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Notes from the November 2011 Session Retreat

 

The WAPC Session met on Sunday November 13, 2011 to talk about ideas about changing up how we worship.  We used this powerpoint presentation to help us through our conversation and we also shared some of our thoughts/hopes/dreams.  Below are the rough notes from what ideas and conversations we had.   We made a few decisions out of our meeting:

1.       We are going to look into the use of increased media in worship (projection, sound)

2.       We are going to try out the idea of prayer stations in worship during Advent

3.       We are going to look into signage issues all around the church property and come back with ideas and a plan for this in the coming months

4.       We are going to try out the idea of worship at an alternate time in 2012.  From January-June 2012 we will have worship on the Second Sundays of each month at 4PM with a shared potluck dinner afterwards.  There will be no morning worship service on these Sundays.  We hear lots of feedback across the spectrum at WAPC that morning worship does not work for many people, so we are going to give it a try for part of 2012 and evaluate with the full participation of the congregation what we thought about this change.  This is not a final commitment, but a trial that we feel we should take at this time.   There will be full details about this in the December church newsletter!  We are very excited about this!

5.       A small group of “dreamers” will work with Pastor Shannan and Elder Bob Goellner on a variety of these issues around worship/community in-between Session meetings, always reporting back to the Session.

 

Question to Elders:  Where have you experienced the mystery of God/Spirit?

·         Mountains.  Once I climbed a mountain and seeing what was beautiful around me and the expanse was humbling

·         Repetition helps me with mystery in worship.   I don’t have to think about the words and can “give into” the Spirit

·         When we sing the Doxology or We Are An Offering after the offering

·         The Cross in the front of the church is a focal point for me in worship

·         Big Sky out West

·         When I have recovered from illness or health-crises and experienced God in the midst of that

·         When my senses are woken up

·         Beauty outside

 

Question to Elders:  Why do you come to worship at WAPC?

·         Communion.  Some like the liturgy, others do not.

·         For silence

·         Worship grounds me when I am stressed

·         I stay away from worship when I am stressed

·         I have a sense of belonging here—HOME

·         Sometimes I am angry with God

·         I like being Presbyterian, our polity is a democracy and I appreciate that

·         Worship gives me perspective—gives me an opportunity to know what others are facing and see my life through that lens

·         Opportunity to express gratitude

·         Helps with raising children (morals/intergenerational experiences for them)

·         Time to give thanks and ask God for help

·         I feel we have community here.  We might believe different things, but we have a shared community with each other. 

 

Issues that we have raised to think about:

·         Maybe we change the location of the prayers of the people in the service.  Right now it is at the end which is where it is “supposed to go” liturgically, but so many people feel safe to raise “heavy” issues during this time which is wonderful.  But we want worship to end with joy, and so perhaps moving that to a different spot in the service might help with that.  Sometimes I feel “up” after the sermon and this can make me feel a bit down again. 

·         Signs—We need better signs out front of the building about worship time, handicapped access, which doors to use, buzzer system, etc.  Also, inside building for visitors.   To be followed up on with BNO.

·         We’d like to do hymn-sings 1-2x/year

·         Can we use incense in worship?  More smell?  People liked the oil two Sundays ago and the smell of that.

·         Can we have Bob’s band play more often or Leslie’s harp?  We love that!

·         Let’s bring back the Halleluiah Chorus at Easter

·         More songs we can sing easily

·         New songs, Jeremy to lead/teach it at the beginning of worship

·         Can we cut the divider down between Jeremy and the congregation so we can see him when he’s at the organ and he can give us more signals for singing? 

·         We like variety in music, we know we are moving away from it for good reasons, but can we mix it up a bit?  

·         Want to do interactive prayer stations

·         Timing of worship, especially for families (Sunday mornings do not work for many)  Elders shared positive feedback on a time change of worship in their conversations with members.  A trial balloon of this for six-months in 2012 will happen

·         We like having communion 2x/month, but we need to get others to take charge of this.  Beverly and Andy are tired and it isn’t fair that we give them all the work to do alone.  Others must step up to do this and we must lead on this as the Session

·         Children’s sermons—we need to get the kids to not sit on the chancel steps but face Shannan so they can hear her!  Hard to teach a new habit.  Judy will make special worship pillows for the children to sit on to encourage new seating for them.

·         We want to use more video/projection in worship and looked at the two videos linked on the WAPC blog as examples. 

Video One

Video Two

Wayne is going to look into projection equipment for the Sanctuary.  We have a gift to the church we want to use for this purpose.  The youth group’s video presentation a few Sundays ago was very well-received and we heard feedback from our Elders in the youth group that more video in worship would be something they would like

·         We want to film an entire worship service at WAPC and put it on the website for visitors.  We understand that many people are afraid of churches, have had negative experiences or seen them via media that is negative on TV, etc.  We cannot assume that people will come to worship to check us out, without knowing what they will “get” and that this is a safe space.  This works against us.  So, one of the ways we want to show this to visitors is via the website so they know we are not scary and that we have a welcoming, inclusive congregation and worship service

·         We really liked the idea of prayer stations in worship.  We plan to do a trial run of this in Advent 2011.

·         We talked about use of design in the worship space, color, banners, prayer tree etc.  We plan to implement these ideas over time in 2012

We looked at this video about fun design ideas in church as a jumping off point

·         We also discussed the location of the pews in the Sanctuary and the idea of reconfiguring worship space for intimacy