You probably have heard that we are going through some changes at North Side. I’ve got lot’s to blog about where we are heading. To make it simple, we are uniting our church. 3 services down to 2. 2 styles of worship down to 1. Adding some programming so that we can have a flip flop schedule on Sunday morning which will help families worship together and grow together.
Let me talk to you concerning how this affects families with children still at home. I was asked this weekend by a church member if the additional hour of children’s programming will be something different than the first hour. The answer is yes!
This united schedule provides an hour of worship and an hour of discipleship for EVERY age. Many people are choosing to spend an hour at worship and an hour at service. Either way, there is something different. All of the options, except for Sonshine service, will be repeated.
CASE STUDY: Let’s say you are married, have a child in middle school, elementary school, and preschool. In the new schedule, you could come to worship at 9:30. Your middle schooler and elementary schooler would join you in worship. Your preschooler would go to Little Church (it’s hard for you and them at that age to stay focused in “big church”). Half way through the service, your elementary schooler would hear the message in the chapel in a way they could better understand it.
At the 11:00 hour, your middle schooler has a discipleship group available, so does your elementary schooler and your preschooler. You do too (we are adding some new groups in the Fall – more on that later). You could either join a group or serve at that hour (there are still some volunteer positions available here).
2 hours, 2 different experiences.
The only way to change it is if you decide to go to discipleship first and then worship. Either way, you get the same experience, just in a different order.
We are waiting to get all our volunteers in place before establishing a launching date, but we are getting closer by the day.
Hope that makes sense concerning the scheduling for your family. If you have questions, please ask us and we will help you out!
Travis Agnew serves as the Lead Pastor of Rocky Creek Church in Greenville, SC. His most recent book is Just (About) Married.
We are praying that this new schedule equips families to worship together and grow together! I can't wait to see all God does with it!