Monday, December 17, 2012

Some Changes

OK ... usually we devote the blog entries to those things that might make you think ... about your relationship to God ... about your relationship to your church ... about things less logistical and more reflective.  Today we are going to change course for a week.  The reason for this is simple.  We (Good News and the Church in general) is charged with making meaningful connection to people so that we might introduce them to an amazing, holy and awesome God who is declaring His past/present/future reign constantly.  We make these connections in many ways including interpretation of Scripture, preaching, teaching, fellowship, sacrament and nurture.  In today's world we also make these connections through the communication systems in place today ... our website, the local newspaper and the tried-and-true word of mouth.  Sometimes being consistent in these communications requires us to have some continuity in what we do on a weekly basis.  Over the past several years a 'glitch' in this consistency has been our custom of having a joint worship service on the 5th Sundays which fall about every three months.

From a fellowship standpoint this has made some sense.  In practice, however, it has not done what we would have intended.  It has made communicating through our media outlets (website, newspaper, verbal) confusing and inconsistent.  It has created confusion for people who are visiting and have come to worship only to find that that particular Sunday there is only one service.  The 5th Sunday has been consistently our lowest attendance Sunday.  Finally, some of our people have been confused over whether the service will be traditional or contemporary.  So ... we will be making a change.

Beginning immediately we will have all Sunday worship follow our usual (and advertised) pattern.  Our traditional worship will be 8:50am each week and our contemporary worship will be at 11:00am.  This means that December 30th of 2012 we will have two normal worship services ... 8:50am and 11:00am.  For those who like their normal style of worship this should make life easier.  For those who can't keep the 5th Sunday idea in their heads or on the calendar, this should give you the comfort and consistency that every Sunday's pattern will be the same.  For those who might visit or be coming here for the 1st time, this should make their choice of worship services simple.

And remember ... we WILL be having our amazing Christmas Eve communion service at 5:30pm on December 24th (oddly enough, Christmas Eve).  I hope you will invite family and friends to this time when we celebrate the birth of Jesus, the promise of new life, the love of a giving God and the life that we are offered through one small child, born in Bethlehem.  Come and see the hope ... hear the songs ... and remember that night when everything changed.  Pastor Randy

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