Dear Church Family:
Recently, the Church Council, upon the recommendation of the worship committee, voted for Pender to go to one combined service starting September 15. Our worship thereafter will take place at 10:00 with Sunday school classes and other Sunday activities adjusting according to their preference. Because September 8 was already scheduled to be a combined service, our last day of two services (traditional and Common Ground) will be September 1.
This change was not made hastily, but with prayerful consideration and much conversation. We believe that going to one service will enable us to strengthen our unity, while making it possible for some persons to attend in person who previously could not. It will also help us to consolidate our resources. The style of worship we are aiming at might best be characterized as “blended,” drawing on the best of traditional and contemporary. We will continue to enjoy the handbells and piano preludes, hymn singing, and recite the creed, while incorporating the newer rhythms and praise emphases familiar to the Common Ground service. I am deeply grateful for the faithful ministries of those who have helped to lead Pender’s worship week by week for years, and for those who will help us make these needed changes at this time.
Obviously, this change will require all of us to adjust. As we deliberated about this, I recalled my early days as a United Methodist where I was introduced to a whole different manner of worship with elements and music previously foreign to me. In time, I came to appreciate a more liturgical form of worship from my upbringing, that included the rich theology and beautiful tunes of new (old) hymns, affirming the church’s faith aloud, and praying together, among other things. Then, within a short period of time, I was introduced to a very different “praise and worship” style, with a whole new set of songs, worship rhythms, and I experienced for myself how this could engage a new generation in the worship of God. In my 28 years as a pastor, I have planned and led services of many kinds, and learned to appreciate the rich variety of Spirit-filled worship that is available to Christians these days. I have enjoyed developing and participating in services with the latest Christian Contemporary Music and introducing congregations to the rich and broad traditions of the church’s liturgical resources. At each step, I have been guided by Jesus’ counsel to his disciples: “Every servant well-trained in God’s kingdom is like the owner of a general store who can put his hands on anything you need, old or new, exactly when you need it.” (Matthew 13:52, The Message). And while I don’t presume to be fully trained in the wisdom of kingdom stewardship, I know that I am a better pastor and a more fully trained servant of God’s kingdom for being able to worship the Lord in many ways and helping others to do the same.
After the Lord God rescued his chosen people from slavery and instructed them in their God-pleasing way of life, he told Moses, “have them make me a sanctuary, so that I may dwell among them” (Exodus 25:8). Much later, Paul wrote to the believers in Ephesus about our life in Christ, that “in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit” (2:22 NRSV). Paul is celebrating the truth about the church of Jesus Christ, that it is not a building that the Lord God choses to be his dwelling place, but a people. By grace, we are made into the body of Christ, a suitable dwelling for the living God, which we celebrate in the unity of holy worship. Worship has been called the first work of the church, for in our many expressions of prayer and praise, Jesus’ disciples embody and celebrate our shared life in the triune God who dwells among in his people and inhabits our every act of praise. When we worship the Lord in the fullness of the Spirit, we are all better able to enjoy and share the deep and varied riches of God’s kingdom storehouse.
Jesus taught his first disciples and us, “The time has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks” (John 4:23 NIV). As we enter a new season of worship at Pender UMC, I invite you to join us and to invite a friend, as we explore the riches of worshiping the Heavenly Father of Jesus the Son by the Spirit of truth at work among us. With the church through the ages, we will offer to our Maker and Savior true prayer and praise, in styles old and new, and all to the glory of the triune God who is pleased to live among us and work through us to invite the world to his glorious feast.
I am glad to be serving the risen Lord with you in this new season of grace at Pender,
Pastor Bruce
