Well, it’s been a while since my last post. Christmas and the relaunch of our church web site took a lot more time than I thought. I still find myself having to catch up on things, and have not yet completely finished the church site, but we are getting there.
One of the things I’ve been struggling with is trying to blend content and style in our services to appeal to everyone. This last year, our single largest service leaned more “Southern Gospel” than anything. Our second largest service leaned very heavily “Urban Contemporary”. Between the two services this is what I observed: the largest number of “churched” individuals came to the southern gospel service while the largest number of “unchurched” came to the urban.
So while I am catching up, and preparing for the Divine Experiment, I am seriously wondering, should I keep trying to blend everything? I don’t particularly like blended foods and drinks unless the tastes are compatible, and so far blended services don’t seem to be working.
Should I focus on the southern gospel? This is not a good fit for me, but I could make do, and obviously the attendance and finance would be greater.
Should I focus on the urban contemporary? This is what I feel more comfortable with, even though my whiteness shines through. This is definitely the most Evangelistically appealling format.
Or, should I do both seperately, starting another service on Sunday for one or the other…or even a service on another day of the week? This is an idea uthpstrJ (youth pastor Jeremy) and I have been bouncing around for a couple months now.
I am hoping for guidance in this new year, and the 21 day prayer and fasting campaign that Huntington area churches are going through I believe will help me hear the leading of the Spirit more closely.
As a side note; our church lost a great Christian leader on Christmas day. Doyle B. Justice was one of the most outstanding Lay leaders the Church of God has ever had. When others bragged about their buildings and finances, I bragged about Doyle. He was the best clerk/treasurer that I have ever known of, and he was a great blessing not only to our church, but to myself and my family. He will be sorely missed, but I have no doubt where he is tonight. Please continue to keep his family in your prayers.
Blessings,
Darrell Buttram, Jr.
if your energy level can hold up, go to two separate services…
I’ll be praying for God’s wisdom to fill your mind in this great time of decision and transition.
Feel free to visit my blog.
By: Phil Hoover on January 7, 2009
at 11:02 am
Thanks Phil,
I appreciate the input and especially the prayers.
DB
By: darrellbjr on January 7, 2009
at 11:24 pm
Hey Darrell ,
I agree with Phil. Maybe you should try two services on sundays 8:30 am for urban and 10:30 am for southern. Our church tried this and it works.
P.S. If you think you could be too tired for both services you could do the 8 30 am and have your associate pastor( if you have one ) do the second service.
Feel free to give me a call. I sure miss you since you left arizona.
God Bless you and your family
Teddy Parker
520 465 8981 cell
520 888-8418 home
By: Teddy Parker on February 3, 2009
at 3:16 am
Thanks for the thoughts Teddy, I really appreciate your input, however the demographics are considerably different here than in Tucson.
While we do have churches that have 8:30 am services on Sundays, these services are geared at contemporary worshippers who are already part of a church, and predominantly Anglo (we don’t have much of a Hispanic population to draw off of, though I’m keeping my eye on that demographic too.)
In my case, I am going after an un-churched predominantly African-American population. The best service times we have found for our demographic are early afternoon and evenings.
As a result, we are looking at beginning a Saturday weekly celebration service and presenting the same general message that will be presented on Sunday morning with more of an evangelistic thrust while Sunday morning will have more of a pastoral thrust. We will then combine both services together in a monthly Sunday evening service which our youth will be in charge of.
We will reevaluate the services regularly to fine tune them, and may eventually move the Saturday service to Sunday evenings, or afternoons.
This is all in the planning stages right now, and we are looking at a May launch date.
Again, thanks for your take Teddy, and I hope to see you and the Tucson bunch some day soon.
DB
By: darrellbjr on February 3, 2009
at 11:23 pm