Beginning Sunday, October 3, OUMC will go to one Worship Service at 10:30 am, with Sunday School at 9:15 am. We will not have children’s Worship for this service, but will have a “Children’s Moment” for all ages during the service. Please read the following message from our Leadership Council in regards to this new service time.
As Pastor Jacob announced in both services this past Sunday, OUMC pastors and leadership council have been discussing and praying for months over the idea of going to a single worship service on Sundays, beginning on October 3rd. It is the council’s recommendation that we move to a single service based in part on the following, in no particular order:
-Anecdotal feedback. We have had a number of single-service Sundays in the past few years. Feedback from the congregation after such events has overwhelmingly been of the “it was so great to have everyone together for worship that we should do one service every week”. We listen to your feedback when it is provided. If you ever have feedback, please don’t hesitate to share it with your leadership council.
-Volunteer needs. It takes a lot of volunteers to make worship services for all ages happen on Sunday mornings. Some of us remember when Pastor Mike rolled out his vision for family ministries and announced that in order to make that vision a reality, 75% of the adults in the church would need to be involved as a volunteer in some capacity, as they feel led. The reality of our continuing pandemic is that many adults are not yet comfortable volunteering on Sunday mornings. That limits our ministry offerings. Many of the folks currently volunteering on a regular basis are doing so across a number of different ministry areas in order to keep those vital areas functioning. That’s neither sustainable nor fair to those who are giving of their time to continue along as we have been. This change doesn’t alleviate the needs, but it does provide some respite for our current volunteers.
-One church. How many times have you heard it said — or maybe said yourself — that you or someone else didn’t even know another person, couple, or family attends OUMC because they attend the service you don’t attend? We know that worship is different when we worship together as one church. We know that there are people with needs in the church, but we don’t always know what those are when we’re divided by service times.
Moving to a single service is putting what we’re preaching about being one church, one family, one body of Christ into action. It is for these reasons that the leadership council supports the decision to move to a single worship service on Sunday mornings. We recognize that this is yet another change from “the usual” at a time when we’re all struggling to find a new normal. That said, it’s not change for change’s sake. We feel that this is where the Lord is leading us in strengthening the ministry of the church and bringing us together in worship and service.
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