Adding a Saturday Night Service :: 6 Keys to Adding a Saturday Night Service w/ Success

A few weeks ago, I wrote an article on "Launching 2 Services" in a church. I have been blown away by the overwhelming response from so many of you. Thanks for passing it on / commenting / reading it / and applying it. We love helping churches be more effective.

This week, I want to write a follow up article because many of you have asked about

"Launching a Saturday Night Service." 

At Next Level Church, we do 2 Saturday Night services each week and they are both attended very well and have tremendous momentum. But that didn't happen by accident.

Here are some Thoughts:

1. Seek God Big Time! 

Saturday night services are not easy and, like good marriage vows, "should not be entered into lightly or irreverently..." We did this. Our church was close to 1,000 people in average weekend attendance and 9 years old before we made the jump to Saturday nights. Even though... we had a lot of people asking us for it for several years.

Pastors and Leadership Teams need to be certain God has led them to this. In fact, I have often recommended launching a 3rd Sunday Morning, rather than starting a Saturday night for many churches. Pursue Saturday Nights with Prayerful Caution.

2. You must be ALL IN!

One of THE big things we did right was committed to Saturday Nights 150,000%!!! We knew we needed our entire staff to be ALL IN, if it was ever going to work. I talk to many pastors who can't seem to gain traction on Saturday night and you hear in their voice, "Well, we didn't really know if it would work..." or "You know, my staff isn't really in love with it..."

That will not work! Either you go all in or you will never see the results you're hoping for. This is what you're doing! You are now a multi-day church, which means you work on Saturdays. That means your College Football watching will be inhibited, your family time will have to look different, etc. Everyone has to buy into that.

3. DO NOT: Make it different or boutique-y. 

Your Saturday night service must be an IDENTICAL service of your Sunday morning or people will feel like they're getting a lessor or different "product" and won't commit to it. For us, we knew our Saturday night services could not be, "Practice" or "Warm Up." It had to be full on from day 1 so our people didn't feel slighted and revert back.

4. We launched it around a major cultural shifting time.

I believe we launched our Saturday night services at the right time. We began it the very first week we moved into our new facility and out of the High School we had been in for 5 years. One piece of logic for us was that we were downsizing our seating capacity in the auditorium from 900 seats at the High School to 600 seats in our new facility. So in many ways, it was a necessity.

But it was also a strategic move for us because we knew that in order for our church to serve 2,000 people in our facility we would HAVE to have a Saturday night option.

5. We cast vision to it like crazy in the summer.

Let me talk this one through. We moved in and began a Saturday night service in April 2011. We had about 300 people who settled in at that service. Then Sarah and I took a 40 day Sabbatical through the month of June. When we got back in July, we launched our "Big Summer Series" (which we do every year) we also launched our "Try Saturday Night" campaign internally.

We asked everyone who called Next Level Church their home to "Try Saturday Night" at least one time during the 6 weeks of the summer series. Then halfway through the series, we started saying, "Stay Saturday Night." Now that you're here, we need you to stay. The most missional thing you can do is give up your seat on Sunday mornings for an unchurched person."

Our people got it! During that first summer our Saturday night service grew from 300 to 650. It became the biggest attended service of our entire weekend. Which is what we needed it to be, so we could split it in October and go to 2 services on Saturday night.

SIDENOTE: One difficult thing about only having 1 service on Saturday night is that it messes up the "Attend One, Serve One" Culture you've created with 2 services on Sundays. This was probably the hardest part! Seriously. Our Volunteer teams thanked us when we finally launched our 2nd Saturday night because it took so much pressure off of them.

(By the way, we launched Saturday night at 5:30pm, and then went to a 4:30 & 6:30pm start time when we split in October 2011.)

6. We built a brand around it.

Once we added the 2nd Saturday night,  our attendance settled in at 650-700 until summer 2012. Each service had a good feel and critical mass but they still had plenty of room for growth.

So, during our "Big Summer Series" this year (2012) we created a brand around Saturday Night (We got this idea from Potential Church in Miami, FL. Thanks Troy and Stephanie!!!) called "The Night Shift."

For 6 straight weeks, we built awareness and cast vision around "The Night Shift" and our people again, rose to the occasion. We would do fun things on Saturday nights but nothing expensive or difficult. They were little things that went along with our "Seeing Red" series like give away packs of Big Red gum.

We have never bought into the whole, "Serve pizza or a meal every week," because its not sustainable long term and people don't care that much about food. They care about options and vision. Give them that.

During the 6 week series, our Saturday nights grew by another 400 people. In fact, 2 of the 6 weeks, we actually had more people on Saturday night then we did on Sunday mornings! It was truly amazing!

To this day, our attendance breakdown is very close to 50/50%. Sundays are sometimes bigger, but not by more than 100 people.

Saturday nights can be done effectively, no matter where you live. 

Personal Practicals:

As I mentioned, adding a Saturday night is a Big Deal and will mess with your rhythm personally and the rhythm of your team as well. Here are some Personal Practicals to think through...

•  Think through schedules and rhythms for your team.

I would say this is something we didn't do very well when we first started Saturday nights. The reason why is because our staff was so excited to be apart of something that was growing so fast and had so much momentum that we didn't want to miss it!

We should have forced our team to think through who needs to be there on what days, etc. Some of your team will have to be there all weekend, but others, maybe not. These are conversations that have to be had.

• I had to shift my schedule.

As a communicator, when we added Saturday night, I had to rethink my personal speaking schedule. In addition to teaching on the weekends at NLC, I speak between 250 and 300 times / year at conferences, trainings, coaching, etc. which is physically taxing and vocally taxing as well.

My personal preaching rhythm used to be 1 in 6. In other words, every 6 weeks, I needed 1 weekend off. Once we added Saturday night, that rhythm went down to 1 in 4. Now, the most I will do is 4 weekends in a row. The burden and weight of carrying a weekend's worth of services and ministry to people cannot be underestimated. And for me, by the 4th weekend, I'm out. I can feel my enthusiasm and energy wane. I need to not be up there after 4 weeks in a row.

• Think through your Speaking Team.

As I just mentioned, adding a Saturday night and the pressure of a growing church takes its toll on the lead communicator. You've got to be diligent and proactive on teaching others on your team how you think about what you do on the weekend. I actually wrote a 3-Part Article on this here on my site a while back. You can read it here.

•  Think through your Family Nights and Date Nights.

One of the biggest things that had to shift for our family when we added Saturday night was our family night. Historically, Saturdays had been that. Because I never liked to go out and do something big on Saturdays anyway, it just made sense for those to be our night in with the kids. We'd rent movies, play games, etc.

Once we launched Saturday night services, we had to change that up. We moved our family night to Friday night which then meant Date Night with the wife had to move to Thursday nights. Today, my kids don't think a thing about it. They love it! From the time we pick them up after school on Friday, we party, hang out, and have fun being family together.

• Fight through the Guilt.

There is not a week that goes by when I'm leaving the house on Saturday afternoon at 2:30pm and my kids are upstairs playing that I don't feel guilty. I have to fight through that! God is in this, and we have adjusted our family schedule so my kids are not "losing out on dad." But satan loves to get in my head on this one. Fight that.

• You have to Fight for your Day Off like crazy!!!

 Once we added Saturday nights, I felt the pressure big time and Sarah and I quickly learned that if I didn't have my Friday Day Off, I would feel it through the whole weekend and into the next week as well. Sabbath is not Optional. And if you work on Saturday and Sunday, you HAVE to take time to recharge your battery on another day.

Additionally, I would say that as a family, we have started taking more time off for ourselves to recharge as a family as well. We use all the vacation we get every year and we are very strategic when the kids have breaks from school to be together and recharge together.

I never want my kids to feel like they were slighted by the ministry. I don't think they have to, we just have to work hard to be intentional about it.


In conclusion, Saturday nights are an incredible way to offer more opportunities to serve people. And when done effectively, can catalyze the growth of your church.

? What experience do you have with Saturday night church? I'd love to hear your thoughts...

#AddingValue

@MatthewKeller

“Behind the #9” …the Story

For years, when the “Outreach 100” was released I thumbed through it, circled names and paid close attention to the details.  I was excited to look at the list and say, “Hey, I know him” or “Who is this?” or “How did they do that?”  My wife would look up church websites and sometimes give the church a call to ask how they did certain things. We loved the list, because we love to learn! 

   
When we found out we had made the “Top Ten List” of The Fastest Growing Churches in America this year, we decided to let you in on the story, “Behind the Nine.”  Let’s be honest, sometimes looking at other church’s numbers can be discouraging.  So, my hope is that no matter where you are on your journey, our story will be an encouragement to you! 

    
Although from 2010-2011, our growth was fast…our story of growth is anything but fast.   As a matter of fact, my wife said we should call ourselves one of the “Slowest Fastest Growing Churches in America.”  In the Fall of 2001, we felt God calling us to leave our comfortable ministry position in the Midwest and start a church.  In January 2002, we moved from Indiana to Fort Myers, Florida with our 18 month old son and Mike Ash (who is still on our team).  Beginning with four of us in a coffee shop, clueless and with $9,000 to our name, Next Level Church was birthed out of a heart to reach Southwest Florida and to influence the world around us.  It wasn’t a big vision that I needed, it was the patience to see the vision come to pass.
   

When we arrived in Florida, I began working in a jewelry store in the day and every night we would sit down at the card table in our living room and talk about the future of Next Level Church! In May of 2002, we launched at the “Bell Tower 20” Movie Theater. It was the only movie theater in Fort Myers at the time and God opened the door for us to be right in the center of town.  The rent was $325 a week, so according to the $1,500 we had in our savings, we knew we could have services for four weeks! If people didn’t start attending (& giving) by then, we’d have to go somewhere else.  
   

On launch Sunday, we had 35 people in attendance and by the next week, we had 19.  Standing up to preach to 12 people in that little theater that Sunday, I thought, “Really God?  I use to teach Sunday School classes bigger than this!” I’m telling you, our services were so primitive, we didn’t even have drums for the first year! Those were hard and lonely days, but God brought us the right people at the right time and by the end of that year we had around 80 in attendance.
    

We had services at the Theater for four years (went to 2 services) and grew to about 300 people.  Looking back on the theater years, I can now see how God was setting a foundation in place.  During those years, we learned a lot about systems (having to set up and tear down before the movie started), how to handle conflict & how to create and protect the culture. We had moved to Southwest Florida knowing a lot about what we didn’t want to be, but it took those early years to figure out what we did want to be.
     

After 200 Sundays in the theater, we moved to a High School 2 miles away.  We “re-launched” in this beautiful 900-seat auditorium, sent out a huge mailer and really thought we would double overnight. That didn’t happen! Instead, the 5 Years we spent in the High School were more “Slow and Steady” growth.      
    

When the reality that this move hadn’t caused us to double really sank in, I had a moment where I cried out to God and said, “God, if you never let my church grow beyond this, I will still pour myself into other Pastors, so they can grow faster and bigger than we ever will.” That was the moment that caused me to start giving back to those who were a few steps behind us. I began investing in other Pastors, encouraging and coaching them in their journey.  
     

As a church, we also decided we were not just going to exist for those who were “coming to us.” Instead, we would be a church who reached out to the broken, hurting and forgotten in our community.  Our “Community Outreach” was birthed in us during the years we spent at the High School.
   

We LOVED our portability (I am being serious).  For nine years, we never let the fact that we were “portable” slow us down. Instead, we embraced it and taught many pre-launch churches how to implement systems to keep portability sustainable! However, in late 2009, God began making it clear we were to start looking for a permanent location.  In the fall of 2010, and after much searching, we purchased 10 acres of land and a 14,000 SF Building (an older church).  
   

Southwest Florida was in a financial depression. People were losing their homes, jobs & moving away. It seemed like the worst time to be in a building project...but God had other plans. Originally, we wanted an 850-seat auditorium, but with our community’s financial state, we settled on 600 seats and told God we would be faithful.  We gutted and renovated the 14,000 SF & added another 6,000 of kids space to it. Plus, we renovated a 3,000 SF Trailer… making a total of 23,000 SF on a 10-acre property. God did the miraculous and financially provided every step of the way.
    

During our last month in the High School, March 2011, we averaged 946 people in our two services. (This is the number Outreach Magazine asks for.) We moved into our facility the next month, April of 2011. By the following March of 2012 we averaged 1,879. During that time, we added two Saturday night services to our existing 2 Sunday mornings (making a total of 4 weekend services). One of those was added the weekend we moved in and another was added in the fall. 
   

Click to View Larger Image

In the last 16 months, we have seen hundreds of salvations, baptisms and people rededicating their lives to God, after years of being away from Him and the church. It truly has been a move of God.  Many people ask me, “Do you attribute all of your growth to your building?”  My answer is, no. I believe God wanted us to be permanent and yes, it did draw many people who would have never stepped foot in the High School. But more than that, I feel like nine years of preparation led us to be able to add and sustain twice as many people in one year.
    

It didn’t come without its challenges. Hard decisions had to be made quickly and we felt the attack of the enemy like never before. During that season, one of my sons had severe health issues, my wife had a surgery and spent 12 days in the hospital the month before we added our fourth service. It was the best year of our church and the worst year of our life. But in the end, when I think of the stories of life change, I reflect and know that it was all worth it.
   

So, that is our story “Behind the #9.” Through the last 10 years of Next Level Church, my wife and I have always prayed, “God, find us trustworthy with what you have given us… so you can trust us with more.” Let me encourage you today, wherever you are, be found trustworthy, because I believe, when you are, He will entrust you with more.

Drew, Sarah, Matt and Will Keller

   

Matt Keller; Lead Pastor
Next Level Church, Fort Myers, FL

@MatthewKeller
   

Articles to Resource You:

• Moving to a Two-Service Reality
• Slaying the “Monster” of Sunday  (to help Pastors get ahead and feel in control)
• Creating Home Field Advantage in Your Mobile Reality
• Raising up Communicators
• Building Buzz – Audio Download

  



Download the Outreach 100 Article Here

A Word to Next Level Church about our 5 Service Reality rolling out October 6-7th, 2012

This past weekend we announced that we're moving to a 5 service reality at Next Level Church starting the weekend of October 6-7th, 2012.

Here's a Quick Guide for everyone who calls Next Level Church, their home church.


Why We're Adding a 5th Service:

1. Because Lost People Matter to God.

At NLC, we don't exist for ourselves, we exist for those outside our walls. We want to create as many opportunities for unchurched, dechurched and lost people to experience God as we possibly can. Moving to a 5 service reality allows us to do that.

2. We want to be found Faithful with what God has trusted us with. 

God gave us our Plantation Road Campus and we're going to leverage it as well as we possibly can for Other's Benefit and His Glory!

3. To Create More Seats at Optimum Times.

Every time we've created more seats during "Peak" times (Sundays from 10am to Noon) they fill up. So adding a 3rd Sunday morning option gives us the ability to create more seats at optimum times.

What it Means for You:

1. New Service Times: Saturdays 4:30 and 6:15pm and Sundays 9:00, 10:45, 12:30pm.

2. More Opportunities to Invite your Friends: With more seats available you'll have more opportunity to invite your friends to experience God at NLC.

What We need You to Do:

1. Jump in with Both Feet. If you're not plugged into a serving team at NLC, this is your moment! We need you! Lost people need you! And God wants you to leverage your talents, passions, giftings and abilities to impact someone else's life for His Glory! Pick up a Magazine this weekend and E-Mail a Leader!

2. Consider Attending at "Off-Peak" Times.

Honestly, we have no idea where everyone will end up as we move our service times around, but if you call NLC your home church, then consider an "Off-Peak" time, like Saturday night at 4:30 or 9 am or 12:30pm. Here in SWFL, we understand "Peak vs. Off-Peak" seasons, help us make room for more lost people by keeping the "Peak" times as open as possible.

Next Level Church, we are truly apart of a move of God. We are believing this fall could be the greatest time of harvest and impact we've ever seen as a church. Thanks for carrying the vision with us.

Oh yeah, and in case I haven't told you lately,

I love being your pastor,

Pastor Matt

@MatthewKeller

Moving to a 2 Service Reality

One of the big questions we are asked all-the-time in our coaching is 

We’re thinking about going to 2 services? 

What do you recommend?

 

Let me start by saying: I love a Multi-Service reality when its done at the right time, for the right reasons and in the right way. Unfortunately, too many churches make the move without the proper forethought or preparation, and end up getting less than ideal or desired results.

 

Here are several thoughts to make the change:

 

1. Moving from 1 service to 2 services is a major cultural shift for your people and is going to make people nervous. What we have discovered is that any time, ANY TIME, a church makes a major cultural shift, it breaks trust with attenders to some degree. It’s not bad, it just is a reality that leaders must not be naïve about.

Here’s how we teach it to pastors. Anytime you make a major cultural shift in your church (add a service, move facilities, etc.) you effectively “spook the sheep.” People get uneasy and are less likely to invite their unsaved, unchurched or dechurched friends. Unconsciously they’re thinking, “Is this safe?” “Is it going to be the same?” “Is it going to be too big?” Etc.

In our experience, it takes between 4 and 6 months to regain that trust and for attendance and giving to rebound. We call it “the 6 month tail.” Don’t let it throw you if you don’t “double over night.” You’ll grow, just probably not as quickly as you think you will.

2. The attend one, serve one reality is huge!

One of the greatest advantages to going to a multi-service reality is the attend one, serve one culture it can create.

However, this culture is not automatic. Leaders, you have to be intentional to help volunteers and team members understand how it works. The result is that it will actually allow more people to serve more consistently and have a greater impact, all the while not missing the main service.

For example, instead of someone serving once a month in the kids ministry, they can actually serve every week and still be in service. Relationships to the kids are greater, ministry is greater, connection to the vision is greater! Everybody wins!

3. More people who call your church their church will be able to attend in a weekend.

Another great advantage of a multi-service reality is that more of the people who call your church their home will attend on a weekend. For example, if you only have 1 service & a family in your church is scheduled to have lunch at grandma's house, they'll probably just end up skipping church that week. But if you have an earlier service, they can attend that one and still make it to grandma's by noon.

Practicals:

Here are some practicals we recommend for any church going to 2 services.

1. Create a Bonus Room. 

This will be a big benefit for parents & kids in the Attend One, Serve One culture you’re trying to create. This room is for kids whose parents are attending one and serving in one. No matter how great your kids ministry is, kids don’t want to go to it twice! If you create a room with some video games and cool stuff where they can hang out, that is reserved ONLY for kids whose parents serve, they’ll love it!

Manning it is easy as well, since you only need it in 1 service. You just need a fun loving volunteer who’s willing to hang out with kids! DON’T over-spiritualize this! You’ll end up ruining it for the kids and the parents will stop serving thus sabotaging your Attend One, Serve One culture you’re working so hard to create.

2. Move your service time, don’t just add a service time.

A cataclysmic mistake a lot of pastors make is thinking they should or can just “add” a service time rather than making everyone move. For example, if you have 1 service at 11 am, just add a 9 am. This is a big mistake because you’re asking everyone to move from what they’re already in routine and used to doing. This does not go well.

Instead, if your 1 service is at 10:30 am, go to 9:30 and 11:15am or 9:00 and 11:00am or something. And if your service is at 11 am, I would still move it, even if its just 15 minutes. Make everyone change! Trust me, its better.

Sidenote: From our experience, 9:30 is better than 9 and people don’t fear the noon hour like we might think. 2 different times, once in the Movie Theater days & once in the High School, we went from 1 service to 2 & did 9 & 10:45am. We never seemed to be able to get the attendance to even out. They were always a 35/65% split and at best, 40/60%.

Then, in the High School, we finally switched to 9:30 & 11:15am & it was crazy how they went to 50/50%. We marveled at how a 30 minute shift made that big of a difference.

3. Launch with a big “felt needs” series. Pull out all the stops, get your people excited  to buzz it. Put 2 invitation cards in the bulletin 2 weeks before to make it as easy as possible for people to invite their friends to the launch weekend. Post on facebook, etc. Give your people every possible way you can to buzz about it & invite their friends!

4. Cast vision around it. “At NLC, we’re all about creating space for more lost people to experience God each weekend just like we do.” We use the phrase often, “Every Sunday is somebody’s THAT day.” In other words, every weekend, someone is walking into our church giving God one last shot. This is their THAT day. We want to create space for them to experience God.

5. Use the 70% (Movie Theater Full) idea to appeal to logic. When you go to a movie, you want the theater to be full, but not too full. Most of us like having an empty seat between us and people we don’t know. The same is true in church. 2 services gives us the ability to do that.

6. Get buy in from your key leaders before you make a big announcement. Have the meetings before the meetings. People are usually down on what they’re not up on. So make sure they’re up on the why behind what you’re doing.

7. Build momentum for the big announcement day as well! You also have a built in momentum opportunity by getting people excited about the day you announce it as well! A lot of churches miss this one. Here’s how it works: “Hey everyone, in 2 weeks we’re going to be making an announcement that’s going to change our church forever in a great way! If you’re apart of NLC, then you’ve got to be here on May 12^th, to hear this announcement.”

You’ll have high attendance Sunday on Announcement day! And people will be primed for the change when it comes as well!

Today, at Next Level Church, we do way more than 2 services on the weekend, and each time we've added a service, we've used these tools. Going from a 1 service reality to 2 service reality is one of the best ways to generate momentum, get more people involved in the life of your church & create space for unchurched people to experience God. Leveraging the tips we’ve talked about will allow you to do it right.

#AddingValue

@MatthewKeller