Best Practices for Adding a Second Service

One of the most difficult transitions a church can make is moving to multiple services. When done well, multiplying services has the ability to rally and unite a church together for an exciting kingdom cause. Or, if done or communicated poorly, it can divide, discourage, and drain the people of your church.

I don't claim to have done it well or be an expert on this in any way. I'm sure there are many fantastic articles and blogs on how to do this, but it's one of the questions I get asked the most about from fellow pastors. We're also currently exploring adding a third service so I thought it a good time to revisit what we learned about adding a second service.

By God's grace, our multiplication from one to two services was a positive experience that has led to health and growth in our church and, most importantly, reaching more people with the Good News.

Here's some of our story as well as tips and suggestions to help you if you're considering adding a service.

Our Story

I can't communicate the full story, but you can watch a 5-minute version of it HERE.

Our church, which had been around for sixty years, had always been a one service church and never had more than 80 people in average attendance before we arrived in 2015. The year before we arrived it averaged 48 people on Sunday mornings and was dwindling fast. So growth and expansion was new territory.

But as we consistently got into the hundreds, we started thinking ahead. Not counting COVID-impacted years, we have grown on average by 40% annually, so the writing was on the wall that we would soon run out of space in our fairly small (at that point) sanctuary. So, tip #1 is:

1. Plan Ahead

Even if it feels far away, you should start thinking about and planning (in faith) for when you will add another service. Hopefully you keep good statistics so you can monitor your growth trends. You should have a "trigger point" in mind already of when you would start moving toward adding a service. That obviously will depend on the size of your meeting space.

The well-known "rule" is that once you reach 70-80% capacity in your space, you are out of room. Because we planned ahead, we were ready to start moving as soon as we reached 75% capacity.

That doesn't mean you will immediately add a second service once you hit that capacity. In fact, I think it's a good idea for people to feel the discomfort of being overcrowded and experiencing the lack of space and parking for a few months. It will make it easier to convince everyone of the need (or you won't even have to convince them). But you'll already have been planning behind the scenes well before you hit that 70-80% mark because once you do, it's time to act fairly quickly.

2. Cast Vision & Encourage Faith

Almost nothing is more important than how you cast vision and communicate what's happening with your church.

As with all vision casting, the key is always starting with the "why" more than the "how." People will naturally want to know how we will do this or that (which we'll get to). But first you must convince them of why. Give the statistics, show the growth trajectory, and don't be afraid to communicate this is a regular part of being a Great Commission church. This should be the norm!

Frequently communicate that God is the author of the growth and will therefore be the author of the resources needed to support the growth. This is God's idea! God is adding the numbers and will supply the need. This is not something we have to do, rather it is something God is inviting us to participate in. If God is sending people, we need to make room!

The only alternative is to stop growing and to essentially turn people away.

People are willing to do things that are difficult, and even do them joyfully, if they find them meaningful and worthwhile. It's not convenient to move to multiple services, but the gospel isn't always convenient! Growing and multiplying is hard work and requires greater participation from everyone. But making new disciples is a part of the mission of the church and that goes hand in hand with growth. Comfortable Christians don't change history.

So make sure people's first question isn't "how will this affect me? Is this good or bad for me?"

For the most part the church will love growing, so speak into the vision of what's happening. Explain that this is not a loss, but a gain. This is like planting a new church and is something to rejoice about! We get to be a part of something groundbreaking. Which leads us to the next suggestion:

3. Focus on the Benefits

It's easy to focus on all the things that will be harder or might be lost in the transition to two services. But it's important to emphasize all the benefits and positives. There are so many, but here's just two examples of things to communicate to your church or your staff.

1) You can care for people better.

I find that about 200 people per service is the max I can do and still say hello to almost everyone, meet every guest, and be able to look out and see who's there and who's not.

Therefore, having multiple services of slightly smaller groups is preferred from a pastoral perspective. This applies to kids ministry as well where your leader to kids ratio will improve immediately.

But this also applies to the average parishioner. Going to two services keeps each service more intimate and keeps the "family feel" that people want from a church. I believe that it way better serves your church and community to have multiple services than to build a 1,000 seat sanctuary.

We're now a "big" church that almost 1,000 people call home, which is about 2-4% of our population depending on where you make the cutoff. But people constantly comment on the intimate, family feel that they experience here. We don't look, feel, or act like a big church.

2) Who Doesn't Love Options?!

If you want to serve your community well and reach people, the more options you give them the better. Most studies consistently show a church will experience almost an immediate 20-30% bump in attendance when they add a service. Why? First, I believe God responds to our faith and sends people. But on a practical level, having more time options helps.

Once we moved to 9am & 11am, many people commented how having an earlier service option would allow them to attend and still make it to their kids' soccer or baseball game, get to work on time, sleep in, go to their family outing, etc. I know the ideal is people prioritize and protect their Sunday mornings, but you have to be realistic about the culture we live in and what you can expect, especially from pre-Christians.

A great example is our Christmas Eve services. Over the years our Christmas Eve attendance has jumped from 78 to over 700 as we found the more options we gave people, the more people we reached. As much as I wish everyone prioritized corporate worship above all other activities on Christmas Eve, they are planning other get-togethers. Once we started giving people multiple options form morning to night, we were able to engage more people in the thing that matters most at Christmas: worshipping Jesus.

We live in a culture not inclined to come to church, so we should remove every possible barrier within our power. We likely have to work harder than any generation in Canadian history to make church a viable option for people. Embrace the challenge!

Those are some of the most important, big picture items. But here's some lists of other things to consider that I hope will help you and your church.