“Third Time’s A Charm”

Third time’s a charm…at least that’s how the saying goes. I failed once, failed twice, and now it was time for a third try. This is the one that will succeed, at least that was my hope.

I was reminded of this the other night when Emily, my youngest daughter, brought up something that had happened and that I had said from a few years back. She mentioned it after we had been driving and gone by a hotel where nine years ago I had started a church. She hadn’t remembered the place but then she was only 3 years old.

I had begun a new church in a hotel conference center. It had been exciting. The opening Sunday had a real good attendance. The people who got involved really enjoyed the newness and freshness of a brand new church. Small groups had started and people enjoyed them.

But after a year it was obvious that the church wasn’t growing, in fact it was shrinking. So we made the decision to end it. People understood it and even kept their small groups going for awhile after Sunday worship ended and I moved away.

Strike one…that’s what it seemed like.

A year later I moved to another state far from “home” and tried again to start something new. This new “church” was a new contemporary worship service for an old established church. We met in a refurbished fellowship hall. Again the opening attendance was good and there was a certain excitement from those who began to make the service their home “church.” For three years the group met and worshiped and people’s lives were touched for Christ. But once again it wasn’t growing so a decision was made to end the service.

Strike two…but the seeds of what contemporary meant had been sown in the life of the church and by redesigning one of the “traditional” services to a “celebration” (blended old and new) service the church grew and more lives were changed for Christ.

Soon after my job at the church ended I met with some friends just to enjoy each other’s company. Some wanted to meet together for worship because they had enjoyed what we had together. So I found a spot to use for worship that wouldn’t cost us anything at first and we could just see what had happened. It wouldn’t necessarily ever be a full-blown church but who knows, maybe.

We met at a place called Third Time Theatre. It had a nice room for us to meet in and had some smaller rooms if we needed anything for children. One day as I talked with the owners of it I asked them why they had called it Third Time. They told me it was because on two prior occasions they had tried to start a local theatre but it hadn’t worked out. So this was the Third Time. That really struck me and a chill went through me as I remembered that this was my Third Time also…third try to start a “church.”

We met for a couple of months and began to get more people to come to the weeknight meeting. But then summer hit with a passion and people went on vacations and the number shrunk and so it just ended. It had been a good transition for some who had missed the contemporary worship service that had ended.

Third time’s a charm? Not always. Some things don’t work out no matter how many times we try. But on the other hand, personal growth occurs whenever we reach out to touch lives for Jesus regardless of the outcome. All ministry is one-on-one ministry and in each of these “churches” the full story will only be known in heaven. Not one of these three “churches” continues but the life changes were real and made an eternal difference.