Ju. Jones

Those of you that are church planters or pastors may be familiar with the 80% or 70% rule.  The rule states that a church should consider expanding when it reaches 80% or 70% seating capacity. This could be starting another service, launching a new site, creating an overflow room, etc.  It’s based on the idea that people are more hesitant to invite others due to uncomfortable seating.  Many church plants start out in rooms with a 100 – 200 seat capacity; mainly because that’s all they can afford in the beginning stages.  We started out meeting in a theater with a 230 seating capacity.  Last year, we were approaching 70% capacity.  Right when we were contemplating a second service, we got moved to a larger theater that sits about 430.  According to the 80% rule, we should remain at one service until we have an attendance of 344.  This means, we should sit tight for right now.  This is when my mind began to brew.  ”Hmmmm…. If we were in a much smaller space (seating 100, 150, 200 people), we would have no choice but to create another service option.  Why wait until it becomes a need?  Why not just launch one now?  I came to this conclusion:  ”Space size never drives strategy. Vision does.”  Our venue size may not be screaming for another service, but launching another service fits our vision and purpose.  We exist to help people experience true life in Christ.  Starting a new 9:00am service allows us to help people experience true life in Christ at 9:00am, as well as 10:15am.  If a new church planting team happens to have a venue that seats 1,000 at a growth rate of 100 people a year, will they actually wait eight years before providing their community with another service time option?  Or is their something in their vision or mission statement that will propel them to start one regardless of how much space they have?  Of course, it will feel weird having 100 people with 900 empty seats.  Our job is to preach, lead worship, and serve like it’s a pack house.  Let God do the rest.