I am not sure where your church is at when it comes to growth, building space, and resources. Central . . . growth has been off the chart for the past 4 years. Building space is maxed out. Resources . . . extremely limited. So, the leadership got together and started thinking outside the box. We have 5 services every weekend. 2 on Saturday night and 3 on Sunday. Sunday's 10:20 and 11:45 services have been at "max" capacity (85%+) for the past 6 months. As you probably know . . . when a church runs out of seats at the most opportune service times, it will stop growing. What we know is this . . .1) We will not be building another building any time soon. 2) We really do not think that 6 services is an option. (many reasons for this). 3) We are trying to reach every person we can in the Las Vegas valley.
So . . .we had to answer a simple question: How do we move people to Saturday night?
Here are several steps that we have taken . . .only time will tell whether or not we are successful.
- Vision Vision Vision: Yeah . . .a pretty logical step. Jud Wilhite (our Sr. Pastor) has sold the vision for people moving to Saturday night services.
- Fun: All of our age specific environments have added a "fun" element to their programming. Just simple, age specific pieces that we only do on Saturday Night. Jr. High now gives out free pizza. FREE PIZZA. Simple, yet has created a real cool atmosphere on Saturday night. Plus it is cheap! Central Kidz has started "double point Saturdays". If you attend a Saturday night service you get double points for bringing your Bible or bringing back your parent sheet signed. Our Preschool ministry has launched a "parents perk" program.
- Family Event: Last night we showed the movie CARS after the last Saturday night service. The movie was shown in our main auditorium . . .Blue Ray DVD . . .1080 P on a massive screen. It looked amazing. What was even more amazing then that . . . we had over 1300 kids - parents - grand parents- stay for it. It was an amazing "family" event . . . plus a great opportunity for families to check out a Saturday night service.
I could keep going . . .but here is the point. There are simple things that you can do to create space and keep reaching unconnected people for Christ. Don't let a building stop from fulfilling God's mission of the church.
