Brainerd United Methodist Church

Brainerd United Methodist Church Passionate Worship Task Group

Passionate Worship Team Proposals

Purpose: This proposal is to recommend to the congregation the development of a plan that will allow Brainerd United Methodist Church to implement the practices of Passionate Worship within the congregation. Currently, Brainerd United Methodist Church is served by four Sunday services – a 45 minute 8:45 a.m. OASIS contemporary service held in the fellowship hall of the church – a 45 minute 9:00 a.m. informal traditional service held in the sanctuary – a 60 minute formal traditional service held in the sanctuary – and an informal 75 minute 6:00 p.m. Gospel Jam service held in the church’s chapel. Each service is defined by a preferential style of music. The OASIS service uses a praise band and sings contemporary songs, the 9 a.m. sanctuary uses a United Methodist hymnal and sings to a piano only, the 10:45 a.m. sanctuary service also uses the United Methodist hymnal, but it includes a Chancel choir, soloists, and an organ as well as a piano, and the Gospel Jam includes a collection of varied musicians who play everything from spoons and saws to hammer dulcimer and dogwood base and a full size harp, as well as several guitars and two harmonicas. Their song selection reflects Appalachian bluegrass. Each of the four worship services has its own core group of worshipers which do not cross over to the other services, with the exception of a handful of people who will rotate from time to time and attend different services.

This proposal is not written out of a vacuum. The passionate worship team was knowledgeable of an effort undertaken two years ago to bring people of the different three Sunday morning services together and explore ways to enhance worship at Brainerd. The significant question in that process was . . . How many worship services does Brainerd need to offer on Sunday morning so to order the life of public worship in a way that maximizes growth potential. There was considerable discussion as to whether the 9 a.m. worship service should merge with the 10:45 a.m. worship service, thus making only two services on Sunday – one traditional and one contemporary – and the other discussion focused on the possibilities of relocating the 9 a.m. sanctuary service to McFerrin Chapel, a smaller space that would serve the existing congregation of 40 – 50 worshipers, who tend to get swallowed up in a sanctuary that seats 500 easily. The response to both questions was strong. There was no will to merge the two traditional services as the people who attend those two services are very committed to their preferential style of worship. There was also no desire to move the 9 a.m. early sanctuary service out of the sanctuary and into McFerrin Chapel. Some people who attend the 9 a.m. sanctuary service also attend Sunday school in McFerrin Chapel. They do not want to worship in the same place they attend Sunday school and they do not wish to move their class from McFerrin Chapel. There was also this sentiment from some who said, “I helped pay for this sanctuary when it was built in the 1950’s and I don’t intend to stop worshiping in there now.” Given this recent history, there will be no recommendations in these proposals to merge or eliminate any of our existing Sunday morning services. There will also be no recommendation to merge the two traditional services into one service.

“4” Proposals: It was the belief of the passionate worship team that each worship service we offer has value and merit in this church, but there did emerge some recommendations around the OASIS worship service as well as the fuller utilization of the website to promote our worship opportunities to the metropolitan community. There was also some discussion related to upgrades that might be needed in technology used to support worship. Here are the 3 proposals.

1. Plant a second OASIS worship service at 11:00 a.m. to be housed in the north end of the Asbury Center. The 8:45 a.m. OASIS service would either remain in the fellowship hall unless this group decides at some point to relocate to the Asbury Center as well. Why have two contemporary services?

We are not growing the OASIS contemporary service at the 8:45 a.m. time slot, and the early hour is what seems to be a major deterrent. There is potential for growth in using a contemporary style of worship, as evidenced by the growing number of contemporary-style new-start churches around the city. There are also known to be growing numbers of traditional churches over the past few years who have added contemporary services, which in some cases eventually outgrow the traditional service in attendance. These services are characterized by more informality with a praise band playing praise and worship songs, and are generally not offered at an early hour such as our 8:45 service.

Also, new churches with a small contemporary worship service often start up in a store-front type building like we have with the Asbury Center. It is less intimidating to persons who see the large traditional high-steeple churches as difficult to negotiate. There is no maze of hallways to contend with, and is thus a more “user-friendly” experience. An additional advantage is that by the use of outdoor sign space, we can make our community more aware that we have a contemporary service.

Keeping the 8:45 OASIS service will help us continue to appeal to those who like or need an early service. This would include a number of couples from the Cornerstone Class, for instance, who are committed to the church and particularly to their Sunday School class. These persons chose Brainerd Church before there was a contemporary service and have a high level of commitment. There are also some food service persons attending who work on Sunday and cannot come to a later service. Continuing to serve these people makes sense, and there has been some growth because they do sometimes invite friends and family. However, growth in numbers from the general public is not taking place at this early hour.

First Steps: 1) Begin discussion with the Sunday school classes, the OASIS Praise Band, the OASIS worshiping community and the Board of Trustees to see if there is significant interest and finances to cover initial changes needed in this part of the Asbury Center to make it OASIS worship friendly. 2) Organize a marketing team to promote this as a new worship start within the Brainerd neighborhood. Our target audience for this new service will be the immediate Brainerd neighborhood. 3) Come up with a design plan that is to be submitted to the Board of Trustees for how the space in the Asbury Center would be reshaped to create a new OASIS worship center. 4) The goal would be to kick off this new service in the fall of 2015, or January of 2016. 5) Talk with the District Superintendent to see if there is interest in making this a new church start. There could be conference money as well as other resources that could be resourced if this were to be a new church start.

2. Use a designated fund to hire a webmaster who focuses on updating our website each week. Why this recommendation?

We have a great website that has recently been updated, and our program staff on the family ministries team do a good job of keeping their sections of the website up to date, but as good as Karen Stoll was as a project manager and as good as Jenny is with computer skills, neither has the time to give the weekly attention needed to keep the website current, in ways that enhance the greatest growth potential for the church.

We needed the website updated, and Jenny and Karen can keep items on the website current, but they don’t have time to explore further ways to use the website to its fullest potential. One solution is to pay someone a nominal amount to be our church “webmaster.” This person would spend time each week hunting down different staff people for pictures and information. Currently, our contemporary worship service, the OASIS, is not highlighted well on our website, and our traditional services need to be constantly updated each week.

First Steps: 1) Begin discussion with the Staff Parish Relations Committee and the Finance Committee to write a job description and find stipend money that can be paid to a part time webmaster for website enhancement. This can benefit more than just worship, but worship does need this benefit. A webmaster could highlight our relationship with the Arts community in Chattanooga and put pictures of various concerts held here, as well as writing advertisement about upcoming events. 2) Organize a priority list this webmaster needs to pay attention to on the website and what needs to be updated daily, weekly, monthly, etc… 3) Create and provide a network of volunteer photographers whom the webmaster can call on for taking pictures, but the webmaster will need to be the one to go through an assortment of pictures and select the best ones to be placed on the website itself. We offer to repay the volunteer photographers for any expenses they incur. 4) If it is determined that there is not sufficient funds available in the designated fund to pay a stipend for a webmaster, then there should be an effort made by Staff Parish to rewrite job descriptions of current staff in order that the website needs are addressed. This may require saying no to other things currently written in, in order to say yes to this website. 4) The goal would be to kick off as early as possible in the year 2015.

3. Use a designated fund or Trustee budget money to upgrade the technology used to support worship here at Brainerd United Methodist Church. Why this recommendation?

We have a great crew of technicians who work our sound each Sunday in worship, but we need to provide them with the equipment necessary to meld with a new website. Our current method of recording the sermon in worship is to record sermons for use in cassette tape players. What we need is the technology that allows us to video services on our website. Interested church goers should be able to access our website and click on a button that allows them to both see and hear our Christmas Cantata or the latest sermon in either the 8:45 a.m. OASIS or 10:45 a.m. Sanctuary services.

There is, from time to time, a static and feedback problem with the current microphones being used by clergy in the sanctuary services. The problem may be with the microphones themselves and we recommend them for evaluation in terms of upgrades, if necessary.

It also should be noted that if we are successful in planting an 11:00 a.m. OASIS worship service in the Asbury Center, then we will need to have the technology available to support that service. We strongly urge the review our technology needs in worship at Brainerd United Methodist Church and what we need to do to get where we want to be in worship.

First Steps: 1) Evaluate the microphones used by the clergy in worship to ensure that we have what we need for quality sound. 2) Evaluate the capabilities of our sound board and utilize it in ways that get us into a 21st century of web production. 3) Evaluate the technology needs for a second OASIS contemporary worship start at 11 a.m. in the Asbury Center.

4. Discuss the transition concerns between Early Worship and Sunday School and Late Worship!

It needs to be stated that there is concern still being expressed over the overflow of worship into Sunday school hour from the OASIS service, and the 10:45 a.m. start hour which is not optimum for young families who attend Sunday school here. Sunday school is scheduled to run from 9:45 a.m. to 10:35 a.m., but this is often interpreted as arbitrary and contingent upon each class’s discretion. Given the importance of Sunday school in this church, the value of protecting our classes, and the role that multiple worship services play in this church, we encourage that each class discuss the overflow that occurs at the beginning of Sunday school and the ending times of each Sunday school class.

First Steps: 1) Evaluate the ending time of OASIS and the beginning of Sunday school hour. Are there any recommendations? 2) Evaluate the ending time of Sunday school and the beginning of Sanctuary worship. Any recommendations? 3) Send in your recommendations to the Church School Superintendent so he might inform the clergy of your ideas.

The Passionate Worship team is not making any formal recommendation for change in this area, but we would like to see it discussed and know if there are any potential solutions that might come from the Sunday school classes. Please keep in mind that conversation time during transition periods is important. People do not want to be rushed.