Progress reports...
TWO AND COUNTING...
Well, there you go, two years and still going.
Pretty cool.
Typically, if a church plant is going to 'fail' it'll do so in the first two years. Not that I ever actually thought that was going to be how it went for us, but it's cool to know, either way, that we've passed a pretty significant milestone.
We've officially transitioned from 'church plant' into 'small church' and are now beginning to move into the season where a 'small church' becomes a 'medium sized church'. For those of you who are interested, the typical (as in what you read in the books on church planting) church breaks are:
-church plant 0-50
-small church 60-120
-medium sized church 200
-large church 350-600
-very large church 800-1500
-mega church 2000+
-gigachurch 5000+
Now, these numberes might be slightly different from ones you've seen elsewhere because I've adapted them to suit our context (Western GTA/Canada) and my (however limited) experience.
All that to say, the 'things' that typically happen in a church that's pushing towards 'medium-sized' (need for a permanent location, need for more organized systems, need for detailed communication structures, need for increased community building initiatives, need for increased focus on children's ministry) are all things that are happening right now at THE WELL.
We've also stopped counting attendance for a year.
Crazy, right?
Reason is I felt like my fixation on numeric growth was becoming a bit of an idol. I realize that this same tactic is often embraced by church planters whose churches are starting to tank, as a way to 'spiritualize' their sense of failure but, trust me (or better yet, come see for youself some Sunday...) we're doing the opposite of tanking.
Even last week (November 6th) with 35 people away or sick (that I know of) we had a 2/3's filled room which is absolutely wild.
I'm not sure how many people we have each week but it's feeling full, feeling real, and I can HEAR the people singing.
Worship is getting better and better, which is great 'cause our intent is to become a 'worship center'.
We're doing ministry time most services which is great 'cause we've officially embraced our PENTECOSTAL/CHARISMATIC roots.
We're launching our first three small groups (for members only) this month which is evidence that our church is really gelling, and giving is up.
We're really hoping to find a permanent facility and are toying with expanding to add a Sunday night service in the new year. No SURE on this yet, but certainly working and praying towards it.
We're getting more and more involved with social justice outreach in our area and are trying very hard to just do the 'little things' well.
If you're ever in the Burlington area on a Sunday please come see us, and in meantime, please pray for God to MOVE in our midst.
Richest blessings on you!
Pastor Todd
A YEAR IN...
Well, it's been a year and a bit. Figured we drop another wee update onto this here page.
Some very encouraging things have been happening of late. One of them had to be the BEST Children's Christmas Play EVER. Written by our kids with the help of Jeff Stout, the play was a mash up of the classic Christmas story with some hilarious modern elements mixed it. It was a big hit. The kids have plans for an Easter reprise.
In terms of statistics we finished 2010 with a 40%+ growth rate in attendance with right around 70 people with us on an average Sunday. If everyone who 'does' come in a typical month came on the SAME Sunday we'd be closing in on 90.
Our kids will be the reason we outgrow our current space.
Most weeks we have around 15 kids but one week out of four sees that number (including babies) push into the 30 range. With capacity for 45 kids in our building, by the time we hit 130 in regular attendance we'll be maxed out of the space. Please be praying with us as we are starting a search for our next place now. We dearly hope to be able to find an old church to inherit.
Financially we grew by more than 50% in 2010 with offerings now in the $1,500/week range. We're encouraged to see that growth but need weekly giving to hit $2,000-2,500 per week this calendar year to help us do the things we envision having to do staff and operations-wise.
Online we're averaging about 1000 page views per day on our facebook page and nearly 2000 sermon downloads per month.
Bible study is growing and will likely have to split into two groups by summer 2011.
Demographically most of our growth is in 'young-ish' couples (mid-20's to early 30's) either just into or getting ready to enter their childbearing years. We are grateful for a strong contingent of 60-somethings who've made THE WELL their church home as well.
Musically we're very encouraged to have had Aaron and Katrina Weafer and their 3 kids join us. Aaron has a tremendous track record as a worship leader in the Charismatic movement and is really helping to establish what we had long hoped our 'brand' (if you'll forgive the use of the term) would be, that is, as THE 'Charismatic' option for the Western GTA.
When we first planted THE WELL, my wife Nicole had some misgivings. "Why would we plant ANOTHER Church in Burlington? There are so many and a couple HUGE ones. What difference are WE going to make?" In my heart I knew that a strong, Charismatically worshipping, unapologetically Bible preaching, culturally liberal while theologically conservative, missionally-oriented, intuitively communal Church was, in fact, missing as part of the makeup of the church landscape in the Western Greater Toronto area.
Aaron and Katrina are a piece we've been waiting (and earnestly praying) for. With Aaron's blazing worship gift in play at THE WELL we expect to enter a great season of growth, both numerically and spiritually.
Yes, in terms of Spiritual growth, we're seeing it. We've started intentional 'ministry time' at the end of most services and even did our first 'altar call' recently. I've wanted to carefully 'turn the corner' into a more 'practically' Charistmatic ethic at THE WELL and I say 'carefully' 'cause the desire is to not 'freak people out' while still intentionally walking in what we believe, which is, that without the active, actual, practical, evident involvement of God the Holy Spirit in every aspect of our corporate life as a Church we're just plain wasting out time.
I believe some VERY exciting times are just around the corner.
Looking forward to seeing you some week at THE WELL.
10:30am, Sundays...
SIX MONTHS IN...
THE WELL is growing.
In fact, if you compare the first ten weeks in the life of THE WELL to the last ten weeks we're very grateful to report that attendance has grown by 48% and giving has grown by 25%. These are both explosive rates of growth.
We're thankful to Jesus for His mercy and to our people for tithing, serving, and helping to grow THE WELL (in Jesus) by inviting friends and family to check us out, and for their ongoing commitment to keep at it.
You're looking at images (above) of our 2010 Good Friday service. You can see we decked it out a bit. We're starting to have some resources to deploy to make things 'look' a little cooler, which we do, not to try and 'be' cool, but to try and craft an environment that's welcoming, evocative, on-message and on-mission, so that even our 'set design' can be partnered with Jesus in His ongoing redemptive work in your life and the life of your peers, for His Glory, our joy, and the good of the city. You can expect more changes to our 'look' and 'feel' in the coming months.
We've also added a band and a second regular worship leader. Mike Dyment, our Ministry Associate, and his wife Jessica have been stepping more and more into an 'Associate Pastoral' role at THE WELL, really helping to make sure the 'ship' runs smoothly. As we grow, it's our expectation that Mike will continue to merge more and more into a "Pastoral" role. This means a couple things. 1) We need you to continue giving generously in tithes and offerings so that we can begin compensating Mike for his time and 2) since Mike will be focusing more in a Pastoral role we need to assist him with worship leading. We're grateful that one of Todd's long-time friends, Chris Stacey, has felt a call to step up and assist in this area. From now on, you can expect Chris and Mike to roughly 'share' the worship leading load and you can also expect a few new singers and musicians to be stopping by week to week.
This is all in an effort to help construct (in the Spirit) a vibrant, emotive, on-mission, worship experience for God's glory and your encouragement and joy as well as that of your peers.
THE NUMBERS:
THE WELL is now averaging between 70-80 people most weeks and we've almost hit 100 twice. We expect to close in on that 100 mark in a sustained way before the summer.
Easter Weekend we had 138 people join us.
Just so you know, we focus on numbers because numbers represent ACTUAL people learning to love Jesus, each other, and our city.
Financially, giving is continuing to grow. The last four weeks (April 4, March 28, March 21, March 14) have included our three biggest offerings ever (they're still pretty humble so don't get too excited). This is an encouraging trend.
Money is important to a Church because, without it, a Church cannot fulfill it's mission. For more on how we handle money at THE WELL click HERE.
Our web numbers remain strong with over 18,000 visits to the site since launch, a regular visitor base of 3,000 each month, and between 100-500 sermon downloads each week.
NEXT STEPS:
As mentioned above, we hope to continue adding some visual complexity to our Sunday services as well as recording the sermons on video in the near future. We have also started doing quite a bit of Pastoral counseling and visitation so you can expect Mike and Jessica to begin assisting Todd and Niki with that very soon as well.
We had our first Membership Night in March. We have begun accepting people into 'actual' membership at THE WELL; always a sobering and humbling experience. If you have questions about becoming a member, click HERE.
Finally, we are in-prayer and exploration these days re: adding a Sunday night service. Please pray for clear leading from the Lord on this one.
Also, look for a special ordination service (for Todd) coming soon. This is so that he can 'marry' and 'bury' and have some 'structural' accountability as 'Pastor' of a rapidly growing independent church. The Canadian Fellowship of Christian Ministers (CFCM) has officially approved Todd for Ordination so we will be making that official, Lord Willing, sometime in May. This rapid approval is a tremendous vote of confidence for THE WELL, as to be recognized this quickly by a Nationally sanctioned Ministry organization is rare indeed. We are very grateful to God for His mercy in this, and to CFCM for their support.
We look forward to a very exciting four months as we approach (can you believe it?) our ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY coming up September 5th, 2010. Please continue to pray and work with us to see THE WELL built into a vibrant church that loves Jesus, serves, worships, obey, follows, and glorifies Him for His Glory, our joy and the good of the city of Burlington and its surrounding area.
With love,
Pastor Todd.
THREE MONTHS IN...
That's our worship leader, Mike Dyment, practicing before service three weeks after we launched THE WELL.
Figured we'd give you an update on our progress in our first three months together and ask you to partner with us as we head for year-end.
A CHURCH IS STARTING TO EXIST
That's a very cool thing. THE WELL was just an idea twelve weeks ago. This sunday (week 12) we will finish up our third sermon series (CHURCH/JESUS REDISCOVERED/CULTURE WARS) and get ready for four glorious Christmas weeks with our CHRISTMASTIME series. We had six (6) new people with us last Sunday and if everyone who's come more than once came on the same Sunday we'd be closing in on 55 people with us on an average Sunday.
IN TERMS OF NUMBERS
In our first eleven weeks THE WELL has averaged 46 people (adults and children) and $713 in tithes and offerings on a given Sunday. With the statistics being that most North American churches don't pass 100 in weekly attendance until their fifth (5th) year in operation I think it's safe to say we're on our way, all thanks and glory be to Jesus.
--WEEK 15 UPDATE--
As of last week (Dec 20, 2009) we've hit the 70-mark in attendance and our web stats for the first four months of operations are as follows:
Page views= 7,896
Unique visits= 3,497
1st time visits= 2,343
Returning visits= 1,154
IN TERMS OF A 'SPIRITUAL SENSE OF THINGS'
Anecdotally, THE WELL is largely made up of families. This is different than our first church, where the population was largely single young adults. We're not surprised by this as THE WELL is located in suburban Burlington ON and FREECHURCH TORONTO was planted in the heart of downtown Toronto ON.
Of the families that are currently with us, most are starting to give faithfully and about half of them have family members attending with them for whom THE WELL is really the first church where they've ever felt really 'engaged'.
A sense we're already getting from people who visit or attend is that our dedicated 'kids space' in the sanctuary where children are encouraged to play quietly during worship and stay (if they're old/mature enough) for the sermon is a welcome addition in a culture where some churches are sometimes less than welcoming of kids in their services. It's our hope to continue to make THE WELL a truly child-welcoming place.
Our worship style continues to be heavy on hymns and very simple. In December we'll be adding an additional guitar and backing vocals and hope to introduce a full band in the new year.
Our preaching seems to be settling in to what we'd expected it to be, which is passionate expository preaching that surveys a book of the Bible for a month at a time, looking to connect the truth of scripture and the timeless story of Jesus to our modern culture and context in a way that transforms the hearer (us) so that we are inspired to live for Jesus, serve Jesus and proclaim Jesus (when given the opportunity) in our average everyday lives.
We've noticed an intensifying sense of God's presence with us by the Holy Spirit in the past three weeks and it's our hope that that authentic intensity continues to ratchet up.
WEBSITE
Our website is beginning to get significant traffic in the days following Sunday. We are now seeing between 150-300 downloads of Sunday's sermon on the Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday immediately following our weekend services. We are beginning to get feedback from listeners from as far away as Europe, South America, India and Asia who are blessed by the preaching they're able to podcast from THE WELL.
EVENTS
We are beginning to deploy a few events to help us mobilize in community to love Jesus, each other, and our city.
We are running, then hanging out every tuesday night in downtown burlington as a way to casually build relationships while inspiring our people to fitness.
We have started a once a month 'family movie night'.
We are planning a major Valentines Day (2010) event.
FINANCIAL NEED
As you can imagine, there were significant start up costs undertaken to get THE WELL off the ground. From signage to promotional materials to space rental to purchasing sound gear, projector & screen, musical instruments, software and getting this website up and functioning a lot of money was spent to get THE WELL started.
It is our hope to end 2009 with a zero balance owing ie: it's our goal to have all our start up costs paid off by the last week in December so that we can start 2010 with a clean slate ahead as we enter our first full calendar year as a church.
We need to generate $9,000 in the next five weeks to cover off all our remaining expenses. We currently have $2,000 in the bank so if we can hit $1,500 per week in tithes and offerings for the next five weeks ($7,500) that'll put us totally in the black by year end.
DECEMBER 2009 UPDATE:
See that request above?
You met it.
That's right. We finished 2009 with a whopping $480 SURPLUS in our bank account! On the one hand this is beautifully humble 'cause it's such a small number. On the other hand it's very encouraging because we now OWN all the gear we bought at start up.
Due to God's grace and your faithful giving.
Thank you, and well done.
We look forward to continuing this journey together and thank you very sincerely for obeying Jesus as He calls us, together, to leverage our time, talent, energy and financial resources to build a new church from scratch, for the sake of His people and His glory.
In Him,
Todd Cantelon
Founding Pastor--THE WELL
