Eagle Brook Church Blog

Solving the Attendance Challenge

God continues to stretch us at Spring Lake Park. Last weekend’s attendance exceeded 2,750 people…and more want to come.

It’s heartbreaking to know that many arrived at SLP last weekend and were unable to find parking, so they drove away before the service started. Others found a place to park but had to sit in a less than ideal overflow space because the worship center and Corner House were beyond capacity.

To make matters more complex, we had hoped to open the new Blaine campus by Easter of 2010, but complications have pushed the potential opening to sometime in the Fall of 2010.

As you might imagine, we’ve been scrambling to find a way to open more seats at SLP as well as prepare for the launch of the Blaine campus. We’ve identified a solution, but it’ll take all of us to make it work. Here’s what we plan to do:

From February 28 until the EBC Blaine campus opens.

• Beginning February 28 and running until the Blaine campus opens, we’ll offer Sunday evening services at the SLP campus at 4:05 and 6:05.

• The Sunday evening services will ultimately be lead by the staff and volunteers that plan to serve at Blaine when it opens. It’ll take a few weeks to get all the staff and volunteers in place.

• The Sunday evening services will be a full Eagle Brook weekend experience with live worship, Café 5000, Beyond Books, children’s worship, and the current weekend message (recorded earlier that day).

• We’re asking those who plan to attend at Blaine when it opens, as well as a few hundred people who plan to stay at SLP, to make a Sunday evening service their primary choice for weekend worship. This will make seats available for our guests in the regularly scheduled weekend services.

From now until February 28.

• We still have room in our Saturday 6:05 pm service. If possible, choose this service.

• We’ve installed broadcast gear and added an additional 60 seats in the Student ministry café downstairs in the Corner House. We’ll use the lower room whenever the upper room is full.

• Until the Sunday evening services begin on February 28, those who are regular SLP attenders can serve our guests by choosing to attend at the Corner House before the main worship center fills up on Saturdays at 4:05 or Sundays at 9:05 and 11:05.

I’m grateful for each person who is part of the SLP church family. Your willingness to do whatever it takes to reach others for Christ is remarkable. Thank you for facing into our attendance challenge and taking the steps to resolve it. Thank you for being the church. You get it! And it’s a privilege to serve as your campus pastor.