“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan.

We decided to stop our Saturday Evening Worship Service. For now.
It was a bit saddening, but I totally understood that this was the right call. We were averaging three people every week, including myself, and while we enjoyed the time we spent in worship, I do understand that perhaps, we needed a few more people.

This gives me a chance to sit back and reflect on what we did right and what we got wrong and get up and try again.
One thing is to give the people a clear picture. That was my fault. I don’t think we gave a clear picture about what we were trying to accomplish. Many people may have thought that this worship gathering was just for the youth or young people and that may have excluded them. Different people had a different idea in what we were trying to accomplish.

Another thing that we relied heavily on was the ‘attraction model’ in which we were trying to get people’s attention to come worship with us through fliers and banners.
The way to go was to rely heavier on the ‘invitation model’ where we urge members to invite friends and family and join the worship with us together.

I’m looking forward to trying to start up again.
In August, our senior pastor is taking a well-deserved vacation and which gives me a 3-4 Sundays to preach.
I have an idea in which I hope to use both the attraction model (with hopefully a catchy, if not controversial flier) and urge the congregation to invite their family friends to worship with us.
The sermon series?
I’m thinking of “Who Do You Say I Am?” or “Is This Your Jesus?” in which we’ll take the perceptions of Jesus that are out there with what the Bible says about Jesus. I plan to also provide a discussion group after church so that we can actually discuss what was preached about.
Perhaps, after August, I’ll never be asked to preach again, because I learned that it can get really personal when you mess with someone’s thoughts of Jesus. I just want us to see more than one side of Jesus.
Perhaps, this can be a launching pad for a second attempt at a different style of worship.