The 6PM Experiment

As you know, we launched our 4-service Sunday schedule just a few weeks ago. While it creates a long day for our staff and volunteers, it is going amazingly well and I am really excited about it. It is also a necessity given the limited size of our chapel and parking (this is a good time to remind you about the 150 Day Challenge and why we are pursuing properties and multi-site!)

One of the cool things it has allowed us to do is really differentiate each service and also to experiment a lot more with music, creativity, liturgy, and more.

I know many churches try to re-create the exact same experience (same music, creative elements, etc) at each of their weekend services. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. But in our context, mixing it up seems to make more sense. We are committed to having one message, but diverse experiences. That means the message will be the same at all our services, including multi-site.

All of that is to say that the 6PM service has become are most experimental service. We have added a "talk back" discussion time to the service after the message, set-up a coffee bar in the chapel, and moved to a more open and less liturgical communion time. Over the next few weeks we will also be experimenting with more prayer ministry time, lingering, and extended worship.

This Sunday, we will start are newest experiment: video-based teaching.

The sermon for the 6PM will come by video from one of our earlier services starting this week. There are three reasons we are experimenting with this:

1. To continue to reach more people, we need to challenge the existing paradigms. As we pursue a multi-site strategy and prepare to launch our Manchester campus this spring, we will need to use video-based teaching. Experimenting with it now will allow us to learn and get it right before launching a new site.

2. I am committed to creating a sustainable and healthy pace for our staff. While I think it is reasonable to preach three times in one day, four pushes the limits and would not be sustainable. Using video teaching on-site allows us to open up more seats while still maintaining a reasonable and sustainable pace.

3. We think that for many people, the video-based teaching will actually be preferred. It allows us to do some additional things at the service (like talk-back, etc). I think it is going to be a big winner for many -- and we want to test the hypothesis.

I recognize that some folks will never like video teaching. That is OK. We will always have at least three "live teaching venues". But I think many will embrace it and like it and it will allow us to leverage Kingdom resources effectively to help more people ENCOUNTER God TOGETHER and BECOME fully devoted to following Him!

I'll let you know how the experiment goes...