New Worship Schedule at Forest Avenue: Fall 2024
An Important Update to our Worship Schedule
One of the greatest gifts of this past season at Regency is how we have grown in such an unconventional environment. While we didn’t quite know how the move would affect our community, God has brought so many new, wonderful families and individuals to worship with us, serve alongside us, and even join our church as Covenant Partners. As we look to move back to our church home on Forest Avenue later this year, we have been faced with a new challenge: we will not fit in our Sanctuary under the current worship service schedule! We praise God for this wonderful challenge!
As we considered all the options available to us, our Session and Strategic Planning Committee discerned that the best option for our community is to return to a three service schedule on Sunday mornings. Once we are back in our building on Forest, we will hold worship at 8:15, 9:30, and 11:00 a.m. in the Sanctuary. As there is a good chance the latter two services will still be at capacity, we will also be streaming to the Fellowship Hall and outfitting the space with tables and comfortable seating to create a flexible worship environment, and capture some of the same feel as our Regency worship space.
The benefits of this new schedule, as opposed to the many options we explored, will allow for all of us to worship together in our Sanctuary and for us to keep our children’s Sunday School, Adult Education, and centralized teaching and fellowship opportunities concentrated on Sunday morning. We will hold Sunday School (adult and children’s), Club 56 and Student Ministry concurrently during the 9:30 a.m. service.
We remain committed to worshiping together as a body and believe that one of the most effective ways our children and students are spiritually formed is through weekly attendance in corporate worship. We encourage people to bring their children and students to worship, and practice hospitality and inclusion to the little ones in our services.
We also affirm that while adult classes are by no means the only way that discipleship happens at Third, Sunday classes are one way for us to learn about the Bible, the Christian life and God’s mission in the world. We will continue to provide robust Sunday morning offerings for learning and growth, and hope that more and more people find encouragement and connection there.
In closing, we think it’s important to say that in many ways, we welcome the constraints of our building and this service schedule as we believe it will help us stay oriented and committed to church planting. Church planting is a strong impulse within the heart of the Third community, and a core part of our history. As we move out of this season of focusing on our own church home, we want to begin praying and asking God what he has next for us. We invite you to be praying about this as well!
We look forward with eager anticipation for what God has for us this fall. We’ll be sharing more details about the move and opportunities to help out in the weeks to come. Stay tuned.
Ed Satterfield, on behalf of Session
Governing Elders: Jerry Wibberly, Lauren Luck, Rob Cox, Andy Burgess, Mark Mendez, Betsy Pollard, Buck Rosenberger, Jera Nelson Cunningham, Jason Snook, Geof Stiff, Ashley Tuite, and Kathy White
If you have any questions, please contact your Governing Elders at session@thirdrva.org.