One Lord, One Faith, Two Services
April 1, 1996
In most churches thirty years old or older, the original worship service looked much like the one last Sunday. The songs, message, schedule, and style are predictable and comfortable. These services provide genuine spiritual nourishment for regular attenders. If they were dissatisfied, they wouldn't keep coming back. At the same time, many churches older than thirty years are struggling to reach unchurched people in their community. The worship attendance in 83 percent of all such churches in America is plateaued or in decline. Half of the 242,000 churches that fall into this category did not add one new member last year through conversion. And research consistently tells us that the majority of people not active in a church regard traditional church services as boring and irrelevant. That's why I believe most churches in North America should be offering at least two different worship services and styles every Sunday. 3 ADVANTAGES OF 2 SERVICES
Adding a second service gives you several advantages. - You can reach new groups of people. The worship service is still the primary way for new people to become involved in most churches. People usually decide to regularly attend a church based on their experience in worship.
It's important to know who is attracted by your present service, because not everyone will find it attractive. A target audience will fall into one of six groups (See box on next page).
Most of today's churches target either the top center or top right box. The important insight for pastors and worship leaders is that one style of service will not effectively reach more than one group. If you desire to increase attendance in your existing service, focus on people in your community who are already part of your target audience. But if you desire to reach new groups of people, you will need a new style of service.
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