut lumber? Was that supposed to be some kind of message? Come on board or we will chop you down!
    4. It sounds like the taken-over church was on its death bed if it only had 60 in attendance trying to cover the costs of such large facilities.
    5. Will they have to go through another church name change if marijuana gets legalized in that state? Highpoint will have a very different meaning then 🙂

  5. @dmz

    HP merged with a churched aka Memphis Community Church as referenced in a 10:52 announcement they made at HP Collierville. Initially, HP Colliervile (the merger of HP & “Memphis Community Church” met at a YMCA location in Collierville. The announcement can be heard in a podcast titled “Highpoint Church + The Church at Schilling Farms Merger Announcement (dated 11/22/15) that can be streamed online (http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Qq8dnLIrmOAJ:www.highpointmemphis.com/podcasts+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us), from a version of their site that was archived on archive.org.
    The podcast provides details on the history of the relationship between HP & “Memphis Community Church.

    The full nature of the language used by the speaker in the podcast to describe the merger defines the merger as the result of making a a “permanent” move – not a move to a larger, leasable space.

    @ DMZ:

  6. DMZ wrote:

    Dee, at least twice in this video I noticed people referencing Community Church of Memphis.

    So who is that church in relation to The Church at Shilling Farms and HPC?

    When Highpoint Church decided to spin off their first campus, they decided to merge with the existing Community Church Memphis, back in fourth quarter 2013. This is a very lucrative model for megachurches seeking to expand their business enterprises. It gave HPC a “starter” community of members to launch the Collierville campus.

    TTBOMK Highpoint Collierville (the combination of CCM and HPC staff and members asked to relocate) met at the YMCA at Schilling Farms until they acquired Life Church at Schilling Farms.

    Life Church had a lovely building on a very large piece of property but was not flourishing financially. This building is across the street from the YMCA building where Highpoint Collierville had been meeting. The announcement about the merger was made in late November 2015 and they had their Grand Opening on January 10, 2016 in the Life Church at Schilling Farms building that had been rebranded with new signs and logos as Highpoint Collierville.

    Highpoint’s own announcement for the grand opening stated: “Are you excited about what’s coming up THIS SUNDAY – Jan 10? The Church at Schilling Farms will be joining the Highpoint Church family! Join us at 1035 Winchester Blvd, Collierville, TN as two families become ONE!”

    There is nothing in this language to suggest this is merely a lease. This was the uniting of two complete and different churches and LCSF joined HPC in tact. The lease language was created after the fact, to avoid responsibility for not vetting management and staff properly and then not acting faster once HPC realized they were dealing with multiple child molestation coverups. HPC turned to their lawyers immediately to protect the corporate assets. That is how they reacted and if your kids are hurt expect this to happen again. This is a high dollar, high growth business enterprise.

    Why would HPC do this? The answer is in the numbers. Between HPC opening their new Collierville campus in January 2014 and the end of 2015, HPC revenues went from $2.8M to $7.3M. Prior to opening their new campus in Collierville, HPC had only shown modest annual growth from $1.7M in 2010 to just $2.8M three years later in 2013. The number of households for all of HPC during just the last 2 years Collierville has been around (FY 2014-2015) went up from 1,386 to 1,608 (222 families) or 16% growth. But the growth in dollars was $4.5M or 161%. That’s because Collierville is a far more affluent market than East Memphis. The 2016 numbers are supposed to be record breaking as Collierville really grew in the last year.

    Adding this new beautiful campus with plenty of room to grow means that HPC will continue to grow. It probably doesn’t matter that much how bad the leadership is at the churches that they are merging with HPC as HPC does not seem to show significantly better judgment when it comes to protecting kids. What’s important is that Chris Conlee, who is a Communications major who tried to make it as a golf pro before becoming a minister, runs HPC like franchise operation.

    Conlee has people in real need in Memphis, yet branches out to Collierville where they have plenty of churches. He did that because the demographic studies showed him that’s where the money is. He succeeds because he offers provocative entertainment and trendy pastors and feel good messages.

    I hope that the victims find good lawyers who can pierce the corporate veil on this. This was a merger. LPC true assets, aside from the building, have been acquired by HPC. The only reason the building is being leased instead of purchased is due to the lawyers trying to retroactively avoid liability. The good will, members and staff are all at HPC. LCSF IS HPC now. It is not dead it lives on as HPC Collierville. That portion of HPC and their 161% revenue increase should answer to the victims.

  7. @ Memphian Guest:

    HPC, LCSF, CCM…. Yeeesh… I can’t tell all these players apart from each other! Where’s my scorecard?

    When did church become so complicated?

  8. You forgot TC@SF! haha

    HPC = Highpoint Church
    LCSF = Life Church at Schilling Farms (Name they used before “The Church at Schilling Farms”
    CCM = Community Church of Memphis

    BONUS ABBREVIATION is IBC!… Immanuel Baptist Church (original name of LCSF/TC@SF 🙂

    @ Serving Kids In Japan:
    Serving Kids In Japan wrote:

    @ Memphian Guest:
    HPC, LCSF, CCM…. Yeeesh… I can’t tell all these players apart from each other! Where’s my scorecard?
    When did church become so complicated?

  9. Highpoint Collierville and The Church at Schilling Farms: So Was It a Merger?

    “It all depends on what the meaning of ‘is’ is.”

  10. reidster wrote:

    HPC = Highpoint Church
    LCSF = Life Church at Schilling Farms (Name they used before “The Church at Schilling Farms”
    CCM = Community Church of Memphis

    BONUS ABBREVIATION is IBC!… Immanuel Baptist Church (original name of LCSF/TC@SF

    When are we going to get to LSD?

  11. JYJames wrote:

    The above video claims that the merged churches share values, and “you can feel the presence of God”.

    When coin in Pastor’s coffer rings?

  12. JYJames wrote:

    The above video claims that the merged churches share values, and “you can feel the presence of God”.

    It’s sort of like being able to see the emperor’s new clothes

  13. Do you know who the pastor of Memphis Community Church was at the time of the merger?

    Memphian Guest wrote:

    When Highpoint Church decided to spin off their first campus, they decided to merge with the existing Community Church Memphis,