A note about Worship and Worship changes for this fall
OCC family and friends,
As we look towards the fall and kicking it off with a series about establishing roots in Jesus – whether new to the faith or long-timer, I (Pastor Nick) have been pondering the challenges we face as a diverse worshipping community. We are also focused on how we can love our congregation while paving the path to increased disciple making in our community, the next generations and beyond.
While your pastors welcome conversations about worship, especially as we seek to engage everyone in vibrant worship, we are convinced that worship is not primarily about us. Worship is an embodied way for God’s church to connect with God, grow in faithfulness, and reach out to expand his Kingdom. Worship and worship styles, the space we worship in, the elements that we bring into worship, their primary purpose is to create a space where God can be known and heard.
With this in mind, and out of reflection and prayer this summer, we are making some changes to help support increased worship-readiness and decreased distractions.
The summary is as follow:
1. Prelude (beginning at 10:53am): While the service will continue to officially start at 11am, Phil Demand will bring prepared music that is intended to begin our worship in an attitude of anticipation.
2. In conjunction with this, as you enter in during the prelude, we are asking that you enter with this anticipatory attitude. While warm greetings are also welcome, we should remember that people are preparing for worship, and we should seek to allow the space to be worshipful.
3. After the start of the service (11am), we are going to encourage members that are late, to enter the church through the community hall doors and enter the sanctuary through the bell tower. There will be an usher to help you find a seat in a quick and quiet way to reduce distractions for the other worshippers. We are glad you have arrived, but want to make sure that the focus remains on worship.
4. After the prelude, we are going to add a Call to Worship. This call functions as a preparing piece to worship. Bringing us up to God and inviting God to be among us as we anticipate that God will meet us, throughout the service. This Call to Worship will be layperson-led, and you are all invited to participate, including non-english speakers (with support to make sure that translation is available). In order to make time for this lay-led call to worship, the scripture will be read by the pastor during the sermon.
Blessings,
Pastor Nick
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