Nov/17/2009 11:01 AM
This blog entry is part of an 8-part series on “Seven Things in Seven Months.” It is all about the fact that God is growing The Orchard Church much faster than anyone expected or hoped. The LAST thing we want to do is to LIMIT that growth, so we are going to jump on preparing the ground by doing these “Seven things” over the next “seven months.” To see all SEVEN of the things (so far) just click here to list the Seven Things blog category.
I think I am just as shocked as anyone at what we’re seeing. Did you know that 75% of churches in North America have fewer than 100 people in them? Our goal will never be to post great attendance numbers... Our goal is to see God glorified, and to contribute to building the Kingdom! And we are seeing that! There were four people that turned their lives over to Christ in the service just last week!
After only 6 months, our weekly worship service is already crowded. Packed. As in, FULL. The researchers tell us that once your room gets to about 80% full, that growth stops happening. In other words, people will only come if they feel like they have somewhere to comfortably sit! For us, our capacity in the movie theater is only about 140. That is packing it in shoulder-to-shoulder with no chairs to spare. This past Sunday, AFTER you subtract the children’s ministry, we had 168 in the main room (and “The Overlook”). Nearly EVERY chair was full in the big room, EVERY seat was full in the overflow room, and people were standing and sitting in the aisle. God is up to something!
Now, I fully expect that we will see a bit of a lull on Sunday mornings over the next few weeks, due to the holidays being here, but in January, if we hope to be able to see any new growth AT ALL, we have GOT to open up more space. SO, adding a second service is the route we’ve chosen to do that. Some of the advantages are:
- immediate seating capacity increase from 140 to 280.
- No extra cost
- No extra equipment to buy
VERY IMPORTANT: The purpose of adding a second service is NOT to “divide” our group into two smaller groups. The goal is GROWTH. We simply want to be more available for more blessing. If a farmer wants a bigger harvest, he’ll have to plant in a bigger field. This is one of our ways of increasing the size of the field for the seeds of God’s Word to be sown into. The harvest is plentiful.
There are plenty of logistics involved that we will still have to work out. It is harder than just saying “okay, next week we will have two services.” Nope, we have to work out scheduling, logistics, and staffing for quite a few positions. But, if God continues to lead us this way, HE will work it all out! Praise God that we get to be part of something so incredible! Nov/07/2009 12:21 PM
This blog entry is part of an 8-part series on “Seven Things in Seven Months.” It is all about the fact that God is growing The Orchard Church much faster than anyone expected or hoped. The LAST thing we want to do is to LIMIT that growth, so we are going to jump on preparing the ground by doing these “Seven things” over the next “seven months.” To see all SEVEN of the things (so far) just click here to list the Seven Things blog category.
We love children! What an awesome blessing we have in the ERA space right next to the movie theater! It provides a space that we can store our equipment in during the week, but much more importantly, it gives us a place to create an environment where kids can be secure, fall in love with God’s Word, and begin to discover their role in the Body of Christ!
Just in case you don’t know the situation, we currently rent that space on a month-to-month basis. We also sub-lease to the ERA so they can maintain an office and signage in Ellijay. (their main office is in Canton.) This works out very well for us, because we pay a greatly reduced amount for rent. BUT, we have a couple of drawbacks:
First, since we don’t hold a lease on that space, it is possible that the landlord could rent it right out from underneath us. We know the economy is bad, and that this isn’t that likely... But it is possible, therefore, it is a little irresponsible on our part.
Second, since we don’t hold a lease, we are unable to reconfigure the space to more fully meet our needs. It is very functional now, but with some wall-moving, it could really become sweet.
If we are going to have over 200 people in worship, we will just NEED to make more room for preschoolers and babies... SO, that’s why we really need to secure the ERA and reconfigure it. This will mean a significant jump in the amount of rent we pay each month, because the lease price is higher than the current month-to-month price. This represents a challenge to this young, young church. We haven’t reached the stability/maturity position of being able to pay that monthly rent money yet, and choosing this course will mean that we all have to step it up a little bit.
The GREAT news is that I have several church-planting friends who’s churches are meeting in schools, movie theaters, and other public venues. THEY are all paying TONS of money each month to rent their auditorium space, IN ADDITION to the money they pay to rent their children’s space. AND most of have to pack up everything the church owns into a trailer and haul it in and out each week. One friend of mine pays $500 each WEEK to rent out the school gym for their services, plus money for children’s space on top of that!
Our great friends, Jeremy and Hannah Towns own the East Towne Cinemas movie theater and are EXCEEDINGLY gracious to us by letting us meet RENT-FREE! This is SUCH a blessing, and creates a lot of breathing room in our budget to be able to do some other things.
Still, we are brand new, and our money is very tight. Please be in prayer that God will work this all out for HIS glory! Nov/07/2009 11:54 AM
“I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them. Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity. This is good and pleases God our Savior, who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth.”
1 Timothy 2:1
Prayer isn’t for changing God’s mind... Prayer is getting our hearts in line with His will and His Spirit. It helps us continually recognize our complete dependence on Him. Nothing we do as individuals, or as a body, will ever matter outside of prayer. I have been a christian for over two decades now, and am still amazed that the King of the Universe would allow me the privilege of boldly His throne!
Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come boldly and confidently into God’s presence.
Ephesians 3:12
God has DEFINITELY been blessing us in an amazing way, and we want to be sensitive to Him, and to what He wants to do next. He is sending us out to do battle in a dark, dying world... We need the covering of prayer protecting us, guiding us, and opening doors for ministry. I believe that ongoing prayer is vital to what we are about. Here are just a few ways I would love to see that happen:
- Prayer during the worship services each week
- Daily/Weekly prayer team meeting to pray for specific prayer requests
- Prayer for our Partners, who are working hard in ministry
- Prayer for our strategic partnerships as God works through us and them
Man, I really love the Prayer Twitter feed that we have set up... It is a great way to get immediate prayer needs out in the open so people can pray right away. (if you haven’t signed up for our prayer feed, check the bottom of this blog entry for how you can do that!) BUT, not all prayer requests really need to be that open. Some people have some specific requests that need to be between a small group of people and God. It would be great if we had a team that prayed on a daily basis in this way.
I would like to invite you to pray about joining our prayer ministry as we get ready to get it started. If you’re interested, I would love to know about it! Please email me at stevedusek@orchardellijay.com.
To see all the “Seven Things” blog entries so far, just click HERE.
To join our Prayer Twitter, just use your cellphone! Text follow orchardprayer to: 40404. It really is that easy. From then on, prayer notifications will be texted right to your cellphone. You can also follow us on your computer by going to www.twitter.com/orchardprayer and clicking the big green “Join Today” button. Oct/31/2009 12:17 AM
You may have noticed that my good friend, Tony Balfa built a brand new sign for the corner near the Wal Mart! The new sign is perfect... It is much more permanent in it’s build quality than the old one ever was, and we got a new, RED banner to go in it! It just looks great!
With this new, more permanent sign, I feel like we are making a real statement. Doug Moore calls it “staking a claim on Ellijay,” and I think I like that. We just celebrated our six-month anniversary since our launch, and I feel like we are really getting some momentum going. We are HERE TO STAY, and we are HERE to CHANGE THE WORLD. We have a real heart to see God change hearts in Ellijay, and we just want to be part of it!
They told us that we would probably stall out at around 30. Fifty, if we were lucky. And that is after a year of ministry in Ellijay. The church growth experts say that all churches experience a growth barrier at 65. The next barrier is at 120. Churches all over the world just plain hit these barriers, and tend to stop growing.
The Orchard Church has been amazingly blessed by God. We’ve blown right by all of those expectations. After praying and seeking wise counsel, I believe that our first growth barrier is going to be at 250! Yep, 250. Nobody could have forseen that we would be having over 120 on a regular basis just six months into our ministry here in Ellijay. Nobody would have known that we would see dozens of people turn their lives over to Christ. We literally have people WAITING to be baptized!! How cool is that?? We are feeding families, clothing people, and doing all sorts of ministry in the name of Jesus.
We are SIX months old, and we are already bumping up on the capacity of our auditorium. Our life groups are already filling up. If we don’t watch out, we are going to LIMIT our own growth potential just because we aren’t ready for what God wants to do NEXT.
God has called us to something HUGE!
We’ve only just gotten started, but we have a lot to do. We’re experiencing much more growth that we ever anticipated, and we are seeing God do some incredible things. I was talking with our board this week, and we are setting some pretty high goals, aiming for these SEVEN things over the next SEVEN months. These are BIG things, requiring us to really buckle in and get it done... Here they are, in no particular order:
1. Develop a deeper PRAYER ministry
2. Have several BIG DAYS, including Christmas Eve, Super Bowl Sunday, and Easter
3. Add a SECOND SUNDAY AM SERVICE
4. SECURE and BUILDOUT the ERA for Children’s Ministry
5. Launch Elementary-age Children’s Ministry
6. Launch Youth Ministry
7. Launch more Life Groups!
This represents a lot, and it will mean a lot of people getting in on serving on a regular basis, but we are SEEING GOD WORK, and it is our privilege to partner with Him! Keep watching this space for more detail on what each of these seven things mean for our group. The fact is, we are running out of space in the movie theater, the lobby, and in the preschool area (the ERA next door to the theater). What a great problem to have!
As I look at this list of seven things... I can’t help but think that the answer to all of these things lies with PEOPLE. You know, it isn’t my responsibility to grow the church... it is God’s. Jesus called the ball on that one in Matthew when he said “...I will build my church.” But, I also know that it is my privilege to partner with him in that growth! God has given MANY people with gifts to the church to build it up into maturity and unity in Him! (Check it: Ephesians 4:11-16) So, I have to wonder... As we move into each of these seven things... WHO will God use? Who will God send? Who will God work through? Will it be you?
To see all the “Seven Things” blog entries so far, just click HERE.
