Triad Baptist has announced the new Sunday School and service meeting times that will accompany the church’s move into the new Worship Center/Gym later this spring—currently projected to be sometime in May.

The current 8:45 a.m. (contemporary worship) and 10 a.m. and 11:15 (traditional worship) services and Sunday School times will give way to a 9 a.m. (contemporary) and 10:30 a.m. (traditional) schedule.

A construction worker walks through the Worship Center/Gym in a scene from one of Triad’s weekly update videos.

Young Adults Pastor Shean Phillips, whose responsibilities include adult Sunday School, has begun coordinating new class locations and times with teachers to develop the new class schedule.

The multifunctional Worship/Center Gym space adds seven new classrooms available for Sunday School, and the move of Kids Street Children’s Church creates additional growth space for the nursery and other Kids Street classes.

“We’re excited about these changes and the enhancements they’ll bring to all our ministries and mission of pointing lives toward Christ,” said Lead Pastor Rob Decker. “When it comes to worship, the move from three to two services and the increased time added between services will decrease the load on our pastors and gives us the time and ability to add video announcements, dramas, testimonies, longer song services and other elements to worship.

“It also makes it easier for people to get from place to place on our campus, have fellowship and build relationships,” he said. “And this new schedule and the capabilities of the new Worship Center/Gym definitely show our heartbeat for the community.”

Decker said that the new building was specifically designed for use by the church, Triad Baptist Christian Academy and community—flexible enough to house everything from worship services to Upward Basketball games, conference tournaments in the Academy’s league, and more.

“We did a multi-functional building for the gymnasium because of increased need for activities at every level,” he said. “This was the driving force behind why we did not just do a worship center or just a gym. The multi-function design allows for dual use of the facility without added expense.”

One Sunday School: considered but not best option

Triad’s Executive Leadership Team and deacons considered a range of options, including having one Sunday School hour between the two services, but landed on the current format as the best use of space and least disruptive, particularly to Kids Street Children’s Church.

Such a ‘sandwich’ option between the two adult worship services would have required Executive and Children’s Pastor Tim Gerber to either combine both older and younger children into the same Kids Street Children’s Church service or split the groups with him leading the service in the sanctuary and Austin Needham, assistant children’s ministry director and TBCA campus pastor, leading another in their old space, leaving less room for growth and negating some of the primary benefits of upfitting the sanctuary so that it became the Kids Street Worship Center.

Another potential issue in moving all Sunday school classes into one time slot was the increased likelihood, given the larger number of classes required, that the church would quickly use 80 percent of all available space, requiring an expansion into two Sunday School sessions to provide room for growth.

With the move into the Worship Center/Gym and based on past experience, Gerber said that Kids Street Children’s Church will feature a 9 a.m. service for children age 4 to grade 2, and a 10:30 a.m. service for children in grades 3 to 5.

While acknowledging that the move from sanctuary into the Worship Center/Gym will be an adjustment, Decker said that a dedicated sanctuary still remains in the church’s long-range plan to build in 7 to 10 years depending on several factors.

“Regardless of where we meet, though, ultimately the church is not bricks and mortar but people gathering collectively as the body of Christ in worship to Him,” Decker said. “That is what makes worship possible whether we’re gathering outside on the grass or in a building. We’ve been successful in changing lives precisely because we’ve kept Christ as the center of everything we do all these years and through all the growth and changes.

“With these new service and Sunday School times and move into the Worship Center/Gym, I know our people will continue to keep Christ as our focus as we move forward.”