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Open Forum on Sunday School and Worship Times

5/7/2013

 
In my May newsletter article, I wrote about some changes we are considering for Sunday morning worship and Sunday School. I am re-posting that article, and inviting you to discuss the article here.

There are some new ideas bubbling up around here! Both our Education and Worship& Music Boards have been thinking about our Sunday morning schedule, and both feel like this fall might be the right time for a change. 

This isn’t a decision that has been made yet. It is simply something for the congregation to consider.
We want your opinions and input!

Statistics indicate that children who worship with parents have a much greater likelihood of continuing to worship when they become adults. Our Sunday School Worship is a lot of fun and has loads of energy. It has also been convenient for many families to have worship and Sunday School at the same time. We realize, however, that both children and adults are missing out on a key component of worship life when we separate the two services—the importance of worship together as a family. So we are considering changing worship times so that Sunday School and our Contemporary Service would be held at different times. One benefit of this change would be the possibility of a Sunday School hour that includes all ages—Sunday School classes for every age group! Another benefit is that adding the children into our Sunday Contemporary Worship Service would also bring their energy and enthusiasm and we could create a worship service that appeals to ALL ages! Some ideas to help that along include: inviting children up to play rhythm instruments during opening and closing songs, children’s sermons each week, more songs that appeal to children and teenagers, and teenagers involved more in our worship band (many of whom are now teaching Sunday School).

In order to do this, we would have to consider some changes to our Sunday morning worship schedule. We also have ideas for that (but maybe there are possibilities we haven’t thought of yet that you would consider). Ideas so far include:
    1. Keeping things the same.
    2. Traditional Worship at 8; Sunday School at 9; Contemporary Worship at 10; Traditional Worship at 11.
    3. Traditional Worship at 8; Contemporary Worship at 9:15; Sunday School and Traditional Worship at 10:15 or 10:30.
    4. Two Services on Sunday Morning with Traditional Worship at 8 and Contemporary Worship at 10:15/10:30. We would have Sunday School between services at 9:15. 

Again, these are just some of the ideas. If you have other options, we would love to hear from you!

In order to discuss these things further, and gain your input, the Education and Worship & Music Boards will be hosting an Open Forum on Wednesday, May 29. All are invited to attend. We will begin at 5:30 with
a potluck meal. The meeting will begin at 6:30. If you cannot attend the meeting, you are encouraged to contact a member of either of these Boards, one of the pastors, or our worship and music director, Cynthia Tompkins to share your opinions. 

THANK YOU for helping us consider some changes on Sunday mornings. We value your input and hope you will talk to us about your ideas and opinions and/or come to the Open Forum on Wednesday, May 29.

-Pastor Jeni
Gloria Hesley
5/7/2013 10:25:22 pm

There was some talk of a possible Saturday evening, 5PM, service also. As someone who has worked every other weekend for the last 37 years and so only able to attend church every other Sunday, I would really appreciate having a Saturday evening service. I have quite a few Catholic friends that attend their Saturday evening services and say they prefer Saturday evening to getting up early on Sunday to attend church as do their teenagers. I am hoping St James has members like me who would greatly benefit in Saturday evening Church services. Thank you! Gloria Hesley

Kim Ostrander
5/30/2013 10:18:39 pm

Thank you so much to Pastor Paul, Pastor Jeni and the Worship & Music and Education Boards for organizing the open forum to discuss the possibility of making changes to the worship and education schedule. I greatly appreciated the opportunity to have an open discussion and it was important to me to hear all of the great input gathered Wednesday night.

This morning I had a chance to chat with a friend, who along with her family has attended services at St. James. Her family likes the time of the 9:30 a.m. service at St James however they prefer to worship as a family instead of having their 12-yr old daughter attend Sunday School at the same time as worship. Their daughter has skipped Sunday School to worship at 9:30 with her parents.

My friend expressed to me that they have attended the Saturday evening service a couple of times at Trinity and really liked it. She explained the Saturday service at Trinity is a traditional service that isn’t always well attended, however they prefer to worship together as a family. Her husband prefers the more Traditional Service.

There were many options for the groups to explore and discuss on Wednesday night and I have thought of an additional option that wasn't exactly discussed. Some further thoughts I had about worship changes is to have a Sunday schedule of 8:00 a.m. Traditional Service, 9:10 Sunday School, 10:00 a.m. Traditional Service or Semi-Contemporary/Semi-Traditional Service and then have the more Contemporary Service on Saturday Evenings at 5:00 p.m. My thought is ‘why not have the non-traditional service at a non-traditional day and time, Saturday’. My friend advised that when they lived in Cedar Rapids, the Saturday Service was Contemporary and well attended while the Sunday services were Traditional. This schedule gave the high school kids an opportunity to participate in the band at the Contemporary service and also participate in Sunday School and Traditional services on Sunday.

I look forward to attending the Church Council meeting in June (27th, I believe) where I know there will be further discussions about changes, if any, to our current worship schedule. I encourage everyone who has concerns to attend the June Council meeting so your voice may be heard.


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St. James Lutheran Church

1148 4th Street SE 
Mason City, IA 50401

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641-423-4702
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  • Home
  • About Us
    • Visitors
    • Staff
    • Synod
  • Give Online
    • General Giving
  • Learn
    • Sunday School
    • Old Sunday School Openings
    • Confirmation Ministry
    • First Communion
  • Get Involved
    • Youth and Family
    • Music
    • Boards
    • Women of the ELCA
  • Newsletter and Events
    • Steeple Capital Campaign
    • Calendar/Events
    • Newsletter
  • St. James Worship Services
    • Archived Sermons
    • Church Blog
  • Weddings at St. James
  • Other Resources
  • Contact Us
    • RSVP Page
    • Facebook
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  • Current Bulletin