Launching a New Worship Service

Ed Fenstermacher, January 13, 2007

Recommended Steps to Take

In order to effectively launch a new service, I suggest you consider these following steps:

1. PRAYER.

   I can’t overstate how important it is to have the church intentionally praying for this effort. If you don’t already have groups and/or individuals praying specifically for this effort, I encourage you to do that right away.

2. IDENTIFY TARGET GROUP.

   Before you make any decisions (e.g. when and where the service is to be held, its style and format, even its name), it is important to know who you sense God is wanting you to especially reach. Of course, the service will be open to anyone; however, the reality is that it will be especially inviting and inspiring for a certain type of person. The more you clearly you can describe that person, the easier it will be to design a service for them, and as a result, you’ll be more likely to reach them.

   1. A church will typically attract is people like themselves. You may want to describe the type of people your church naturally attracts. If you sense God is calling you to reach a different group of people, you will probably have to take extra care in designing the service (when, where, its style, how the invitations are shared, etc.).
   2. The target group could be determined by matching those God already is bringing to your church (e.g. Sunday morning newcomers, those you reach through the week, during VBS, etc.).
   3. The target group also could be identified using the community’s demographics. Keep in mind that you do not need to target the largest demographic lifestyle groups in your community.
   4. Whichever way you determine your target group, I encourage you to write down a description of that group (e.g. where they’re at on their spiritual journey, their mindset, their unique needs, their music preferences, etc.).
3. BUILD YOUR LAUNCH TEAM.

   The launch team will help answer the questions regarding when and where the service will meet, determine when it will be launched, the design of the service, how to get invitations out, setting a budget, dealing with logistical issues such as child care, parking, set-up, technology needs, etc. Set a goal to have at least half your launch team reflect your target group.

4. DETERMINE YOUR LAUNCH STRATEGY.

   There are two basic approaches you can use to launch the service. One is to focus on developing relationships with your target group (e.g. one-to-one conversations, listening sessions, small groups, etc.) before you start the service. These can take as much as six months to two years to do. The second is to rely primarily on word-of-mouth and marketing to launch the service and then to develop relationships once they attend.

   The advantage of the first approach is that it provides a more solid congregation when you launch. The downside is that it takes more time (six month to two years). Your launch team needs to decide which approach it will take.

5. ESTABLISH TASK FORCE TEAMS.

   The next step is for the launch team to identify all the tasks that will need to be done. They might fall into the following areas: a) prayer support, b) worship design, c) logistics (parking, technology, set-up), d) child care, e) publicity/invitations, f) hospitality/discipleship of newecomers, and h) finances. Identify who will head up each of these areas and have them establish an implementation timeline.

6. SUNDAY MORNING SCHEDULE.

   If the launch team (or church’s worship team) determines that the new service should be held at the church on a Sunday morning, make sure adequate parking is available. If you need to adjust the present worship times to fit the new service into the schedule, it is advised not to move the present times more than 30 minutes either direction.

7. CRITICAL MASS.

   As I said, it is extremely important to have your worship meeting space always at 50% or more of the room’s capacity. Otherwise, it will feel as though there is a lack of energy and the service won’t be as attractive to newcomers. This means that you won’t want to launch the service until you know you’ll be able to consistently fill half (or more) of the seats.

8. FINANCIAL GRANTS.

   There is a worship matching grant available through the conference. The application can be downloaded here. The grant will match dollar-for-dollar (up to $5,000) to help fund the church’s new service budget.

9. QUESTIONS.

   If you have any questions about the above, please contact Ed Fenstermacher at 800.783.5138 or via email at ed@nicumc.org.