Friday 30 January 2009

Two Services

On Sunday morning we are distributing a questionnaire to the Church regarding going to multiple services sometime in the next 12 months.

We are averaging above 300 which is becoming increasingly uncomfortable in a hall that seats 360 at a push.

So the next month is pretty interesting really, as we ask the question, if the service times were like this, which one would you come to?

9.15am or 11.15am?
10am or 3.30pm?
10am or 7pm?

All the ideas have pros and cons, and we are also asking which would be best time to invite friends to.

When I have communicated it I put it like this. Many Christians find the scriptural imagery about the Lord preparing a feast for us, and inviting us to the table, incredibly encouraging.

Becoming two services rather than one is a difficult process, but in effect we are preparing places at the table for people who want to come and find out more about God.

I don't want a bigger Church that attracts lots of Christians and does not effect the kingdom of God. I want to make space for those who don't yet know Him to come and taste and see that the Lord is good. That is the burden we are living with, and so the next 12 months is a massive adventure we are embarking on.

Please pray for us.

7 comments:

Peter Kirk said...

I'd go for 10am and 7pm, if your area is anything like mine. There are a lot of people, especially younger ones, who will never get up for anything on a Sunday morning, and others who are busy with sport and other daytime activity, or work in shops etc, and so can't come then. We started a youth service at 7.30 which also attracts quite a lot of somewhat older people who can't make it in the morning for various reasons. But of course those people won't be answering your questionnaire as they won't be there in the morning when it is given out.

Anonymous said...

We're just going through this very process (questionaire and all) - a very interesting time. Our new evening meeting starts Feb 8th!

Matt Blick said...

Forgot to say - our meeting is a 7pm one which we hope will work well in a city with 2 universities.

Blue, with a hint of amber said...

We're a non univeristy town which means overall there are fewer 18-30s in the population but we have over 50 in that bracket in the Church. I am surprised how many I have spoken to prefer a sunday morning: I would have thought an evening service would have hit the spot for them.

But the age range is very wide and there are lots of families and two of our biggest outreach activities are a mum's a toddlers group (70 toddlers) and a kidz klub (45 kids).

That means a sunday meeting without kids work is quite difficult to imagine for many of our people.

It will be very interesting to see what people say.

Jongudmund said...

how come you didn't put on my comment on this post? was it something I said?

Blue, with a hint of amber said...

"No unmoderated comments found"?

Jongudmund said...

Random.

Basically I think there are 2 issues with 2 services.

1) Doing the same thing over again could potentially turn it into a performance, an doviously you'll have one eye on the clock in the first service, if the God stuff starts happening.

2) If the services are different a large number of people may well stay for both - which doesn't solve the problem of not enough space. (Like 'I go to the first sevice becaise my friends are there, but the second service is all about something I'm really interested in/has a different speaker etc... I'm in church anyway, oh I'll stay...)