give me a snapshot of your church

[BobHunt]

This is just for my own info, and because I want to see how all of you worship! They say a picture is worth a thousand words...well I dont exactly want pictures, I want your word picture of worship. What does it include in your church? What form does it take? What type of music, what type of prayer, what type of devotional if any? How long is it? What type of people are there? Is it contemporary or traditional or old fashioned? I think this would be a very enlightening thread. Does this vary in locations across the U.S.? Is it working? What especially works for you? (I mean in addition to the Holy Spirit's help!)

[Barb Bouldrey]

We have a one hour service at 10:45 a.m. on Sunday. We have blended worship music. John chooses music that goes with the theme of his sermon. He blends hymns and choruses usually all in the same key, or separates the music to change a key by inserting the scriptures between two songs/choruses. If he changes keys, it will be one step up, or in a worship sequence that changes keys.

We have all announcements in the bulletin, but we also have the Power Point program running with announcements and welcome as people enter worship. John does not make announcements at the beginning or during the service.

We start with a brief prayer, followed by music, then pastoral prayer, then offering, special music and sermon. We often close with a chorus. We usually have a greeting time after prayer as the praise team leaves the platform. Oh, I forgot to mention we have a praise team of 4...including a teenager. And two teen boys run the Power Point slides.

We are a small town, traditional church congregation. We have a high percentage of those over 50, yet almost 20% of our congregation are teenagers. We have very few young adults and very few children. Our teens sit in the front two rows on one side.

We have piano, organ and guitar. The organ is slowly dying and we have a nice keyboard that will take its place before long.

We are not legalistic traditional...in lifestyle and dress. It has not been too difficult to gradually move into using the praise choruses and Power Point in our worship. Actually the oldest members enjoy being able to SEE the words, follow the sermon outline and keep up with the message and not have to hold on to a book.

We average in the 70's.

What I observe on our district, with St. Louis in the center, is that the most contemporary churches that succeed in being contemporary are located in the New Start churches and the big city churches...meaning big city and big churches.

Barb

[Joanne Vergin]

I go to a medium sized church. We have about 200 tops for Sunday morning worship. Wednesday is high with Bible study or Caravans and Sunday night is low usually.
Our music rotates between a contemporary praise band and traditional praise group singers. Piano and organ for traditional songs.
Our congregation is made up mostly of people who did not grow up Nazarene. Either not raised Christian or some other denomination. I’d say only 20% were raised “old school” Nazarene. We have a nice balance of age groups but are not big enough to serve every need. i.e. singles, divorced etc.

Prayer requests we have a lot of. We always take time to make sure everyone has there request in. pastor leads most prayer but a member of the congregation closes.
Pastor’s sermons sometimes follow a theme for a while. Sometime last year he was doing a little bit from the whole Bible. Today was Gen. 24 and he really gave excellent points on purity before marriage. I think our Pastor really prays a lot before preparing for Sunday. Pastor chooses the closing Hymn.

Announcements and words to the songs are on a screen in the front.

[Marsha Gupton]

I go to a very large church. We average over 1200 on sunday mornings. Sunday evenings I would guess about 600. We have a wednesday evening meal followed by various activities. We have a traditional wed. evening praise service which is mostly attended by senior adults. There are electives that you can choose to go to. These are classes taught by various laymen as well as pastoral staff. There is usually some type of women's bible study going on at this time.

Our music style is blended. We are very blessed to have a wonderful and gifted Worship Leader and many talented singers and musicians that attend our church. We have piano, organ plus an orchestra.

Prior to sunday morning service announcements are on the big screen via powerpoint.

Prayer time the pastor goes to the altar for prayer. At each end of the altar is a staff member to anoint anyone that wishes to be annointed for healing. Many people come to the altar to pray during pastoral prayer time.

www.nfcn.org

We have an excellent pastor.

We have church at 9am followed by sunday school. We have the traditional sunday night church service. Our church has a lot of history. I have been attending for 53 years. My Mother started going there back in the early 1940's. We have a mix of people like us while there are also new nazarenes and we have a lot of young families as well. Because of our close relationship with Trevecca many students remain in Nashville and make our church their church home.

[Hans Deventer]

Around 200 people, worshipping in a 1960 church building.
Music at times includes the pipe organ, but most of the time it will be any mixture of piano, flute(s), oboe, guitar, bass, drums.
Non-written prayers. Sermons usually between 20-30 minutes. Time of praise and worship, about 30 minutes, led by a worship leader, assisted by 2 singers.
Most attendants are middle class, dress would be a little above casual.
Is it working? Well, the church is still growing, but I would love to see a good discussion on that question.

Some statistics
Members 174
Friends (18+)
Children of members and friends (18-) 147
Total 416
Average age 28,1 year

Age division
0 - 1 year - 8
2 - 3 year - 20
4 - 11 year - 68
12 - 17 year 51
18 - 29 year 75
30 - 39 year 66
40 - 49 year 90
50 - 64 year 31
65 + year 7

Addresses
Living in Dordrecht itself - 111
Within 10 miles from Dordrecht - 23
Outside that range - 13

[Wilson L. Deaton]

.....I want your word picture of worship. What does it include in your church? What form does it take? What type of music, what type of prayer, what type of devotional if any? How long is it? What type of people are there? Is it contemporary or traditional or old fashioned?

Let me walk you through our weekly gathering:

We begin arriving at a Middle School at 8:30 A.M.

Our most faithful, healthy, adults are divided into two rotating set-up crews. We run a mini-Sunday School with children, teens, and those not on set-up crew meeting in three different hallway areas (rent free).

The set-up crew begins pulling eqiupment from underneath the auditorium stage and rolling it to the cafeteria. (Auditorum costs $400 per week, cafeteria only $250.) Chairs are set up before we arrive but we usually have to move them. We set up a complete sound system with large speakers, a video projector, computer, DVD, etc., an information table, a portable nursery, and a hospitality (refreshment) table. Most weeks, we also carry in my son's complete drum set which he plays.

By about 9:10 eveything is set up enough that our praise team can begin sound checks and running though one or two of the songs we plan to sing.

9:25 Preservice - This is something we added a few months ago and usually features a music video that signals people to find seats and begin entering a spirit of worship.

9:30 I take front and center and welcome everyone, ask our ushers to hand out guest registration cards asking that one person from each family take one begin filling it out while I we make some important announcments. (I've learned over the years that visitor card response rates are very low. But if everyone fills one out, visitor response is near 100%.) We then have announcements made, most from me, but other people will also do their own, for example, if there are big ladies' events coming up, or ladies' leader will make the announcement. The oral announcements are reinforced with power point.

As announcements are over I invite the congregation (currently about 50, more or less, more less than more!) to stand and offer a brief invocation. After prayer I invite them to greet those around them as our praise team comes forward.

The greeting usually lasts a few minutes rather than a few seconds.... Our praise team averages 4 singers plus a guitar player and a drummer. Due to lack of additional musicians we mostly use soundtracks which these musicians supplement. Our songs are contemporary with maybe one hymn per week thrown in, but even the hymn will be an updated version. Lyics are projected and alternate from pre-produced DVDs to our home-made powerpoints.

After a couple songs, a powerpoint comes up that simpy reads, "Sharing what God is doing." My wife then facilitiates a testimony time where congregants come forward and share something about what God is doing in their lives. Sometimes its a good medical report, sometimes a relational intervention at work,sometimes a Scripture that God spoke with earlier in the week, etc. We spend 10 minutes or more on this segment. We believe the weekly gathering should include some "one another" fulfillment as in, "admonish one another," "encourage one another," etc. so this is an important time for us.

Following sharing time, I lead a "pastoral prayer." I'll include thanksgiving for the sharing stories and victories reported along with regular prayer requests, etc.

After prayer, I invite ushers back for offering and guest registration card collection.

I'll interupt here to mention that we encourage a causual, informal atomosphere. Dress is causual, ushering is casual (often little kids who don't know what they are doing), even our offering "plates" reflect this attitude. Kenosha Family Church initials are KFC. We picked up on this and use buckets that look like Kentucky Fried Chicken buckets except they say KFC and have a picture of Jesus rather than Sanders. This "casual" includes me. I never wear jacket or tie.)

Following offering, a layperson comes forward and reads a Scripture passage that I have preselected that ties to the morning message.

Following Scripture our praise team comes back for more singing.

Following singing the weeks children's church leader will come up and give a brief "hook" about children's church then ask the kids to follow as he/she exits. Sample from yesterday, "Today in children's church we are going to talk about word that is both a noun and a verb. It starts with a 'W' and is something we should do everyday. That's all I'm going to tell you so you'll have to ask the children later. OK, Kids, come with me..." (Surprisingly enough, after service our adults are testing their guesses with the kids. Yesterdays clues had generated two primary guesses: "witness" and "worship." Correct answer was "worship.")

As the children leave I'm back up front. I announce that we have ushers passing out Bibles and say something like, "If you don't have a Bible today, please borrow one. This is an NIV. Very common and accepted, etc. If you do not own one of your own, rather than just 'borrowing' one of ours, take one of ours as gift instead. We think everyone should own one."

Now it's time for me to preach. I use a wireless mic and roam a lot. (The only pulpit is music stand from Praise team.) My sermon is fully supplemented with powerpoint screens with major quotes, bulleted lists, pictures, etc. (Last week's sermon included "winnowing" so I used a picture of someone "winnowing" to explain.) We project Bible references with the page number from our worship Bible edition rather than the full text. We want people to use to their Bibles.

Some messges conclude differently, of course, but generally speaking we sing a closing praise song, then I return for a closing prayer, benediction, and invitation to enjoy refreshments at our hospitality table. People linger a long time... After a few minutes, those whose turn it is begin packing everything up while the remainders leave or continue to linger.

I have lunch out every week with a group of about 3 to 10 families. We choose a restaurant where we can push tables together, etc.

That ought to give you a pretty good "picture." We're still waiting for your own snapshot.

Wilson

[Marsha Lynn]

I am part of a dying rural church in a transition stage. The church is around 70 years old. Historically, attendance reached an average of 90 and hovered around that point until the mid-1980s when it started an up-and-down pattern with ever-deepening lows and less-frequent highs. We now hit new lows all the time. Yesterday we had 40 in Sunday School. I remember the day when we could get 40 out for anything less than an actual declared 'snow emergency' and the weather was cold but beautiful yesterday. (Church attendance was posted as 59 but there weren't nearly that many that ever stepped into the sanctuary. Rather, there was a good group preparing a "Valentine dinner" for the children back in the fellowship hall during the service.)

The interesting thing is that of the 60 people I can name who walked thru the church doors yesterday, only 16 were part of the church 15 years ago. (14 are less than 15 years of age but only one of those was born to parents who were around back then.) Two were there for the first time.

Of the 90 who were in a typical service back in the 'golden days' of the church, some have died, some have moved away (particularly the many teens who have graduated over the years and had to look elsewhere for employment opportunities). Others have simply left the church. Eight regulars have become Florida snowbirds. If it weren't for those who have come and stayed even as we've been in decline, we would have less than 20 left during the winter months.

So we are small and declining and "young" in terms of history with the church. That opens up some opportunity for change that wouldn't otherwise be possible, although somewhat limited by the fact the newcomers have chosen to associated themselves with an 'old-fashioned' church. It shows up in our services as a mixture of new and old.

We open with a 'praise and worship' musical prelude which yesterday involved piano, organ, bass guitar, and flute. This is an evolving group. We have a guitarist scheduled to join the rest of the group next week. The pastor opens the actual service with announcements, followed by a "meet and greet" time. We have been trying to schedule a "call to worship" with the 'band' and a singer or singers, but yesterday's opener was simply a young teen singing "Amazing Grace" with me on the piano. (It was her school "contest" piece.)

Our song leader has been on the job for around 20 years. He puts together the order of service and selects the congregationals. He sometimes opens with a chorus or two but primarily chooses hymns, having moved us from the campmeeting-type music the church grew up on to more formal hymns during the past couple of years. For the hymns, we drop down to only piano and organ. (There's not enough pre-planning for the 'band' to practice those songs, which often don't translate well to modern instruments.) The instrumentalists come back up for the offertory.

The actual order of service varies but pastoral prayer, scripture (chosen by the pastor and read by a layperson), and offering break up the music. Then the pastor reads his text and presents his sermon followed by a musical response/altar call, selected and led by the pastor. (Piano only for accompaniment on the final song.)

I expect to see more change in the days and weeks to come as the newcomers slowly reshape the church. I don't know that we have enough vision and spiritual leadership to turn the 20-year decline around, but I'm watching with anticipation to see what God will do with us (and trying to stay out of the way). Desperate times open doors for innovation, both good and bad, that would never fly in more prosperous days. And we're in desperate times. ("Words - and pictures - on the wall" should be ready in time for next Sunday evening's missionary meeting with a new video projector. Who knows where we'll go from there?!)

Marsha

Edited to add: We have Sunday School @ 9:30, morning worship @ 10:30, evening activity of various nature @ 6:00 (video study/discussion, fellowship times, missionary meeting, etc, but never a 'regular' preaching service), Wednesday evening prayer meeting/Bible study @ 6:30. With declining attendance and tight finances, Sunday and Wednesday evening meetings during these cold months are being held in the fellowship hall rather than heating up the sanctuary. We then have to tear down so that Head Start can use the space during school days. Last night's final instruction was to "take up your chair and walk". :)

[David Cash]

We're a rural church, just outside of a fairly healthy small town.

Our Sunday attendance seems to run in the 50's with some fluxuations. Without doing any math, it seems that we have a fairly high proportion of older people, some who have been in the church since they were children or young married people. There are also families with children and singles who are mostly middle age.

I suppose our music would be what is called blended. We have one individual who has been asked to read the announcements, which are also in the bulletin. This is how the service begins.

There is a call to worship, which usually is in the nature of a praise chorus. The pastor has moved toward having one of the music leaders give the opening prayer.

Our pastor likes to move the order around from time to time, but we typically have several praise choruses and at least two songs from the hymnal. I am thankful that our praise choruses tend to have a more conservative tone than the same songs would have in a younger setting.

There is a Scripture reading, which is usually my job. (The pastor's idea since I'm hopefully heading toward the ministry.) This reading is related to the sermon, but not the text that will be preached on.

We take an offering, usually with an offeratory by one of our regular musical people. (We are blessed with some very skilled musicians.)

The prayer requests are read from the bulletin and there is a pastoral prayer, usually before the offering.

We have special music almost every Sunday and it usually is the last thing before the sermon.

We have a unique situation in our music department as we have two overlapping teams that alternate every other Sunday. This is caused in part because one of our pianists married a man from another church, and rather either giving up their church, they alternate between her church and his. The husband in this family is a very competent song leader, so they play and lead the singing when they're both there. My sister does the piano and song leading on the alternate Sundays. There is another man who is in the praise team every Sunday. My sister joins him whe she isn't playing the piano. One or two other ladies also are on the praise team, but this varies from week to week. Our organist plays with the hymns and plays piano offeratories some Sundays.

We have the PowerPoint type display for the newer music and to tell us that the announcements, offering, Scripture reading, etc. are happening.

Our pastor preaches for maybe a half hour give or take. I wasn't there last Sunday, but he experimented with using the power point thing with his sermon. Our projector works with the room lights on, so we don't have the dark sancturary that sometimes goes with PowerPoint.

Sunday evenings are usually small and informal. The music then is mostly out of the hymnal and is chosen by the people who are there. The pastor usually does an informal Bible study with audience participation.

Wednesday evenings we have a children's program and small group Bible studies for teens and adults.

Sunday morning dress runs the gamut from sweatshirts with the names of sports teams to jacket and tie.

Maybe this is too long to be a snap shot?

David Cash

[John Kennedy]

The church I attend has two Sunday morning services: an 8:30 am service in the chapel and a 10 am service in the sanctuary. The order of service is the same for both services. The offertory anthem is sung by a quartet at the first service and full choir at the later service. Here's yesterday's order of service:
Introit - "Flow over me.....Choir
Hymn - O Worship the King
Call to Worship and Words of Witness (an affirmation of faith)
Words of Greeting and Children's Sermon (children go to Sunday School)
Call to Prayer - Open our ears, Lord...
Pastoral Prayer , Lord's Prayer and Choral Response
Worship With Tithes and offerings - anthem by choir - Doxology
Hymn - I know whom I have believed..
Scripture Lesson and Gloria Patri
Sermon
Recessional Hymn - Rejoice, ye pure in heart
Benediction and choral response

The church just celebrated its 125th anniversary. If you want to see some pictures you might try this link: http://www.1stcongregationalchurch.com/.
(hope it works).

I've spent some time surfing through church websites. Have noticed many churches have no picture of their building - don't know whether they're ashamed of how it looks or just don't think it's important. And it's incredible how many do not bother to give an address, including city and state. Go figure.

[Mike Schutz]

I've spent some time surfing through church websites. Have noticed many churches have no picture of their building - don't know whether they're ashamed of how it looks or just don't think it's important. And it's incredible how many do not bother to give an address, including city and state. Go figure.

John,
Greetings!
We do not have a pic of our church on our website because we do not think it is important. However, if our church were as beautiful as yours, we might think differently.:fav18
Grace and peace,
Mike

[Billie Goodson]

Around 200 people, worshipping in a 1960 church building.
Music at times includes the pipe organ, but most of the time it will be any mixture of piano, flute(s), oboe, guitar, bass, drums.
Non-written prayers. Sermons usually between 20-30 minutes. Time of praise and worship, about 30 minutes, led by a worship leader, assisted by 2 singers.
Most attendants are middle class, dress would be a little above casual.
Is it working? Well, the church is still growing, but I would love to see a good discussion on that question.

Some statistics
Members 174
Friends (18+)
Children of members and friends (18-) 147
Total 416
Average age 28,1 year

Age division
0 - 1 year - 8
2 - 3 year - 20
4 - 11 year - 68
12 - 17 year 51
18 - 29 year 75
30 - 39 year 66
40 - 49 year 90
50 - 64 year 31
65 + year 7

Addresses
Living in Dordrecht itself - 111
Within 10 miles from Dordrecht - 23
Outside that range - 13

Hey Hans -- shouldn't it be Average age 28.1 year not 28,1 year -- or do you have 28 1 year olds? Hey, I am just picking on you -- I found your response to be very engineering heavy! Many times we can tell our leanings by our postings! Nice building. Any inside pictures -- what is the age of the building? I love architecture.

[Hans Deventer]

Hey Hans -- shouldn't it be Average age 28.1 year not 28,1 year -- or do you have 28 1 year olds? Hey, I am just picking on you -- I found your response to be very engineering heavy! Many times we can tell our leanings by our postings! Nice building. Any inside pictures -- what is the age of the building? I love architecture.

Billie, in Europe, we use the dot to separate the thousands. So we would write 255.349 where you would write 255,349, meaning 255 times thousand plus 349.

So, when we write 255,349 it means 255 times one and 349/1000.

The building is from 1960. Below an inside picture. I have to say that the sound table has been improved greatly recently, this picture is from 2004.

[Billie Goodson]

You know, now that you mention it, I do remember that you guys can't properly write numbers! No wonder our ancestors ran/swam/boated from Europe. :basic02

Love that look inside. You guys have some of the best architecture. I loved when we were in Germany riding around and looking. Old/New didn't matter. Thanks for sharing the inside picture!

[Laurie Florence]

A snapshot of my church?
Welcoming, accepting, caring, loving, praising, warm and (most importantly!) Jesus centred.

[Wilson L. Deaton]

Hey, Bob, we're still waiting for your snapshot!

Wilson

[Bruce Carriker]

Here's a snapshot of my church...

http://www.kcfc.org/images/ChurchDriveway28_000.jpg