What’s in a name? Well, when it comes to worship at LCC, the answer is: EVERYTHING! Which is why, after over a year and a half of offering our second worship service, we have settled on a name that we think fits the feel and goals of our ministry: Family Worship, Come As You Are! Our message is that everyone is welcome just as they are. No need for fancy clothes or always perfectly behaved children. If the kiddos want to come in their pj’s, wonderful! Come As You Are!

For a while we’ve understood that our service, which we had been calling The Contemporary Service, wasn’t really named properly because it’s not like contemporary worship in so-called “big box” churches, with their auditorium seating, fancy lighting and other artistic effects. We can’t compete with that and never wanted to. From the start, our intentional emphasis has been on gathering as an inter-generational family and replicating our version of “home church.” Our Day School families and other families in the church have told us they are looking for informal, family-friendly worship, and this is what we’ve been trying to provide for them. The name change reflects our commitment to serving them and having a worship life that reflects one family of God with all types and ages of families..

But it’s not just the name that has been revamped. In keeping with our aim to make the service more family friendly, we have chosen to focus on enhancing the “home church” feel by bringing out the bean bags, purchasing new child-sized tables and chairs and a large rug, and moving these things into the center of our worship area in Fellowship Hall. We strongly believe that children should be included front and center in all aspects of worship, and this will also encourage them to make friends with each other as they step away from their family table and interact with their peers at the children’s activity station. While they are doing that, we hope that their parents will feel free to sit together at the big tables and get to know each other better as they worship.

We received a Vision to Action Grant from our Synod to help develop and market our second worship offering in an effort to reach people who are not interested in traditional worship styles. This renaming and refocusing of our second worship service continues our mission to, not just grow our church, but to find new ways to bring more people into fellowship as the body of Christ.

Watch for more enhancements in the coming months as we constantly seek to do all things for all people to bring them to Christ! And if you have any ideas for how we can continue to improve, please by all means let us know.