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The Chapel - OUR MISSION: Bring The Good News To Our Community
EXTEND THE VISION PART 2: Add multiple sites, duplicating The Chapel message and experience in order to reach into the communities around us.
One church, one message, different styles, multiple locations.
The Chapel, during its initial 20 years, has become a regional church. Many people drive 15-30 minutes or more to be here for weekend services as well as small group, youth and children’s activities. This is a much appreciated commitment which challenges all of us to make sure what happens here is worth the trip. However, recent research is showing that people who live beyond the 30 minute mark (and with increasing traveling costs, beyond the 15 to 20 minute mark), rarely invite non-churched people as their guests. They also have a much lower frequency rate for midweek participation. They attend small groups less often and serve in church ministries less frequently.
We are not the first ones to have that problem. In the days of the first church, recorded in the book of Acts, people could not all come to Jerusalem to meet with Jesus’ disciples. So, the disciples went to them. In fact, that very strategy was enunciated by Jesus himself just before he left this earth. ‘”You will tell people about me everywhere – in Jerusalem (at home), throughout Judea (the region around Jerusalem), in Samaria (the area of influence beyond their immediate region), and to the ends of the earth (be a part of global witness). (Acts 1:8)
One of the major shifts in the American church today is the “multi-site” movement. Churches are finding that instead of increasing their regional facilities, they can have more influence if they invest in taking what they have (message and form) to regions 15 or more miles beyond their current facility. In most cases, the worship is live, a regional pastor leads the service and shepherds the church, but the messages are simulcast or taped from the central campus.
What are the advantages of multi-site?
- It fulfills Christ’s command to “go” to people, not wait for them to come to us.
- Allows us to grow bigger and smaller at the same time.
- It costs less but has more impact.
- We can provide the specialist staff of a larger church with the pastoral care of a smaller church.
- We can bring the message, the heart and the experience of the Chapel to people who are not presently involved in a church where they are “coming closer to God, other people and freedom in Christ”.
- It allows us to expand and contract with the changes in a community.
- It gives more people a chance to grow in leadership and ministry opportunities.
What will we have to do?
- We will need to build office facilities to accommodate local and well as regional staff.
- We will need to hire specialist staff to train and supervise staff and volunteers at regional locations.
- We will need to lease and equip facilities in the chosen regional sites of the Chapel to be comparable to what we have at our Galloway Rd. facility.
- We will need to hire basic essential staff for each regional campus.
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