Introducing our Second Service
Beginning
this Sunday, we will worship at 10am and 11am.
10am worship is our "Adult" Worship service, 11am is for "Children and
Families". The design of this service is
to provide for our families to be able to worship together. While children were always welcome at the 10am Service, let us be honest, it was not designed for children. It was designed for kids to head out to
children’s programming about 10 minutes in.
The
10am service is one that is built upon principles of reverence and quiet, centered
on the sermon, the proclamation of God’s Word.
In other words, it is rather boring for those who are not of a mind or
an age to follow along. In
the summer, that service only goes 40-45 minutes already, so we are not
changing anything, but rather recognizing the actual end time of that service
already.
As we
are meeting in Westminster Hall to worship while the Sanctuary is undergoing clean
up and restoration, the easiest entrance is through the Porch door on Rector
Street. For families arriving ahead of
the 11am hour, please come in to the Sunday School Room, immediately to your
right from the Porch door, or all the way down the hallway if you are coming in the doors off Market Street. If pastor remembers, the a/c will
be on, crayons and paper will be on the table, and we will turn over the space
as best we can.
For
those who like to label things, calling the 10am Service the Adult Worship Service
is to set it in distinction to the Children and Family Worship Service at 11am. These are working labels, and will be changed
as we intentionally consider what we do to worship our beloved God. 10am will be of a more ‘traditional’ style
and 11am will be of a more ‘contemporary’ style. One will be tighter-and longer, one will be
looser-and is scheduled to be shorter. Some
people will feel discouraged or left out of one or the other because of our
working titles. Having Children and/or a
Family is not mandatory for the 11am service.
Being an Adult is not mandatory for the 10am service.
Certain
things will carry over from one service to the other. We follow the Revised Common Lectionary for
preaching, that Scripture passage will be the same for both services-although
the Proclamation, the Sermon, will be appropriate to each service. For this Sunday, the passage is Luke 12:
13-21. When Communion is celebrated,
first Sunday of the month, it will be in both services.
What we
are saying with this second worship service is that THE most important thing we
do when we give our hearts to the Lord eagerly and sincerely is that we WORSHIP
our beloved God. All the other things,
our programs, our groups, our outreach, all of that is secondary to worshiping
the Lord first and foremost. To that
end, the elements of the 11am Service will be open to review and to change,
especially as we seek what works best in offering our hearts to the Lord. It is, intentionally, experimental. It also means that the 10am Service, which is
based on a long tradition of liturgical usage, will be looked at to understand
how and why we do things in the order in which we have them.
And it
is not because the Presbyterian Church says so.
Or, even worse, because we have ‘always done it that way’.
Peace,
Pastor Peter
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