Open Forum - We had a good discussion this month (November 5th) about the child care on Sunday mornings and about going offsite with a worship service. I want to give everyone plenty of notice about the topic for this coming month’s Open Forum scheduled for 6 pm on December 3rd. The topic will be going offsite. Here are some interesting ideas that might promote some
attendance and some discussion at this and other meetings. I hope this pricks your interest and promotes some thought and ideas.
† Is going offsite something we should consider?
___o When one of our services overflows?
___o If we plan to build a new worship center here?
___o If we desire to do more outreach to the community?
† If we were to go offsite what might it look like?
___o A two campus church?
___o Two churches with some common ministry? A Circuit?
___o Two completely separate churches?
† With the above options what would be some of the considerations we should discuss and work out together?
___o A two campus church would be most like what we are doing now. The difference would be that one of our services would be at a different site. Giving and other support would be dealt with as we currently do.
___o Two churches with some common ministry might share some staff but might have their own appointed senior pastors or one pastor serving both like a circuit. Some ministries like youth ministry and sharing of our current building might be some of the options for consideration. Giving and other support would go to each church and shared bills (like a youth pastor) would be divided in some fashion. They would govern themselves and have a joint council of some sort for shared ministries.
___o Two completely separate churches would carry with it the most change. Aside from two appointed senior pastors other ministries and staff would be determined by those who attended each church. Giving and other support would be for each church individually and they would govern themselves.
† If we went offsite in order to build a new worship center what would we do?
___o We could all go offsite to worship in one service while the new worship center is being built – a suggestion was made by senior members to remove the current Sanctuary and build the new center.
___o We could worship one service in the Fellowship Hall and the other offsite while the worship center was being built.
These are just a few of the discussion items. I hope that you will be present on December 3rd. When discussion grows to the point of votes and decisions we will come before the Church
Council and probably the congregation as well.
We will discuss this and other ideas on this blog page. Join us as we search for truth. What is our purpose and who are we trying to reach as we continue to be the church of Jesus Christ.
Your Pastor and Friend
Rev. Ray
About Me
- MZ Church
- Lothian, Maryland, United States
- MZ is a compassionate evangelical church in South Anne Arundel County. We believe the Bible is the Word of God and try to live our lives following God's teaching found in and through it.
2 comments:
going offsite is to reach out to the community? i don't understand how going off-site is going to reach out to the community. how is going to change the location going to reach out? i also feel like mt.zion is going to loose a lot of her people and children by going off-site. i feel like it's going to be really inconvenient for families. if people are reaching people for Jesus now, why is leaving mt.zion going to increase that? but, if this is God's vision for Mt.Zion let it be done. maybe I just don't see His total plan..
One, more space would allow more people. Experts say that when you reach 75% of capacity in your worship setting you should consider a new service or a new worship setting. New people tend to not like to rub elbows with people to find a seat. The second way going offsite would help reach people, again at the experts suggestion (I did a lot of reading during my Sabbath leave), is that new people would be more willing to attend a church in a neutral site rather than an established church.
Another reason for going offsite would be to build a bigger better worship center at MZ so we could return and have a larger space to worship and grow.
Some churches stay offsite so to speak. Some return or build new.
I hope this helps answer some of your questions.
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