The results are in. 130 households representing roughly 250 adults and children completed the second service survey. As we compiled that data, a few things became clear about your preferences:: Given the choice between attending an 11AM service, and just about any other time slot (such as 9AM, 1PM, 5PM), you overwhelmingly chose the 11AM service. What that told us was that if we added a second service at 9AM, or 1PM, or 5PM, most of you would stay put and keep on attending at 11AM. This of course would do little in freeing up space for growth. However, when given the option of attending a 10AM or 12NOON service, suddenly you spread out a little more. A significant percentage of you seemed to like the idea of sleeping in later, enjoying a leisurely sunday bruch and then attending the 12NOON service. This was the spread we were looking for and that was the biggest deciding factor in choosing the 10 & 12 format.

What about terra nova kids? Without a doubt, the 10AM service will be the bigger one and will offer full nursery and QUEST right through 6^th grade as we do now at the 11AM service (Parents overwhelmingly chose the 10AM). The 12NOON will be the same exact service as the 10 with the exception of childcare. At this point, we are planning to only offer childcare for nursery-aged children at this later service.

When will the shift happen and why then? We will launch the two service format on September 7^th, 2008. Some of you might be thinking .  . . why wait? The answer comes down to the make up of the church. On any given week, as much as 30% of those in attendance are college students. When the college students go home, attendance drops by as much as 20%. With the end of the semester just around the corner, our attendance will soon drop just enough to give us space to continue to grow throughout the summer. So, just as the students begin to arrive back on campus and families finish up summer vacations, we will be ready to add much needed space on Sundays.

What about logistics? How will we recruit and train enough volunteers to pull this off? How many volunteers will end up being at church for both services? How will they eat? These are all questions that we are working on carefully as a team of pastors. Our goal is that very few people would actually be serving at both services (probably just the band, and whoever is preaching). Our hope is that some of you will be willing at times, to serve at one service and attend the other service. (Primarily, this impacts the people who volunteer with Terra Nova Kids.) Right now, if you are serving with TN kids, you are missing church that week. Period. Once we go to two services, that won’t be the case anymore. Beyond this, we are working on some systems that will allow us to implement a second service with a minimal number of additional volunteers. Some teams (such as backline) will probably be separated into a set up and tear down team. And Delicious plans to open on Sundays when we go to two services. There are a million other details that need to be worked out. Know that we are actively pursuing solutions to all of these logistic issues and we have plenty of time to do so. Know also that there will be bugs to be worked out as we do this and we appreciate your patience with that.

Thanks again for all the prayer you offered while the pastors were on retreat last week. Please continue to pray for the pastors and key volunteers that are working hard to see that this new chapter in Terra’s history happens smoothly. God has blessed this community with an amazing number of capable and committed people. It is a sincere joy to watch people find their niche in the church and do their part to build the monastery so that in our everyday lives we are freed up and trained up to live the mission. Feel free to email questions to serviceexpansion@terranovachurch.org . Remember that on May 26th, we will take a sunday morning to explain the direction that we believe God is calling us as pastors to lead the church over the next 24 months or so. Lot’s of questions will be answered that day and we would encourage you to put that sunday on your calendars now and plan to be in town and at sunday worship.