January 15: Acoustic Communion Service Launch

As many of you know, the session of our church has been discussing and visioning the idea of another worshipping community here at First Presbyterian for over a year and a half.  Instead of going the route of a new church, one that meets off campus as a separate congregation, the session decided to plant right here, in our own backyard. 
It would be an “acoustic communion” service: liturgical yet casual, simple but deep, evangelical but richly formative.  We set out to create a place where the rich history of the church would be embraced, while the connectional nature of a contemporary church was present.  The service would follow the movement of praise, to confession, then to the preaching of the word, and ultimately, climaxing in the reception of the Lord’s Supper.

In the fall, a group of leaders began a “pilot” program for this new worship service.  We spent seven weeks worshipping together, trying out ideas, and discerning God’s will for this service.  The pilot program was an incredible beginning, with numerous positives outcomes.  Here are some of the positives that emerged from our pilot program:
1) New leadership stepped up, owned their faith, and led our church. 
2) New people came to church, despite the fact that we did not advertise or have a big marketing plan.
3) The overall attendance of the church increased: roughly fifty more people attended First Presbyterian Church during the pilot time than in past years.  At the same time, our other services remained steady in their historical attendance.
4) Most importantly, God’s Spirit moved among us.
After reporting back to the church session in November, the elders unanimously agreed to move forward with the Acoustic Communion Service.  To this end, it is a great pleasure for me to let you know that we will launch a new worshipping community on January 15th, 2012, at 11:15 a.m. in the church gym. 

As a leadership team, we are excited about this opportunity, and we pray you are as well.  As you continue to be an active participant in your current worship service, we hope you might support us with your prayers, your words of encouragement, and your evangelistic spirit.  Yep, I slipped that last bit in on you, didn’t I?  That’s because we would love for you to invite someone to come to the Acoustic Communion.  This is not a new practice for most of us.  Even though you may go to the contemporary service, many of you have invited a friend to the chapel or traditional service, because you know it will minister well to that person.  We hope the same is true for the Acoustic Communion.  We have a new space, a new format, and a new opportunity to reach out to people.  All it takes is a simple invitation such as this, “We have a new service at our church and I think you might like it.  How about coming one Sunday at 11:15?”  You would be surprised at how many people are waiting to be invited to come to your church.

Worship Times