But Will We Still Be Together?

Last week, we talked about why First United Methodist Church is moving toward two distinct worship experiences—Modern Worship at 9:00 and Traditional Worship at 10:30.

There is another question underneath all of this, and it may be the one that matters most to many of us:

Will we still be together?

Some of us have worshiped beside the same people for years. We know where they sit. We notice when they are gone. They are part of what makes this place feel like church.

So what happens if some of our friends choose 9:00 and others choose 10:30?

What happens to us?

That is one reason we are building something intentionally into Sunday morning:

“The 30 In Between.”

Thirty minutes between the two services for coffee. Cookies. Conversation.

Not simply enough time to wave at one another through the windshield on the way in and out, but time to linger. To catch up. To meet someone new. To hear how the week went.

But thirty minutes on Sunday morning cannot carry the whole weight of Christian community. And it never has.

The Church is the people—not the building.

Church happens when we gather for worship. But it also happens around a table or a campfire. On a trail. At a football game. In a Wednesday afternoon small group or Sunday school class. In choir rehearsal and around the bell tables. On a ministry team. Making sandwiches on Saturday or burritos on Sunday. Over coffee. And in the phone call that begins, “I was thinking about you.”

Church happens wherever the people of God share life together.

Those are the places where relationships deepen. Where we learn one another's stories. Where we notice when something isn't right. Where we care enough to ask.

Those relationships don't disappear because we worship at different hours. If anything, they invite us to become more intentional about them.

Choir and the Ringers will continue to be an important part of worship at 10:30. Our classes, groups, ministries, meals, mission, and fellowship will continue to bring people from both services together throughout the life of the church.

Two worship services do not have to mean two congregations.

We aren't trying to divide First United Methodist Church into a 9:00 church and a 10:30 church.

We are one church.
One community.
One mission.
One table.

And sometimes, being one doesn't mean everybody has to be in the same room at exactly the same time.

It means knowing that we belong to one another—even when we aren't.

~ Rev. Loren