Ju. Jones

On February 21st, we’ll be starting a new service and series at The Bridge. I’m excited about us going to multiple services!  The image on the left is a “9″ promo business card that we will hand out promoting our new 9:00am gathering.  We’ll be showing this video, as well.  This is another step of faith and risk for us.  Many church planting strategists state that a church should consider expanding when it has reached 80% or 70% seating capacity.  This could be starting another service, launching an overflow room, opening a new site, etc.  We were contemplating starting a second service about a year ago.  Following the 70% rule, we were approaching that seating capacity.  However, the movie theater, where we meet, bumped us to a large theater with almost double the seating capacity. Since then, we have continued to grow. I’ve got to admit, though.  We are not at 80% or even 70% seating capacity.  The challenge to launching a second service was sparked again directly by my mentor and friend, Keith Battle, and indirectly by Steven Furtick. As a church planter or leader, you may be contemplating whether or not to start a second gathering (church service, youth group meeting, singles gathering, etc.).  I’m going to be transparent and share some of the reasons we are moving in this direction.  I have learned some of them from Pastor Keith and Pastor Steven.  I have learned others by doing ministry in our context and observing how God has moved in other congregations.  Pastor Keith has been challenging me to start a second service before I even knew where God was going to lead me to plant a church…seriously.  My perspective started to change when I moved from looking at what these leaders were doing (starting multiple services) to why they were doing it (the reason they started multiple services).  You already know what we are doing.  Starting next week Monday, I’m going to begin a series of blog posts on why we are moving to two services.  Hopefully, they will help you think differently as you contemplate starting a new gathering in your context.  I must forewarn you.  We are breaking a few church planting rules with this one, so you may not agree with everything.  However, we never would have launched over two years ago if we played it by the rules.  Stay tuned!