Eastiew Community Church
Eastview Community Church

Today at Eastview

Sundays Just Got More XL-ent

Philip Wiebe - 2008-09-25

“Leading people to Christ and on to maturity in Him.” So reads Eastview’s mission statement, but you probably knew that already. The question is, how well are we actually achieving that mission?

If you were asked to explain what “leading people to Christ” looks like at Eastview from a programming standpoint, you might suggest Sunday morning messages, Alpha courses, outreach events, kids’ and students’ ministries, etc. as ways our church strives to lead people to Christ.

But if you were then asked to explain what leading people “on to maturity in Him” looks like, you might pause a little longer. You might search for words and unsurely throw out something that sounds a bit like “care groups?” If you’re like me, your answers would have been as unbalanced as a rooster on a tightrope.

According to Pastor Delbert Enns, that’s because our church programming’s focus has been a little unbalanced. “We’ve done a good job at leading people to Christ, but so far we haven’t done as well leading them on to maturity. We need a new model for spiritual formation.” (Read more about Pastor Delbert's views on Spiritual Formation.)

Willing to pick up the Spiritual Formation ball and run with it were council members Rick Hiebert and Erni Wiebe. Together with Pastor Delbert and a team that includs Greg Armstrong, Cory Normand, John & Phyllis Schmidt, and Andrea Toews, they put together the plan for what has been dubbed “SundayXL,” a revolutionary new approach to building a specific spiritual formation focus outside the traditional framework of Sunday morning services.

For one Sunday a month starting October 19, Eastviewers will be invited to register for a lunch to be served after the second morning service followed by a 2-3 hour interactive teaching session of their choice from a variety of topics. (Yes, you’ll be home in time for Sunday Night Football.) These sessions will be divided into five basic streams:

  • Bible Discovery (focusing on the study of Scripture)
  • Life Lessons (speaking to people in specific stages of life)
  • Spiritual Formation (classes specifically targeting the Christian’s personal walk)
  • Ministry Training (where individual ministries can build into existing and prospective volunteers)
  • Intro to Eastview

The sessions available within each of these five groupings will be publicized in advance of each month’s SundayXL. One of the benefits of moving toward a more segmented Spiritual Formation model outside of the typical Sunday morning format is that it further frees up the church to pursue the teaching talents of topical experts.

So why Sunday afternoons? Does it represent segregating the two halves of the mission statement into the two portions of Sunday programming? Not at all, according to the minds behind SundayXL. They contend that both parts will continue to be addressed on Sunday mornings through, for example, sermons and the Life Application class, while the same can be said of SundayXL (through seeker-targeted offerings like Intro to Eastview).

Then why Sunday afternoons? “It was simply a matter of there not being enough classrooms on a Sunday morning,” says Rick Hiebert. “We have the Fireside Room in the second hour of Sunday morning for our Life Applications class, and that’s all the space that’s available.” Says Erni Wiebe: “We’ve found that during the week, most people have difficulty making room for one more evening commitment. However, they’re at church on Sundays anyway, and so we hope that people will embrace the idea that once a month we can share lunch and an afternoon of pursuing spiritual maturity.”

Five SundayXLs have been scheduled for the 08-09 ministry year. After the fun gets rolling on October 19, SundayXL will happen on November 16, February 15, March 15 and finally April 19. “We’re not married to the concept,” says Erni, “but we’re committed to these five SundayXL dates.” “It’s a learning process,” agrees Rick, “and we’re really excited for October 19 to get here and start seeing what God has in store for Eastview through SundayXL.”

A preview what the SundayXL on October 19 will look like is now available.