First Presbyterian Church Fort Dodge

This summer has been flying by as most summers do. By the time you receive this, it will have been almost two months since we began our summer schedule of just one Sunday morning service.

Throughout these past months, I’ve been hearing feedback from numerous people about this format. Our elders and staff have been discussing our experience of the summer so far and we’ve been asking very good questions about the future.

Might one Sunday morning service continue to energize us as it has been throughout this summer? Could there be another time in the week for a second service, like a Wednesday night? How can we help keep our diverse congregation unified and meeting together? How many services do we need to accomplish that goal? How do we continue to provide varied worship opportunities for people to connect with God in ways they are used to while also encouraging people to stretch and grow?

Making significant changes to a worship service should never be taken lightly. However, over the past few years as we’ve all had to adjust to the demands of Covid, we’ve all developed our muscles to experiment and try new things.

To that end, in the coming weeks and months, we’d like to hear from you. What have you appreciated about our summer worship schedule with one Sunday service? What has worked well? What hasn’t worked well? What might we need as a congregation moving forward into the post-pandemic world? What seems excited and life-giving to you as you think of our worship services?

We’ll be working on ways to expand this conversation – likely a survey and informal gatherings after worship services to start. We’ll also likely include one on one conversations and small group gatherings. So please be thinking about how our worship of God forms us, and what new possibilities there might be for us in the future. Please also think about who else needs to be a part of the conversation.