Going to Additional Services in Your New Church Plant Doubling, Tripling or Quadrupling Your New Church

1
Going to Additional Services in Your New Church
PlantDoubling, Tripling or Quadrupling Your New
Churchs Potential

• By
• Tom Cheyney

2
Adding Multiple Services

• It is always critical when and how a new church
  adds additional services.
• Questions that should be addressed
• Why are we adding additional services?
• How will we add additional services?
• When will we begin additional services?

3
Seeking Clarity

• A lot of terms are used to refer to multiple
  worship hours.
• Here are some of the most popular
• Second Service
• Multiple Worship Hours
• First Service
• Early Worship
• Weekend Services
• Friday Night Live
• Thursday Night Thunder

4
Still Seeking Clarity

• Another set of terms that are popular today are
• Overflow Rooms
• Mirrored Services
• Video Venues
• Segmented Services
• Flavored Services
• We will look at each one of these later as we
  move forward!

5
What is missing?

• Perhaps the missing ingredient in adding
  additional services not the lack of new people
  but the lack of compelling drive to reach an
  enlarged harvest, the lack of vision in how to
  raise enough lay talent to staff additional
  services, and the lack of effective leadership
  that can do the political maneuvering necessary
  to rally the church in support of such new
  outreach. Carl George, Break Specific
  Growth Barriers, pg 178.

6
Times Have Changed!

• The diminishing attraction of the Sunday
  morning-only church has caused the creation and
  emergence of the
• multiple-days-a-week church.
• Those of us born after the early to mid- 1950s
  have pushed the edges of church work desiring
  options for attendees outside the traditional
  worship service.

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Times Have Changed!

• The resulting alternatives have been to either
  adapt or to quietly grow older and smaller.
• This has been the choice of many churches, thus
  creating the need for thousands of new churches
  as a result.
• Remaining the same is less demanding and a whole
  lot cheaper! It never stirs the stagnant waters
  of tradition or the waves of the status quo.
• It is always the road most traveled, sadly!

8
Times Have Changed!

• The alternative is far more challenging and far
  more time-consuming.
• It is expansive and often expensive, but the
  outcome equals kingdom riches and additional
  brothers in eternity.
• The road less traveled is filled with change. It
  is a path that moves your work towards becoming
  younger and larger by offering options rather
  than short trips to nostalgias of bygone eras.

9
Times Have Changed!

• The majority of churches during the last 30 years
  of the past century had chosen the road most
  traveled and experienced the path of growing
  older and smaller.
• We have moved from 1955 to 2005. What is
  happening now will be reported as fact in 2005.
  Most multiple-days-a-week churches have been
  planted after 1985 and thus never had to battle
  that tradition of pouring the majority of its
  resources into the stalled Sunday morning
  schedule.

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Adding additional services is the most effective
means for increasing worship attendance!

• Lyle Schaller
• Choices for Churches, p 87.

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Challenging the Mid-Morning Worship Hour

• In the majority of existing churches the Sunday
  morning mid-morning worship service is the
  mainstay or focal platform of that church.
• When new churches meet in traditional time frames
  they can easily slide into the challenges that
  most churches face when seeking to implement
  another worship hour.

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Challenging the Mid-Morning Worship Hour

• Existing churches 7 years or older face the
  addition of a new worship hour as a challenge to
  what is familiar and comfortable!
• These churches look at those who desire the
  creation of a new worship hour as rebels.

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Challenging the Mid-Morning Worship Hour

• If you handle the creation of a new worship
  service or services poorly, the planters
  leadership will be in question and his
  dependability as well.
• If you handle it properly, it could do so much
  more to solidify the planters leadership than
  any other single decision.

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What Keeps Us from Adding New Worship Services?

• Fear towards change
• Disruptions to the momentum
• Damaging existing worship hour
• Loss of members
• Hurting church image

• Fear that laity wont follow the new direction
• Hurting planters image
• Church could fire me!
• The unknown

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What Keeps Us from Adding New Worship Services?

• The members will opt for earlier hours for
  leisure times later on the weekend.

• No one will show up and it will be empty!

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According to John Vaughn, 85 of growing churches
are in what can be called the multi-service model!
17
What Kind of People Should You Look for and Pray
for in Starting an Additional Service in Your New
Church?

• Lets take a look

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What Kind of People Should You Look for and Pray
for in Starting an Additional Service in Your New
Church?

• People with an outward focus.
• People that are always positive.
• People who want to do something really great for
  God.
• People who are emotionally healthy.
• People who own and are committed to the churchs
  vision.
• People who resemble pioneers as compared to those
  who are settlers.

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What are the Positive Steps That Result from
Following These Time Tested Ideas?

• Your lay leaders will know how to assist you in
  developing an additional service.
• What they are up on they wont be down on.
• They will know how to get involved.
• They will present the new service to attendees in
  a positive light.
• Your key leaders will know how they fit in and
  what they need to do to help the new services
  succeed!

20
For every 150 active attendees, you have enough
talent to develop additional praise teams or
choirs!
21
The majority of resistance towards adding
additional services comes from members who do not
feel there is a need or are not willing to
sacrifice their comfort in order to help it
succeed.
22
So Why Should You Start an Additional Service or
Services?

• To continue growing when you face the temptation
  to stall.
• To further reach your target area by providing
  solutions for various family schedules.
• To continue to carry out the Great Commission
  teach, baptize, preach

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An Answer to Adding Additional Services

• First, everyone who desires to serve can be
  involved.
• Second, laborers will be raised out of the
  harvest to step into critical areas instead of
  sitting, and watching the show.
• Third, you will see the Great Commission carried
  out with real-life experiences.

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So Why Should You Start an Additional Service or
Services? (continued)

• To keep your church from becoming strangled by no
  room to grow.

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So Why Should You Start an Additional Service or
Services? (continued)

• You allow the Lord through the Holy Spirit to
  determine how great a harvest your new church can
  reach.
• You and your church will position for growth.
  This is especially true if you off-load the
  better attendees to a less- attended service.

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It was Elmer Towns

• Back in the early to mid 1980s Elmer Towns said
  regarding this issue that it is a sociological
  strangulation that becomes a disease in a church
  when its facilities are not sufficient for
  continual growth.

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What Does a Multi-Congregational Church Look
Like?
The Church



Its Member's
Diagram of 1,000 - Membership Church
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What Happens when Facilities are Full Every
Sunday?

• First-time visitors do not usually return.
• Parking becomes a huge problem.
• Staff discontinue outreach and replace it with
  business.
• Church members become passive towards inviting
  friends and prospects.
• A full church says, We dont need you or want
  you! Why is that?

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What Happens When Facilities are Full Every
Sunday?

• Because if the church did not feel this way, they
  would add additional services quickly before they
  stalled their growth momentum.

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Have you reached 80 capacity yet?

• Church building architects tell us that when you
  reach 80 capacity you will begin to strangle any
  chances for future growth unless you either add
  new facilities for additional services with
  additional days of the week. Remember, extra
  space will not cause your new church to grow, but
  without it you could keep from growing.

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DO NOT WAIT UNTIL YOU ARE TOTALLY FULL TO ADD
EXTRA SERVICES!

• Warning, Will Robinson!

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Six Ways to Provide Needed Space

1. Reassign or relocate space.
2. Clean out or discard stuff from space used as
   storage.
3. Renovate!
4. Make rooms multi-purpose.
5. Use space multiple times.
6. Borrow, lease, or rent additional space.

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LifeWay Christian Resources Architects (SBC) Tell
Us

• We travel to church in a car that holds 2.5
  people (parking challenges towards growth)
• We sit (unless we have theater chairs) 18 inches
  apart.
• We usually put a Bible and our extra stuff on
  the chair next to us.
• Front-row seats are used only after everything
  else is full
• Usually on any given week you have about 20 to 32
  percent of your people away from church due to
  work or leisure.

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What We Can Learn from these Issues

• People do not visit churches more than once, if
  at all, that dont have room for them.
• Cramped parking is an initial danger sign for
  strangulation. (Share CBC story)
• Have your lay leadership count empty seats to
  estimate growth capacity without adding days or
  services.
• Also do the same for empty parking spaces.
• ( X 2.5 _______ realistic growth estimate)

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What You will Learn

• Adding extra services or extra days of worship
  will allow your church to grow without building
  expensive facilities. (Become a
  five-days-a-week church or more! Option.
  Options. Options!)

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Some Suggestions

• Move a specific number of key leaders into the
  new service or services.
• Seed the additional services with laity that are
  energized.
• New services allow growth by reaching those who
  need alternatives to regular hours of worship

• New services first grow by transfer growth from
  existing services before they grow from new
  growth
• Then the other services will have room to become
  feeder services into the fellowship.

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Things I Have Discovered from Having Multiple
Services

• Few visitors attend the early first watch
  service (800 AM)
• The usual amount of visitors attend the middle
  service (915 930ish)
• The largest amount of growth on the Sunday format
  will continue to be during the last morning
  worship hour (1030 1100ish)

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Things I have Discovered from Having Multiple
Services on Saturday Night

• Few visitors attend the earlier of two Saturday
  evening services unless brought by a friend who
  attends that hour. (530ish)
• Most churches start two Saturday services instead
  of one so you can serve in one hour and worship
  in the next hour.
• If you start only one it becomes a drain on
  existing servants instead of developing new ones.
  
• The church then wears itself out!

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Things I Have Discovered from Having an Extra
Service on Thursday or Friday Nights

• These services are target-specific audiences such
  as
• Dinner The Bible
• Thursday Night Thunder
• Post-Modern
• Twenty-Somethings
• IMPACTS
• Explosions

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Realize One Strategic Point

• The entire body of the church must become smaller
  in order to become larger!
• If you keep the original worship service together
  instead of dividing it, you will downsize the
  body and eventually destroy the momentum!
  (Example CBCs New Pastor)

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Once You Stop Dividing, You Strangle the Body and
Disease the Church

• This is why we start new churches because
  existing ones ceased to fertilize the cell and
  new bodies are needed to continue the task of
  evangelization!

42
How to Continue to Grow

• Add Bible study classes
• Begin small groups
• Add additional services
• Add additional days
• Begin additional bible study hours
• Add new ministries

43
Another Good Reason for Adding New Services and
Days

• We are practicing good stewardship by using
  facilities on multiple days.

44
Some Hindrances to Starting New Services or Days

• Space used by novelty ministry (we store our
  equipment in this room or building).
• Landowner mentality permeates members (its our
  space)!
• We use this area as a lounge for our workers.
• People do not want to let go of small family
  feel.

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A Few Things Starting a New Service or Services
Will Do

• New specialists will flow out of the harvest.
• Extra opportunities to worship also provide
  additional resources and funds for growth and
  expansion. (Average giving today 20 per
  week . So 100 new worshippers could give an
  additional 2,000 per week or 104,000 per
  year.)
• Evangelism continues.
• Church continues to grow.
• Church debt reduced more quickly.
• Attracts new members.

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Moving Forward (How Do You Do It?)

• Answer this question What are the benefits of
  creating a new service?
• Answer this question What are the drawbacks to
  creating a new service?
• Have you sought the advice of others who have
  done what you are trying to do?
• Begin with the lay leadership and announce that
  you are thinking and praying about going to an
  additional service or services. Ask for their
  input but dont relinquish leadership by making
  it a public opinion poll. (Take a survey, not a
  political poll.)

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Moving Forward (How Do You Do It?)

• Talk openly about the fears and discomfort of
  creating new services. Remind everyone that God
  would desire to continue to provide for others a
  way to attend worship and receive Jesus. Keep
  the congregation informed. Dont dump it on
  them. Move them with you.

48
Moving Forward (How Do You Do It?)

• Remind the congregation often of the Great
  Commission (Matthew 2819-20)
• If you are starting a new hour of worship on the
  same day, seek 50 people to make the shift from
  each of your existing services. This should give
  you 100 people to spark the new service hour.
• Remind the congregation that you are creating a
  new service for outreach reasons, not just for
  overcrowding. Real reasons evangelism, outreach,
  and soul-winning.

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Moving Forward (How Do You Do It?)

• Research whether or not you need to develop a new
  format or style to worship (music, preaching,
  length, senses).
• It will take faith, courage, and investment by
  the church to begin something new.
• Remind them of the 80 full factor. We need to
  go to additional services even if we are not
  totally full yet. (Expand ministry)
• Review what the church leaders are doing so that
  fear of innovation does not set in.

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Moving Forward (How Do You Do It?)

• Answer as many excuses for not adding a new
  service as you can ahead of time to eliminate
  vision killers that can multiply and destroy
  growth opportunities.

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Leadership Builds Character! But Ministry
Maintains Continual Growth!
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Moving Forward (How Do You Do It?)

• Ask leadership to help identify members who are
  most likely to attend the new service.
• Here is what we know older adults attend early
  Sunday morning worship
• Singles like Saturday night if it is energized.
• Couples with teenagers are interested in Saturday
  services if Bible study is part of the package.

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Moving Forward (How Do You Do It?)

• Recruit church members to seed the new service.
• Build commitment among seed families.
• Send out a special newsletter to them only.
• Remind them of the benefits.
• Tell them about the victories that resulted from
  their commitment to be part of this ministry.
• Develop future staff from seed members for the
  new service or services.

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Moving Forward (How Do You Do It?)

• Launch the new service with a commissioning and
  commitment service.
• Write out the list of workers you will need for
  the new service. Dont forget workers such as
  parking lot workers, welcome greeters, music
  leaders, singers, ushers, Technical workers, etc.
  (The result 50 servant expansion)
• Promote the new service or services to your
  fringe members and prospects.

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Moving Forward (How Do You Do It?)

• Launch the new service or services the second
  week of September (right after Labor Day weekend)
  or March (beginning of spring in most areas).
• Timing is everything! Elmer Towns called this
  the Law of the Two-Humped Camel.
• Stay away from things such as vacations, possible
  weather issues, etc.

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Cycles of the Seasons
Law of the Two-Humped Camel
Spring
Fall
Summer
Winter
Summer
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Moving Forward (How Do You Do It?)

• Launch the new service in a small, more intimate
  setting and not the large worship facility. Use
  a mid size youth center or Sunday School room.
• Announce plans for going to a new service or
  additional service days at least seven weeks
  before. Do a weekly countdown to the big event
  in order to maintain excitement and continue
  enlistment.

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What Does a Seven-Week Countdown Look Like?

• Lets take a look.

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Week Seven

• Begin drawing attention to the need for
  developing new service formats, being sure not to
  limit them to Sunday only as you speak broadly.
• Offer ideas you and the key lay leadership are
  praying through.
• Ask members to pray for new services success and
  growth.

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Week Six

• Have a Questions and Answers fact sheet
  available for a worship insert that answers most
  positive and negative questions ahead of time in
  a positive way.
• Begin talking privately to individuals from whom
  you would want early commitments.

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Week Five

• Ask laity to begin praying about their commitment
  to and involvement in the new service or
  services.
• Be clear as to the style and format of the new
  services.
• Point people to the need for targeted services if
  you are going that way.
• Continue making countdown announcements.

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Week Four

• Have elders and deacon members share testimonies
  and support of the new service or services.
• Seek commitments from half of those leaders to
  attend and contribute leadership for that new
  service.
• Continue to enlist attendees and ministry
  leaders. Hand out commitment cards.
• Call all of these seed members.
• Continue making countdown announcements.

63
Week Three

• Have key lay leaders share their commitment to
  the new service.
• Share the names of key leaders making the
  commitment to attend the new service.
• Have someone in the church who has visited
  another church with multiple services to share
  his or her experiences. Have their testimony
  include why they are planning on attending the
  new service.
• Mail out an announcement letter to fringe members
  and prospects.
• Collect commitment cards from members in all
  existing services.
• Continue making countdown announcements.

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Week Two

• Pastors, share benefits and vision with
  congregation via a visual presentation clarifying
  the new service format and style.
• Have the new band lead worship this week for
  practice and recruitment purposes.
• Meet with seed members for a luncheon and worker
  enlistment time. (Hand out token gift coffee
  mug, key chain, etc.)
• Ask for continual prayer and commitment.

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Week Two

• Follow up with fringe members and prospects by
  phone.
• Place ad in newspapers.
• Put lawn signs out all over target area.
• Additionally, every attendee ought to place one
  (lawn sign) on their home lawn or outside their
  subdivision.
• Invite the press to write a feature on your new
  service launch.
• Continue making countdown announcements.

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Week One

• Share the number of seed members who have
  volunteered.
• Hold a commissioning service and have them come
  forward for the church to pray over them.
• Build the excitement towards the new service as
  if you were commissioning missionaries for the
  field.
• Send reminder cards to all enlisted members and
  fringe members or prospects.
• Continue making countdown announcements.

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Launch Day!

• Preach the same message you preached or will
  preach at the other services.

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Launch Day!

• Dont talk about the similarities of all
  services.
• Speak about their differences and magnify them!

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Things That Could be Magnified

• Music
• Dress
• Style
• Niche
• Energy

• Energy
• Volume
• Expression
• Singing

70
Dont Forget the Preschool!

• Remember that a nursery is a necessity in new
  services unless you do a Singles service on a
  Friday night or Saturday.
• Start small and grow with the growth.
• Provide full preschool once the service grows to
  full size.

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At the 120 Day mark, begin your analysis of the
new service or services.Improve what needs
improving and continue to develop your worship
format!
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Six Key Questions to Ask in Analyzing Your
Results

1. Did the total attendance of the church go up with
   the addition of the new service or services?
   (Compare this to the past two years at the same
   time.)
2. How do your people feel about the church now?
3. What about your seed workers? Have they grown in
   Christ?
4. Have new people been added and reached for Christ
   in all services that might not have been reached?
5. Is there any difference in the churchs income?
   fringe members?
6. Would people miss the extra service?

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What other churches are doing in this field

• Sunday formats
• 700 AM Break of Day (The Cafe)
• 800 AM First Watch (Traditions or Classic)
• 915 AM Contemporary (CBC Live)
• 1045 AM Blended
• 1230PM Blended
• 700 PM Niche Targets

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What Other Churches are Doing in This Field

• Other Day Formats
• Saturday Evening
• 530 PM Contemporary
• 645 PM Revved up with Intense Music
• 645 PM Jazz Format
• 645 PM Country Music Church
• Friday Night
• 630 PM Dinner and the Bible
• 745 PM Re-charged Singles Service and Coffee
  House
• Thursday Night
• 730 Thursday Night Thunder (Edge music)

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Additional Helps
76
Congregation Prayer Card

• We realize that every great undertaking for God
  must be faithfully undergirded with fervent
  prayer. We therefore commit to pray faithfully
  for the success of our churchs new worship
  services.
• Couples name__________________
• Address_______________________
• _______________________________
• Phone_______________
• Pray without ceasing 1 Thessalonians 517, KJV).

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Some Issues to Be Considered in Moving to
Multiple Services

• How will multiple services enable you to further
  reach your target area?
• What are your plans for future worship service
  expansion?
• Have you thought through the issue of maintaining
  the rhythm of expanding and enlarging as compared
  to expanding and daughtering.
• Have you faced the parking challenges for adding
  extra services?

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Some Issues to Be Considered in Moving to
Multiple Services

• Have you considered a video-linked overflow room
  for worship?
• Have you developed a rationale for adding two
  Saturday night worship services?
• How will any new services be staffed? Are you
  adding business or adding workers?
• Who could serve as additional band members or
  additional praise team members?
• How can you effectively minister to the children
  during additional worship services?

79
Some Issues to Be Considered in Moving to
Multiple Services

• Have you looked at large-group childrens
  ministry as a viable tool during Saturday
  services? This is what is called theater for
  children and by children.
• Who are the key opinion leaders that can help you
  with this change?
• Have you asked the question What would our
  preferred future look like if we were at 150 of
  our present capacity?

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Some Issues to Be Considered in Moving to
Multiple Services

• Have you asked, What should we be doing and not
  doing?
• What is a realistic time line for bringing this
  into reality?
• What are you going to do with 100 growth in
  people?

81
Others to be Added Shortly

• Thank you,
• Tom Cheyney