Making Lemon-Aid Out of Lemons

Church planting requires creativity. Sometimes circumstances require midstream adjustments. These pivots can “make or break” a church plant. Years ago, when we planted Summit, a church-planting axiom was “blessed are the flexible, for those are the ones that survive.” This has also proven true with English Christian Fellowship.

The most recent example has been with our new meeting location. The Hilton Garden Inn has been a spectacular blessing for ECF. It is larger with a more upscale ambience and offers many more amenities than our previous hotel. As a result, since we relocated last month, ECF’s attendance has risen by 20%.

However, there was a wrinkle in the rental contract we knew about ahead-of-time. Two Sundays this year were previously committed at the Hilton. This meant we would need to pivot both Sundays. “Blessed are the flexible, for those are the ones that survive.”

After pondering our options, we decided to rent a movie theater adjacent to the hotel for both days. This would keep us in the same vicinity and not require moving to an entirely new location. But being in the theater changes how we do worship, how our greeting team operates, how we do children’s ministry, and how we set up our fellowship time following the service. Basically, it requires a complete ministry re-tooling. “Blessed are the flexible, for those are the ones that survive.”

The first Sunday in the theater was a few weeks ago. Our second Sunday is December 18. It has been exciting to see how God has worked upstream to make lemon-aid out of lemons.

For example, a few days before we met in the theater the first time, I realized I had several “movie-sermons” in my database that I had filmed at Summit. It occurred to me that showing a “movie-sermon” might be an excellent use of the huge movie screen in the theater.

And was is ever! Instead of bemoaning having to use the theater, people came out of the service buzzing! The “movie-message” impacted our church family powerfully!

A second example is coming up December 18. That is the second (and final) time we have to vacate the hotel and use the theater.

It just so happens that the final game for the World Cup will take place at 9:00 AM (Costa Rica time) on December 18. Now, I realize most of you are not huge fans of soccer. But we live in Costa Rica and these folks are WILD about “fútbol.”

So, we’ve decided to open the theater at 9:00 AM for anyone who wants to watch the World Cup Final on “the big screen.” We will hold our church service immediately after the championship game…and we will use another “movie-sermon” for our teaching. “Blessed are the flexible, for those are the ones that survive.”

Pam and I wanted an adventure in this season of our lives. Guess what? We are having the time of our lives! Thanks for praying!

Warmly,

Steve and Pam