And the beat goes on…

Well, after talking about the early service some week before last, we had a meeting at our church tonight for the Worship Committee. We were to decide (actually “they” were to decide. I’m not on the committee, but was invited to attend because of my involvement) whether to continue the service into the fall instead of stopping in early August like we’d done the past few years.

The discussion began with some praises of the early (contemporary) service. People boldly spoke to the fact that they liked it, even “older” people really liked it. But then the people who had some issues with it spoke up as well. The concern, once again, was whether it was going to cause division within the church between the two services. Also, I heard the comment that the service seemed maybe a little too “non-denominational” instead of flavored with the sprinklings of our denomination in it. I wasn’t exactly sure what “items” it was missing, but anyway. Other concern was what about the more “important” services (Easter, Christmas, All Saints, Promotion, Children’s Sabath) and how it could be unwise to not have the entire community of believers there together.

After much discussion, the end result was what I thought would happen. We’ll continue the early morning service and seek to target certain dates that we’ll combine the two. I expect it to be a traditional service with a little blending of the contemporary aspects. We’ll see how it goes. It’s better than nothing at this point. But I’ve seen people who have seemed to have truly gotten excited about going to church attending the early service. Heck, getting teenagers somewhere by 9am on a Sunday morning is an accomplishment in itself!

But I still pray that God will use this service for His purposes, and not make it into religion.