Church Time II

"This is how you should pray..."
(Matthew 6)

Second Church Visit - May 6

Church at the Gate, Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Things Observed:

1. Church at the Gate (CG) was chosen as a visit location because it is involved in prayer ministries like 24-7 and International Houses of Prayer (IHOP) in Kansas City. It is a newer congregation that meets in two sites.

2. Worship times at the main campus are 6:00 p.m. Saturday, 8:45 and 10:45 Sunday. The second campus worships at 10:30 on Sunday. We worshiped in the 10:45 service at the main campus. The pastor's message was on video tape from the earlier service. Children's Sunday school is dismissed 30 minutes into the service.

3. Worship lasts 2 hours, with much time for prayer and a 40 minute preaching time.

4. The building is newer, on what was an open space, but now is surrounded by homes. From their cramped space, it's clear why they are adding on. The priority in building was on quality worship space and children's ministries, which were all very nice. Like Sunnybrook (see previous post), there is a coffee bar (with donuts for SS teachers!), and people are encouraged to take a cup of coffee with them into worship.

Things Learned

1. Multi-site worship can work when technology is top-notch. It is clear they invested a lot in the quality of re-broadcasting the preaching portion of the service.

2. Saturday night service may be one way to alleviate a space crunch, but it was also clear they needed a lot more volunteers.

3. Continue to pursue a prayer-bathed ministry. I would like to follow-up this visit with some time at the multi-church Great Plains House of Prayer in Sioux Falls.

4. 2 hours is a long time for kids to hang in there for church :).

What might they learn from Trinity?

Again, probably the same comment as I shared for the previous post.