Is your church wondering whether to add another service on Sunday mornings?

Are you looking to the future and trying to figure out when you should add a second, third, or even fourth time to meet on a Sunday?

Wrestling with the right timeline to add a new service is an important process for your church as you balance the growth taking place against the amount of work required to service that growth. Many churches encounter different factors that drive them to add another service to their weekend line-up.

I’ve recognized five such factors that should move your church to begin the process of adding a new service. You don’t necessarily have to tick off all five boxes—any one of these may be enough to spur your decision-making process. However, if you do identify with several items on this list, that underlines the urgency for you to move forward.

Churches can stunt their own growth if they simply don’t have enough places for guests to sit! If your physical buildings are maxed out, it will discourage people from inviting their friends. When their friends do finally come, they’ll have a suboptimal experience which harms your church’s ability to grow and impact people. See if any of the following factors speak to your situation to help determine whether you should add another service to your church.

70% Full Service

It’s often been said that a church service that is 80% full is functionally maxed out because at that level most rooms look and feel full. I think this is generally true in most contexts; however, there may be exceptions where you can fit a few more people in before it feels like there isn’t any room left. The reason you want to be proactive before you reach 80% is that, in most churches, it takes a tremendous amount of work to carry out that decision and to rally the volunteers needed for an additional service.

If you have at least 70% capacity in any of your services, you need to begin having serious conversations with your team about adding another service. There are probably only a couple of windows a year where you can do this, so starting the conversation now is an important structural decision.

Crazy Kids’ Areas

Take a few moments this weekend to watch what happens as families come and go through your space.

Are the experiences around kids’ ministry filled with joy, or do they feel chaotic? Is your preschool area too busy and disorganized as parents try to drop off and check-in their kids (and all their stuff) and then repeat the process at check-out?

The reality is that if parents feel like the kids’ areas are way too crazy, they won’t come back. In fact, it’s even more damaging if the experience feels hectic; they’ll be less likely to invite their friends because no parents want to invite a friend into something chaotic.

Parking Lot Pressure

A lot of church leaders have no idea what happens in their parking lots on a Sunday morning because they arrive before the first car comes and typically leave after most everyone else has left. My challenge to you is to spend an entire Sunday morning in your parking lot to simply watch what takes place. If you can’t do this in person, you could put a small webcam on top of your building and record a few weekends of parking lot activity. A good rule of thumb is to have one parking spot for every two seats in your main auditorium—if your main auditorium seats 200, you’re going to need 100 parking spots.

If you don’t (or can’t) meet that ratio, you will find an incredible amount of pressure on your parking lot on any given Sunday morning, which can discourage people from attending. If people arrive and there’s no place for them to park, you’d be amazed to see how many turn around and drive home. People, especially first-time guests, are looking for an excuse not to attend,