Taking a leap of faith … that’s what Briarwood, Que., chose to do back in January 2010 when we started our second service on Sunday afternoons at 4:30. Not a “youth” service, not an “alternative” service, just a “second” service. Now that it has been running for a year, it is refreshing to reflect back on our initial excitement, the process and inevitable questions, and, YES, the success!
So why start another Sunday service? For the past several years, we recognized signs of a congregation facing “growing pains.” As in other family – sized congregations, people knew one another and celebrated joys and sorrows together, and our minister was the contact for everything. Yet we were keen to have more activities—another Bible Study, a group for new mothers, expanded local mission projects—but everyone was already overcommitted. We held session retreats and a congregational planning event. We recognized the potential to increase in size, and the benefits this would bring. Then, serendipitously, Grant Vissers, a young theology student from the congregation, offered to lead a worship band for a second service. The session jumped on this opportunity and within three months our second service had begun.
So what distinguishes this service from the 10:30 one? It’s more informal. We encourage fellowship before the service, and invite people to bring their coffee or juice into the sanctuary with them. The communion table is turned sideways, bringing the pews on the left and right sides of the sanctuary together as if we are all seated around a single table. It is covered with candles that burn throughout the service. Rather than a printed bulletin, we rely on images projected onto the two screens that have been installed at the front of the sanctuary. Our offering is collected in gourds, the sort that are used as bowls for rice in many regions of Africa and Asia. How a propos, especially when our donations go to help PWS&D food security programs. The organ is silent. Music emerges from guitars and keyboard, led by a worship band. The songs are no longer new. Some are upbeat and the temptation to clap is irresistible. Others are slow, soft and deeply reflective. Surprisingly, I enjoy the slow ones even more than the upbeat songs! Many of our scripture readings are taken from Eugene Peterson’s The Message. The contemporary phrasing of the lectionary readings brings different insights and also provides a context that leads into the style of sermon for the second service. We are encouraged to ask questions during the sermon, or provide personal reflections, and the sermon itself is delivered in an informal manner. After the benediction, we don’t sing the traditional, “amen.” Rather, we sing Glen Soderholm’s “May the peace of Christ be with you, and also with you,” and then, one by one, we great each other with a handshake, a look in the eye, and say, “May the peace of Christ be with you.” Many a time I have noticed a tear as the power of this moment surfaces.
A few weeks ago, I looked across the sanctuary to see one row of high school students sitting directly behind a row of seniors! The service provides families who are busy on Sunday morning with a chance to worship together. New members who come to Briarwood have asked to join the congregation at the second service. We have had baptisms at the second service, and one of our elders was ordained at the second service. Every month, we have communion at the second service, followed by a dinner.
For a reason that I can’t quite explain, the service is more meaningful to me than the morning service that I still attend regularly. Is it that it is more “participatory?” Is it the music? Is it the personal connection that I feel with others? The physical space is the same. All the same liturgical elements occur and in roughly the same order. Even many of the people are the same as those I meet in the morning service. Yet, for me, I feel God’s spirit more strongly. It is a highlight of my week.
And has the second service brought new energy and new people? Absolutely! A second worship band now leads the service once a month and we have a new and active college and careers group, too.
Thank you to our minister, Greg Davidson, and to Grant Vissers who got all this started. Thanks to our session and congregation who have supported the initiative. Thanks to not one, but two worship bands that have formed and lead the second services. And thanks be to God, a continuing presence in all of our lives that helps us to grow in faith by venturing forward, away from what is familiar.
