Additional Thoughts on FFBC Going to Two Services

Yesterday, a great article was published by Pastor Lloyd on why Firm Foundation Bible Church is planning to go to two services starting next month, September 2024. As one of the elders at FFBC, I have obviously been a part of that decision and right in the middle of all the discussion concerning it.

Lloyd’s article was thorough and spot-on, but I wanted to add a few thoughts of my own to highlight some of the points that I think are especially important to recognize. Everything I have to say here is at least touched on in Lloyd’s article, so some of this might be redundant, but hopefully this will put a spotlight on these things.

1. We are Out of Room at Our Current Facility

As anyone who has been to FFBC on a Sunday morning knows, we have a tiny office strip on the edge of the industrial area that runs along Florentine Road in Prescott Valley.

When I arrived at FFBC in March of 2020, there were about 35 people in weekly attendance, and one of the offices in the strip was being rented by a local business (i.e., we didn’t even have the whole strip). Our sanctuary was the two front suites only (suites A and B), and there was a wall with double doors between suites B and C. At that time, those few office suites with our meager 24-space parking lot was sufficient.

But we quickly grew out of that—both the space and the parking lot.

Here are some of the modifications and adaptations that were made over the next four years to accommodate the ever-increasing growth (in random, but basically-chronological order):

• We opened up parking on the dirt lot east of Grizzly Bear for Sunday mornings, as well as parking in the Interstate Batteries lot east of that.
• We maxed out the five suites we were renting, but providentially the business in suite F ended their lease, which we thankfully picked up, giving us the entire office strip.
• We built and tore down several walls throughout the offices, and added some doors.
• We tore down the old sound booth and built a new one that takes up far less space.
• We’ve shifted classrooms, offices, and storage rooms at least a dozen times.
• We’ve combined and cancelled multiple Sunday morning children’s ministry classes, and have continued moving the oldest-remaining children into the Sunday morning worship service.
• We’ve continued to play with our weekly schedule to try to accommodate youth ministry, young adults ministry, prayer meetings, and our Wednesday night studies.
• We’ve spent several thousand dollars on multiple rounds of new-chair purchases for the sanctuary.
• We opened the dirt lot to the west of the office strip and spent several thousand dollars adding gravel to make parking easier (one of our deacons, Gary Cordes, oversaw that entire project).

There have, of course, been other important changes and accommodations, but these are the most major.

The short of it is this: We have continued to make adjustments to accommodate for the growth. We’ve spent the money. We’ve cancelled ministries and changed the schedule. We’ve knocked down the walls. We’ve added new parking and offices. Anyone who has been here for more than two years has seen at least some of that. (I, of course, have seen all of it.)

And as it stands today, in August of 2024, there is literally nowhere else to go or grow. We can’t add any more parking, office space, or chairs. We can’t adjust any more ministries. We have literally done all we can with the space we have.

But this leads to the second and (I would say) more important point.

2. Why are People Continuing to Come to FFBC?

Consider again: When I came to FFBC in March of 2020, there were about 35 people in weekly attendance. As of this writing, there are over 200 in weekly attendance.

Why is that?

Is it because of the fog machines and the light show?

Is it because Lloyd is so trendy and cool with his 20-minute talks, relevant topics, hipster haircut, skinny jeans, and Bible-lite preaching from his bistro-table pulpit while he sips his latte?

Is it because of the music? Because we all know how exciting, energetic, and trendy the Sunday morning music is at FFBC, right? When you consider the whole of it, it becomes perfectly obvious that we’re basically somewhere between a Hillsong service and a Gaither concert…right?

So is the Sunday morning worship why people are coming?

Or maybe it’s because of our programs. We have all the trendy programs, a cutting-edge children’s ministry, and branded classes for every demographic…right?

Or maybe people are coming because our facility is so breathtakingly beautiful. It’s basically a resort, right? When you look at our parking lots, our office strip—both its aesthetics and its location—and then when you come inside and you see (as Lloyd pointed out) our gray curtains, it becomes obvious why people are flocking to FFBC.

Or maybe it’s because we have the Who’s-Who of the Quad City area leading and attending. Our elder team and membership roll is basically a Yavapai County A-Lister’s club. Right?

Why are people coming? Why has FFBC seen an almost 500% increase in just four short years? That is the question.

And what is the answer to that question? Obviously the answer is found in none of those proposed above.

The answer, of course, is that we hold the Word of God high and that we take it seriously.

“Why has FFBC seen an almost 500% increase in just four short years? That is the question. The answer, of course, is that we hold the Word of God high and that we take it seriously.”

We don’t have a ‘What to Expect’ page on our website. And if we did, it would say, “When you come to FFBC, you can expect to hear the Bible.” It’s not trendy, it’s not cool, it’s not going to fluff up your ego or tell you how special you are and how sad God is without you. It’s not going to be ‘positive and encouraging’ like the radio station. It’s not going to be a bunch of exhortation, or politicizing and nation-building, or standards about music, dress, or some other external that doesn’t matter to God at all and that’s a distraction away from the person, work, and cause of Christ.

It’s going to be God’s inerrant, inspired, authoritative Word—challenging our autonomy, confronting our wrong ideas about God, the world, and ourselves, and calling us to be conformed to the image of Christ. And it’s going to be preached expositionally, because what the text says is what the text means.

That is what we do at FFBC. And that’s all we do.

We hold high the authority of God and lordship of Jesus Christ in the Scriptures, and that is what we preach, because that’s all we care about.

And guess what? That is why people are coming.

As Lloyd said in his article, there are only a handful of other churches in the Prescott, AZ area that are committed to a reformed view of salvation, a high view of the sovereignty of God, a high view of the Word of God, and to the faithful, accurate exposition of the Scriptures. There are not many churches in our area who simply repudiate the fluff and are completely disinterested in trends, peripherals, styles, cleverness, being relevant, or popularity contests. You could literally count them on one hand, and FFBC is one of them.

When you consider that there are well over 100,000 people in our part of Yavapai County alone—and we’re one of just a few churches in the area who value what we value—the real surprise is why there aren’t many, many more at FFBC in weekly attendance. It makes one wonder if maybe our area isn’t quite as Christian as we might think…

People are coming to FFBC for the right reasons, and they’re staying for the right reasons. The growth is good growth, healthy growth. They’re coming because they’re looking for substance.

They’re coming because they want to hear the Word of God.

3. What are the Alternatives to Two Services?

Lloyd spelled out rather clearly in his article how diligently the FFBC elder team has been at exploring other facilities and options. There literally has been nothing available, either for rent or purchase.

In view of the fact that we can’t expand our current facility or make any more modifications to it, what are our alternatives? What do we say to all the people who are coming to hear the Word of God—people who we would say are coming to a faithful church for the right reasons?

At this point, the only alternative I can see to going to two services is turning people away and directing them somewhere else. ‘Sorry, guys, we’re full. There are several liberal churches just a few miles from here, and a whole bunch of other churches in town that are focused on everything but the Word of God. Good luck out there; keep warm and well-fed.’

I don’t know what the alternative to going to two services might be at this point except turning people away, and I’m sure we would all agree that that’s not an option given the spiritual need and the ecclesiastical landscape.

Conclusion: Two Services is OK

From the earliest days of my life in Christ, I have been struck by two facts with respect to church size. First, the first church in Christian history, the church in Jerusalem, was a “mega church” with thousands of members (Acts 2.41). Second, most of the early churches were house churches (cf. Rom 16.3–5).

So basically every time someone has said to me over the past 20 years, “Well, I don’t like small churches,” or “I don’t like big churches,” or “Small/big churches are better because [fill in the blank],” my mind has immediately gone to what I know about the New Testament, and I think to myself, “Ok, that’s not Bible, and those might be your priorities, but they’re not God’s priorities. Next issue; what else you got?”

Now, pragmatically speaking—because pragmatic arguments are all we have in this case—there are certainly benefits and drawbacks to both big churches and small churches. But I don’t think God could possibly care any less about whether FFBC is a small church or a big church. However, I do think God wants us to be cautious about imposing our ideas about big and small churches onto the church as if they’re matters of orthodoxy or orthopraxy.

Plus, when I consider that so many people have been continuing to come to FFBC for over four years now for the reasons that they’ve been coming—and when I think that there are still over 100,000 people in central Yavapai County alone who need nothing more than to hear the truth of God and to belong to a faithful, Christ-exalting church—I don’t see how accommodating the growth is a bad thing.

Actually, for my part, I think it’s a good thing.

And if we can make room for a few more, we should, and praise God for it. Because I believe with all my heart that a church like FFBC is exactly what everyone in Yavapai County needs.