“United in Mission” Worship & Outreach Series

 

On Sunday May 24, our church will begin a three-month worship and outreach experiment called “United in Mission.” This three-month summer series will be an experimental listening strategy of the Visioning and the Trustee Discernment Processes. The series will begin on Pentecost Sunday–the birthday celebration of the church and her mission, and the day people from all different nations were filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-12). The series will conclude in August, around the same time our Vision Process is on schedule to be completed.

 

The general details of the series are as follows:

• 9:00am United Worship Services in the Sanctuary, combined in style & leadership, with sermons, music and other liturgy focused on the themes of unity and mission.

• 10:30am Sunday School (Listening sessions will be held during one or more of these, with one at least 1 month before series concludes to discern what to do next.)

• Multiple Church-wide Outreach Activities

• Multiple Potluck meals

 

This series is designed to help us “try on” a new way of doing church. It will be like a pilot of a television series–the kernel of an idea that will evolve as it goes through experimentation, trial and error. Through this experimentation we will learn from both our successes and failures. As we take these risks we will become more open to hearing God’s voice, discerning his vision for our church’s future.

 

The purpose of experimenting with worship gatherings in the Sanctuary instead of the Family Life Center is to help us discover ways we might be better stewards of our buildings (the purpose of the ongoing Trustee Discernment Process.) We will learn what a combination of contemporary and traditional worship music and liturgy could be like in our sanctuary. We may also begin to use the Family Life Center for basketball or other activities.

 

Some individuals in our church will appreciate many of these changes. Some in our church will struggle with the change.  We will listen to each other and learn. Weaver First United Methodist church, like every church, is called to be one united body on mission. As Paul told the Ephesians, “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” (Ephesians 4:4–6 NIV)

 

We must be willing to trust our “One Lord over all” together through taking risks, making mistakes, and graciously learning from them. We do all this trusting and risking for the sake of being faithful to God through our unity and mission.