Sundays may be earlier and/or longer for you. There will be people you normally sit near who won’t attend the same gathering. Things may happen in one gathering that didn’t happen in the other. Classes, huddles, and family meetings will likely happen at different times. Newcomers will attend, connect, and serve in a different gathering, and you may not recognize them right away if you see them out and about.

While Sunday morning logistics will shift, the gatherings themselves will be the same. Who we are, what we’re called to, and the way we see the gospel form us as a community and send us on mission won’t change. Even the fact that we won’t know everyone who shows up on a Sunday morning won’t be different than it is now! Groups will still gather, people will still serve, and the life of the church outside of Sunday mornings will roll on as usual.

Some of us are excited about the move. Others are nervous either because of uncertainty or past experiences with multi-gathering churches. And a few of us might no. t feel that strongly either way! All of those are legitimate responses, and we want to walk forward (and likely stumble forward!) together as we navigate change and care well for one another. We also want to simply keep in the forefront of our minds that this kind of growth is what we’ve been asking the Lord to do in planting a church, preaching the gospel, and scattering into our neighborhoods on gospel mission.

Let’s love the growth that God has given and look forward expectantly for what he may keep doing down the road. This move is a response to God answering 16-year-old prayers for the good news of Jesus to go forth, take root, and change lives!

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.

Two gatherings really do 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. The elders commit to regularly checking in with leaders to see how they and their members are doing, and we encourage everyone who’s serving to evaluate their capacity to sacrificially serve - as much or as little as that allows. We’re all in different places, and none of it is a surprise to the Lord!

So… what does two gatherings mean for serving?

• Each Serve Team has been empowered and supported in doing what’s best for its mission and members. Our deacons and leaders are tackling logistical questions, challenges, and opportunities as they see fit, and the elders are supporting them in every they 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 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. Ask for help and 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.

Naturally, we’re expecting more people to find The Village, find Jesus, and want to serve the church over the coming weeks, months, and years. Our hope is that as Jesus changes more hearts, more hands will be led to serve, alleviating some of the extra burden folks may feel in the short-term. But as confident as we are that two gatherings is the right next step for The Village, all of that is simply a hope and expectation. We hold our ability to “see the future” quite loosely, but we hold the hearts of our people quite tightly. We’ll pivot and adapt if needed, as needed.

If you have questions, concerns, or anything else related to serving, don’t hesitate to reach out to your leaders and/or the elders.

K-Ville will be offered during both the 9:00am and 10:45am. Moving to two gatherings will let us move from six classrooms down to five:

• Babies + Toddlers: 6 Months - 36 Months

• Little Learners: 3-5 Years

• Early Elementary: K-1st Grade

• Middle Elementary: 2nd-3rd Grade

• Upper Elementary: 4th-6th Grade

Now that we have two gatherings, we know some kids will be around for both on any given Sunday. Kids are welcome to attend K-Ville twice, or they’re always invited to stay in the main gathering if they’re with an adult. For kids staying in the main gathering, we’ll have a sermon notes sheets made specifically for kids available at the Connect Desk.

To that end, there are two new logistical shifts we want you to be aware of:

1) First, our K-Ville classrooms now have a fixed turnaround time in between the 9:00am and 10:45am to clean and prepare for the next class. So to serve our teachers, parents, and kids best in both gatherings, we’ll have a set pickup time:

• Kids in 9:00am K-Ville classes need to be picked up by 10:20am.

• Kids in 10:45am K-Ville classes need to be picked up by 12:05pm.

• Kids who aren’t picked up by those times will be taken to the red park bench near Classroom C in the K-Ville Hallway.

2) We’ll offer supervised Gap Care from a K-Ville team member between 10:20 and 10:30 for K-Ville kids 6 months to 3rd grade whose parent/caregiver is serving on a team that will prevent them from being picked-up from class between 10:15 and 10:20.

To sign your kid(s) up for Gap Care, inform the K-Ville Connections team member at check-in and receive a dot sticker for each child’s name tag.

At the end of parent pick-up, kids from classrooms A, D, and E (ages 3 to 3rd grade) will be delivered to Classroom C. Babies & Toddlers needing care will remain in Classroom B. Kids without a sticker will wait for their parent/care-giver on the red park bench.

If you have any other questions, don’t hesitate to ask!

It’s not uncommon for us to have a huddle of some kind after a Sunday gathering or a class running from 9-10AM beforehand. Having to work around two gatherings will throw a wrench into the ease and simplicity of scheduling (and attending!) those things! So… what will that look like moving forward?

In a nutshell, there are two big things you should know:

1. Leaders will have a lot of flexibility for scheduling. In Planning Center, they’ll be able to reserve rooms before the 9:00am, after the 10:45am, or during both. The Huddle Room is open, available, and insulated enough to use during Sunday gatherings.

2. There may be Sundays where a meeting time determines which gathering you attend. Depending on when a huddle is happening, it might necessitate (or just make common sense!) to attend one gathering over another. So flexibility will be important across the board!

There will be some huddles that happen after both ("I’m New Here!” Huddles, for example), and events like our Family Meetings that may move into the late afternoon / evening. We’re thinking ahead as much as we can, while also knowing that we’ll encounter (and smooth out!) wrinkles as we go. We’ll figure it together!

If you’ve visited The Village, then you know we like to linger on Sunday mornings. It’s a wonderful feature of our community… and also a potential reason for congestion in the parking lot as people are coming and going between the 9:00am and 10:45am!

With the main lot across the street, the parking lot in the back, and the unmetered street spots, parking shouldn’t be an issue. We’ll have each lot marked with red “Parking” banner to help folks know where to go, and as time goes on, we imagine folks will settle into a “flow” on Sundays that will feel like second nature before long.