For the week of May 16, 2005
Preserving Unity with Multiple Worship Options |
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By: Tom Bandy |
The most common complaint about moving to more than one worship service in a track 1 church is that people feel alienated from their former friends. Their unity seems to be disappearing. The real problem is that the church fails to provide a regular, high quality time for fellowship on Sunday morning that will involve everybody.
You need to provide a central, accessible “hub” through which people from all worship options pass. There they can gather for great refreshments, experience updated information in various medias, and mingle for conversation. This “hub” should have multiple serving stations, with a variety of foods, in a very comfortable setting, with great background music. It should be a place in which people relax and really want to linger. There you will deploy your board and core leaders to mingle with the crowd, introducing strangers to each other.
What really builds unity is not the worship service, but the hospitality ministries that link the worship options together. People with very different tastes and spiritual needs can still connect with each other, respect one another, and bless each other with permission to experience God in their own ways.
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