Change of Morning Service Times Proposal Decision
The Proposal: To change the start times of both morning services so that the Livingston service would start at 10am and the Balerno service at 11am.
How was feedback gathered?
After the church were made aware of the proposal in a morning service and by email, they were then invited to give their feedback through:
An online survey where over 200 people responded.
Three Zoom consultation meetings with over 250 attendees.
Email (many people also sent emails to the senior team throughout the consultation process).
Observations from the Consultation:
Four things that were really encouraging that came through the feedback were:
87% of people who responded to the survey were either happy to adapt to the changing of times or had some reservations but were willing to try it.
People were very grateful for being asked.
Through written responses and discussion groups, it was evident that the congregation care deeply for the staff and were willing to try something different if it helped staff.
The majority of concerns expressed by the congregation related to their desire for our services to be a place and environment where we can be completely open to the work and ministry of the Holy Spirit, and also to limit unnecessary pressure or stress for the service leaders and preachers.
The Outcome of the Consultation
We have decided not to change the start times of the morning services and will remain with both the Balerno and Livingston services starting at 10:30am.
How did we come to this decision?
The Senior Team appreciated greatly the level of feedback that the church family gave, and the manner in which they did this. We want to thank the congregation for being so supportive and gracious during all that is going on. This feedback and the senior teams continued communication with staff, with each other, as well as continuing to seek the Lord has led us to make this decision. Below are the main concerns that came from the feedback and the reflections from Ollie and senior team.
Concerns that became apparent for the Livingston Service
The proposed change of timings could:
Put pressure on the service leader to stick to the timings which may in turn reduce the opportunities to build faith and community by sharing testimony or good news stories at the beginning of the service.
Prohibit worship being extended if the Spirit is moving and restricting the work of the Holy Spirit.
Restrict the speaker from leading the ministry response if they felt there was an opportunity for ministry.
Not allow the speaker to speak with the congregation afterwards.
Concerns that became apparent for the Balerno Service
The proposed change of timings could:
Affect the levels of opportunity for fellowship. People may feel with the service moving to 11am that they have extra time in the morning and just not attend the coffee / fellowship time at 10:30am.
Youth and children may not want to come to have coffee beforehand and parents might find another battle to try and win.
The later finish might be difficult for pre-school children who might be getting hungry from 12 o’clock onwards.
Other Concerns
Other concerns that came out of the consultation that we felt important were:
The change of times would not help foster links between Livingston and Balerno youth with timings.
With the suggested change of timings, the 8:45 service may start to feel rushed and not in touch with the leadership.
Reflections from the Senior Team
As a Word and Spirit Church we felt the most important question for us as a church that kept on coming through the feedback, our thoughts and prayers was: Did the new timings allow the space needed for the Holy Spirit to move in our morning services?
Ollie felt during the consultation process the Holy Spirit ask him “in changing the morning service times are we allowing Me (God) to be significant?” For example, if the Holy Spirit starts to move in the Livingston service during the worship or after the talk do the proposed timings allow us to change things so God can move?
It became clear as we read through the feedback and prayed that the answer to this question was no. In light of this we feel it would not be right to change the timings of the services.
The consultation has been a very helpful process as it has allowed us as a church family to think through what we want from our church services. Through this process we have been encouraged by your love for St Mungo’s, your desire for God to continue to move in our services and your care and support of the staff team and the whole church family.
The Way forward
During the consultation Ollie continued to think through the issues regarding the speaking team. So that we can make this work with the present speaking system, Ollie is going to speak twice a month in each location, which will take the pressure off other members of the speaking team and will make it possible to sustain running two simultaneous services.
The consultation has also provided some space to think through some of the other issues. One of these was whether it is possible to have our mission partners come to speak if we moved to the previous model of having the same talk on consecutive weeks. Having had time to think through this we see it is possible with planning that we could do this, whether by asking one mission partner to speak in Balerno one week and another one in Livingston the second. Or to use it as an opportunity for Balerno and Livingston to come together in a joint service.
What next?
In January we are planning and hoping (subject to building availability) that we will be able to run consecutive morning services in both Livingston and Balerno at 10:30am on a Sunday morning. This means that whoever speaks in the morning service in Balerno will then speak again in Livingston the following week.
As we move forward, we recognise as a senior leadership that Balerno and Livingston are two very different communities and how we reach them will be different. We will continue to make God significant in our services so we can abide and be transformed in His presence.
Ollie Clegg
8/11/21