Why Are We Doing This?

Might you be wondering how this all got started and why?

Well, it went a little something like this…

If you’re familiar with Emmanuel, you’ll know that – as a church with 2 different worship service styles – we aspire to minister to as many people in our congregation as possible; we aim to do this by creating meaningful corporate services that enable us all to engage in the faithful actions of worship {praise, prayer, giving, teaching from the Word, remembering Christ’s sacrifice}. Because we know and love one another, we recognize that God reveals Himself powerfully in a wide variety of ways within these actions, and that there may not be a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to corporate worship. The conversation, then, about a different third service of worship came from a place of wanting to know, and nurture one another more deeply. It was a conversation that we moved into prayerfully, thoughtfully, intentionally, and a conversation in which the gentle guidance of Christ was so very evident throughout.

As we looked at who we are as a church, we could see that those who find their home in the Traditional Service understand and respond to God best in a service that maintains church service traditions from their past, incorporating music and musicianship that is vibrant and time-honored {such as hymns, familiar choruses, choir, special music, instrumental music}, and has a somewhat ‘formal’ yet friendly atmosphere.

We also recognized that those who find the Contemporary Service meaningful tend to discover that their hearts are most alive to God in a service that feels somewhat more informal and friendly, and provides ample space for expression through ‘contemporary’ songs {led by a worship team}.

As we continued to look at our church family, we couldn’t help but notice that there was another broad ‘grouping’ of people that we don’t seem to be nurturing as well in our current service offerings… people for whom faith is alive and vibrant, but for whom thoughts and words are their gateways to worship. We knew there were those who crave compelling ideas, a deeper connection with the community of faith {perhaps through taking communion more regularly, greater verbal participation in the service through readings, prayers, Scripture}, the artistry of words {scripture, readings, interesting quotations}, and room to reflect upon them. After many, many, many conversations and much prayer, and a fair bit of dreaming, we determined that a ‘traditional liturgical’ format would be a wise way to meet these needs, and we arrived at a recommendation approved by the Ministry Council to: try a video venue Third Service designed to minister to a broader range of spiritual needs currently evident in our congregation, and perhaps our community.

So here we are, then.

We’re going to try a video venue Third Service which will take place in the Chapel on Sunday mornings at 11am {beginning on Sunday, September 11}. We’re pleased to offer this service at a time that will still encourage attendance at Kidz Printz/Christian Education classes, will enable people to teach Christian Education and attend this new service {if they would so desire}, will continue to encourage a Sabbath-day mentality, will also give opportunity for our entire congregation to mingle during coffee-time and won’t fragment participants in the 3rd service from the rest of the church.

We would appreciate your prayers for this service, the planners, the congregation that will worship together in this service, and for our entire congregation at Emmanuel: that we’d continue to be faithful in our worship of Christ and in our witness to His transforming power in our lives.