Wednesday Night Live

 
Wednesday Night Live 
Wednesday Evenings Between Labor Day & Memorial Day

Join Us for Wednesday Night Live Each Week!

 

Weekly food, fellowship, and worship! Join us every Wednesday from Labor Day to Memorial Day for:

  • Freewill Donation Meal: 5 pm – 7 pm
  • Family Centered Worship Service: 5:30 pm
  • Children’s Music Rehearsals and Adult Lenten Book Study: 6 pm
  • United Ringers Handbell Rehearsal: 6:45 pm
  • Chancel Choir Rehearsal: 7:30 pm

  • Freewill Donation Meal: 5 pm – 7 pm

 

 

  • Family Centered Worship Service with Communion: 5:30 pm

 

  •  
  • Children’s Music Rehearsals & Adult Education: 6 pm

 

  • United Ringers Handbell Rehearsal: 6:45 pm

 

  • Chancel Choir Rehearsal: 7:30 pm

 

(*This is actually our choir singing on Superbowl Sunday dressed in Eagles colors but there is so much going on at Wednesday Night Live that we didn’t get new choir rehearsal photos yet!)

 

Wednesday Night Live Printed Schedule

 

Wednesday Night Live Sample Bulletin from the 5:30 pm Worship Service – September 6, 2023 (First Week)

 

 

Volunteers Needed!
St. John’s needs your help to continue the success of our new Wednesday Night Live (WNL) gathering. It takes many volunteers to make the overall experience worthwhile for all who attend. As you know, WNL runs from 5-7 PM with a meal, a family worship service, and an adult education/children’s choir time. After this, the choir ensembles continue from 6:45 (bells) to Chancel choir starting at 7:30. We need volunteers for all or part of the time of the meal/worship/adult education sessions. We need help to fill multiple roles at the event:
1) Meal Hosts – 4:30-7:30 – Families or individuals to set up, serve food, and clean up after dinner. Help can be for the entire time, early for setup and serving, or late for serving and cleanup.
2) Hospitality Support – 4:45-6:30/7:00 – like the Sunday morning hospitality teams, we need individuals to welcome participants, monitor the doors and entrances, direct people to the locations within, count attendees (for planning purposes) and perform a general building security during the sessions. Help can be for the entire time, or for the first or second hour.
3) Meal Coordinator – person responsible for ordering food and supplies, assisting the Meal Hosts, and general organizational responsibilities. This role performs a lot of the advance work and coordination of the meals/volunteers and is recommended for
a duration of one month for efficiency purposes.  Your help is greatly appreciated and will help us continue to operate smoothly!

 
 
Official WNL Introduction Announcement: June 16, 2023
Members and Friends of St. John’s United Church of Christ,
We are reaching out to make you aware of some significant, exciting, and hope-filled changes coming to St. John’s this fall! Beginning Wednesday, September 6, 2023, and continuing through Wednesday, May 22, 2024, we are introducing Wednesday Night Live, an experience for our church and the surrounding community that encompasses Music, Outreach, Worship/Faith Formation, and Fellowship/Care, the four quadrants of the Celtic Cross that have been guiding our visioning process. Wednesday Night Live has been presented to, and is endorsed by St. John’s Executive Committee, St. John’s Church Council, and St. John’s Adult Musical Ensembles (Chancel Choir, Chancel Choir Friends, and United Ringers), and now, we want to present it to you!
Wednesday Night Live is designed to serve our church and surrounding community in mind, body, and spirit through food, fellowship, and worship. Each Wednesday is centered around a meal with the option for a free-will donation, served from 5 pm-7 pm on the kitchen side of assembly hall. The food will be purchased/catered from a local restaurant and served by volunteers. The free-will donation collected at each meal will be used to cover the cost. At 5:30 pm a family worship service will be held on the piano side of assembly hall (5:30 pm-6 pm). The worship service will be led by one of the pastors and Andrew, giving families, and all worshipers, a chance to worship during the week. At 6pm, education and musical opportunities begin – Children’s Choir, Middle/High School Ensembles, and an Adult Education Hour (6 pm-6:45 pm). At 6:45 pm, United Ringers handbell rehearsal begins (6:45-7:30 pm), with Chancel Choir rehearsal beginning at 7:30 pm (7:30-9 pm). By offering all these options on one evening, we can create an environment in which all ages can receive a free meal, worship, learn, and rehearse together.
 
As is often the case, so that we can have our hands and hearts open to fully grab hold of this new thing, we must let go of some others. Beginning September 10th, we will shift our alternative worship service from 8:00 am on Sunday mornings to this Wednesday evening opportunity. This means we will offer one worship service on Sunday morning at 10:15 am and one on Wednesday evening at 5:30 pm. Shifting away from the 8:00 am service will allow for more of our energy to be focused on Sunday morning education programs at 9:00 am, providing a mid-week service for those who are unable to be with us at any time on Sunday, and continuing to provide spiritually deep and engaging worship at our 10:15 am service.
 
We want to acknowledge that this is a loss for those of you who have found the 8am service to be particularly meaningful and your preferred time to worship. We know that it came about because there was a sense of need and excitement for another time and tone of worship in our community. As needs shift and evolve, we hope you will come along with us with that same excitement as we explore new ways to foster that same sense of belonging and help us as we extend that belonging to even more people in our community.
 
The St. John’s Ministerial Staff, St. John’s Executive Committee, St. John’s Church Council, and St. John’s Adult Musical Ensembles are fully invested in breathing new life into the middle of the week at St. John’s – an evening in which we all come together to create a hub of activity and excitement for our church and the surrounding community.
 
If you have any questions, please reach out to Minister of Music Andrew Paulson, Rev. Addie Stong, Rev. Dale Davis, Church Council President Liz Rivett, or Church Council Vice Present Mark Bruen.
 
We hope to see you at Wednesday Night Live.
With love, joy, and faith,
 
Andrew, Addie, Dale, and the leadership of St. John’s UCC
 

“For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”  Matthew 18:20 (NRSV)