Mt Zion Goes to One Service

Dear Friends,

The Leadership Board took August’s meeting to consider our Sunday worship configuration. We debated back and forth, considering many points about maintaining two services or combining down to one service. The points that rose to the surface during the conversation included:

• What is best for improving the community within the congregation?
• What will make our worshipping space most inviting and welcoming to visitors?
• If we change, what might be lost in the decision?

We also took time to consider all the feedback you provided in the surveys. 47 people responded, which likely represents most of the regularly active households in our congregation (for some households only one person completed the survey, and some households contain children). From the results, we saw the following:

• Most people like the 9:30 time. Some people find 9:30 OK but prefer either an earlier or later time. One person feels 9:30 will not work for them.
• In terms of worship attendance, a vast majority of people don’t think a 9:30 time will either increase or decrease their attendance. Some people feel it will make it easier for them to attend more regularly, and some people feel it will make it harder to attend.

After considering all that information, the Leadership Board voted to combine to a single service at 9:30 for the fall on a trial run basis. Our hope is that a 9:30 service will both improve our community with each other, as well as make Mt Zion a more inviting and welcoming space for visitors.

During this fall season, we encourage you to give us feedback, both positive and negative. Tell us what’s working, and what’s not. Tell us if the worship time or the other things that must be adjusted, such as Sunday school or adult forum, music styles and choirs, are working or not, and why. This is new, and we expect some hiccups as we try this out. The Leadership Board will revisit this decision in November to determine if we keep this pattern permanently. If we need to return to two separate services, then such a change would happen in January.

Again, after much thought and prayer, the Leadership Board has voted to combine services and hold one worship service at 9:30. We will do this on a trial run basis this fall and evaluate throughout. We know from the survey that this decision does not make everyone happy, and we encourage those who may find this change challenging to be in conversation with the Leadership Board. The names of board members and contact information of officers is available on the back of the Grace Notes.