A series of questions I often receive from other church leaders centers on how to choose the number of worship services a church offers and the days and times for those worship services. Those questions are massively important, as church leaders are deciding when they will gather God’s people for worship, community, and to study God’s Word. Here, I offer some current thinking to be hopefully helpful and also to be a place I can direct others to in the future.
Caveats: There are some church leaders who believe a church should have only one gathering, as the church means gathering, and multiple gatherings would be multiple churches. Their theology does not allow for multiple worship services. My theology is that the ekklesia indeed was used to describe a gathering, but the word literally means “the called-out ones.” A church service is a gathering of the called-out ones, and I don’t see a limitation in Scripture to have only one gathering. There are also some church leaders who believe the only day a church should gather is Sunday. They point to the long history of the Church gathering on Sunday because Christ was raised from the dead on a Sunday. Others, including me, don’t see limitations for church gatherings to be on Sunday. Just as the Old Testament command “to honor the Sabbath” was not repeated in the New Testament because we have entered into a continual Sabbath rest (Hebrews 4) as Christ’s work on our behalf is complete, each day is the Lord’s Day and can be a time when God’s people gather to worship Him. I respect the aforementioned views, and I know godly men and women who hold them, but I am going to give some practical counsel to those who land where I land, which is, “Let’s gather God’s people whenever we can.”
My context: At the beginning of 2026, the church I pastor will have eleven campuses/congregations. Most of those congregations meet at 8:30, 10 & 11:30a on Sundays. One of our congregations, where I teach live, has six services: Thursday at 7p, Saturday at 4 & 5:30p, and Sunday at 8:30, 10 & 11:30a.
Some principles:
1. Multiple worship services give people more options to gather and worship.
When I was pastoring in Miami, the statistic that more than 30% of our city worked on Sunday burdened us to launch a Saturday night service. Even if a church only gathers on Sunday, the more worship services the church offers, the more options there are for people.
2. Multiple worship services are a wise stewardship of facilities.
A facility has incremental costs with every service, but the vast majority of the facility costs are the same whether you use the facility one time or seven times. Lyle Schaller, a well-respected church consultant from years ago, challenged church leaders to have six to seven worship services before they expanded to other locations. While I don’t hold to that rule, as impacting another area or city can be a huge motivation for a new location, his emphasis on wise stewardship was helpful.
3. Multiple worship services (on the same day) help people worship and
A common question I receive is: “We have two services on Sunday and are either going to add a third to Sunday or a single service on Saturday. Which do you suggest?” My answer: “A third service on Sunday because people will be able to more easily attend one service and serve at another service. A single service on Saturday is challenging for volunteers because they have to come back on Sunday to attend a worship service. I am not saying to wait until you have two services on Saturday to launch a Saturday, if you have filled your Sunday service options, but I am saying that having two services (or more) on the same day makes it easier to worship and serve.
4. Have as few asterisks as possible.
An asterisk creates extra mental work for people deciding when to come to church and when to invite their friends. What do I mean by an asterisk? Let me give an example:
—-
8a, 9:30a*+=, 11a*, 1p=
* Special Needs ministry
+ Junior High gathering
= High school gathering
—–
A worship service with no asterisk is one where all the programming is offered. This way, someone knows, “Any time I come to service, it has the same offerings as the other times.” My encouragement is to have as few asterisks as possible, at least on the same day.
5. Discern when to be proactive and when to be reactive.
Being proactive means adding another worship service before you need to, from a capacity vantage point. Meaning even though you still have open seats, parking, and kids’ space, you add another worship service to make it easier for people to worship at one service and serve at one service, or easier to reach a new group of people. If you have one service now, be as proactive as soon as you can. If you have two services now, I also think you can look to be proactive. But at some point, with more and more services, you move to being reactive—meaning you add services as you move toward bumping “the lid” in your current service times.
6. The first lid you reach, at any service time, is the lid.
There are typically three lids to any worship service time: parking, seating, and space in the kid’s ministry. Whichever lid you hit first is the lid, no matter how much space is still available in the other two. Ideally, the three lids are close to one another. Knowing how far you are away from the first lid in your largest service at any time will help you make better decisions.
7. If your latest service on Sunday is larger than your earliest service, you can likely launch an even later service.
I learned this from Craig Groeschel, and I believe he is right. He asked me which was a more attended worship service for us: 8:30a or 11:30a. The answer is 11:30a by a good margin, so he suggested that we could later launch a 1p service if we desire.
8. God delights in using the exceptions.
With all I have shared, we have exceptions in my context. As an example, our Thursday night service has a big asterisk, as the service is only for young adults. We only have one service on that night and have decided not to add another because we love all the connection that the young adults enjoy after the service. So if God leads you to break your own principles, go for it! These are practical principles, not biblical convictions to hold tightly to.
