Your response to my blog post “Looking for Myth Busters” has been good.  In fact, I have received more personal email than responses on my blog. Here is one response by email that adds one more critical myth that we need to deal with:  “WE’RE NOW TWO CHURCHES SINCE WE STARTED THAT #@%$@ CONTEMPORARY SERVICE!”

“Here’s another myth I’m wrestling with and need to bust – “we need to shut down our new contemporary service and have just one blended service because we’re becoming two churches.” In spite of incredible strategic mistakes I was overruled on, our semi-new contemporary service is having modest success,  and yet I’ve got no small number of people who are on the war path wanting to shut down the only thing we’ve ever done that’s actually had any kind of success.”

Here’s my response to this email.

Whatever you do, don’t blink.  If you stop the new service, it is totally over for the church and it will be next to impossible for anyone to ever start it again.

So here’s what I would do.

Go on the defensive whenever someone suggest canceling the service.  For example, here are some possible responses you can make to put them on the defensive and be seen for what they are:

1. Didn’t the New Testament church meet all over the city, and wasn’t it called the church at Philippi, etc.? If it was good enough in the first century for the church to have more than one congregation, surely it’s good enough for us today. Don’t you agree?
2. Which is more important that we all know each other, or that everyone in our city knows God?  I for one would rather everyone know God than for all of us to know each other. Surely you can’t be saying we should put our comfort before the salvation of others.
3. How can you be so upset when the new service is bringing in new people and younger people? Don’t you care about leaving a legacy when you’re gone? Aren’t you committed to our Lord’s last will and testament: Go make disciples?
4. What difference does it make if we have two churches in one? Don’t you know about the multi-site church? Haven’t you watched churches have multiple services on Sunday? After all, Jesus is what binds us together, not how or where we meet for worship, isn’t He?
5. Don’t you trust me to preach the same message at both services?
6. Tell me please, just what is the real reason you want to cancel this service?
7. Surely you’re not saying that you know everyone in the church now, are you?

You can probably come up with many of your own, but don’t let the conversation focus on the fact that you have two services. Put the focus on following the Great Commission. Take them to the scriptures and the mission of the church and help them and those watching see how ignorant, self-centered, and non-biblical their objections are. If you can do this from a posture of love and respect, you just might have a winner.

Question: How would you respond to a person who suggested canceling your second service? Share your thoughts in the Comments section below.

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