St Luke's Church Eccleshill - Articles from "The Link"

Keeping the regular joint services

The pattern of holding a regular 10.30am service on the first Sunday of each month was begun last October for an experimental period of six months. The review by the PCC has taken longer than expected. On 14th May it was decided to continue the pattern. Here is a personal view of the issues:

The advantages of holding two main services every week are that we can serve a wider variety of tastes in worship, and thus bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to more people. This is the main reason that total attendance rose from 90 to 150 (over five years) after the split-service system began.

The disadvantages are that the church gradually grows apart. Each congregation gets comfortable with its own style and intolerant of the other’s way of worshipping the one God. The people lose touch with the folk who go to the other service. Eventually the ministry suffers: one service ignores the children and the other ignores the older folk. This is the main reason that attendance has fallen over the last six years, and is now close to 90 again.

Many churches which did have two services have now gone back to one. St Augustine’s is an example. I remember a pioneer of “family services” once saying: “perhaps ‘family services’ have to be temporary in the life of a church - their goal is to bring people in, but those people need to be integrated into the life of the whole church.”

I believe we see both the advantages and the disadvantages in our experience at St Luke’s. I think a two-service system can be made to work in the long-term. But it won’t work if we just sit back and do nothing, as the attendance figures show. To make it work we need three things:

• Friendships across both services. We all need to ask ourselves if we know the people in the other service? If we want a friendly church, we must make friends.

• Respect for the people who attend the other service. This means making sure they are equally represented on bodies like the PCC. That’s why I write about democracy in this magazine.

• Service to the needs of the other congregation. This means 9.30am folk helping with children’s work and 11.15am folk getting involved in sick visiting and giving lifts to the elderly.

I hope “joint services” will help these three things to happen. They might not be easy. If we all go for what we get out of them, they’ll never work. They are part of us trying to bridge the gap between congregations, and make the church one.

John Hartley

	*St Luke's Church, Eccleshill - The Link* magazine** The Link is published monthly at 40p (Senior Citizens 35p), and we deliver free within the parish and post copies (at the reader's expense) to those who request it. Please contact us if you would like a free copy for a trial period. June 2002, Page 6.
Home Page. Index of articles. Services: index, 11.15am changes, Regular 10.30am, "3+1" Sunday Club, Regular Joint, Evening Service. In this issue: (June 2002) Vicar's Letter, STV, Sunday Club, Services, Question, History, Jelleys.	Keeping the regular joint services The pattern of holding a regular 10.30am service on the first Sunday of each month was begun last October for an experimental period of six months. The review by the PCC has taken longer than expected. On 14th May it was decided to continue the pattern. Here is a personal view of the issues: The advantages of holding two main services every week are that we can serve a wider variety of tastes in worship, and thus bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to more people. This is the main reason that total attendance rose from 90 to 150 (over five years) after the split-service system began. The disadvantages are that the church gradually grows apart. Each congregation gets comfortable with its own style and intolerant of the other’s way of worshipping the one God. The people lose touch with the folk who go to the other service. Eventually the ministry suffers: one service ignores the children and the other ignores the older folk. This is the main reason that attendance has fallen over the last six years, and is now close to 90 again. Many churches which did have two services have now gone back to one. St Augustine’s is an example. I remember a pioneer of “family services” once saying: “perhaps ‘family services’ have to be temporary in the life of a church - their goal is to bring people in, but those people need to be integrated into the life of the whole church.” I believe we see both the advantages and the disadvantages in our experience at St Luke’s. I think a two-service system can be made to work in the long-term. But it won’t work if we just sit back and do nothing, as the attendance figures show. To make it work we need three things: • Friendships across both services. We all need to ask ourselves if we know the people in the other service? If we want a friendly church, we must make friends. • Respect for the people who attend the other service. This means making sure they are equally represented on bodies like the PCC. That’s why I write about democracy in this magazine. • Service to the needs of the other congregation. This means 9.30am folk helping with children’s work and 11.15am folk getting involved in sick visiting and giving lifts to the elderly. I hope “joint services” will help these three things to happen. They might not be easy. If we all go for what we get out of them, they’ll never work. They are part of us trying to bridge the gap between congregations, and make the church one. John Hartley
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