The capacity of your church’s sanctuary (auditorium, worship
room, multi-ministry room, whatever you call it in your congregation) is around
220 and your church attendance is picking up. Your average attendance passed
150 a month or so ago and you continue to see new faces. You look at the
records for the last few decades and you find that three times the church has
grown to between 170 and 180 and then retreated. The congregation went down to
about 100 before it started this last resurgence under the new young pastor who
is a very good speaker and has lots of new ideas. The changes he has proposed
seem to be paying off and many Sundays the sanctuary feels full. Some of the
folks are very excited about it, and most of the rest feel good about it. There
are, however, some who are getting nervous that the church is not the same.
You’re thinking that it’s good that it’s not the same,
because people are finding the Lord and want to join the congregation, but you
also see a problem. Last week, when the children sang in worship, there weren’t
enough seats, and the ushers had to scramble to add chairs down the center
aisle and in the lobby. The pastor was almost ecstatic and you were just about
as happy. On the other hand, Mr. and Mr. Brewster who have been in this church
for over 50 years arrived a little late and a new family was seated in the
Brewsters’ usual place. For years, you had heard how much the Brewsters love
the congregation and how they want to see it be strong and growing, but they
looked very unhappy when they had to sit in the lobby.
Since the new pastor has been at your church there has been
talk about adding on. You talked to a friend of yours who owns a company that
builds supermarkets and other large buildings. He gave you what he said was a
very ballpark estimate of the costs to build a new room for worship and you
know that those costs were well out of reach. You even discussed it with the pastor, and he estimated that the
attendance would have to just about double before a major building project
could be considered.
If the church continues to grow, the size of the sanctuary
will very soon be a problem. The growth has not been meteoric—just 7 or 8 percent
per year—a pace that you hope continues. If it does, the church will begin to
feel crowded and there will be no room for continued growth. At board meeting
the pastor passed out an article that said if a worship facility is more than
75-80% full, growth is severely retarded. Your church is getting close to that
mark, and your research showed that, in the past, the congregation had stopped
growing every time it reached that level.
A few times the pastor has mentioned starting a second service.
Until now, you have not been excited about that. In fact, you are still not
particularly excited about it, but you see it is probably the best solution to
the problem that is looming just ahead for this church.
Now what? What’s the
best way for a church to move to two worship services? How do you get the
congregation to accept the idea?
1. Clearly make the
case to the lay leaders using the statistics and vision.
2. Ask lay leaders
who accept the idea to help get the rest of the church on board.
The major objections will likely be, “We have always been a
family and we won’t know everybody any more.” The truth is that if the church
is larger than 50, they don’t all know each other anyway. Having one service
preserves the illusion that they do and changing to two services kills that
illusion. Adding a service will not make them know less people, and it may
broaden their friendship circle. The best way to counter this objection is for
the members to be more uncomfortable that people the church could reach are
being left out. Perhaps ask, “Who do we want to tell to stay away?” Also, it is
important to give the members time to process the idea of two services.
3. Decide if you will
have two duplicate services or if they will be different.
Some churches choose to have contemporary and traditional
services. This can help alleviate the music style controversy many churches
face, but it creates a lot more work for the music people, and may create two
churches in one.
4. Get the worship
team on board or recruit a second team for the new service.
It is crucial to have the cooperation of the worship team.
5. Decide the time
for the new service.
Some churches decide to have the added service simultaneous
with Sunday school. Others choose to have it the hour before Sunday school. Having
two services and two simultaneous Sunday schools works for some churches, even
though it takes a lot of volunteers. Other churches choose to discontinue
Sunday school, encourage small groups during the week and provide children’s
church for both services. One very important factor in this decision is the
amount of parking. People can’t sit in the church if they can’t find a place to
park. If the parking lot has to be emptied between services, that will be a major
factor in determining the schedule.
6. Recruit ushers and
greeters, and all the other volunteers you will need for Sunday school or children’s church.
The availability of volunteers may help determine the new
service scenario the church chooses.
7. Ask a number of people
to commit to the new service for a year or 18 months.
The number depends on the need at your church. In the story
above, 50 or 75 might be sensible. You need enough people committed to the new
service to effectively relieve the crowding at the existing service and to be
enough that they don’t feel like they’re the only ones there.
Bathe the whole idea in prayer. This is a very major step for congregations, especially those long-established
ones. If the church can take this step, it may well find itself on the road
to new levels of growth, which means many people in their community will find
the love, hope and salvation of Jesus.
