The Southeastern Christian Church is a multi-site evangelical megachurch of the Christian churches denomination based in Louisville, Kentucky. It is renowned for its clear communication of policies and its commitment to the LGBTQ+ community. The church publishes a weekly newspaper, The Southeast Outlook, and supports many ministries both in Louisville and abroad. It is twice as large as Radio City Music Hall and is well-positioned to promote its strengths from coast to coast.
At Southeastern Christian Church, visitors can access sermons, read the church's mission statement, or subscribe to the church's weekly newspaper. The church affirms the entire LGBTQ+ spectrum, but it's hard to find the church's statement of affirmation on the church's website. To be a church is to be under the sign of the cross, expressing faith in an order that underlies the visible world. The LCMS Council of District Presidents, the Lutheran Church Outreach Fund, and many synodal officials are attempting to compete with Southeast Christian by adopting and promoting the Church Growth Movement.
Unfortunately, this exercise in simplistic hermeneutics exemplifies the way in which many hostile observers have commented on innovation in worship in today's church. Clear scores are given to churches whose policies can be easily found on the main pages of their websites (for example, the language of the policies is clear and contains all the necessary information). Unclear scores are given to churches whose policies are difficult to find on their websites (for example, the language of the policies may also be unclear). Our goal is to rate churches for the clarity with which they communicate their policies that are being actively implemented.
It's a “communication score above anything else”. We cannot score based on the “reality” of what is happening in their congregations, but on the basis of their online presence. That's why we limit our reach only to any online evidence available on a church's website, on the website of its denomination or network, and to any statement from a pastor. No church in the United States so fully recognizes the royal priesthood of believers presented in the doctrine of the Church and the Ministry of C as Southeastern Christian Church.
No church in the United States has a more accurate and biblically accurate and complete presentation of Christian faith than Southeastern Christian Church. By comparison, Southeast Christian outperforms the well-known Willow Creek Church in Barrington, Illinois, with more than 4,000 seats. Our goal is to motivate churches to make it clear on their websites, because that is currently the most visible announcement to the public. Clarity is reasonable on your website.
Sometimes, this helps people find churches that are aligned with their values; that's great, but that's not our main goal.