More interesting than the time itself is our method of arriving there. For the last few years we've heard a distinct buzz surrounding summer worship. Everybody loves it at the Valley. The location is perfect, in fact! But the time of worship has become a small point of tension. Traditionally we've worshiped at 9:00 during the summer months, an hour earlier than our usual 10:00 a.m. time during the school year.
The last couple years we have altered that pattern a little, keeping worship at 10:00 a.m. through May even though we moved to the Valley as usual. We had figured out that moving anything earlier in the morning while our kids (and by extension their families) were still in school was not really kosher. They'd do it--mostly--but it was hard. So we figured that 10:00 was the way to go until school let out.
Even with that, the timing of June-August worship was no simple matter. On the one hand you have folks who prefer to get up early, get done with church, and have their whole day ahead of them. Plenty of folks fall into this category. 9:00 (or even earlier) works for them. But then you have those folks with children for whom 9:00 a.m. worship at the Valley means starting the church train running painfully early on a Sunday morning. Some will ask, "What's the big deal? We did this with our own kids for years!" But we're trying to be mindful of the struggles families go through nowadays...supporting them instead of burdening them. Typical characteristics of modern families with kids: they never stop, they're under a ton of stress, they run from one thing to the next to the next, and the kids don't sleep enough as it is. Given that environment, it seems ironic to start the Sabbath day of rest by telling them, "Get up! Here's one more thing to stress over!" 30 years ago that wasn't the case. It is now.
We talked about all of this seriously in council a few months ago. Most of us kind of liked 9:00 worship. Most of us also empathized with folks who preferred 10:00. We went back and forth. 9:00 would be easier. We'd keep things the same. 10:00 would show we understand and care about some of our families under stress. But those families might not come much more at 10:00 than 9:00, truth be told. That said, a preference for an earlier start didn't seem to weigh as much as an honest need to have some extra rest and peace on a Sunday for people favored by a later one.
After all that talk, we put out the question. "So, what do we do?" Out of the blue, with the wisdom of a sword-wielding Solomon, one of our council members said, "9:30". We all exhaled. We looked around. "9:30 good with everyone? Yes? Good. Done!" And there it was.
Mind you, we didn't make this decision to keep people happy. In fact nobody's going to be really happy. 9:30 is neither 9 nor 10. Nobody gets their way. We've never done it this way before either. That alone is guaranteed to set some folks on edge.
But the 9:30 decision was important not because the time was magic, but because of the things it showed:
- Church isn't about getting exactly what you want, but about learning to give a little. Nobody's day is made that much later. Folks get to catch an extra half hour of relaxation, maybe not rush so much. Everybody gets a little something. But more importantly everybody says to other people, "OK...I'll give up this half hour for you." 10:00 folks are coming at 9:30 for the sake of the 9:00 folks. 9:00 folks are coming at 9:30 for the sake of the 10:00 folks. Everybody's giving instead of insisting on their own way. That's the way church should be.
- This same phenomenon takes everybody out of the "I get my own way or I quit" seat. We couldn't have made this kind of decision a few years ago because there would have been an uproar...people complaining, phone lines buzzing, people insisting on getting what they want. Our church wasn't strong enough to overcome that. Our council has determined that we are strong enough to overcome it now. It's a new day. We don't have to pander to concerns or opinions in order to have a "good church". We need to work together to fulfill our calling no matter what our concerns or opinions may be. That's what 9:30 demonstrates.
- Church isn't just about being functional. We know the 10:00 people--largely in town, mostly with children, still stressed about life--will have an equally hard time making it to worship in the summer no matter what we do. We do not expect to double attendance by this time shift. It may not affect attendance too much at all. But that isn't the only point. The point is saying, "We hear your needs. We understand. We'll do what we can for you. The door is open." That little ":30" after the 9 shows that the door really IS open, that we really do care, and that we're willing to change the way we do things to prove it. That's a message worth sharing in itself, regardless of results. We're not judging this by numbers, we're judging by what witness we're giving. This, too, is a new way of thinking for our church.
- Most of all, 9:30 shows that we're not afraid. Granted, there's nothing to be afraid of in this case. Plenty of churches have 8:30, 9:30, 10:30, 11:30 worship times. I've been in a few myself! But we have never done it that way. And we're not afraid to. Sometimes it's good to change things up a little just to remind us of that. We don't operate in fear of change. We embrace it. We trust that God will be with us, inspiring us, just as much at the bottom of the hour as he was at the top.
We'll see you there!
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
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