Benefits Of Hybrid Church Model

As we've been experimenting with this new format I'm calling "Hybrid Church", I'm seeing some benefits I hadn't thought of when we began.

Here are some of the benefits:

• Gives people two ways to grow: through regular teaching (passive) in LGs and discussion (active) in SGs.
  
  
• Gives other people a chance to lead and grow
  
  
• Saves money because you only need to rent a facility 2 out of 4 OR 3 out of 5 Sundays
  
  
• Provides another way for people to begin meeting/walking with your church
  
  
• Provides an atmosphere where people can connect and grow relationally that they wouldn't normally get from a Sunday service
  
  
• For a bi-vocational pastor, it gives you less Sundays that you need to teach and that gives you more time to focus and prep for the Sundays you do teach (LGs)
  
  
• This also gives you more time to do other responsibilities like: forecasting, goal setting, seeking God, praying for church, playing with the church, etc.
  
  
• Refreshes you as a leader by giving you the chance to sit with everyone else and listen, share, laugh, pray, etc. while someone else facilitates the SG.
  
  
• For portable churches, it gives your set up teams a break from the weekly set up grind
  
  
• Keeps the focus on the church as the people not a program or event
  
  
• It causes the church to get out of the building and be more incarnational in some ways. (Like I mentioned we've met at Cafes, beaches, parks, etc.)
  
  
• Makes the church less pastor dependent and more Holy Spirit dependent.
  

(NOTE: I want to make sure to mention two things: 1. Some of these benefits can come from a church just having small groups. 2. I don't think every church has to do this model. I don't think all other churches who don't do this are wrong. I'm just pointing out benefits I've seen in our experimenting with this.)