Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Breaking the 200 Barrier

I mentioned publicly at the beginning of the year our resolutions for 2008.
The first was getting the Sunday service started. We are doing it! Awesome.

Now we move onto our next resolution:
Seeing 200 people in worship by Easter.
Easter is only 4 weeks away.
We've had as many as 160.
We better get bringing!

Why do I care about breaking the 200 barrier? I'm glad I asked myself that again, because too quickly this can become a numbers game. Here are some reasons...
  • Every number represents a person, and we are all about people.
  • More than 300,000 PEOPLE in London never go to church, and therefore we can only assume have never been invited to worship, feel far from God, and are craving a connection with God and people.
  • Our team works really hard, and I think everyone in London would be blessed by our service.
  • Because I love our church I can genuinely say that I just want to share in a good thing, is that so wrong?!
  • Our auditorium seats 350- why not want to fill it up?
  • The theatre has 9 other auditoriums seating over 1000, why not fill them up?
  • I like big events! I like the energy. The more the merrier I say.
  • God desires worship- the more the merrier He says! (Revelation 5:13)
  • We want to see people far from God come close to God- getting an invitation and being brought to worship is a great way to make that happen.
  • As the service grows it's proof that we are making more connections with the community.
Lastly, let me say why the push to break 200 right at the start of our church-

It's really easy to get stuck in a rut. 200 people is a very manageable rut. Getting out means breaking molds. You have to let go of the reins and expand the organization- staff must be hired, roles clarified, responsibilities divided, etc.

Getting past 200, I believe, will almost guarantee that our church will continue to grow. It's kind of the "all or nothing" principle. If we can't keep our church all wrapped up in a little group, then we might as well let nothing stop our growth! 200, 2000, whatever- we might as well keep moving forward!

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