Change and Growth
We are about to embark upon a significant change in our worship life together at First Pres, the goal of which is to grow and enhance the vitality of our ministry.
Having heard from a number of our members a longing to worship together as a community on Sunday mornings, the worship team pondered the idea of a single, combined service. The music directors and I collaborated on proposals for a "blended" service, with full acknowledgement of both the excellence and diversity of our contemporary and traditional music, as well as the differences in liturgical style of our two Sunday services. (I'm now referring to the idea as an "integrated" service, since "blended" sounds like something you get from a Cuisinart, rather than the full valuing and honoring of the diversity of our styles that we had in mind!) The single service would integrate elements of the musical and liturgical styles of both of our current services. We would sing hymns and songs, we would have familiar liturgical elements yet preserve our authentic, personal worship style. We would worship with the children and youth of the congregation with us in the service, occasionally leading us in singing or as liturgists, until they leave for their Sunday School classes after the Time for Children as they do now.
We worked on refining the ideas with the worship team, which presented the idea to the session, and received the session's endorsement to have a single worship service beginning Sunday, February 26, at 10:00 a.m. Acknowledging the heartfelt passions that can accompany changes to a church's worship, we have scheduled this change as a temporary one for a trial period from February 26 through April 29. As we live with the changes for a while, we will be eager to interact with the congregation and listen carefully to how the changes are being experienced. We thought it best to set out on this journey first, so that we can actually experience its advantages and disadvantages, then work to discern together whether this accords with God's purpose for our church community for the way forward.
Some key points:
- A driving reason for this change is the prospect for the coming together of our church community. With two services, it can feel like we are two churches. Some "second service" people never see and do not know the "first service people," and vice versa. Worshiping together, followed by enjoying a single coffee hour together, will work to enhance the connectedness of our community life.
- With 60-100 people in attendance at either service, we are currently giving an inaccurate impression to newcomers about the vitality of the church. Having 150-200 people in a single service would make our worship feel much more "alive"-which we are! Church growth expert Kennon L. Callahan notes that churches seldom grow if their sanctuary is "uncomfortably empty," (less than 40% full).[1] Having our congregation together in the same worship space would make our worship a livelier experience, both for us and for the people we want to welcome into our midst so that the church can grow.
- Our Sunday School has been wisely re-focused, as most Westside churches do, to occur during one service, permitting our children to build community with each other through their participation in age-appropriate classes that are staffed by volunteer teachers. Having two worship services leads to scheduling difficulties for families who prefer to worship later in the morning, yet who want their children to participate in the Sunday School program, which occurs only during the first service.
- Special events such as the Fall Harvest Festival or the Hymn Sing currently are difficult to schedule, especially when they involve an all-church luncheon. Should we have the luncheon after the first, or after the second service? What happens to Sunday School if we are having an all-church event after the second service? When should we schedule Sunday morning adult education events? These questions persist with our current two-service schedule, but would be resolved by having a single service at 10:00.
Finally, a pastoral word of encouragement as we implement these changes: keep foremost in your mind and heart what's best for the church. That may, or may not, be what you want, or what you're used to, or what you like. No one is asking you to give up your preference for a particular musical or liturgical style. But keep in mind that as passionately as you embrace what you want and like, there are those in the congregation who feel just as passionately about what they want and like. And we're all members of the same body! If we are to be the "welcoming and caring community of Christians" that we say we want to be, we will display the virtue of forbearance as we go this journey together, honoring, respecting, and even rejoicing in the diversity of ways that each of us connects with God. And in the process we may just find that we are the ones who change and grow, to the glory of God.
Grace and peace,
[1] Kennon L. Callahan, Twelve Keys to an Effective Church, Second Edition, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2010, p. 88.
