FAQs about Multiple Services

When will the multiple services begin?

We will be offering two morning worship gatherings beginning on Sunday October 18, 2009. The times of the gatherings will be 9:15 am and 11:00 am.

Why multiple services?

There are a series of factors that went into our decision to move to multiple services. The first factor was our need to make room for more people. Our morning worship gatherings have been growing and the growth has been across the generations. Our adult congregation is growing, including our children and student ministries. People generally like their personal space and when that personal space is infringed upon, comfort levels are diminished and desire to ‘return for more’ is less likely. We have been at 80% capacity in most of our support rooms – Nursery, Toddler Village, Kindergarten Corner, Lobby and Hallways for many months now. We recently had 514 and 546 respectively in two back to back Sundays which created a ‘space-challenge’. Our Auditorium is quite full on most Sundays and this has presented us with the need to prayerfully consider how we can ‘make room’ for others. We are so privileged and thankful that Jesus has seen fit to entrust more and more people to our care. As we read and understand the gospels, making room for more people seems extremely consistent with the heart of Jesus. He was always making room for others – no cost was too great – including laying down his life - and in that dying moment, he still reached out to the one who asked for ‘him to make room for him’! Jesus is always broadening the circle to let others in ... to make room for the. In fact, the Scriptures teach us that this is what he is doing now - preparing a place for us, and we're glad he is. At King Street Church, we are committed to aligning our heart to God’s heart. We want to be about the Father’s business and he is deeply committed to reaching more and more people with his love and grace and so should we. Our options included:

1. Establish a Satellite congregation in another part of our Region.
2. Build an expanded facility.
3. Add another Worship Gathering.

As our leadership team prayerfully explored our options, we felt it most prudent at this time to provide another worship gathering. Another consideration was the stewardship of our facility and the volunteer opportunities that multiple services affords our church-family. We believe that when churches are at their very best, everyone has a volunteer service opportunity. We are creating more opportunities for people to serve and it’s good. Becoming a disciple of Christ includes finding a place of service. Multiple services helps us with this objective.

What time will the Worship Gatherings start?

Our first service will begin at 9:15 am and our second gathering will begin at 11 am.

What is the Connecting Place?

We felt it was important to provide an opportunity for people in our church-family to have a ‘connecting place’ – where people from the early service and the later service can ‘reconnect’. We realize that not everyone will take advantage of this opportunity, but providing it is important. At 10:30 AM, the people gathering at the 9:15 AM service can go to the Connecting Place for coffee, juice and muffins. The people who are gathering for worship at 11 AM can come early and have some light refreshments as well. This will provide a setting for people to connect from both Gatherings. We hope you will consider staying a little later following the first service or come early for the second and have a visit with others in our church-family. Much of church-life is intended to be relational and so we welcome opportunities to grow relationally.

Will the Worship Gatherings be identical?

Yes. Apart from the individual work of the Spirit (which we couldn’t program if we tried), each Worship Service will have the same worship set(s) and message. The same preaching / teaching pastor and worship leader will be leading / speaking at each gathering. We are not targeting specific generations in the different services, but each Worship Gathering will be inter-generational in its approach.

Will King Street Church remain multi-generational?

Absolutely. This is a deeply held value of ours.

How can I volunteer?

We are in the process of needing help in the following areas and if you would like to volunteer, you can contact the appropriate ministry director to get more details. We do believe at King that God has given each of us the ability to do certain things well and if you are interested in taking a spiritual gift inventory to help you uncover where God has gifted you – you can learn more at http://buildingchurch.net/g2s-i.htm

• Ushering – .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
• Children’s Ministry – .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
• Connecting Place – .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
• Sound / Video – .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

It takes a whole church-community to accomplish all that God calls a church to do. Each of us has a role to play in ‘making room’ for more people.

Will there be times on the calendar when we gather again for one service?

Yes. We will gather for one worship celebration during the months of July and August each summer, for specific weekends in December and for Good Friday. Our Church-family BBQ each year in June will signal our move to one service for the summer months. Our Christmas Eve Gathering may become ‘multiple gatherings’ – those decisions will be made as we get closer to the date and we are more fully aware of the effective reach of our church family.

What about our children’s ministry?

Our Children’s Ministry will offer concurrent programming during both morning worship gatherings. Kindergarten Corner will likely merge with Toddler Village during the early day of our 9:15 am service. We will offer identical programming for the children during both services.

Why did we not keep our second service at 10:30 am?

We moved our second service from 10:30 am to 11:00 am to simply help the early service be at a reasonable hour. The success of the first service is critical for us to truly make room for more people. We are looking for a critical mass of 100 people for our first worship gathering and we feel this is more likely if we start at 9:15 am. Psychologically, 9:00 am or earlier feels ‘too early’ for many people and so these service times were chosen because we felt that it would serve the church-family best if we provided a mid-morning ‘first’ option.

What about our monthly leadership breakfasts?

We are committed to developing the volunteer leaders in our church-family and have received very positive feedback from these 9 am breakfasts. The good news is that close to 165 people gathered for our leadership breakfasts and a time that’s fifteen minutes earlier than our first service in the fall of 2009, which means we believe the 9:15 am service could be very well attended. We are in the process of thinking about the best time on the calendar to offer the leadership development opportunities. We’ve been talking about having bi-monthly leadership luncheons; but we will make a decision as we get closer to the multiple service launch and after receiving more input and feedback from our volunteer teams.