I posted the following on this blog on 7.26.09 and I thought I would repost it as these changes are now only 11-12 days away. I will also talk about these changes this coming Sunday in the services. So, without further adieu:
A GOOD PROBLEM TO HAVE, BUT A PROBLEM NONETHELESS:
The living community of God called NEHBC continues to experience growing pains as we face a constant challenge to accommodate the new people the Lord is adding to our number while working out of a very limited amount of space.
Our 10am bible study hour and 11:10am worship hour are maxed out. Here are some of the challenges we are facing:
- It is summer time and people are sitting in the wings at the 11:10 worship hour. For reasons unknown to me, this is the service visitors like to attend and rarely do they arrive on time. The place is packed and everyone is standing and singing when the guests arrive and they can't find seats. They won't sit in the wings for too many weeks before they move on. What will it be like in the Fall?
- The parking ministry regularly tells me we were down to only a handful of parking spaces and on some occasions, we have run out of parking spaces. What will it be like in the Fall?
- There are no rooms left for our ministry to teens to grow at the 10am hour. There is no more space for the multiplication of classes. What will it be like as the Fall progresses?
- There are no more rooms left for our ministry to adults to grow at the 10am hour and we have classes that need to multiply. There is no more space for the multiplication of classes. What will we do as the Fall progresses?
THE OBJECTIVE
The objective is to open up a significant number of seats at 11:10am worship and get some classes out of the 10am hour--both adult and teen.
At any cost. Disciple making requires sacrifice on our parts. Consider: 1. Jesus who left Heaven to come to earth AND took on the form of man AND died on the cross just so you could become a disciple. 2. Philippians 1—we recently journeyed through this chapter during our Sunday morning services and had the Holy Spirit teach us that the loss of personal freedom, reputation, and even our very lives for the advancement of the Gospel is a worthy exchange. We are fixing to practice that truth as a church family. The changes we will experience on 8.23.09 will not be anywhere near that serious, but if we are going to continue to make disciples, we, the Northeast Houston family are going to have to make some sacrifices in the arena of convenience and personal preferences.
WHAT WILL IT TAKE TO OPEN UP SEATS IN THE 11:10AM WORSHIP AND 10AM BIBLE STUDY?
1. Starting Aug 23, we will offer preschool ministry for 3 years and under during the 8:45am worship hour. This means a family of almost any season of life can have their corporate worship time at 8:45am and go to bible study at 10am and be finished for the morning. I'm praying there are a bunch of folks who worship at 11:10am that will switch to the 8:45am.
The 8:45am preschool ministry will of course be more than childcare. It is a disicple making ministry for preschoolers. As to the number of classrooms we will open up, we will start with what we need and open up more as the need arises.
2. The Sunday morning ministry to teens has to start offering bible study at two hours: 10am and 11:10am. After consulting with countless youth ministries and consultants who meet in multiple hours on Sunday mornings, I have decided it is better to offer ministry to middle schoolers at one hour and high schoolers at the other, rather than offer both ministries at the same hour. Countless people in youth ministry have told me that if one offers both middle school and high school at both hours, the core group ends up together at one hour and the fringe kids at the other. The fringe group never takes off and they end up moving away. So, staring August 23, we will offer ministry to high schoolers at the 10am hour and middle schoolers at the 11:10am hour.
(This is a good thing in two regards: 1. It means we can be more strategic in ministering to middle schoolers and high schoolers. Currently, they all meet in one hour and I think it causes both the youngest and oldest teens to suffer a little bit. By separating the age groups, our youth pastor and his team can be more strategic in focusing on each during their own bible study hour. 2. This will allow plenty of room for both the middle school and high school ministries to continue to expand and multiply.)
Admittedly, this is a huge inconvenience for families who have a high schooler and a middle schooler because it means they as a family will be split over multiple bible study hours. I hate it has come to this, but it has because we haven't yet completed our expansion project on the facility and yet we must continue to make disciples of more and more people. I'm praying we have families who are willing to pay the price for us to continue to make disciples of the additional people coming in.
3. We are going to move some 10am adult bible study classes to the 11:10am hour starting on August 23. We have not got all the details worked out yet, but we simply MUST free up seats in the 11:10am worship service AND free up rooms for classes to grow and multiply.
WHAT I NEED FROM YOU:
1. The local church is the only institution that exists for the people not yet inside the institution. I need you to be willing to be inconvenienced and make sacrifices in order to allow us to make disciples of even more people. Your class may be moved to a different hour, your class may multiply into two classes, or your class may stay the course . . . for now. You may have to worship and attend bible study on a different schedule than you do currently. Please be marked by the words, flexible and sacrificial.
2. If you worship at 11:10am, I need you to move to the 8:45am or 10am hour. I cannot be more clear: if you do not have to be in the 11:10am service because of other commitments, please get out of the 11:10am service and attend one of the others. You are taking up seats we need for visitors.
3. Remember, we are doing this for the glory of God. We want to make His glory known to as many people as we can.
WHEN IS ALL THIS GOING TO HAPPEN:
The changes will go into effect on Sunday, August 23.
If you attend bible study, your teacher will give you advanced notice of changes to your class. I will post the changes to my blog here. I will also be discussing the changes in our Sunday morning services. I want everyone to know what is going on.
THE REAL SOLUTION
The real solution to all this is that we get the expansion of our facility done. This new Sunday morning set up is not ideal and certainly not a long term commitment, but one forced on us due to space issues. I hope we get the expansion done soon so this will just be a temporary solution to our growth challenges.
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