I am amazed when I hear about churches who are out of space and are entering another building program to expand the facilities, yet have only one Sunday morning service. If Sunday morning attendance is running more than 200-300 people, then that church should initiate two services right away. Here’s why:
1. It’s Good Stewardship. Don’t spend money on a new facility when you can use the current facility multiple times on Sunday. That makes good financial sense. Church buildings are notoriously inefficient buildings – some of these cathedrals cost multiple millions of dollars and sit idle six ½ days a week.
2. It’s Better For Our Volunteers. By offering two services our volunteers can SERVE ONE and ATTEND ONE. It is not healthy to have people consistently missing the adult service because they volunteer in the back each Sunday. This also means we can do away with those CONFUSING VOLUNTEER ROTATION SCHEDULES and all the complications that go with it. And yes, some volunteers do serve in both services (i.e., those in the adult service like ushers, musicians, singers,) but still everyone is out by noon.
3. It Gives People Options. People like options, which is why restaurants serve different items on the menu and you can choose from 743 different flavors of soda. Some people like an earlier service, others prefer a later service.
4. It Is Better Use of Space. We couldn’t go back to one service right now even if we wanted to for one simple reason – space. Yes, we still have seats still available in the adult service, but that’s not true in the nursery, preschool class, and children’s ministry area. If we tried to cram all the babies and kids down into those rooms for one service, it would be chaos! Teachers & volunteers would be overwhelmed, kids would be irritable, and the parents upset. We would actually end up losing people. It just makes sense to use our available space in this manner.
5. It breaks the single-cell mentality that can hinder growth. Some people say, “If we go to two services I won’t know everyone anymore.” THAT is EXACTLY WHY churches should go to multiple services. When people believe that they have to know everybody in the church for it to feel like it’s “their church,” then those people can actually prevent growth by resisting it every step of the way. The fact is the average person knows about 65 people in their church no matter how large or small it is, so having multiple services takes nothing away from them.
1. It’s Good Stewardship. Don’t spend money on a new facility when you can use the current facility multiple times on Sunday. That makes good financial sense. Church buildings are notoriously inefficient buildings – some of these cathedrals cost multiple millions of dollars and sit idle six ½ days a week.
2. It’s Better For Our Volunteers. By offering two services our volunteers can SERVE ONE and ATTEND ONE. It is not healthy to have people consistently missing the adult service because they volunteer in the back each Sunday. This also means we can do away with those CONFUSING VOLUNTEER ROTATION SCHEDULES and all the complications that go with it. And yes, some volunteers do serve in both services (i.e., those in the adult service like ushers, musicians, singers,) but still everyone is out by noon.
3. It Gives People Options. People like options, which is why restaurants serve different items on the menu and you can choose from 743 different flavors of soda. Some people like an earlier service, others prefer a later service.
4. It Is Better Use of Space. We couldn’t go back to one service right now even if we wanted to for one simple reason – space. Yes, we still have seats still available in the adult service, but that’s not true in the nursery, preschool class, and children’s ministry area. If we tried to cram all the babies and kids down into those rooms for one service, it would be chaos! Teachers & volunteers would be overwhelmed, kids would be irritable, and the parents upset. We would actually end up losing people. It just makes sense to use our available space in this manner.
5. It breaks the single-cell mentality that can hinder growth. Some people say, “If we go to two services I won’t know everyone anymore.” THAT is EXACTLY WHY churches should go to multiple services. When people believe that they have to know everybody in the church for it to feel like it’s “their church,” then those people can actually prevent growth by resisting it every step of the way. The fact is the average person knows about 65 people in their church no matter how large or small it is, so having multiple services takes nothing away from them.
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