CREATING NEW ON-RAMPS

The clergy and vestry of Christ Church have been delving into the strategic plan adopted in 2024 with an eye for implementing some of the objectives outlined. Worship Expansion has emerged as a clear strategy to meet the needs of several goals: attracting new members, creating offerings with our local neighborhood in mind, deepening formation through various worship styles, to name a few. Creating new on-ramps to Christ Church is a driving theme behind this project. These are ways of making space for folks for whom our current Sunday morning offerings are not as attractive as they might be. To that end we have initiated several Worship Laboratories to invite folks into new forms of worship with room for trial and experimentation within the established charism of Christ Church. Over the summer Fr. John Wengrovius and Fr. Todd Blackham conducted several focus group questionnaires and conversations to glean insight into what would be attractive to folks already in the Christ Church orbit. The following are examples of ideas that we are putting to the test of experience with a willingness to expand, rethink, or disband as various metrics indicate.

Something Sacred

This new service offering is a midweek Eucharistic service with prayers for healing. It’s a chance in between Sunday worship to return and recollect for a brief time. Offering prayers for healing follows the Prayer Book rubrics for anointing and praying for those who desire God’s healing. It also draws from Christ Church charismatic background by leaning into the work of the Holy Spirit to bring healing and comfort. The reflections center around the Church’s calendar of saints who point the way for us to Be with, Become like, and Live like Jesus by offering examples of lives lived fully for Jesus and ways we might be called to follow Him. It’s an intimate time of worship at the side altar to give more opportunities for conversation and connection with fellow worshippers. This service launched in early January 2025 as a weekly invitation and recent weeks have seen around 15-20 in attendance.

The Fountain

Another invitation to worship at times that might be more accessible given increasingly busy weekend schedules, especially for families, means looking at new times for Sunday worship. The Fountain is a Sunday evening service, which allows for a different type of energy and ambiance. Held in the West Room, it’s an intimate space with sacred art, candlelight, and a beautiful blend of ancient prayers and hymns set to modern instrumentation and tunes. It combines prayers from Evening Prayer and Compline with Eucharistic liturgies drawing on prayers from around the Anglican Communion. With a brief, meditative reflection, the service lasts about 45 minutes with time to linger and pray before and after.

As a means of generating conversation and connection, a community potluck meal is served immediately following in the Commons. It’s a great opportunity for families and individuals to gather together and close the weekend in worship and fellowship. This is a service with lots of room for involvement; offering gifts of music in worship, creative design, liturgical roles, hospitality and furniture moving.

Additional Sunday Morning Worship

Beginning in early 2025 a task force will be established to research and design the possibility of the third service on Sundays mornings with a specific focus on families with children at home who need something at a time that works for them, a duration that suits their needs, and an accessibility geared for folks who may not be familiar with the patterns of liturgical worship. This offering will remain within the rubrics of the Prayer Book offering eucharistic worship in the Anglican Tradition.

Special Offerings: All Soul’s Eucharist 2024

Another experiment that was made was the offering of an All Soul’s Eucharist at the side altar on the weekend of All Saints/All Souls commemoration. This service is drawn from historic practice of remembering those in our lives whom we love but see no longer. Using Anglican liturgies and cultural practices of remembrance, we brought pictures and tokens of remembrance to place at the altar for a time of reflection and conversation about the ways we are united with one another, the living and the dead in Christ. We were delightfully astonished to have 35 people in attendance. Special offerings like this seem especially appealing for so many folks who experience grief and loss. Looking ahead, we expect to continue this tradition with an eye to expand with a Blue Christmas offering as well as other seasonal chances to bring those difficult experiences of our lives into the presence of God in worship.

TECHNOLOGY & OUR WORSHIP EXPANSION

There is no doubt that technology and communications will play a crucial role in supporting our efforts to increase membership at Christ Church by enhancing accessibility, engagement, and outreach to our greater community. We now know that our website has become the new front door to our church, and that people usually check us out online before they ever visit in person. This means we need to be diligent in keeping our website updated, easy to navigate and engaging. Our website provides easy access to service times, event details, and online giving options, making participation more convenient. Everything we do from a communications standpoint is focused on making it easier for people to get involved at Christ Church.

Statistics from our website platform, Squarespace, show that we had 39,000 visitors to our website in 2024, which is a 3% increase over the previous year. We also know that since 2022 people are increasingly viewing our site on their mobile devices vs their desktop computers. (Now 58% mobile vs 40% desktop) Graphics and registration forms have to be designed to work efficiently on both vehicles, and text can’t be too long or we might lose attention. We are incorporating video as much as possible into our content because it seems to get the most attention for our events, and attracts people who don’t want to “read the details.” Of course, who can ignore the charisma of Fr. Terry, or “one-take-Terry” as we like to call him?

While we are not currently livestreaming our new services, plans are in the works in the West Room to allow us to move in that direction as we grow. We are also planning a Sanctuary screen improvement project which will increase visibility of our content on Sunday mornings.

As we continue to utilize our website and social media to share sermons, events, and inspirational content, we will attract a broader audience. Our weekly E-News keeps members informed and engaged, while offering both virtual and in-person small groups and classes foster community beyond physical gatherings. By integrating technology, we can connect with more people, encourage regular participation, and create a more inclusive and engaging worship experience. This will lead to continued growth for our church.