For a number of years the Session has sought the mind of God as to whether He is calling us to begin a new worship service, one that is true to our Reformed heritage, built on the unchanging foundation of the faithful preaching of God’s Word, and includes the historic elements of worship, yet which incorporates those elements in a more contemporary manner and thus is able more directly speak to the hearts and minds of many people within our current church family, and, we pray, to many of those beyond us that God is calling us to reach.
With extraordinary vision and great anticipation, the Session overwhelmingly agreed last week that, indeed, now is God’s time for such a service in the life of the First Presbyterian Church of Rome. They decided that by September of next year (though quite possibly sooner) we would launch what we are calling a “convergent service” which will be held at 9:00 am on Sunday mornings in the worship center at The Crossing (our Student Ministries building). This service will be in addition to our current two services that will maintain their current “traditional” or “classical” style, which continues to be very effective in engaging the hearts and minds of many worshipers, and which has been a great strength of ours throughout our history. However, the current 8:45 service in the sanctuary, will transition to an 8:30 service in Hardy Chapel.
The word “convergent” and all the richness that it entails will become more and more familiar to us as this service unfolds. In a nutshell, it simply means that we will seek to see the historic elements of worship, including the rich words of our hymns, the creeds, confessions and prayers of the church, and most definitely the strong preaching of the Word of God “converge” with some more modern ways of expressing those elements, whether that be with new hymn tunes or instruments, or with different ways of engaging the congregation together in worship. Though perhaps more informal than our current service, our worship will never be casual. In the words of one church that has done just what we are proposing, “This type of service uses hymns and liturgy which sweep across church history. It just happens to clothe those elements in a more modern style and flow. It is therefore a “convergence” of worship expressions, which is why we give it that name.”
We believe this service will reach deeply into our congregation as many of our people have found this type of service to most clearly be the way that their hearts and minds are most fully engaged in worship. We also believe it will reach out more broadly into our community, beyond where we are now able to reach with our existing services, to draw more and more people into the joy of worship. As they enter into the ministry of our church through what they may perceive as the more “open door” of this new service of worship, we pray that they will also begin to benefit from the nurture and discipleship ministries that are a great strength of our church such as our Sunday School, small groups, and our men’s, women’s, children’s and student ministries.
After years of seeking the mind of God about this, finding clear guidance from Him and strong agreement among us has been very exciting for the Session. We are confident that this is God’s leading, and we have arrived at this decision with great anticipation of the ways God will use this to grow his kingdom through our ministry together.
Click below to read the letter sent to the congregation that gives more specifics about when this new service will start, and about changes to our early traditional service that will take place, as well.