Over the past five years, our church has launched five new worship services to meet the needs of our changing community. When we set this goal, it sounded like an impossible task. Looking back I can’t seem to remember what church was like without these expanded opportunities.
I’ve personally been involved in the leadership of three of these new starts. Each has been a rewarding experience, but what I’ve learned in each of those experiences is that starting a new worship service is a bit like having another child.
If you’ve had a child before, you have a working knowledge of what caring for a new baby will entail.
You’re prepared for the sleepless nights.
You’ve already learned how to put on a fresh diaper.
You’ve already mixed your first bottle of formula.
And yet what you cannot anticipate or fully appreciate before the birth is the unique personality, spirit, and giftedness that your new child will bring.
Starting a new worship service is similar.
You know there will be some singing, some prayer, some preaching, and some sense of flow, but what you cannot appreciate in advance is the unique “personality” that each new service brings. And so many things go into that personality… the space, the time, the audience, the support services like children’s ministry, etc. New services develop a life of their own and each of these factors contribute to the “vibe” of the new opportunity.
I’ve come to believe that understanding this development is critical to the long term success of the service.
Our 5 p.m. service is our most recent addition. Six months into the project we are learning a bit about the “character” of this new worship opportunity, and for those of us who have been a part of it, we’re starting to fall in love with that “character.”
Worshipping at 5 p.m. on Sunday feels dramatically different than our other evening service which is Saturday night at 6 pm. Saturday feels like a great way to start the weekend. Sunday night is a great way to start a new week.
Today, here’s the best way I know how to describe it right now.
Sunday night is an opportunity to hit the “reset” button… to step into a new week fresh and renewed. It’s an opportunity to pause and reflect on the week that has past… to celebrate those things that went well and to let go of those things that went wrong. And in that space to also recommit ourselves again to our sacred call to be a living witness of the love and grace of God in a hurting and broken world.
If you have not had a chance to attend Sunday at 5 yet, I want to encourage you to give it a try. It may not be where you end up worshipping on a consistent basis, but like the other new services we have started, it’s a unique opportunity that we are excited to share with our community.