Hey Element Church! You can read posts #1 and 2 HERE and HERE. Like I’ve said, this has been sitting in my brain, welling up within. Thought it was about time to post. When should a church move to a permanent location? When is it right to build or not to? I’ve been honest with my struggle of whether we get a building or not. I have many fears about it but these questions I’m posing here have, over the past months, help me answer “YES!” for Element that at this time we need a building.
3. Do you need more room? To be honest, if we didn’t need more space, I’m not sure we’d consider moving to a new location. I LOVE the feel of the theater. YES, the theater has brought headaches but lets be real, we couldn’t have done church the way we have, without it. A portable location is TOTALLY non threatening. “You meet in a theater? COOL!” Heard that a lot. Mainly from UN-churched people. Seats are already there. You can’t beat stadium seating. The acoustics are amazing. But we ran out of space.
We launched in October with 200 people. By November we made the pain staking choice of going to two services. By the end of January we were closing in on 400 and needing to look for options. We crested 500 3 or 4 times this Spring and tried the staggered third service and probably averaged 20 people in there. It just didn’t open up enough seats. Our last 10 weeks we averaged 458 people. When we first met in the theater we swore we couldn’t do over 400.
The space issue had to be resolved. Will having more space MAKE us grow? NO! BUT it gives us the ABILITY to grow! I know some people are going to take this the wrong way but I’m going to say it. I don’t think God wants His church to NOT grow. I TOTALLY understand that there are all types of churches and church sizes. It doesn’t mean that if a church isn’t growing it is not in God’s will. It DOES mean that if a church isn’t willing to do what it takes to grow they might. It sure seems obvious to me that God MIGHT want to bring more people to Element Church. HOPEFULLY it is people who do NOT know Jesus or are disconnected from church and looking to find their way back home. Whatever the case, we have reached our ceiling and I think it behooves us to enable ourselves the ability to reach more people.
Is it possible we’ll move into the new building and not grow? SURE! But I tend to believe that greater things are yet to come. I just want to be faithful. This was one of the biggest factors in our decision. It was just too full. When first time guests get shoved into the front row, it’s not a good thing. We want the experience to be welcoming, inviting and comfortable for all who attend.
Following Christ,
Jeff
