Dear Coastal Family & Friends,
I’ve got an important announcement to make. Starting July 10th (in less than 3 weeks), we will go from having 3 Sunday Morning Worship Services to 2 – 9:30am & 11:15am!
Now that we’ve been in our new facility for 3 months, we’ve learned several things:
- While our church continues to grow and reach more and more new people, the vast majority of those poeple only come to the 1st or 2nd service. This past Sunday, for example, we had 21 1st & 2nd Time Guest Connect Cards filled out – none of them from the 3rd service. We had 310 people (not counting children) in the first two services and only 45 people in the 3rd. In fact, only once since Easter have we had over 70 in the 3rd service and that was Mother’s Day.
- We’ve also learned that with the size of our new facility we have more than enough seating capacity to continue to grow and reach people. We can easily seat 400+ people in our current facility. You don’t start to feel full in a room until you hit 70-80% capacity.
- With the small size of the 3rd service, it’s been difficult to staff all of the volunteer positions necessary to run a service. It’s also so small that it’s possible that a guest would feel uncomfortable.
I really believe that as we combine our services into 2 and change the times, it will increase the energy, excitement, and momentum in each of our services and our volunteers. If you are wondering, the 9:30am & 11:15am times are the times that we used before when we used to have 2 services and they worked well. It also increases the time between the two services to help with people and traffic flow.
However, here’s the truth, be prepared for change. When we hit that maximum seating capacity in our 2 services, we will simply change our times again and add another service. At Coastal we are constantly praying and evaluating what we do so that we can reach more and more people. We are willing to set aside our own personal preferences (even service times) if it means we can accomplish our mission.
So, this Sunday, July 26th, we will have our same current 3 services (8:45am, 10:15am, 11:45am). On July 3rd (4th of July Weekend), we will have only one service – 10:15am. And then beginning July 10th we will move to our 9:30am & 11:15am service times. If you volunteer on any of our Sunday morning LIFE Teams (1st Impressions, Security, Worship, Tech, Coastal Kidz, Cafe), be aware of the upcoming change on your calendar/schedule. Then, help us spread the word!
It is such an honor to serve at a church that values change – not change for the sake of change, but change for the purpose of growth and reaching people. I love you Coastal and I love what we get to do together! I’m so thankful for this great tool that God provided that enables us to make this change and continue to grow! I hope you are too. Of course, as always, if you have any questions, please let me know.
All In,
Pastor Chris
