This is a little overwhelming…
Like many of you, I have ways of keeping track of what needs prayer: my journal, some cards that I keep by a prayer kneeler in my study, my memory, whatever gets my attention when I sit down to pray… One of the items that has been front and center for a while has been asking God to make our new space ‘feel’ like our old space– that it would quickly become familiar to us.
Now that we are 3 weeks in, I know that we have all had a range of emotions: we are genuinely excited to be ‘all together’, we are stretching our Sundays to include prayer before the service and eating after the service, at times we feel lost– literally and figuratively, we miss the old place, we love the the new place, we wonder about the next place.
We have all looked around that room and wondered, ‘who are these people?’. We have all felt the unsettledness of going from 150 people in the room to 450 people in the room. It’s exciting, but it’s different.
So if you’ve gone from Wow! to Yay! to I’m nervous! to I don’t know anybody! to I wish it was smaller! to I wish it was bigger! to ‘Call me when you move back to Quincy street and I can attend in the morning’…. You are not alone. Change is. Period.
So a couple thoughts as we all move through this new season:
- Pray. For your church. For your staff and leaders. For yourself as you think about gathering for worship. Pray that God would connect your head and heart to what He is doing in that room.
- Come EARLY. It is extra hard to feel connected when you get there after the service has begun and you are scrambling to get a seat in the back and to get your child checked in.
- Sit as close to the front as possible. It is harder to hear under the balcony. You will feel more disconnected at the back and up in the balcony.
- Put on a name tag— as soon as you enter the building. They are so helpful to us. No one knows everyone’s name. So let’s all tag up.
- Come early and pray at 4pm. I am so thankful for this time to settle my heart and to focus my mind on who I will be with and who I am worshiping.
- Plan on parking at Nottingham Elementary School or on Little Falls ROAD and walking. Build in extra time to walk to the church. Don’t assume there will be parking at LFPC and then be disappointed.
- Make sure you are in a small group. As our worship gets bigger, small groups become even more critical. Sunday is the last day to register. Ask your small group to sit together so that you know the people who are worshiping around you. Pick out a spot in that sanctuary that is ‘yours’.
- Make yourself stay for the after-service food. Plan before you go to say hi to someone new and to stick around for a few minutes. We are providing these opportunities to eat so that people can have the opportunity to connect and get to know others.
I am working on slowing down, looking around, focusing on people so I can see who is there, walking slowly, listening.
I am so grateful for our church and for this new place and for God’s work among us. What are your ideas for adjusting to the new space?
-David
April 26, 2013 @ 3:01 pm
David – Right on! It’s so important to hear that you rare taking the time and putting thought into making Restoration a home of worship- not just a house of worship.
I love it – “Tag up!”
I’ll be taggin’ up Sunday!
Evan
April 26, 2013 @ 3:18 pm
Evan, your enthusiasm is infectious. I love how you welcome folks and create environments for people to engage with God.
April 26, 2013 @ 4:27 pm
David, thanks for these helpful suggestions. While I am very happy about the new space, the transition from 150 folks to 450 folks was more of an adjustment than I initially expected. If I’m feeling a bit intimidated by the congregation’s size, I know a lot of you out there are, too.
I’m going to make an extra effort to speak with a person or two that I don’t yet know and invite them to get food with me. Thanks as well for the reminder about name tags, which — not unlike Mary Breed’s cookie bars — are a ministry of hospitality and respect.
April 26, 2013 @ 5:29 pm
The RAC family looks so good gathered under the cross. Literally, I love LPC’s stain glass cross and how our current service time is hitting the season just right for the sun to emblazon it throughout the service. On the other hand, I love that we are corporately facing the change-challenges side by side…under grace.
Though certainly not in the ballpark for the persecution that so many in the global Church face (families with young’uns can wisen me to the ways of the world), I do hope these challenges turn our heads in that direction: to remember and partner in prayer with those who face obstacles and persecution as they gather to pray, praise, and break bread.
Basically, I’m glad for the chapter God is writing in spring 2013. I’m looking forward to what this season will look like next year when we’re celebrating 5 years as a church. What we’ll remember as marks of His faithfulness, what we’ll laugh at, and what we’ll be looking forward to. I relish these take-stock moments, God is most certainly teaching us and maturing our faith; I just don’t want to miss His work among us.
April 26, 2013 @ 5:48 pm
Ditto to what Jeff Walton wrote. I will add that our kids liked the balcony and asked if we can sit there every week – maybe it seems smaller and reminiscent of Quincy St (in 2009)? Will we all fall into patterns that have us sitting in certain pews and silo us off? Is that a bad thing? Name tags and snacks are important, as is remembering that the post-church time is part of the deal and rushing around getting ready for Monday can come later. This will be hard for us, but worth it.
April 26, 2013 @ 5:59 pm
Thanks for opening the door for a conversation David. I don’t know why the change to one service came as such a shock for me, I guess I wasn’t thinking about it from that angle. It definitely triggers any ounce of social anxiety I have as a single person (without a default crew) and an introvert who finds it exceedingly difficult to just walk up and start talking to someone.
BUT, I love this place, I love these people and, like Erica, love the beauty of that cross so I’m committed to powering through the discomfort and getting outside my comfort zone.
Thanks for reminder Erica as well that these are small issues in the grand scheme of things and the global church. Too many people gathering freely in a beautiful space to worship Jesus? Too many friends to catch up with as you snack around a table after service? Not being able to hear the best in the sanctuary? Yup, #firstworldproblems.
April 27, 2013 @ 6:28 am
David,
As I was meditating this morning, I was reminded of our Fall Retreat last year. The theme of the retreat was about how The LORD was doing a Mighty Act of Deliverance for His People, yet hardships and circumstances caused most of God’s People to doubt and rebel. The LORD brought to mind the recurring complaint of the Israelites: “Why did you bring us out of Egypt to perish in the Wilderness? Were there not enough graves in Egypt? Let us go back to Egypt.” My own heart is so fond of the idol of safety, familiarity and comfort that I forget the Character of the One who is Leading me. I forget the bondage and horror of my own Egypt and only see/remember my current discomfort. It takes a strangely strenuous effort to recall just one month ago: how packed-to-over-flowing-on-the-steps Easter service was; how my heart broke seeing ladies freezing on the steps, covered in borrowed jackets; how clearly my heart cried “yes, give us more space.”
May The LORD bless your Shepherding-leadership of sheep (like me) who oft go astray.
April 27, 2013 @ 7:29 am
Erica, Cindy– great perspective on our brothers and sisters around the world. Always good to remember, while keeping in mind that the issues at LFPC are significant for our people.
Christine– you and your fam can camp out any place they want. 🙂 That balcony sure is cool and we only get it for 18 months.
Tim– what a fantastic connection to the fall retreat. Really brilliant. It WAS hard to watch people sit in the rain and be turned away on Easter– that image was one of the primary motivators for us to do this project at all. And we did spend some time last October recognizing our idols of safety [great picture]. Thank you– this really encouraged me.
April 28, 2013 @ 9:33 am
I actually attend the host church and decided to drop by last Sunday to meet our new guests and was surprised how friendly everyone in my Pew was. I am new to the DC area (since January) and came from a Presbyterian church of about 300 (Union) that spun out of a much larger church of 4500 (I know!) and we spent a few years “homeless” and went from one location to another.
It was an amazing time to bond to one another and really step into understanding at a visceral level that the church is not the building but the community. That sense of being lost helped many of us really find our faith and made us sensitive to the sense of being lost that so many of our neighbors have.
Like Seattle in Arlington over 40% of the population is not only single (that is 73%) but single and live alone.. So thank you for your kindness and know that you are clearly doing the work of the Lord. We are glad to have you here.
April 29, 2013 @ 5:31 pm
Hi Cascadia –
This is a funny coincidence: we had a young man who was at our church for several months prior to moving to Seattle and beginning a job on south Lake Union. At his request I provided a list of five churches to check out, the first of which was Union. What a small world!