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:
-
The
first was that the sanctuary was almost full on some Sundays. While that seems like a good thing, a full
sanctuary inevitably discourages visitors, who have trouble finding a
place to
sit and are less likely to come back.
Growth of the congregation was facing a limit.
-
The
second change occurred because a few families at Village had been
exposed to
something called "contemporary" worship, a less formal style of
worship that emphasized contemporary Christian praise music. They campaigned for Village to try this
alternative format in addition to the traditional service.
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:
-
Even with people on vacation, there were times
this summer when the sanctuary was full, to the point that people were
having
trouble finding seats. If we did not
have two services, Village would have virtually no room for growth. Traditionally, a church that is not growing
is a church that is dying. That's not
for Village.
-
Having two types of worship service allows for
greater diversity. Different people like
different worship styles. There are
people who really like a traditional service and others who really like
a
contemporary service. Village is part of a diverse community, and
offering a
choice of worship styles allows us to reach out to more people.
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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