Why Two Services

A Pastor from North Dakota once said to me, “My wife does a great job with our children’s ministry, but she hasn’t’ been able to attend a church service in about a year and a half.” “Wow,” I thought, “This is a problem! But it sounds like you are married to one of the most gracious ladies in the world!”

Many of us understand his dilemma. We are very thankful for our faithful volunteers that love children and serve Jesus by serving them, but their faithfulness and the lack of additional volunteers keeps them from being spiritually fed on a Sunday morning.

What’s the answer to this dilemma? Two services. Now, don’t panic. Right now, I can hear many of you saying, “We are not large enough to go to two services. ”But don’t think of this as a size issue. I’m not saying to go to two services because you are bursting at the seams and need more space. Rather, think of two services as an opportunity to make sure that your children’s ministers and volunteers have a chance to worship with the other adults and be spiritually fed.

When we, at Believers Church, only had one service, our children’s minister came to me and said, “Would you please consider a second service before the 11 am service, just for Children’s ministers and volunteers?”

She had a better understanding than I did of what we now teach at Believers Church.

If you want to be spiritually healthy, it’s all about diet and exercise.

Isn’t that what your doctor tells you every time you go to his office? No matter what you came to see him for, he will tell you before you leave, “You need to eat a better diet and you need to get more exercise. ”Ugh, I know you hate to hear that every time, but you know it’s coming and you know that it’s true.

So, just like our physical health and wellbeing, to be spiritual healthy, you must eat a proper diet of God’s Word. Then at some point push back from the table and stretch your spiritual muscles, exercising your gifts and talents to serve Jesus and others.

So, at the children’s minister’s suggestion, we started a second service just for our children’s workers. At first it was scaled down a bit, and there was no children’s ministry available at this service. It was not the ideal situation, because some of our volunteers attending the service had children too. It was better than nothing, though, and the volunteers were getting spiritually fed before they served (or exercised) during the second, larger service.

Shortly after we started doing this pre-service service for Children’s workers, other people who weren’t children’s volunteers started to attend as well. As this service continued to grow, someone saw the need for a nursery in this first service and started to volunteer in that area. Then others stepped up and started to volunteer and serve the older children in the first service as well. It helped when they realized if they came in and served in the first service, they could still attend the second service.

Attend One, Serve One

Before we knew it, we were able to offer two identical services with children’s ministry in both and of course, a full band, guest services, and all the other volunteers needed to pull off any given service.

With diet and exercise in mind, we encouraged the people to “Attend One, Serve One.”

Some people like to physically exercise before they eat, and others like to eat first and then exercise. We found this was true with the volunteer teams as well.

Even though our decision to go to two services was not about size, we did inadvertently grow numerically because of going to two identical services. And yes, our volunteer base doubled and continued to grow.

I believe one of the greatest advantages of going to two services was that we could offer that opportunity to “Attend One, Serve One.” Because it’s all about diet and exercise to be spiritually healthy; and healthy things, healthy people, healthy churches- they grow.

How’s the spiritual health of your people? I’m not concerned with what size your church is, because it’s not about size. We are called to equip the saints for the work of ministry and two services increases the opportunities to do just that.

Consider ways to help your church eat a healthy diet and rather than becoming spiritually obese, push back from the table and exercise their spiritual muscles as they serve others.

Pastor Scott Moore

05-04-22

Believers Church of Statesboro