Two Services, Church Splits, and Staying Focused

Even though school doesn't start back in this area until this coming week, we still have had record crowds today which goes against our historical trends ... we aren't complaining but we cannot get to two services soon enough!! Just a few thoughts on going to 2 services:
1) We are going to two services before we hit 80% full. Some folks like Searcy at The Journey Church say 70% is the new 80%. Either way we are attempting to use the launch of the 2nd service to create the big mo' and acclerate our growth by giving people an additional option and freeing up space both in our theatre and in our preschool areas AND challenging our regulars to be evangelistic!

2) We are expecting growth. I think we as church leaders need to EXPECT God to grow our church in the spirit of the Great Commission. There are a million things that can keep a church FROM growing but only one legitimate source that causes a church TO grow ... and that is God! I find that when our work meshes with what God already wants to do ... it is a powerful combination. God wants to redeem people, wants people to worship Him, wants people to be transformed by the Truth ... so we can and should EXPECT God to bless these efforts.

A church in town just split. We picked up a few from that church in our service today. Always interesting to hear people's reactions to Rock Bridge. But as always our challenge is to remain focused, to not compromise the vision of our church, and to be WHO we are and nothing more.

P.S. -- If you haven't read Thom Rainer's new book, Simple Church. I'd highly recommend it. Church plants can so easily do what he suggests in building a church with a simple yet strategic process for making disciples. Church plants by nature have to be simple but we need to STAY simple even as we grow. The challenge is to be strategically simple to maximize effectiveness in producing disciples. This book shows us how and verbalizes a lot of what many of us already think. Good stuff!