This blog entry is part of an 8-part series on “Seven Things in Seven Months.” It is all about the fact that God is growing The Orchard Church much faster than anyone expected or hoped. The LAST thing we want to do is to LIMIT that growth, so we are going to jump on preparing the ground by doing these “Seven things” over the next “seven months.” To see all SEVEN of the things (so far) just click here to list the Seven Things blog category.
I think I am just as shocked as anyone at what we’re seeing. Did you know that 75% of churches in North America have fewer than 100 people in them? Our goal will never be to post great attendance numbers… Our goal is to see God glorified, and to contribute to building the Kingdom! And we are seeing that! There were four people that turned their lives over to Christ in the service just last week!
After only 6 months, our weekly worship service is already crowded. Packed. As in, FULL. The researchers tell us that once your room gets to about 80% full, that growth stops happening. In other words, people will only come if they feel like they have somewhere to comfortably sit! For us, our capacity in the movie theater is only about 140. That is packing it in shoulder-to-shoulder with no chairs to spare. This past Sunday, AFTER you subtract the children’s ministry, we had 168 in the main room (and “The Overlook”). Nearly EVERY chair was full in the big room, EVERY seat was full in the overflow room, and people were standing and sitting in the aisle. God is up to something!
Now, I fully expect that we will see a bit of a lull on Sunday mornings over the next few weeks, due to the holidays being here, but in January, if we hope to be able to see any new growth AT ALL, we have GOT to open up more space. SO, adding a second service is the route we’ve chosen to do that. Some of the advantages are:
- immediate seating capacity increase from 140 to 280.
- No extra cost
- No extra equipment to buy
VERY IMPORTANT: The purpose of adding a second service is NOT to “divide” our group into two smaller groups. The goal is GROWTH. We simply want to be more available for more blessing. If a farmer wants a bigger harvest, he’ll have to plant in a bigger field. This is one of our ways of increasing the size of the field for the seeds of God’s Word to be sown into. The harvest is plentiful.
There are plenty of logistics involved that we will still have to work out. It is harder than just saying “okay, next week we will have two services.” Nope, we have to work out scheduling, logistics, and staffing for quite a few positions. But, if God continues to lead us this way, HE will work it all out! Praise God that we get to be part of something so incredible!