I often joke at conferences that the Episcopal Church is the
only church in the world where people call us up and ask, “What time is your 8’o’clock
service?”
For some churches the answer may be 8 o’clock, and for
others it could be 7:30 or 7:45, but we know what they mean. Why we have 8 o’clock services and the
problem they create for many of our churches is an important topic that I will
address in a moment. First, it makes for a great
introduction to the subject of service times.
I was pulled into this topic recently when a friend asked if I had ever
done a blog on service times. I had not,
but I do have a number of things to say on the topic.
First, let’s establish the norm for our Pastoral Size
(ASA 75 to 150) congregations. These
churches, the norm from the American Revolution till around 2000, tended after
World War I to have a two service format.
First, the main service was usually at 10 or 10:30am. This varied by region and the time was based
on how long it took farmers to take care of the livestock and then load their
families onto wagons and get to church.
In the West where we have larger spreads, it was normally 10:30 to allow
for the wider distances. Of course,
almost no Episcopalians work on farms now, but this long-standing pattern established
the principle that “Prime Time” for most churches was between 9am and
noon. I will return to the issue of
Prime Time in a moment, but what about 8 o’clock services.
When I ask clergy why we have an eight o’clock tradition,
most respond with either “People like a quieter more traditional service
without music” or “Some people prefer the earlier time to allow them to get off
to the golf course or wherever.” These
are some of the reasons we have these services NOW, but they are not why we
have an 8 o'clock tradition. The origin lies in a
historical fact that almost no current Episcopal Clergy would ever understand.
You see before the liturgical revisions brought about by
the Oxford Movement, the typical service on a Sunday in TEC was Morning Prayer. The two most common patterns were Communion
once a month for higher church folks and Communion four times a year for broad
church folks. When more clergy and laity
wanted to have more frequent opportunity to receive Holy Communion (they never would have called it the Eucharist) then a good alternative was to institute an
8 o’clock alternative. It was an
effective strategy because it meant change without having to disrupt the
tradition of most members. By the way,
attendance was always lower on Communion Sundays because non-confirmed people
could not receive communion (a fact that most Episcopalians have completely
forgotten!)
Once the radical idea emerged in Prayer Book
Revision that Holy Communion or the Eucharist was the standard for churches on
Sundays, the Oxford Movement had reached one of its most profound influences in
TEC. With the 79 Prayer Book, we moved on to this now normative
formula, but alas the 8 o’clock remained and became for most folks the refuge
for those who love traditional English.
Now, of course, it is about golf, breakfast, shopping or whatever. I say “alas” because this eight o’clock
tradition (what time is your 8 o’clock service?) often gets in the way of
growing congregations.
This brings me back to the issue of ideal service
times. Given that this depends some on
geographical locations and time zones, the NFL plays on Sunday mornings on the
West Coast, here are some important points to ponder.
For most churches, Prime Time remains between 9am and
10:45. Starting before 9am is just too
early for families with younger children and impossible for families with
teenagers. 10:45 is the earliest you can
start a main service and end near noon.
This isn’t so much for the popular idea that if you go beyond noon, the
Baptist will beat us to the restaurants, but rather that noon marks a
significant shift in the day and families with younger children will find it
much harder to keep the hungry critters quiet.
Most Pastoral Size congregations, as I pointed out above,
have a 10/10:30 main service and an 8 o’clock format. It would be far better for them to have a 9
or 9:30 service aimed at families with younger children. It is not, of course, simply to have it for
these families, but to find creative ways to keep all generations engaged in
the service.
Imagine you are planting a new Episcopal Church that will
start by sending a church planter to a community. One would start with one service at say 10am
and when the congregation gets large enough than shift to a two service format
say 9 and 10:30 and largely use the same liturgy, music, and sermon for both. This is the typical pattern used by Lutheran and many Methodist plants and it works well in allowing the congregation to
grow to over 150 ASA. Remember Lutherans
and Methodists don’t have an 8 o’clock tradition!
Now even though this works and many Episcopal Churches of
Pastoral Size would greatly benefit from such a Sunday morning schedule, two
problems immediately arise.
First, what to do with the
already existing 8’oclock service? This is sensitive because in many churches the
early attenders give a much higher percentage than their later service time
attenders. One church I worked with
recently told me that 70% of the income comes from 12 regularly attending
members at the 8’oclock service. All
this makes creating space for the newer Family Service very hard. Warning, do not
try to combine both into an 8:30 service, neither group will be happy!
Second, what do we do with
Christian Education? If you have a 10 or
10:30 service, chances are that you have Church School just before the main
service and you cannot figure out how to fit Christian Education between two
major services on Sunday without moving the later service into starting too
late. 11am is too late!
The answer to this second issue is a bit complex, but
let’s turns to our Baptist friends for the clue. Most Baptists have a Bible School at 10am
(for all ages based on age, gender, or school grades) followed by a 1 hour
service with hymns, sermon, offering, and altar call set to 16 verses of “Just
as I am” but ending by noon. Why do they
do this? Because Baptists give Prime
Time (10am) to what is most important for them, the class format study of the
Bible. For Episcopalians, it is
simple. Our Prime Time should be given
to Liturgy. It is our “thing” after
all!
The more important issue for churches wanting to appeal
to younger families at an earlier service is not what time the Church School
will be, but rather can we get volunteers to cook up a breakfast before the 9 o’clock
service. This takes a tremendous burden
off parents and especially single parents. At the Cathedral in Dallas, we found
that kids can even help prepare and serve the breakfast.
So, here is the consultant question. You can send me a check if you use it. “If we could start from scratch, how would we
structure our Sunday morning, especially in Prime Time, to appeal to a wider group
of individuals and families?”
What about Christian Education and the present 8’oclock
service? See my next blog!
