Praise and prayer

[Esoteric]

So yesterday was our first non-holiday Sunday to have 1500 attendance (we regularly get 2000+ on holidays)! I know it is not all about the numbers, but it took 3 years to get to that level. Also last year was the first church budget in excess of $1,000,000. Nice milestones to reach inside of 5 years.

Also be praying that our leaders do not jump too fast. We just moved into a new building last year and are still working the bugs out of the systems (the initial designers and installer had no idea what they were doing and I was brought in to clean things up, and I am still cleaning today), but there has been talk among the leadership of going multi-campus. We really are not ready for it technically. They don't even have a technical director on staff. One campus is nearly overwhelming for them, I just don't want them to jump until they are actually ready to have excellence at both campuses.

Mike

[tedanderson]

Awesome! And this type of growth is indicative to the success of the ministry.

Anyone can pack out their church on Christmas, Easter, and Mother's Day but when people want to come to church on a regular Sunday, it's evident that something has to be going right. And this is not to say that smaller churches aren't succeeding with their mission but when church numbers are increasing without any increased amount of marketing or promotion, that usually means that people are learning about the church via word of mouth.

[cmchamp]

praying for continued growth, and His guidance and wisdom for the leadership and yourself.

[churchsoundguy]

Very cool! Good job!

[chelsking]

Nice!

[Esoteric]

Update:

Well, our current room holds 350 comfortably, and 450 with folding chairs, and 550 standing room only (with as many as 655 having been crammed in for Easter or Christmas), and is a very make shift room (low ceilings, lack of stage depth, no projection spaces for RP, an electrical room so full of junk you can't get anything out, much less get to any of the dimmer racks or panels).

Well I hear from the Worship Pastor (and verified with a member of the Board of Directors) that the Pastors have been fasting and praying over a decision to possibly expand their existing space.

The plan had been to wait 5-8 years and build an entirely new building (they have 16 acres of land) when the current one was 80% paid off.

Well now they are considering building on. Which is fine, except from what I have heard, the proposed plan would be a room that seats 600 with only 20 foot ceilings and the same stage footprint. There are also no plans to bring in a consultant (a mistake that happened the first time and there are SO many problems from that decision that I spent a 4 page email pointing them out).

I see the same problems happening again that happened the first time. Money is making the final decisions, and I am just praying that they take the correct steps instead of putting a band-aid over a severed limb.

Mike

[[Admin] osborn4]

Assisting you in prayer. Sounds like all need to proceed cautiously.

[Esoteric]

Update.

After a few meetings it was decided the overcrowding had to be addressed (duh), and 3 options were realistically explored. A new worship center, another service time, or a new campus.

Well, the new worship center idea was dismissed because of the expense. They would only be able to build a 600 seat worship center which is only a 100-150 person increase over our current worship center. So this idea was scrapped.

Another service seemed like the best solution to me. A Saturday night service would cost nothing monetarily, and Saturday night services are very popular around here. We know it would start with a critical mass, but the Pastors dismissed this idea for two reasons. First of all they are unsure it would sustain critical mass, secondly they didn't want to take another day away from their family (even though they get Friday and a floating day off and would be done at 12:30 on Sunday).

So that left us with another campus. This church has always had the vision to be a multi-campus congregation, but the thought was that it would be further in the future. But this option was chosen as it was seen as the best compromise.

After talking with the Worship Pastor today I learned the plans for this campus. Not only did this not ease my mind but it really gave me even more worries.

First off the plan is to start with one worship at the other campus and to have services at 9 (current campus), 10 (new campus), 11 (current), and 4:30 (current). I have a huge issue with this on several levels. First of all it means that our Pastors have to drive from the current campus, 8-20 miles after their message to the other campus so as to be present at both campuses every Sunday. There is no plan in place for traffic, accidents, etc that are bound to occur. Next we have the same number of services, which I do not see how it solves the overcrowding problem. Then the Pastors "hope" that people will attend the new campus. They know that they will have a certain level of attendance, but it is no where near enough to justify a new campus, but they are functioning on an if you build it they will come attitude. Finally, we just got to the point where volunteers are getting a good rotation and we only have one band and one Producer, so that means we are facing a manpower shortage.

Then they are going about this, not as a main and satellite campuses, but in an Egalitarian approach. We are not even allowed to call the new campus a satellite, it is just a new campus. Of course, all the offices are at the old campus, the production capabilities of the old campus will be significantly better, the musicians will be better (our "backup" worship band is no where near as good as our regular Sunday morning band, except maybe at drummer), we talk about visiting the "other campus", there will not be as much programming at the other campus, the list of inequities goes on and on (heck, they might not even have their own space, they might be portable).

So for the first time since I have been going to this church I am not so sure of the choices of the leadership. Once the choice is made I will try my best to make it happen, but I honestly thing that in this case they are making the wrong decision.

Please pray that whatever decision they make, it will be God honoring, and now that I have expressed my concerns, I will be able to be at peace with whatever decision they make.

Mike

[jksbc]

Wow Mike, That's a lot to pray about. But, our God is bigger than all of it. I'm praying for you.