Village Voice - September, 2006

Two Worship Services Coming Soon

 Starting in September, Village will return to our two-service format, with the contemporary service at 8:30 a.m. and the traditional service at 11:00 a.m.  The summer combined service has been a great time to have everyone together in a full sanctuary.  Why go back to two services?  In order to understand this shift, it is worthwhile thinking back to how Village started a second service.

For many, many years Village had only one worship service.  It was at 11:00 and resembled the present-day traditional service in almost every way.  The music was from the hymnal; the choir occupied the choir loft (although choir robes came after we had started the second service); and the pastor preached from the pulpit. There was always an offertory and the Doxology and never a "meet and greet" time.

Then in the early 1990's, two changes occurred:

 Like so many good ideas, the proposal to have a contemporary service would have gone nowhere without a willing volunteer to take up the challenge.  Phil Wyrick, a military chaplain who was attending Village, volunteered to lead the music for a trial period using contemporary music.  He recruited Angela Corbett to play the piano.  Bruce agreed that if Village wanted to try this new concept he would preach using a less formal style.  The Business Meeting voted to try an early service, and so it started.  We have switched from a piano to a synthesizer.  Phil and Angela have moved on, and Carlynn and Ron now lead the music, but the basic pattern is similar to the way the early service started.

Now, some 15 years later, we ask why we have two services for most of the year, and to almost no one's surprise, the reasons are the same:

 After the fire in 2000, Village conducted an in-depth study of what we should be doing as a church, resulting in a new Long-Range Plan (it's on our Website).  First on the list of recommendations from that plan for Worship was, "Two Sunday sessions with contrasting styles (contemporary and traditional)."  Although Village should always be open to new ideas, for now we continue to pursue this goal for our worship services. 

 Dave Thompson,
for the Worship and Music Commission

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