by Pastor Dan Baumgartner

Bethany has grown. But I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that we’re not pursuing too many classic “church growth” strategies. We have no parking lot. We have no “numbers” goals. We aren’t building a multi-purpose gym for contemporary worship services. We aren’t expanding the size of the sanctuary.

Those are the things that usually get written up, by Christian and secular media alike, as marks of “successful churches.” The book jacket accolades that say an author leads “one of the nation’s fastest growing churches” ring a little hollow to me, when I’m pretty convinced that when it comes to Christian communities, bigger is not better.

I’m most interested in vertical growth. Growing deep roots of faith, and reaching up for more of God and other people. That growth happens in many ways, but is tied very closely to what goes on in our life together, specifically in our worship life.

One very simple definition of worship is this: paying attention to God. We gather together…to pay attention to God.

• And so we pray.
• And so we sit in silence to listen.
• And so we sing, one of the few times in most of our lives that we open our mouths in song.
• And so we read scripture, and hear the gospel preached.
• And so we stand on holy ground, gathering around a young life or a new faith in baptism, or limping together to the communion table for the Lord’s Supper.

For years now, the two morning worship times (9:00 AM & 10:45 AM) at Bethany have nurtured worshipping communities. Corporate worship is a vital part of being together, but it is only one part of life in this community. Classes, friendships, ministry opportunities and small groups form other parts of that life.

Whether we’ve done it well or not, we have tried to make many opportunities available for personal connection with other Christians. When we leave Sunday morning worship, a very high percentage of us maintain relationships with fellow Bethany folks through friendships or small groups of many, many kinds.

Three years ago we started a third worship time at 5 PM on Sunday evening due to the fact that the morning services were too full. Attendance has fluctuated on almost a weekly basis between 20 and 60.

For the last year and a half, the elders on the Spiritual Formation Team (Worship, Group Life, Adult Education, Prayer, Arts) and I have prayerfully ruminated over this service. We have realized that it takes a lot of ushers, prayers, servers, musicians, worship leaders, preachers and sound people to “put on” a service on Sunday night, and it has spread some of our resources fairly thin.

We’ve also realized that we don’t want to just be about “putting on” a worship service, but to nurture a worshipping community on Sunday evenings. Currently we have about 2 dozen Sunday night regulars, with people coming because they were out of town earlier, have company in town, periodically like a smaller service, work some Sundays or for a host of other reasons.

All of that will undoubtedly continue. At the same time, we are interested in giving more specific opportunity for a Sunday evening community to build, with leadership and gifts arising from inside the group.

With the blessing of Bethany’s session, in February Worship Elder Tara Taylor will be asking for about 50 people to intentionally commit to being a regular part of Sunday Nights at Bethany for one year. This means the approximately 25 people who already regularly worship at 5 PM, and another 25 folks who would be willing to commit to a year’s worth of Sunday night worship and community.

From this group of 50+, we want to be able to invite folks into worship leadership of various kinds, participation in services, and provide some opportunities for relationship (small groups, classes, periodic meals, etc) within the Sunday evening community that will unfold in more detail in the future.

Are we trying to increase numbers at Bethany? Nope. If we wanted to do that, there are some very formulaic strategies built on demographics that would no doubt bump our numbers up. No, we’re interested in making room for people, inviting people…to be part of a community. A worshipping community, not just a worship service.

My challenge for you is to begin to pray. Is it possible that you, or your existing home group…might be led by God to connect with the Sunday Evening community starting in February? Watch for more details soon. But in the meantime…will you pray?