The Blog of Gordon Pruitt the Pastor of St. Matthew's United Methodist Church in Richmond Virginia

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

new worship service off to a good start

This past Sunday we started our 3rd worship service (9:45) which is really our 2nd (between 8:30 & 11). It was the largest service of the day as it had over 90 in attendance. Many of those was special occasion people, some wanted to see what the service was going to be like others came to the service because it was the first one. I really believe that by this time next year because of the time, and style this will be the best attended service of the three.

We did of course have a few technical difficulties. This drives me CRAZY but whenever you have technology you have that possibility. I tested the projector and words on Saturday night to make sure everything looked like it should look. It did. Before the service we did a quick test and again everything was fine. As soon as it is time for the first song suddenly it does not work. We have to reboot the projector. Luckily we had chosen a hymn for the first song and used the hymnal and the 2nd song was the best known and over played praise song of all time and was also in the hymnal. By the 3rd song we were ready but the screen ratio was off so we sang the songs but had to guess at some of the words!

My biggest concern of the day was that our 11:00 service only had 56 people. Some went to the 9:45 and others were not there. By moving to 3 service we are most likely dividing 220 by 3 rather than by 2 and that could hurt critical mass. I think i will make the 11 more formal by (God forbid) wearing a robe, standing in the pulpit and using more liturgy.

This was good day for me. This was something i've felt called to do since i got to St. Matthew's and i feel like we are moving in the right direction.

3 comments:

Justin said...

ah, technology. like golf it can be beautiful at times and really get you frustrated at other times.

Gordon Pruitt said...

justin, i had no idea you had such deep and profound thoughts. what happened to your wife's blog? I liked looking at the pictures of your family.

Anonymous said...

Pastor, be encouraged! My church (www.bcnaz.com) went to three services about a year ago, and the Lord is blessing. Yes, you'll see some transition of numbers between services times (especially when there is an earlier option-gets people out and on to other things earlier) but, over time, you should see some stabalization.
I came across your blog because I met one of your students (Austin Moore) online. Great kid!
Anyway, felt the need to be an encourager today...
God bless and stay faithful!