Earlier in the year we began a discernment process to ask ourselves, “Where is God leading us in our worship life?” A team of people from Hazelwood has been working on leading us through this process, and a good portion of the work has been listening. We had formal and informal listening sessions to hear from you about our worship. The big question now is, “What did we learn?” I can say I was impressed with how positive the responses were. A few comments were critical, but overall the response was very positive. That says to me we’re moving in a positive and healthy direction as a church. While a few responses indicated a strong preference for one style of worship over another, most of the responses valued the unity of our togetherness.
Here are a few ways the Discernment Team summarized the listening responses:
- Our church is now more positive about the blended worship style.
- The suggestions for improvement were more positive than negative.
- Overall, the church seems more accepting; it’s not just a “my-way- only” attitude.
- The church values the unity that comes from one worship service.
- We need to continue to find more methods to bring unity in our worship.
The Discernment Team, before the summer is over, will have some practical suggestions on where this process might take us. Let me say thank you to all who shared in the listening part of this process; we appreciate your thoughtful responses.
