A Two-Point Charge Launches Satellite Contemporary Worship
By Amy Yarnall

Last spring, a new worshipping community was born in Cecil County, Maryland. Launched at an Easter Sunday service with 160 worshippers, “Jacob’s Well” has continued to draw at least 100 people almost every week since, with an average of five to ten new visitors weekly. The new service is a satellite of two United Methodist churches in Chesapeake City -- Town Point and Trinity – a charge I have served since July 2003.

Before Jacob’s Well, there was no contemporary worship in the area. Built around praise music offered in a “rock” style and a multi-media format, Jacob’s Well provides “living water” to people who feel like outsiders to the faith (John 4). The idea was first conceived in casual conversation around the idea of starting a contemporary worship service. But it took more than a year of prayerful discernment, deliberate decision making, and careful planning to make the dream a reality.

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Resources for Satellite Worship
By Dottie Yunger

Many congregations today, regardless of their size, are thinking of church “outside the box” – that is, worship in a non-traditional setting. In response to this need, there are several companies specializing in portable staging, seating, sound and lighting equipment, and trailers for churches on the move. They offer a wide range of individual components and customized packages, including the trailer to store and transport the equipment. These companies assess the congregation’s needs and outfit them accordingly. For a church just starting down the road toward mobility, they can offer a variety of prepackaged or customized options and a wealth of knowledge about what works in different settings.

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Leaders do not need answers.
Leaders must have the right questions.

Think of your congregation as it functions today. Now, ask this question suggested by Lyle Schaller in From Cooperation to Competition (Abingdon, 2006):

If your congregation as it exists today suddenly
ceased to exist, would someone come along to replace
it with an exact replica of the current system?

Editors:  Lovett H. Weems, Jr. and Ann A. Michel
Production and distribution:  Joe Arnold

Copyright © 2006 by the G. Douglass Lewis Center for Church Leadership. Leading Ideas material may be freely distributed with attribution (exclusive of material protected by separate copyright).