As we’ve talked about this informally and formally over the last couple of years, we’ve acknowledged that two gatherings have never been a goal nor a growth strategy for us. We love having everyone in one place at one time.

The move to two gatherings is simply a response to God’s slow, steady, gracious growth, and we want to be good stewards of that! We want to make room for who’s coming, and we want to have room as we extend bold invitations to follow Jesus with his church.

Michael shared this Google Doc last year (June ‘24) with the church as a more detailed look into how we’re thinking, praying, and feeling about the consideration of two gatherings.

We’re as committed (if not more committed!) to church planting as ever. We will continue to talk about church planting, pray that God would let us plant more churches, and be aware of the men and women the Lord is bringing our way, the desires he’s given them, and how we might train them up and send them out.

That said, church planting isn’t a solution to an attendance “problem.” We can’t manufacture a plant, make it happen, or control the timing or calling of the people involved. We want to faithfully do our part and leave God’s part in his hands.

But an exciting part of moving to two gatherings is that making more room for more people at The Village can actually make us more prepared to plant more churches. Here’s three big ways that works:

• Planting churches happens best when there’s a critical mass of people both going and sending. It’s not just about sending a few people to start a church; it’s about sending a small church (core team) out of an existing church. Moving to two gatherings will let us have a greater critical mass for both, so that - while planting is always a little painful! - it can be healthy for both the goers and the senders.

• Planting churches requires resources other than the people going. It requires time, money, gifts, in-roads and connections, etc. Moving to two gatherings increases the various kinds of resources the church would be able to invest in future church plants, while keeping additional expenses to a minimum.

• Planting churches requires opportunities for serving, leading, and owning the community and mission. While that happens now with a single Sunday morning gathering, both needs and opportunities will multiply as we head into two, giving more people more ways to learn, grow, and mature as disciple-making disciples.

While a move to two gatherings will never feel convenient and always come with more to do, there are a few reasons why the 2025 Advent season is our best option to make the switch.

• Trends in Attendance: Based on the last five years, conservative projections suggest we’ll have over 300 people gathering with us more frequently by the end of the year. But it doesn’t stop there; there’s no reason to see that growth trend stop in 2026.

• Capacity in The 210: Both K-Ville and our main gathering area can already feel (and be!) quite congested on Sunday mornings. We spent the last two years maximizing our space, taking out kitchens, sending kids upstairs, and adding seats and tables.
  
  Despite this, our K-3rd rooms are already full, and we’re less than 30 people shy of being at 75% capacity in our main gathering area - and that’s without having begun the fuller, busier fall, winter, and holiday seasons.

• Leading not Reacting: While we can’t get around the fact that two gatherings are simply going to require more work than one, we do have some say in is how crazy things are leading up to the change. The longer we wait…

  • …the more congested and crazy one gathering is going to become.

  • …the less lead time we may be giving ourselves to plan and prepare. If we wait until we have to do it, then we’ve likely waited too long, have to move fast, and are reacting to what’s already happened. Instead, we’d like to responding to what we’ve been seeing God do so far proactively.

  • …it still won’t keep us from having to do two gatherings on Christmas Eve Eve ‘25 or Easter ‘26.

Like we’ve said, two gatherings really does take more work. There’s no way around it!

That said, we’re as mindful as ever of wanting to care for all of our folks who serve so well. More work doesn’t mean less worship or more burnout. On the contrary, we want to lead more people into the same worship of God and the same rest in the gospel, and we have no intention of doing that at the cost of the worship and rest of anyone already at The Village. We’re mindful of the sheep God may want to bring us in the future, but our duty and care is for the flock of God already among us.

So… what does two gatherings mean for serving?

• Each team has the freedom to do what’s best for its mission and members. With your input, Serve Team Leaders will tackle the logistical questions and challenges as they see fit, and the elders will support them in every we can.

• Growing pains will be a thing. Expect to run into issues that no one saw coming. Be patient and extend the benefit of the doubt. Offer constructive feedback. Build up and encourage one another and your leaders. And don’t forget that we’re not aiming for ease, convenience, and being a well-oiled machine; we’re making, maturing, and multiplying disciples - and that includes yourself, your team members, and leaders!

• Get your hands dirty, and also let needs be known and felt. Step up and serve if you aren’t already. Be willing to lend a hand. Ask what you can do to help.
  
  And also, needs are going to multiply. Don’t catch every ball up in the air, spin every plate, and catch everything that’s falling through every crack. Make needs known - not just to your leader, but to others! Invite folks to serve. Be a recruiter, be willing to train, and offer support.

As it stands right now, K-Ville will be offered during both gatherings to the same kids. A few things will be helped by having two gatherings:

• Capacity issues will diminish, so rooms won’t have to be as crowded or closed.

• Smaller classes will benefit everyone’s experience (volunteers and kids!) while they’re there.

• We’ll likely have five classrooms instead of six, lessening the number of volunteers needed per gathering.

Obviously, there are also some things that will be more complicated.

• More volunteer needs per Sunday, whether that’s serving during both gatherings on one Sunday or serving during one gathering and attending the other. It makes scheduling (and being scheduled!) a more complex thing.

• For families who may be sticking around for both gatherings, kids will have the option of either attending K-Ville twice or attending K-Ville once and the main gathering once. That will be an extra step for parents and guardians think through.

I’m sure you have more questions, and we know we don’t have all the answers yet. We’ll talk it out, nail some things down, and let you know as we do!

Having 30 minutes in-between gatherings is great for those sticking around between gatherings. It gives enough time for us to reset for the second one, without making a long morning any longer than it needs to be!

That said, 30 minutes doesn’t leave enough time for a lot of the huddles, classes, and other pre-/post-gathering meetings we have. So what will those look like moving forward? Honestly, we don’t yet know! That’s part of what we get to help the church figure out over the next few months.

But here are some big picture thoughts that might help you know the way we’re approaching it:

• When a huddle is scheduled may shape which gathering you go to on a Sunday. Is it before the first gathering? You’ll probably go to the first gathering that week. After the second? You’ll probably go to the second gathering that week.

• What about huddles in-between gatherings? Can we still do those? Well, there’s two options:

  • Short huddles (under 30 minutes) could work, which would accommodate people staying after the first gathering and coming early to the second.

  • Longer huddles in the Huddle Room could simply extend into the second gathering. Folks could attend the first, and (as long as they’re not too rowdy!) could meet for a longer period of time while the second gathering occurs. This would let folks have longer huddles like we do now, with the added benefit of getting out of an “after-gathering huddle” before noon!

• Teams, classes, Family Meetings, etc. will all likely get creative in finding the right solutions for what they’re trying to do, who they’re trying to get together, and for how long. When we say we’ll help the church figure that out over the coming months, that’s what we mean: different solutions for different things.

Yes! The move from one gathering to two will change some things. A lot, even! But while it might change who you bump into on a Sunday morning, how we do what we do, and even how much there is to do, we have every ability to not let it change who we are, what we do, or why.

• Two gatherings don’t make us two churches, anymore than one gathering made us one church. You’re going to see certain people less than you used to on Sundays. You might run into someone who says they’re also part of The Village, but you’ve never been in the same room with them on Sunday. That’ll happen, and there’s no getting around that.
  
  And yet peace, unity, friendship, and a shared sense of identity didn’t magically appear because we were all in the same room for 90 minutes on Sunday morning. Those are things we’ve all received, pursued, and fought for beyond Sunday mornings - in groups, over coffee, on phone calls, at work, and around the neighborhood. The Village was planted in part because of a commitment to living as the church all week, not just on Sundays.
  
  We all get to acknowledge the growing pains of change. And yet, not all change is loss. And not all loss is tragic. For those of us who have been around awhile, we get to remember that God’s giving us the fruit of what we’ve been loving, living, and moving for all along. God has been making, maturing, and multiplying us, just like we’ve wanted. We get to continue being a community formed by the gospel and sent on God’s mission - and we get to do that, by God’s grace, with more and more brothers and sisters as the years continue.

• A smaller church doesn’t mean a more intimate church. Your ability to know, be known, and make Christ known in people’s lives isn’t determined by the number of people in the seats, but by your own willingness to share your life with those around you. That isn’t changing.
  
  This might be a season for you to reflect on the things that are facilitating and sustaining your relationships in the church: is it merely being in the same room together, or is it a mutual love and desire to pursue, share, and build up one another’s lives?

• A larger church doesn’t mean you are less needed in the church. The same Spirit, same gifts, same presence, same prayers, same service, same encouragement, same counsel, same value and dignity that you’ve brought to The Village will be just as significant. In fact, the move to two gatherings is fruit of your faithfulness and evidence that the harvest is still plentiful and the laborers still too few. That isn’t changing.
  
  This might be a season for you to reflect on your willingness to give yourself to the kingdom. Are you looking for reasons to step towards or step away from the Lord and the church? Are you looking for ways to be of service or ways to get out of serving? Does this get you excited about what God’s doing and make you want to be part of that, or does it leave you apathetic or off-put for some reason?

• We get to hope that God changes us into greater Christlikeness. At the end of the day, we can’t know all the things that will change or stay the same. But we can hope for one thing to change: our spiritual maturity. Disruptions to what we’re used to can always become holy interruptions to ruts of comfort, convenience, and familiarity.
  
  How might God want to renew your mind over the next few months? How might your fear or frustration actually be an opportunity to let an idol be challenged; a worry be comforted; a doubt met with a promise? How might a feeling of resistance or reluctance be the Lord calling you into something new, uncomfortable, or unfamiliar?

• We get to hope that God changes our church as he changes more dead hearts into living ones. As we expectantly make more room in our gathering space and in our Sunday schedule, we get to pray expectant prayers, extend bold invitations, and share really good news with our family, friends, and neighbors who we want to be changed by the gospel!
  
  And if we really want that, then we’re also asking the Lord to change our church as he brings more people - different people - sinners, sufferers, and saints who weren’t here before - into our family.

By God’s grace, the biggest change we experience will be to ourselves and to our neighbors as we become even more formed by the gospel, even more committed to the mission we’ve been sent on, and even more convinced that God is busy at work making, maturing, and multiply disciples of Jesus. May we get to see God made known in every part of his city through every part of our lives!