No Problems – You Don’t Need A Miracle!
Hey Friends,
We live in a culture of softness. We want a painless, problem-free life. We want to be insured, insulated, and isolated from anything that might cause suffering. Who wouldn’t? One problem I find is that we all want to see miracles, but no one wants to need one. Every miracle is the answer to a problem or issue. If we are going to walk by faith we are going to need some miracles. What do you need?
At FPC we need some miracles. We are just about out of space – again. To be a part of leading a rapidly growing church has its share of problems. We all have problems, most just don’t want them! I would love some help, insight, and any ideas of what to do next.
We are in 9 services on the weekend: 2 Saturday evening, 3 Sunday morning, 2 Internet, and 2 Sunday morning in our overflow worship center. Our rapidly growing services are 10:00 and 11:45 a.m. (8:30 is not growing because our people don’t think God is up at 8:30!) We will hit 3500 soon and we will be gridlocked. I must tell you, I’m in over my head. Being in the deep end of the pool sure helps your prayer life!
God is moving and many are being saved and are growing up in the Lord. It is so exciting, but what will we do? We must keep growing; people’s lives are at stake! What would you do if you were me? I would love to hear your thoughts.
We are better together.
Pastor
9 Comments
Wow…i never looked at it as nine services. God is packing it out isnt He? lol
hmmmm…you want US to think of some ideas?! lol ok…
how about an outside church? scoop up the set up from the Worlds Fair Park and set it over on the additional land…or build you own. We could still have church in the buildings BUT for those who don’t have to be insulated we can party outside!
Or…instead of building on the other property…use the same set up as you have in the past for the forth of July outfront, then create additional parking space on the new property and use the old spaces for lawn chairs etc.
Ha! realistic? i dont know…ur the brains pastor Chris!
God is probably laughing at us right now…and about to blow our minds with what He is going to do. keep going bro!
Pastor, I’ve thought some in recent weeks of what your Sunday must be like every week. You get up early to be awake and prepared for the 8:30 and then you don’t get a decent break for lunch until 1PM. I enjoy eating, so I can’t help thinking that that’s a long time between breakfast and lunch.
I used to think that FPC could just add a 1PM service on Sunday, but I’m thinking that adding additional service times for you to lead is too much. I don’t know how it would go over with the congregation, but this might be a nice opportunity to train a future chuch leader. I think FPC will need another service before the new worship center is done. Work with another church leader to develop the message, and then let him give one of the weekend messages… you can rotate him around, sometimes the 8:30 service, sometimes the 1PM service, occasionally maybe an 11:45 service or 10:00 service. Then, in time, you have a mature church leader who is ready to lead a satellite campus or another church.
Just a random thought…
@ Lee, Love ya man. thanks
@ Andy, thanks bro, keep the ideas coming.
I just want you to know that even though you’re packed out, I don’t feel guilty about beginning my journey at your church this week
The thoughts that come to my mind when pondering rapid and unfathomed growth lead me to think about when Jesus fed the 5,000. By that, I mean, if we have chosen to follow Faith Promise, then the Lord will provide for you a way to keep feeding us (with the WORD.) I’ll keep it in my prayers, but as sure as the sun shines, I believe the Lord will provide for Faith Promise, and I’m proud to be a part of such a joyous and fulfilling problem.
Keep up the good work Dr. Stephens. You truly are a shining light.
My wife and I responded to an altar call two weeks ago or so, and all I could do say when I hit my knees was “God we need a miracle” and He has provided this in the form of peace and assurance that all will be well for our children and the results of a custody evaluation. Praise Him!
Pastor,
When I was taught by Toyota in Japan they really stressed to teach our managers and engineers that problems are an opportunity to do our job. Problems are also an opportunity for us to better hear from God. He will show you how to handle this growing problem.
3 ideas –
1) drop 8:30 Sunday and move it to 1:30 pm. But the whole worship team might die from hunger before the end of the 1 pm service. (unless everyone eats a hearty breakfast first)
2) drop 8:30 Sunday and move it to Sunday late afternoon/evening. It could even be a ‘family service’ for the entire family, from newborns on up, with no provided child care or Kid K’Nex.
3) Add incentives for Sunday early morning attendance?
Hey Chris,
My wife and I just moved here and have been attending FP since about March. We moved from an Assembly of God church near our residence in Springfield, MO. This church (James River Assembly – pastor John Lindell) has grown from less than a couple hundred in attendance to over 10,000 each weekend in (approx.) 15 years. They’ve got 3,000 volunteers each week that keep things going and recently recorded over 110,000 guestimated attendance at their annual July4 fireworks show which requires 2,600+ volunteers…..awesome, blessed, insane, wow….all good words to describe what God has done there. A few of the transitions I’ve seen/heard/been a part of at that church during those years were pretty dynamic to say the least….similar to what FP is needing now with what God is doing. A blessed situation to be in. It’s a wonderful testimony to be in a spot where the outcomes of the situation can ONLY point to the Lord because they’re so big. There’s not a lot of ‘convincing’ you’ve got to do in situations like that.
I began listing some of the things I’ve been a part of, but realized this is just a blog comment…so I’d be happy to meet with you sometime to share some of the things they did to make the transition/s. In the meantime, you can check them out at http://www.jamesriver.org. They recently opened, less than a year ago, a second campus (WilsonsCreekCampus) about 10-15 minutes drive away from their main (JamesRiver) campus. There’s a link on the site that will let you see either campus.
Have a great rest of the week. My wife and I will be praying for you. See you Saturday evening.
Blessed to be a blessing. -J
Pastor,
Just to provide some additional ideas, I have read where some of the world’s largest mega churches only allow their members to attend one service per month. I realize this would create quite a problem with our western mindsets but it may be something to think about. Instead of adding more services and demanding more of our resources, why not limit the number of services one can attend. This would could potentially have three positive effects: (1)increase the value that each member places on each service, (2) increase the amount of volunteers serving because if they wanted to come to church on a weekend that wasn’t their assigned weekend, they wouldn’t have any choice but to serve somewhere, and (3) increase the amount of participation in small groups because the members would be looking for ways to fill in the new gaps created by the lack of actual worship services.
Obviously, this is HUGE shift in culture and may be exactly the opposite direction from anything FP would ever want to do but it may create some further dialogue about possible solutions.