Two types of worship -- traditional and contemporary -- are offered at the First Congregational Church in Adams.
Saturday March 10, 2012 ADAMS -- The term "contemporary," when attached to a church service, raises immediate questions in one's mind. The Sunday worship service is, after all, a tradition celebrated for centuries -- what changes to make it contemporary?
The curious need only visit the First Congregational Church at 42 Park St. any Sun day at 10:15 a.m. to see how organizers are reimagining the age-old weekly worship service, and having great success -- and fun -- to boot.
A few examples of the worship service made "contemporary" include playing modern music -- the First Con gre gational Church boasts a five-piece band with guitars, drums and two vocalists; video stream ing of both sermon material and faith-oriented music videos; participatory question-and-answer games that focus on biblical knowledge and are played "Jeopardy!" and "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" style; and, in general, more moving around.
The Rev. Michael Mullani, pastor, said the church "hasn't looked back" since changing the structure of the Sunday worship service three years ago.
"It's really built into our church life now," Mullani said. "Response has continually been very positive. The kids come to it happily, and nobody has had to give up anything."
At first, the contemporary and traditional services were individual services, both held on Sundays at 10:15 a.m. in separate wings of the building. According to Mullani, the congregation, however, "didn't like being
apart.""Now, basically, we start them at the same time and then, a little past the halfway mark, we merge them together," Mullani said. "We looked for a way to do both and this sort of just emerged as the way to do it. Everyone finds the service they are more comfortable with, and when we merge, we alternate by ending the service with a traditional hymn one week and a contemporary song the next."
Mullani, pastor for each service, said he gives his sermon at the traditional service more frequently. At the contemporary service, a member of the band will often fill this role. However, members of the traditional parish step in to give the sermon when Mullani opts for the contemporary crowd.
The structure has proven a success. Since instituting this format, the congregation has enjoyed growth at an above-average rate, particularly at the contemporary service. Mullani said the congregation currently splits at 50 people attending contemporary and 30 people opting for traditional. He added that almost all the young parents with children attend the contemporary service.
For Mullani, this is a tribute to the success of the idea, which was conceived as a way to attract more young people to the church. But, he said, it's not only the young who have been won over by the contemporary service.
"We thought it would just be people in their 20s or early 30s," Mullani said. "But you can never be sure which service a new face will prefer, old or young."
To reach Phil Demers,
email pdemers@thetranscript.com.
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