“He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west. The Lord is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him. For He knows how weak we are; He remembers we are only dust.“
Psalm 103:12-14 (NLT)
Today we begin the 40 day journey of Lent, a tithe of our year, given to deliberate choices of fasting, generosity, and prayer. Restoration will walk through the Ash Wednesday liturgy three times today, at 6:30am, 12:00pm, and 7:30pm. There will be an opportunity to both receive the imposition of ashes and to pray through an extended litany of repentance. It is a day in which we humble ourselves before the God who loves us and formed us from dust.
I am looking forward to this season with you! We will step out of our series on Romans and follow the Gospel writers as they tell the stories of Jesus meeting people. These encounters came from that longing that is in each of us, that is elicited by the cry, “We wish to see Jesus.” We do. My prayer is that as we worship together, we will.
Our Eucharist prayer will go back to our ‘normal’ practice of the Renewed Ancient Text. (Don’t worry, we will bring back the Kenyan one we have loved during Epiphany after Easter!) We will offer a seminar to help strengthen your marriage on February 25th at 5pm. We will have a healing service at 5pm on March 3rd. We will offer a 5 week “Introduction to Anglicanism” class after the 11am, starting March 3rd. And a Lenten Retreat the Saturday before Palm Sunday will cap off our special Lent offerings.
We wish to see Jesus. I believe we shall. “For the love of the Lord remains forever with those who fear Him.” (Psalm 103:17)
See you on Sunday. -David
Last night we had our Winter Parish Meeting, which we always combine with Shrove Tuesday pancakes! It was a blast and so delicious. Thank you to everyone who flipped pancakes, crisped bacon, and showed up to eat it. We had a full house and ate it all! At one point, TJ was just serving plates of whipped cream with chocolate chips. You’re welcome.
It’s always a lot of work for the volunteers who make it happen and I am so grateful to that team of kind souls.
After the pancakes, we started the parish meeting. You can listen to the full audio of the meeting, here. If you would like to flip through the slide deck, you can find it, here. In addition to the great news about our attendance and giving numbers, we heard a wonderful report from the January 23rd dinner hosted by our Race+Reconciliation Advisory Team, and an update on our current hiring projects and HVAC repair. Lots of pertinent information in that audio file that you won’t hear on a Sunday. Give it a listen and join us in giving thanks to God for the good things that are growing here.
I took some time to share our plans about the new third service time and to answer questions from the audience. I will share the text of my remarks below. Our staff will be reaching out in the coming weeks to current volunteers to help align you with our new service times. Musicians will hear from Isaac. Kids’ Small Group Leaders will hear from Louise. Sunday Liturgical Volunteers will hear from Nathan. If you attend Restoration regularly and are not currently a Sunday volunteer, please choose to make yourself available for that by registering, here. Thanks for serving! It’s a joy to meet the needs of our church together.
A Third Service starting on Easter
First, thank you so much for responding to the survey. We received 221 responses representing 556 people. That’s a significant portion of our congregation. Thank you.
I want to remind you that it was a survey to gather information and not a vote. Thank you for all of the helpful feedback you provided us. I am very grateful.
Over the last month, I have been thinking about the difference between change and disruption. Change can be exciting, but disruption- especially to our routines- can be very hard. In the last 6 months, Restoration has changed in wonderful ways: we’ve grown with almost 200 new people. It is a change we have received with joy, but it was not something we were seeking.
Change happened to us.
Kat and I, the staff, and the vestry have been talking, praying, and listening for 6 months now in response to the changes happening in our church: How do we create more space for ourselves and for the friends we want to bring?
Disruption is what I am about to share with you.
Disruption to our Resto Sunday Routine is a choice we are making, for a finite period of time, as a way to respond to the change. Disruption can be hard. Thank you for being willing to move into it with us. Disruption is what we do to soil to get it ready to grow seed. Disruption can lead to something very very good.
In response to our survey questions about service times, the majority of you would like to stay in some 9/11 equivalent. As a church, we love the 9+11!!! That was expected and that’s ok. Our hope by adding a 3rd service time is that some of you will move to this third time. Some of you will choose the new time because it is your preference. Some of you will choose it because you want to consciously make space at those preferred times for new people to be able to worship in our sanctuary.
Restoration is going to pilot 3 morning services at 8 || 9:30 || 11:30, for 13 weeks from Easter, March 31 until June 16.
All three services will follow the same liturgy and have the same preacher.
We will offer Kids’ Small Groups at all 3 services as well. At the 8am, we will have 3 Kids’ Small Groups instead of our normal 5. We’re looking for a team of six adults to help at the 8am for the 11 Sundays between April 7 – June 16. You can let Louise know that you are interested in being a Kids’ Small Group Leader, here. The 8am small groups will be:
Nursery
Preschool-1st grade
2nd-5th grade
Let me explain our reasoning for this decision:
We are doing a pilot for 3 months: If we are piloting something, it is most helpful to try something that we haven’t done yet. Restoration knows what it’s like to do a 5pm. We had a 5pm from 2011 until 2020 and then again for most of 2023. We know what the 5pm feels like and we have an idea of how many people will choose it. Restoration doesn’t know what will actually happen with the 8, so this is a chance to see.
We need a full 2 hours between the 9:30 and 11:30: You will remember that the option we gave on the survey was for an 8, 9:30, and 11:15. As I thought more about the transition between the 9:30 and 11:15, I realized that we were going to need a full 2 hours to let the service end, to provide space for people to visit, and to reset the parking lot and facility. 1:45 was going to feel too rushed and we would lose some of the lingering conversation that we enjoy on Sunday mornings. If you choose to attend the 11:30, please join us by 11:30! We intend for that service to end by 12:45 and we are making changes so that it can happen.
Having 3 services in the morning adds the least amount of time for our staff and volunteers. Right now, our musicians and staff arrive at 7am and are done by 12:30. In our new service times, musicians will still arrive at 7am. We will ask 8am liturgical volunteers to arrive at 7:45, 9:30 volunteers to arrive by 9, and 11:30 volunteers to arrive by 11. We intend to be done with the last service by 12:45. For staff and volunteers who are at all three services, our morning will still be from around 7am until around 1. We believe that we can spread ourselves out over three services but still confine our worship together to the morning. This is the experiential part of the pilot that we will be paying close attention to. We will see how it goes!
Piloting three services in the morning is cheaper. We save on shuttle costs, honorariums for musicians, and salaries for nursery workers. It may be easier on our staff and volunteers. It may help us spread out 800 people more easily. We will see.
Parking in our lot is critical. As our Sunday footprint grows in the neighborhood, we ask you to pleasepark in our lot over I-66. It is hard on our neighbors when we take all of the street parking. Over the last 2 weeks, we have received complaints from neighbors who have had their driveway blocked by people attending our church. Please use our lot and please pay attention to what our neighbors need. Thank you!
Three More Things
We are currently providing Overflow Seating in Fellowship Hall at the 9+11 until Easter. On Easter, we will have Overflow Seating at all 3 services. Then from April 7 until June 16th, we will have no overflow seating. Please join us upstairs in one of the three services!
Summer! On June 23 we will pivot back to the 9:00+11:00 service times for the summer. We will also conduct another survey to see what you thought of the pilot as we make plans for a longer potential change starting in the fall.
5:00pm: There were 30 survey entries, representing 65 people, who indicated that you would ‘very likely’ attend the 5pm. I want you to know that I see you and I recognize that this decision most likely disappoints you. I know there is a strong and beloved part of our congregation that would like the evening service time. I don’t know if or when that will return.
I want to see what happens to the mornings by piloting the 8, 9:30, and 11:30. I want to see if God raises up a person and a team that want to launch a church. I want to see who we hire as the next Director of Apex and how we continue to steward the wonderful things that are happening on Sunday evenings in our Youth Program.
Those factors are influencing my choice to not have a 5pm service at this time.
Should I attend the 8am?
Absolutely! If the 8am was the service time you most wanted. By all means, choose it, volunteer at it, and show up for it all 12 weeks.
And yes to everyone else!! We would love for as many people to try the 8am as possible (especially on Easter!)
I know that some of you are ‘Never 8am-ers’. No. Problem. We will see you at 9:30 or 11:30.
However, for those who are open to trying something new, please do drop in on the 8 and let us know what you think. We hope that as many of us worship at 8am, we will see space at the other services for our friends and loved ones who might not have found their seat yet…
