Our worship of God through Word and Sacrament is at the heart of our life together, and with the construction of our new nave, we will now be able to share in this worship as a family in one service instead of two. We have been looking forward to this day since we transitioned to two services back in September of 2016.

But this day will also provide us with the opportunity to gather together before our worship service for an hour of spiritual formation. Our hope is that we will utilize this time to slow down and prepare ourselves to encounter God through an hour of community, learning, and prayer. Our Formation Hour will consist of four groupings: Nursery, the Atrium for children ages 4–11 (Catechesis of the Good Shepherd), Youth Formation, and Adult Formation.

While we are excited about this new offering to aid in our spiritual formation, we recognize that this represents a significant cultural shift for us as a church. For many years, we have become accustomed to attending a single service with our families, dismissing our children for Children’s Church during that time, and then leaving the grounds all in about two hours.

But now with our new Formation Hour, we will have the opportunity not only to extend the formation time for our children from 30 minutes to an hour, but also to provide a time of spiritual formation for our youth and adults. We believe that this additional hour will be a valuable contribution to our life together.

This shift also means that our older children will now be able to participate in the entirety of our Sunday service. We celebrate this opportunity because we believe the sooner children are able to engage in the whole Sunday liturgy, the more their hearts will be formed as followers of Jesus. For our children ages 4–7, we will still invite them after the Gospel Reading to attend Children’s Liturgy of the Word to reflect upon the day’s passages in ways appropriate for their age.

Since Sunday worship is so central to our common life together, we encourage you and your family to make the most of these weekly gatherings. We anticipate our new Sunday schedule to begin sometime in October.

8:45 Formation Hour

• Nursery (infant to age 3) in the new nursery rooms
• Atrium (ages 4–11) in the Parish Hall
• Youth Formation (grades 6–12) in the Parish Hall
• Adult Formation begins in the Hospitality Area before moving to the new nave

10:00 Holy Eucharist

• Nursery (infant to age 3) in the new nursery rooms
• Children's Liturgy of the Word (ages 4–7) after Gospel Reading in the Parish Hall