Two Services: the road ahead

The results of our questionnaire about two services are back and the results have been announced.

We wanted two services of equal size and stature to help increase the capacity of our Church to grow in our Sunday congregation.

With start times of 9.15am and 11.15am the distribution was 55% and 45%

10am and 3.30pm was an unworkable 93% and 7%

10am and 7pm was an unworkable 89% and 11%

So unless we want the second service to be about three people and a couple of goats and the main service being just as cramped as the current one the two mornings option is the only one that will work.

Pushing on further, many, many people commented on their questionnaire how important the "all age" feel of our congregation is. We stretch from 4 weeks old to somewhere near 90, with lots of children, loads of teens, lots of young adults, and plenty of silver hair from a decent sized group of senior citizen's considering the "style" of Church that we represent.

Interestingly enough, the biggest group to comment in favour of an all age environment were the young adults, people 18-30, who said it was part of what attracted them to the Church.

So there we go, either in November or January we will launch two sunday morning services. That blows open swathes of planning, recruitment, training and development of our facilities over the next few months to make it a reality.

I want the clarion call of our Sunday morning gatherings to be "taste and see that the Lord is good". If we want to reach those people who don't yet know Jesus, we have to make room for them, and so the process begins to make room for people we may never have even met yet who need an opportunity to respond and give their lives to Christ.