Eagle Brook Church

Headnote

Dynamic Lighting and Video Production Helps Minnesota Mega-Church Visuals Soar

Eagle Brook Church is the largest house of worship in the state of Minnesota, in terms of attendance and size. The church's six campuses in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area have a combined average attendance of more than 17,000, and that number can exceed 22,000 for non-holiday weekends. During Christmas services last year, more than 48,000 attended the holiday services.

The church's dramatic growth has been taking place under the leadership of senior pastor Bob Merritt. A native of Pennsylvania, Merritt, a Baptist minister's son, got a Masters Degree in Divinity from Bethel University in Arden Hills, MN, served as pastor of a Baptist church in Wisconsin for six years, then Я returned to Pennsylvania to get his Doctorate in Speech Communications. He then became pastor First Baptist Church of White Bear Lake in 1991, which had been operating as a traditional Baptist church since the 1940s.

Under Merritt, things started to change, and the steady growth in weekly attendance accelerated. By 1997, the church had changed their name to Eagle Brook. Baptist in origin, the services were updated to welcome people from all denominations looking for a Christian message in a non-traditional setting during a time period when many of the more traditional Christian churches - from Catholic to Lutheran to the Assembly of God - were experiencing attendance declines.

Taking Flight

After Eagle Brook's congregation outgrew the original church in White Bear Lake, Merritt moved the congregation to a state-ofthe-art theatrical facility in nearby Lino Lakes, MN. However, by the time the new church opened, there still wasn't enough room to welcome everyone who wanted to attend. So Eagle Brook reopened the White Bear Lake campus as an additional location.

Today, there are six separate campuses. Along with White Bear Lake and Lino Lakes, Eagle Brook has churches in Anoka, Blaine, Spring Lake Park and Woodbury. All focus on contemporary, non-traditional services on Saturdays (4 and 6 p.m.) and Sundays (9 and 11 a.m.). The relaxed atmosphere, comfortable theater type seating and abundance of blue jeans worn to service has attracted an audience that is growing in leaps and bounds.

PLSN visited two of the campuses - the main (and largest) one in...