Ebenfeld 'Branches' Out
When the Ebenfeld Mennonite Brethren Church saw their attendance swelling in the confines of the church walls, the church made like a tree and sprouted — a new branch that is.
"The Branch," a second service at Ebenfeld Mennonite Brethren Church, kicked-off earlier this fall as a result of growing attendance and a desire to meet the spiritual needs of more people in the Hillsboro community.
The second service, located in the church's fellowship hall, runs concurrently with the sanctuary service, and the sermon is broadcast through a live video feed.
Gaylord Goertzen, Ebenfeld's pastor, says he's not really sure why the church has experienced so much growth.
"It's just kind of happened. God has blessed us with physical growth," he said. "People of Ebenfeld are open, warm and friendly, and people just respond to that."
In fact, over the past five years, Ebenfeld has experienced fairly significant growth, especially for a small country church.
In 1998 the church recorded an average Sunday morning attendance of 180. In Ebenfeld's 2003 fiscal year, the church averaged 230.
It appears that the move to a second service has encouraged even more growth to Ebenfeld. Just three months into the endeavor, the church has averaged 266 people in attendance per Sunday with seven of 10 Sundays tallying more than 250.
The initial growth was so significant that church council members knew they had to address a sanctuary that would no longer comfortably hold a growing congregation.
In fact, council members had been monitoring the situation for several years.
In January 2002, former Topeka MB pastor Rick Eshbaugh met with church council members to evaluate the results of a church survey provided by Church Resources Ministry. Eshbaugh identified Ebenfeld as a growing church and encouraged council members to explore how to meet the needs of future growth.
"Rick told us that when a church reaches 80 percent of the capacity, growth will stop," Goertzen said.
Eshbaugh suggested three options for the church to consider: build a new sanctuary or remodel to accommodate more seating, move to two services, or do nothing.
Joel Suderman, current EMB moderator and council chairperson, said, "to do nothing would discourage growth and alleviate the need. The council at that time, and also today, felt some action was called for."
"The council at that time also felt that two services would not be the right thing for Ebenfeld," Suderman said.
As a result, council members explored both remodeling the existing sanctuary and constructing a new sanctuary. However, the council concluded that both projects would be cost prohibitive.
Church council members then began to explore the idea of a second service after a recommendation from pastor Gaylord Goertzen and associate pastor Vaughn Jost. But Goertzen's vision went beyond being able to accommodate seating. Goertzen said he hoped to provide an opportunity for outreach and evangelism.
After batting around the idea, council members hosted several congregational round table discussions so that additional input could be gathered.
Several second service options were discussed including an additional service running prior to the Sunday School hour and a video service that would telecast the morning sermon to the church's fellowship hall.
After analyzing the pros and cons of each option, council members proposed that the church offer two concurrent services, broadcasting the morning sermon to the fellowship hall. Church members voted in favor of the council's recommendation a few weeks later.
And thus a new "branch" sprouted from Ebenfeld's traditional Sunday Morning structure.
Although Goertzen says that the Branch service is meeting the need for growth, he says that moving to a second service has been challenging.
"All change is difficult," Goertzen said. "But people have been very gracious and can see that God is at work."
The Branch service is "not a radical departure from what we have been accustomed to," said Suderman. In fact, the structure of the Branch service is nearly identical to the sanctuary service. A few items, like special music, have been eliminated from the Branch service to accommodate timing issues of running both services simultaneously.
"Timing has been one of the greatest challenges," Goertzen said. "It's a big challenge to coordinate everything."
Those attending the branch participate in a time of singing praises and sharing prayer requests. The morning message is then projected onto a eight-by-eight foot screen.
"[The Branch] is providing something a little less formal and something a little different. We have more people coming,, and as a result more people are involved in serving. There's a lot of excitement," said Goertzen.
Sunday school begins at 9:15 with both the sanctuary service and The Branch service beginning at 10:30.
