Dear Life Group Teachers & Coordinators,
In an effort to give you as much notice as possible we'd like to make an announcement concerning our Sunday schedule for this winter. As we all know, winters in Oregon can be all but impossible to predict and are almost always more severe at night making the early morning hours perilous for travelers.
With that in mind, we will be altering our Sunday schedule during the winter months and will re-evaluate things again in the spring. The new schedule will be as follows:
- 9am - Life Groups
- 10am - Fellowship
- 10:30am - Worship
- 5pm - Deeper Life Service
This new schedule will begin December12th. This will allow a couple of weeks to let everyone know and get ahead of the slick roads that we are already experiencing.
Obviously, the biggest difference will be not having an early service. Conducting a worship service requires more than just arriving at starting time. For many people like the greeters, audio/visual techs, nursery workers and staff, an 8:30 service means being on the roads as early as 7am. That's even more true for anyone serving in the worship band as they have a run-through every Sunday before service. Considering the low average attendance of the early service and the fact that we have ample space for everyone to combine into one service, it just proves prudent to make the change.
This also provides opportunities for us as a church to come together and strengthen our unity. We will be able to experience more fellowship than was possible before by offering a 30 minute fellowship time between Life Groups and worship. All age groups will have opportunity to mingle and get to know one another as we share coffee and refreshments together in the fellowship hall. Another advantage to the new schedule will be a pre-noon release time providing more time in the afternoon for families.
We will also be starting a new Deeper Life Service on Sunday evenings. These discipleship focused services will provide an opportunity for people to really dive deep into God's Word in a way not possible in the morning service. It will also be an alternative for those that cannot participate in the morning service due to schedules or ministry obligations. The Deeper Life Service will mirror the Awana schedule.
All in all, we believe this will serve as a way to not only keep members of our family safer during these upcoming months, but also meet some other needs and help bring us together as one body connecting, growing and serving together.
Sincerely,
New Life Staff
