What's better than two . . .

...opportunities to lift Jesus up and point others to him? Well, three opportunities, for starters. This Sunday at Furnace Brook we are biting off something that only the Holy Spirit could help us chew. After months of prayerful groundwork we are going to be adding an 11:00 service at Pittsford, in keeping with our mission of making more and better disciples for Jesus.

 Here are some things you should know about this transition:

It was prompted, in part, by Invite Your One Sunday on Oct. 22nd. Without two services at Pittsford we weren't going to be able to fit everyone in the sanctuary.

 -Our significant worship area renovation will be completed by the 22nd and will be mostly done by this coming Sunday.

 -The addition of an 11:00 opportunity at Pittsford will bring new people and will lead to more attendance from some of the people we already have. 

 -We have only committed to doing this through Christmas. We will make a decision by early December about whether or not to take it into the New Year.

 -There are lots of other churches who have different services occurring at the same time, but almost all of them are streaming all or part of the service from the first location to the second. We are taking a different approach, one that leaves room for individuality and local flourishing.

 -At Furnace Brook we have a "deep bench." Each Sunday one of the members of our preaching team will be preaching at one of the two 11:00 services and Joel will still be preaching twice each Sunday.

 -We don't know which of the two services at Pittsford will end up being better attended.  It will be hard for us to go from having a 9:00 service that feels pleasantly full to having two services that might, at times, feel relatively sparse. We have high expectations for where this is headed, but we are budgeting for some thin Sundays along the way.
 -We are encouraging people who worship at Pittsford to consider worshiping at the one service and serving at the other. We are strongly encouraging you to do this, at least for the first month or so.
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 -The addition of a second 11:00 service has opened up multiple opportunities for service in the church. We can use greeters, children's workers, readers, parking lot attendants, coffee brewers, worship team members and more at both services. 
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 We will be reminding ourselves frequently in the days to come that we are committed to "more Jesus in more places, at more times, from more voices, for more people." That's a winning recipe for bringing God glory while getting the attention of our neighbors and friends. He gives us challenges that will take all our strength but for which all the strength we could ever muster would not be enough. Praise the Lord for leading us in this direction.