They Need Your Seat

Must read from Pastor Jeff:

Yes, that’s right. It is time once again to ask people to SWITCH SERVICES! I don’t usually post on the blog our attendance #’s for our Sunday worship experiences, but in this case, if you are an Elementer you need to understand what we are facing. PLEASE Element Church, pass the word and do what you can to help us continue to reach more people for Jesus by considering coming to first service. Your seat, could literally be someone elses chance to have their life changed for ETERNITY. Check it out!

This past Sunday we had 913 people in church. First off, THAT IS STINKIN’ CRAZY and PRAISE GOD! Second, we are running out of room…EXCEPT in first service. In our worship center Sunday, we had 174 people first service, 256 second service and 249 third service. We have some more chairs we can put out but we are bumping the 80% full mark (the standard “too full” benchmark for churches) nearly every week. We will never fill every chair, human nature and comfort-ability factors limit that, and the front row just never fills up. Then when you throw in our kids space issue it gets even worse. We had 219 kids on Sunday. 53, 76 and 90 in our three worship experiences. The nursery area alone second service is starting to overflow. First of all, we are starting a short term, physical solution to our e:kidz space issues as we a staff as we speak, but second, it is going to be a comfort issue for a lot of new people coming to our church if we DON’T solve this problem short term, right now. (Part of our September 19th and 26th services here at Element will be unveiling the LONG TERM solution to our space issues. Don’t miss it!)

Bill Hybels says “Empty seats at optimal inviting hours = growth every time!” Our optimal inviting hour is 10 am. It is by far, and most regularly, the highest attended worship experience, AND I GET THAT! 10 AM would be the service I would want to attend if I weren’t the pastor. However, if you are a Christian and you call Element home I want to challenge you to view it a different way. If I told you today “This coming Sunday, there is a family who won’t hear about Jesus unless you come to first service.” You’d most likely come to first service without even batting an eye. But what if I said “There is POTENTIALLY a family, EVERY WEEK, who won’t hear about Jesus unless you come to first service.” What would your response be?

You might think I’m over dramatic or making too much of a big deal about it, but I take VERY seriously the ONE OPPORTUNITY we get each Sunday to potentially offer the Life of Christ to someone that can change their life for ETERNITY. This coming Sunday is our ONE chance to reach that family for Jesus that MIGHT never attend again if we don’t have room. For me, it’s not a big deal, it’s the ONLY deal!

I know not everyone CAN or will decide to move to first service, however, would you consider doing this VERY small thing in an effort to sacrifice your comfort for the sake of someone else’s eternity?

Looking for you in first service,

Jeff