Why add a new service?

Despite the fact that it has planted twelve new churches, it continues to grow, with 20 percent of its new members being recent converts.

Westminster Presbyterian Church in Duluth, Minnesota, was a declining church in an aging community. By 1992 worship attendance averaged 40 per Sunday, and the church had not reached anyone for Christ in over five years. "They wanted to grow but didn't know how," said Chuck Laird, who was called as senior pastor in 1993. Two years later Westminster added a new worship service to reach baby boomers. By the end of the year the church was averaging over 200 in combined attendance—the highest in its 33-year history. Says Laird: "I believe God would have this church approaching 1,000 within five years. But it will never happen with only two services."

Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Carrollton, Texas, begins its weekly worship services like most other Lutheran churches— with a traditional, liturgical service. By the end of the week, however, the church has conducted three more services, each distinct in focus and style. Each service attracts people entirely different from the traditional Lutherans who attend on Sunday mornings. "Each time we added a worship hour," says Rev. Steve Wagner, "our attendance in creased by 21 percent. I am amazed at the power of the worship style to define the character of the congregation attending. Offering distinctive choices simply allows more people to identify with our church and hear our message—the gospel of Jesus Christ."

These churches represent hundreds of congregations across the United States. New phrases are entering our vocabulary: "alternative service," "contemporary service," "Saturday-night service," "multi-congregational church," "seeker sensitive," "seeker targeted," or simply "second service" (or "third" or "eighth"). But the issue is the same: "Should we add another service? If so, when? And how?"

Seven reasons for a new service

I was recently part of a comprehensive five-year study conducted by Church Growth, Inc. (Monrovia, California) analyzing churches that had added a new worship service. The outcome was a detailed strategy that greatly increases the probability of any church successfully beginning a new worship service.¹ One outcome of this study was the conclusion that approximately half of the 315,000 churches in the U.S. could add a differently styled worship service to their weekly activities, and of those, eight of ten would experience a measurable in crease in total attendance, total giving, and total conversions.

Following are seven reasons why your church should add a new worship service:

To reach the unchurched

Of all the reasons to begin a new service, this should be the most compelling. To reach non-Christians should be cause enough for the churches currently plateaued or declining. Why do new services increase the number of people a church reaches with the gospel of Jesus Christ?

A new service focuses your church's attention on the unchurched. Starting a new service has many similarities to starting a new church. Those who have been part of planting a new church know the strong sense of mission, group spirit, and excitement that comes with planning to reach new people. These dynamics also occur when a church becomes involved in starting a new service. Like a new church, a new service focuses on people not presently involved in a church. Members must ask "who the new service is for," "why we are starting a new service," and "how these people are going to be reached." These questions—and the answers—lead a church beyond its own walls to those not presently active.

A new service helps you repackage your message. "In order to reach our communities with the unchanging truth and love of Jesus Christ," observes Rev. Arnell Arn Tessoni, "we may be required to remove the cultural wrapping in which we have cloaked the good news. Frequently it is not the Word of God people are rejecting as irrelevant. It is the outdated clothing in which we have dressed our Lord."²

Certain forms and liturgies become almost "sacred" to those who have grown up with them. For many sincere and well-meaning folk there is only one "right" way to worship and only one "right" music to sing and play. Anything other than the familiar worship patterns will never seem "right."

Starting a new style of service will force your church to ask an important question: "What are our forms and what is our essence"? What are the changeable conventions by which we conduct church activities? And what are the essential ingredients that comprise our unchanging message?

A new service allows your members to invite their friends. Research shows that the primary way churches grow is through members inviting their friends and relatives.³ However, most members of non-growing churches do not invite anyone.⁴ Why? Be cause they don't believe their friends or relatives would find the service interesting or relevant. When a church offers a new service that is relevant, appropriate, and well-presented, church members show a dramatic interest in inviting others.

To minister to more Christians

Eighty percent of the congregations that move from one worship experience to two find that their overall attendance jumps by at least 10 percent.⁵ Whether the new service is for those who prefer contemporary music or parents who want to worship with their children in a family service, the more options you provide, the more people you will reach.

People today want choices. Businesses know that the more variety of products they offer, the more people will select one. One major soft-drink company offers nine choices of cola alone. Ford Motor Company offers seven lines of cars with a huge variety of color and interior options. The insight is crucial for churches in today's world of choices.

When people have a choice beyond the "take it or leave it" point. When they are able to choose when, what, how, or where they may meet. When their choices are in creased, we greatly increase the chances of more people saying Yes to at least one of the options being offered.

To reach new kinds of people

A new service will not only help you reach more non-Christians and minister to more Christians; it will help you, instead, reach different kinds of people from those you are presently reaching. Here's why. The worship service is the primary entrance for people to become involved in congregational life. Visitors decide to become active in a church based largely on their experience in and around the worship service. And, like it or not, your service is attractive to some people, while not attractive to others. "The simple truth is that worship cannot be culturally neutral," says James White.⁶ No single service can be all things to all people. Consequently, it is most important to ask the question: "Who finds our present service attractive?"

Most church services appeal to one (and generally only one) of the following six groups. The accompanying grid can help you consider the people to whom your existing service is attractive. And, by default, it will identify those who do not find your service attractive.

To whom is our present service most attractive?

A mistake some churches make, in an effort to broaden the generational and/or spiritual range of people attracted to their existing service, is to diversify the music or liturgical style. In so doing most churches actually diminish the effectiveness of their present service among every people group, including their predominant one.

One style of service will not effectively reach or minister to a large number of persons in more than one of these six segments. If you desire to increase attendance in your existing service, then the best strategy is to find and focus on people in your community who are in the same category as those already comprising a majority of your present audience. But if you desire to reach new kinds of people in your community (from different "people groups" than are attending your present service), you will need a new service with a style focused on this group.

To break out of your normal lifecycle

The life-cycle of a church is both normal and predictable.⁷ It is a law that simply exists. And, like it or not, all churches—including yours—are subject to it. The life-cycle describes a local church's infancy, maturity, and death. The sobering fact is that at least 80 percent of the churches in America today are on the flat or back side of their lifecycles^.8

Graphically, a typical church life-cycle looks like this:

In the early stages of a church's life, there is a high sense of mission among all involved. The church is purpose-driven. Its motivation is outreach. And the result is growth. As the formative years give way to time, the church reaches a comfortable size and generally stops growing. An emerging pattern of institutionalization is reflected in the increasing number of committees and the decreasing degree of accomplishment. The final stage of the lifecycle—decline—often begins around a church's fortieth or fiftieth birthday. Few, if any, members reflect the passion of the founders. Decline in worship attendance begins. And most people, including the staff, believe the church's best days are behind them.

But what about those churches that rise above this predictable lifecycle pattern and experience growth beyond the first twenty to thirty years? As we have studied and charted the growth of churches that "don't fit the mold," a fascinating pattern emerges. Rather than a constant or linear pattern of growth that one might expect, growing churches that have broken out of their predictable lifecycle reflect a "stair step" pattern of growth.

Here's a key insight: Most churches that are growing at a time when they should be plateaued or declining have begun new lifecycles! Something has interrupted the church's normal pattern — I call it an "intervention event" — a new lifecycle has begun before the old lifecycle has pulled them into decline or death.

Here is a list of intervention events that may (but not always do) initiate a new life-cycle in a church:⁹ change of pastors; a crisis; planting a church; closing and reopening a church; renewal of a pastor; renewal of laity; denominational involvement; outside consultant; relocation; a new service.

Of all the controllable intervention events that can begin a new lifecycle, the establishing of a new worship service is the most likely to do so. Or, more directly: The best way to begin a new lifecycle is to begin a new service.

To allow for change while retaining the familiar

If you wish to attract new kinds of people to your worship service, you have essentially three options. Each option results in a fairly predictable outcome:

1. Completely redesign your present service.

Outcome: This approach will indeed reach new people and potentially be the be ginning of a new lifecycle in a church. The cost may be a considerable loss of present members who become unhappy and leave.

2. Incorporate more variety into your existing service.

Outcome: This strategy aims at providing a service for a wider range of people to find something they like. A few old hymns mixed with contemporary praise songs plus a couple 1960s choruses should make everyone happy. But in the effort to provide a service where everyone finds something they like, you have created a service where everyone finds something they don't like.

With both options, the financial implications should not go overlooked. Those who will leave because of the change in style are frequently larger givers than those who will be attracted.

3. Add an additional service that offers a clear choice of styles.

Outcome: This option is based on an important principle of innovation: Change through addition will be more successful than change through substitution. If church members feel they are losing something of value (i.e., "their" service), even though it may be for a seemingly worthwhile cause, many will resist it believing that the benefit is not worth the cost. Through adding a new style service, without deleting your existing one, you double your outreach and ministry potential while allowing those members who prefer the present service to continue receiving their spiritual nourishment.

To activate inactive members

In studying churches that have added a new style service, I have frequently ob served a serendipitous benefit—a decrease in the percentage of inactive members. In a typical American church, approximately forty percent of the membership attend the weekly service. Reasons for inactivity vary. But regardless of the cause, the people who stay away are non-verbally saying: The cost of attending is not worth the benefit. It is not uncommon, however, to see a new style service boost the member attendance percentages from a range of 40 percent to 60 plus.

Once a formerly active member stops attending church for longer than six months, it generally becomes too uncomfortable and too embarrassing for that person to return. A new service, however, provides a perfect "excuse" for many inactives to give that church a second chance. While they won't usually return to the church they left, some inactives will return to something new. When sensitively invited, 15 to 20 percent of resident inactive members can be expected to try your new service.

To help your denomination survive

Denominational church families that desire to be effective and vital in the twenty-first century must see a large percentage of their churches participating in one of two growth strategies: establishing new churches and/or starting new services.

Church growth specialists consider that starting new congregations is the single most important activity for assuring the future of a denomination. Creation of new style services among existing churches is the second most important strategy. When a large number of churches in a denomination are starting new services to reach a new target audience, they are in effect accomplishing many of the same goals and realizing many of the benefits inherent in planting a new church.

So, try a new service

Many church leaders read about the success stories or attend the seminars of churches that seem to have "figured it all out." How easy it seems for them and how difficult for us.

I won't be so presumptuous as to suggest that a new service in your church is the simple solution to all your problems. But I can tell you, with utmost certainty, there is opportunity in your church for new growth and outreach. As long as there are unreached people groups in your community, there is an opportunity for God's love to be shared with them. For many of these people, it may well be experienced through a new service, and a new service may be one of the best applications of Paul's great principle of be coming all things to all people in order to win some.