Addin another service

Murph, a local Wesleyan Church put up a million dollar church and still has two services Sunday morning, no evening service.

Their experience is that the congregation divides between the younger families attending in the morning whilst their children attend Sunday School and the older folks attend the later service.

Virtually the same people attend the mid-week and social services. It hasn't been going for a summer yet, so it will be interesting to see what happens to the two services.

In my mind, this is why Baptist churches traditionally started a second work rather than double the services.

Cheers, and all the best with the work. God bless.

Jim

 

We have had two services for some time.

I am personally glad because the few times I have gone to the early service, it has been pretty close to dead. Amazing that 125 to 170 attend this service. Go figure.

The more vibrant service is at 1045. We have from 275 to 450 attending this service. On easter, this service had 575.


If it meant combining styles again, I would not ever recommend going back.

 

We have had two services for a long time, a third service just never worked out. Our first service is at 9:15, the second at 11:00.

We have two worship teams that serve one month on, one month off. Each team does both services when they are on.

For a while each service had a different type of music, Traditional (hymns) verses contemporary Christian music. It was quite a topic for disunity for a while. Eventually the contemporary service became so crowded and the traditional service became so sparsely attended that despite the loud vocal chorus during congregational meeting that demanded a traditional service we had to go to both services being contemporary. The people voted with their attendance.

Three services worked the pastor too much. He did not have time to greet the members and mingle.

You may have a problem with different crowds from the different services but that is counter-balanced with an overall growth in the congregation. Bring the whole group together during special church events.

 

I think it really depends upon many variables. Is it possible to split the preaching duties. Is the split to accomodate different worship style preferences? etc. I am at a mission church that was started because the vast majority of the members wanted to go to a more contemporary type of service. They decided to set up a mission church and about 10 of the old members and the senior pastor went and started the mission. 3 years into it we have 75 or so members and 60 or so regular attenders on average. Of course, we do a country gospel/hym format. The key is to explore different options and through prayer, decide what is God's will for your church. I personally like a small church, but the megachurches typically offer more amenities and opportunities to be ministered to and to minister. I will pray that God leads your church to make the best decision for His purpose for your church.