You’ve Hit Church Capacity, Now What?

Well, it finally happened. Your church has hit capacity in terms of how many people can fit in your worship space during a service. Maybe it’s taken your a few years or a few months to get there. No matter how you got to this point you are likely starting to have talks with others on your leadership team about what’s next. Here are a few ideas for when your church hits capacity:

Go to more than one service

This is the most obvious solution as it does not require anything more than just extra planning for that second service. While it is an easy solution, keep in mind that preaching more than one service is going to be more tiring. Not only that but those two different services can start to feel like two different congregations, so be sure to focus on ways to help your church feel as close as possible.

Plant a new church

Maybe multiple services are not in your leadership’s long-term goals. If that’s the case, it may be time to consider planting a new church. The best way to do this would be to identify a core group of your church members, perhaps some that all travel from the same part of town to attend your church and equip them with the resources to start a church in their area. This new congregation could be a satellite of your existing church or an entirely new church. 

Build a larger space

If you do not want multiple services and do not think church planting is in your future, another solution is to build a larger space. Of course, this comes with its own headaches. If your church does not have enough cash on hand to build, do you want to take on debt to build? Would it be more feasible to have a capital campaign to raise the funds to build debt-free? How will you accommodate everyone while you wait for the new addition to be built? Building a larger space also assumes your current property can handle a larger worship space. If not, you may be looking into purchasing more property nearby or moving and building from scratch. 

If your church has hit capacity, you are going to have more than a few decisions to make over the coming days, weeks, or months. But first, stop and thank God for working in the life of your church. Hitting capacity will surely bring headaches, but it also means God is working in the life of the members of your church to bring such growth. Before making any kind of decision about the future some time to pause and praise God is warranted. After all, if God grew your church to capacity God will surely guide your church to your best next steps.

 

Talk to an expert