Lord willing, for an experimental period, from January through March of 2027, there will be occasional video preaching on Sunday mornings at the Port Charlotte campus.  

On those weekends when Pastor Rusty is preaching, he will preach live on Saturday at the Port Charlotte Campus as usual. (NOTE: Beginning January 2, 2027, new Saturday service times will be 4:15pm & 6pm.)  

Then on Sunday mornings, Rusty will travel to one of the other campuses and preach from that campus. The sermon will be streamed to the Port Charlotte campus.  

Here are some of the reasons for this experimental season:  

• MORE SPACE ON SUNDAYS AT PORT CHARLOTTE. At the Port Charlotte campus, Sunday services have been very crowded in the sanctuary, parking lot and children’s hallways, especially in the winter months. Crowded conditions have become a barrier to reaching more people in Port Charlotte. We have room at our Saturday services. If several hundred Sunday attenders move to Saturday, it will free up space on Sundays for continued growth. We hope this change might encourage more people to attend Saturday instead of Sunday, since Saturday services will always have live preaching.  

• POSITIVE MOMENTUM FOR SATURDAY SERVICES. This change could have the double benefit of making both Sundays and Saturdays more attractive to members and visitors. Services that are too full become a barrier, and so do services that are not full enough. If we can balance the attendance, Sundays will be less crowded, and Saturdays will have greater participation. In other words, having more people attend Saturdays may create enthusiasm and spark additional growth at the Saturday services.  

• POSITIVE MOMENTUM IN SARASOTA. Lord willing, on most of the experimental Sundays, Pastor Rusty will be preaching live in Sarasota. While the Sarasota campus is healthy and growing, it is still in its infancy stages. We still have room for more attenders, and we are still in a season of development and recruitment of key volunteers. We hope that having the Lead Pastor preach live on several occasions will be an encouragement to the core Sarasota members and provide some positive momentum as they seek to find their place of service and reach their unchurched neighbors.  

• TREAT ALL CAMPUSES EQUALLY. Before our first campus launch, we stated that we would like to someday treat all campuses equally, meaning that we could live stream from any campus to all the others. We do not want a permanent “broadcast campus” or “main campus” with all the others being satellites. This is a step in that direction for an experimental period. Change is always hard, but we hope that the option of live preaching every Saturday makes this an easier change for our Port Charlotte members to accept. There will be video preaching on Sundays only on these seven experimental weekends.  

• FREE THE LEAD PASTOR TO BE AVAILABLE WHERE NEEDED. If this is successful and can be continued in the future, it gives the Lead Pastor the flexibility to be available to preach more frequently at our newest campus, or wherever he might be needed. 

Two significant changes are being made to enhance our Saturday worship services:  

Change in Saturday times: Beginning the first weekend of January, Saturday worship times will be 4:15pm & 6pm. We chose those times after surveying staff and volunteers to determine the most attractive Saturday worship times.  

Children’s Ministry at both services: Beginning the first weekend of January, there will be full children’s programming at both Saturday services for birth through fifth grade. We hope many families will choose to worship and serve on Saturday nights, and that this will not only be good for the church but also good for your family rhythms.  

Thank you for doing your part to assure this change is well received and helps the church reach more for Christ. Here’s how you can help:  

PRAY. This is a significant change that could reap great kingdom benefit. Please pray that we will be united and Holy-Spirit-led in all things, and that God will bless our efforts to honor Him.  

VOLUNTEER. We need additional volunteers at every campus, especially during this season. Over the next few weeks you will receive more specific information on where the greatest needs are and how  you can help.  

BE A GREAT WORSHIPER. Whichever campus you attend, be a great worshiper. If you typically attend Sunday mornings at Port Charlotte, you are being asked to make a change by either committing to a different time or accepting occasional video preaching on Sundays. You can help by choosing one of the following three worship options:  

OPTION 1: SATURDAY 4:15PM OR 6PM AT PORT CHARLOTTE. You can help by attending one of the Saturday services in Port Charlotte and being a great worshiper. You will have live preaching every week, and you’ll help us create positive momentum at our Saturday services. We need several hundred who normally attend Sundays to become Saturday attenders.  

OPTION 2: SUNDAY 9:15AM OR 11AM IN SARASOTA. You can help by committing for this season to traveling to Sarasota on Sundays. Attend one of the two Sunday services at the Sarasota campus and be a great worshiper. You will have live preaching, you’ll get to know some wonderful people in a smaller setting, and you’ll help us create positive momentum at our Sarasota Campus. We would love for 100-200 people who normally attend Port Charlotte on Sundays to worship in Sarasota for this season.  

OPTION 3: SUNDAY 9:15AM OR 11AM PORT CHARLOTTE. You can help the church by continuing to regularly attend one of the two Sunday services at Port Charlotte and being a great worshiper.  For this plan to be successful, we need several hundred of our Port Charlotte Sunday attenders to make no change at all and continue worshiping on Sundays. We need great worshipers on Sunday who don’t mind the occasional video preaching. The worship leader, host and worship band will be live as usual every Sunday.  

To make these changes as positive an experience as possible, we are adding a new video wall and a permanent baptistry at the Port Charlotte campus. This will allow the best viewing experience for video preaching and will also enhance the regular worship services each week. We are also making some small technological upgrades at North Port and Sarasota. These changes were planned as part of the original One More Sarasota campaign, but were delayed because of cost overruns in Sarasota. By God’s grace, the funds are now available for these upgrades without an additional appeal. Funds became available because of the continual generosity of God’s people and a surprise half-million-dollar donation. 

Note: Any continued donations to the One More campaign will help pay down the debt as originally planned. The Sarasota Campus is now fully paid off! And our total debt load is now less than 900 thousand dollars, the lowest in twenty years! Praise God!   

To continue growing at Port Charlotte will require a long-term growth strategy. Traditionally, a growing church that runs out of space simply builds bigger facilities. However, that would require not only a larger sanctuary, but also larger children’s ministry facilities and a larger parking lot. The property and access roads at the current Port Charlotte Campus are not sufficient to accommodate larger facilities. To relocate somewhere else in Port Charlotte would require years of time and millions of dollars. The fastest and least expensive option for continued growth at Port Charlotte is to make the Saturday services as attractive as possible and encourage people to attend on Saturdays.  

As a long-term strategy, we are also planning to add campuses in strategic locations and invite the Port Charlotte attenders to help seed those campuses. But that will take months of prayer and preparation. In the meantime, please pray God blesses our short-term plans and we are able to continue growing all services at all three current campuses.