First, thanks to all who participated in one of the focus groups during March and April. Over 100 members of our church family, adults and youth, took the time to come and share with us their thoughts and ideas on what makes worship an inspirational experience. Our participants reflected the true diversity of this church – age, family status, race, gender, years at PUMC, interest. It was a delight to see the rich diversity of our membership talking and sharing together.
Second, the thoughts and ideas shared were as diverse as our membership itself. We realize from this experience that our diversity as a community is one of our many strengths and blessings. In reviewing all of the input from the 11 different focus groups, we see that what inspires each of us from the worship experience is a truly personal thing – we each feel the presence of God in our midst during worship in very individual, unique ways.
There were some common themes that we see as the Church Health Team reviews all of your input. For example, we heard again and again that our music program is deeply inspiring. Yet, we have a lot of different opinions around the style of the music.
More people like the visual display during the worship service. But, there are some strong feelings to the contrary. More people like the different preaching styles that we experience by having two pastors, seminarians and guest speakers. But we are split on the types of messages that inspire us—parables and stories, Biblically based, social justice related, academic, soothing, challenging. We all like the participation of lay people in the service—the readers, Laity Sunday. The consensus is we would like to hear more personal testimony.
We agree that we need to prepare for worship. The Church can do more communication of what will happen in worship (sermon topic, lectionary, music, speakers, special programs); WE can do more by faithfully reading the Bible, praying, entering the sanctuary quietly and reverently before each service. We like having the children in the service before church school during the 9:30 service. We love Youth Sunday and the youth music programs. We want to see more children and youth in the worship service—there in the pews worshipping. And we need to reach the college and university communities that surround us with worship opportunities.
We agree that PUMC is very active in outreach. We can increase the visibility in worship—testimonies, praise and recognition for our good works, speakers/sermons from those involved in outreach like Riverblindness, Salvation Army, Isles. We have increased our focus on visitors through use of the name tags, the greeter program, the new pew pads. But we can do more – increase the opportunity to talk to visitors, become comfortable with introducing ourselves (just to someone we don’t know, whether a visitor or regular worshipper), use our communications vehicles like the web site to attract visitors, connect visitors with other members.
And ... we want to do MORE at worship but keep the service to one hour!
What's next? The CHT has read through all of the input from all of the focus groups. We have identified the themes for what works and inspires us today, what detracts from the worship experience, and ideas for what we could do differently. We are now coming up with recommendations that we will give to the Church Council, the individual committees and, of course, to you. Stay tuned!
