Fastbreak: Are Your Service Times Optimal to Reach New People?

In this episode, Dave Workman explores the art and science of changing the service times of your church. Whether you have one service each weekend or five, the question to tackle is: are your current times optimal for reaching new people? With a real-life coaching example, Dave advises a pastor in a large church to rethink their service times. And if they change them, how to communicate that to the congregation in a way that avoids negative factions of “church angst”.

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Transcript

Welcome to the Elemental Leaders Fast Break podcast. A quick download to jumpstart your leadership. Visit us at ElementalGroup.org for more resources and free downloads. 

Hey everyone, this is Dave Workman with the Elemental Group. I have one question to ponder today. Are your service times optimal to reach new people? 

Some years back I was coaching a pastor in a large metro area. I suggested that they consider changing their service times. The church accommodated about 900 people each weekend in four services. Two on Saturday night, 5 and 6:45 pm. And two on Sunday morning, 9 and 10:45 am. The first one on Saturday night was okay, but the second one was super sparse. The common theory on two Saturday night services was, it's easier to piggyback services and retain volunteers, as in serve one and attend one. But I think a larger issue is the lack of energy and sense of momentum when a new person enters a barely filled large room. The vibe is, no one really wants to be here. And for my user-friendly, invitational bent, creating welcoming environments is a really big deal. 

We suggested merging the two Saturday services into one and creating a more enticing and energized context. Sunday morning was okay at 9 am, but certainly had a lot of room to grow. The 10.45 service was the heaviest attended. Our suggestion was to cut about 10 to 15 minutes of fluff from their often 75 to 80 minute services. In most churches, every service and sermon have unnecessary fluff, redundancy and over-information. And then we suggested readjusting their times to 9:30 and 11 am, making them more attractional and receptive to invitation and balanced time-wise. The problem was, how to communicate this to the congregation? Will it feel like a takeaway? And for notoriously consumeristic American Christians, what will convince them it's for the better? 

We advised the pastor to be bold and brave. Don't worry about the complainers, but communicate well. You want to mention: One, your church's history. Two, the values related to that history. And three, why these changes are important to do. I suggested that he say something like this in each service. 

Hey, we have some exciting news about our weekend services. From the earliest days of our church, we wanted to create a place that anyone could come to. A safe place to hear the dangerous message of Jesus and his radical love. Even this series we're currently in, Coming Home, is all about wanting everyone to find their home in God's heart. And because of our deep belief that all people are valued by God, we want to make sure that our times to invite people are optimal. Since Sunday is typically when most people check out a church or explore the faith, we want to shift our services so that we can reach as many people as possible who are apt to come during that prime time. So in two weeks, we're shifting our service times to 9.30 and 11. We want to make it as easy as possible for you to invite your friends and family, and we believe these are the optimal times. Not too early, not too late. And then on Saturday nights, we're combining our two services into one to make it as exciting and energized as ever so that new people who come in can see how awesome it is to be in a room filled with people who actually want to be in church. People like you. The whole reason for doing this is to make a much more inviting and motivating environment for you to bring the people you know who don't yet know Jesus. It's really all about creating the best possible context for those exploring the faith. And as we've always said, it's not about us. It's about God and others. This isn't a private party. So in two weeks, we'll be having one room filled energized service at 5 p.m. 

And then I suggested that at the Saturday 6:45 p.m. service, that would be closing to say something like this. So for the 6:45 gang here, please join us at the 5 p.m. service and make it a more energizing, welcoming service. Invite your coworkers, family and friends to 5 p.m. and then take them out for dinner. Let's use this time to bring as many people as possible to Jesus. 

And then I suggested he just launch headlong and energetically into a sermon. The truth is, the pastor got zero pushback afterwards. Good thoughtful communication is critical because people want to know why something is changing. If you don't communicate well, they'll assign their own reason to it. And it may be discouraging or inaccurate. 

Thanks for listening to this fast break podcast. Visit us at elementalgroup.org for more resources and free downloads.