The Orchard Church is taking some “bold steps” for growth this spring. We have seen some amazing things happen in our young church, and we are excited to take these next steps.
I described a lot of this in our “State of the Church” messages several weeks ago. If you missed it, you can listen below, or you can go to the entire blog entry about it right here.
Who would have ever thought this church would be where it is today. We are making the GOSPEL RELEVANT to our community.
And taking some BOLD STEPS forward.
New Sunday Morning Schedule
We are opening capacity for more people to attend our Sunday morning worship experience by increasing the number of services. Starting March 6, we have an entirely new Sunday morning schedule.
<New Schedule Update!>
Our first Sunday on the new schedule went great!! I was shocked at how many kids we had during the first service.
The 10:00 service was by far the most crowded, and we definitely had crowding issues with parking, seating, and foot traffic in the building. Don’t forget that we have plenty of seating available at the 8:30 and 11:30 services! Try a different one out this weekend!
Bold EASTER
We are boldly expecting our largest crowd ever on Easter Sunday, March 27. We are trusting God and boldly stepping away from our campus so we can celebrate Easter with 1000 people at the Gilmer High School gymnasium.
This year, we are also NOT doing any “traditional” media advertising… We believe that BY FAR, the best way to reach people is to actually invite them in person. So, we are handing out personal invitation cards for you to use to invite your friends, family members, classmates, and co-workers to celebrate with us on Easter. Who will you invite?
North Campus April 3
As we grow, we want to expand our reach into our community. We believe there are LOTS of young people who are put off by the traditional Sunday morning church experience of rows and backs of heads. Our new “North Campus” will be a completely different environment, with more of a coffee house, acoustic groove feel. We think this is really trying to do what nobody else is doing in order to reach people nobody else is reaching.
This campus is located just to the north of Ellijay, near the intersection of Old 5, and HWY 515. It is easily visible from the highway. This will let us surround Ellijay with the gospel!
BOLD Financial Decisions
With all our growth, you would think we’d naturally start talking about building a larger facility to house us… Sure, this sounds great to us, and we will need a building in the future. But, it doesn’t take a genius to look ahead and see that there may in fact be another major global economic storm headed our way. Proverbs is pretty clear about how to handle this kind of thing:
“The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it.”
-Proverbs 22:3
We all agree that there may be a storm coming, and that few of us are prepared for it. We feel much more compelled to prepare our people, than to jump headlong into a building plan. Watch the short video below for a quick insight into what Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University is all about.
Beginning April 10, all of our life groups will be taking this 10-week course together… Even if you aren’t in a life group, and even if you don’t attend The Orchard Church… You are welcome to attend. Details will be out really soon. Registration begins March 27.
That is a lot!!
It is unbelievable to see what God has done here over the past few years. As we take these next bold steps, I believe will see even greater things!