During my quiet time this morning, I spent a large portion offering thanks to God for what we have been seeing over the last few months at Skyline Church. I have been especially thankful for the past few weeks. For those of you who have been around for a year or more, you have seen a lot of things changing in our church. There have been some new leaders emerging to help propel our ministry forward, there has been a renewed vision for reaching our community and world for Christ, and there have also been a lot of new faces beginning to call Skyline their home.
In January of 2011, we averaged 130 people each week during our Sunday morning worship services. Over the last 4 weeks that number has climbed to 230. In fact, over the last 4 weeks we have also seen 10 people bring Jesus into their life and the ARC children's ministry has grown to over 60. WOW!
That's a lot to praise God for, but it is not a point to grow satisfied. I believe that God is only beginning to show us the harvest and I feel strongly that we as a church family, need to be ready to respond. Often times, churches react to growth in the moment. At Skyline, we need to be prepared to respond. We have to be ready to experience what God has in store for us.
As we continue to see more and more people come to experience all that God is doing in our church, I want to challenge the people of Skyline to be proactive in making that experience all that it can be. Below are a few things that we need to do as a church, to prepare for that growth.
1.) WELCOME THE NEW FACES. While it is nice to catch up with our friends that are already in the church, we can never forget what it was like the first time we ourselves entered in to O'fallon High School. Have your antennae up for new people. Don't be fearful of approaching them. Offer them a smile, a kind word, and a gentle touch (a nice handshake that is). Help them to realize that we were expecting them, we are ready to love them, and that we are excited they made the choice to experience Skyline.
2.) INVITE THE NEW FACES. Hopefully each of you are inviting people to come, but what I mean by inviting new faces is to extend an invitation to be part of what Skyline is doing. Invite them to connect. Offer to take them out to dinner. Invite them to be part of your Connection Group. Extend an invitation to be part of a ministry event. Even invite them to participate in a regular ministry of Skyline. Newcomers need to know that there is a place for them in our church family.
3.) MAKE ROOM FOR THEM. If you have notice over the last few weeks, the auditorium is getting more and more full. The reality is that we are just now coming closer to 50% capacity. That means there is still plenty of seats for people to occupy. The more full a space becomes, the more difficult it is to find a nice seat. Be considerate of the newcomer mentality. Make it easy for them to find a seat. Many of us have our personal seat, we like each weekend. I challenge you to get out of your comfort zone. Begin sitting closer to the front. Begin sitting closer to the middle. This can compact the space a little more and open more seats for newcomers to sit in. There will come a point where we will move to multiple services, but we are not there yet, be are getting closer. Last weekend, we had 184 people in the auditorium. When we begin averaging 200-250 in the auditorium, we will add another service to accommodate the growth, but until that time I challenge every Skyliner to help us make the most of our space.
4.) OPEN UP PARKING SPACES. The parking lot in front of the school is getting more and more full as well. The truth is (statistically) when a space (whether seating, parking, or children's space) gets past 70% capacity, a church will begin to plateau. Again, we must be proactive. Two things I challenge you to do. If you are a volunteer, consider parking in the rear of the school thus freeing up parking in front. Also, consider parking further away from the building making more convenient spaces open for our first and second time guests.
5.) GET INVOLVED IN MINISTRY. Two specific areas I challenge anyone who is not already involved in ministry at Skyline to be part of are First Impressions and the ARC children's ministry. The more people who come, the more people the church needs to make them feel welcome. While it is all of our responsibility to extend a welcome to our guests, our First Impressions team is super intentional about this. Consider helping us expand that ministry. Just as important, if not more-so, is our children's ministry. We are seeing this ministry begin to explode. As it grows, more volunteers are necessary to make this ministry all it can be. Mrs. Jen is preparing to expand the number of age groups we now offer and she will be ready to train new volunteers to make this happen. Whether it is through teaching a specific age group or helping in a certain area....you can make a difference.
Your excitement is contagious. Your heart for excellence is incredible. What God is doing through our people is amazing. Let's continue to allow God to use us to make a real impact on our community. As we do, more and more will want to be part of this movement as our vision becomes reality. I do not want you to miss out on what He is already doing at Skyline and I certainly do not want you to miss out on what's around the corner. Let us continue together Loving God, Loving Others, and Making A Difference.
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