Communion Together
Picture this… it’s Sunday morning at First Pres. As you enter, you realize that the sanctuary is full! You see children with their parents, students seated together toward the front, and adults of every generation filling the pews. The whole First Pres congregation has gathered to Worship Together. As the service progresses, this whole community of believers – children, students, adults young and not as young – joins together to receive the bread and the cup at the table of Jesus Christ. What a powerful expression of our unity in Christ, made all the more powerful because, as individuals, we are so very different from one another.
Scripture calls us to this kind of unity (John 17) without demanding uniformity (Ephesians 1-4).
So here’s what’s new: the Session has established a Sunday schedule for the next year that will help us Grow Deeper in our relationship with Jesus and Grow Together as the Body of Christ. For the next twelve months, on the first Sunday of each month, we invite the whole congregation to Worship Together at one service (10:00 a.m.). The service will be preceded by Breakfast Together (9:00 a.m.) and followed by an opportunity to Grow Together in our discipleship classes (11:15 a.m.). All the other Sundays of the month will continue to follow our current two-service schedule (9:30 a.m. contemporary followed by 11:00 a.m. traditional with classes at both hours). Breakfast Together on Communion Sunday will replace our current third Sunday breakfast.
We can imagine some of you are already asking, “Is this just the first step toward a permanent change to a single service every week?” The Session can imagine a future at First Pres where we always worship together at one service. However, the Holy Spirit is not leading us to make a permanent change today, and He may never do that. As we listen to Him, we simply want to take a step toward unity--by celebrating Communion Together.