Additional Services Bring Growth to St. Paul’s
The altar is shown set up for the Celtic Mass at St. Paul the Apostle, Savannah. For the evening service an altar is placed in front of the rood screen, closer to the congregation. The high altar is visible in the background.
The worship schedule at St. Paul the Apostle in Savannah makes for a very full Sunday. From the start of the Low Mass at 8 a.m. to the conclusion of the meal following the Celtic Mass, when the church doors close more than 12 hours later, 238 people worshipped on an average Sunday in 2010. This number in the Parochial Report is up from 182 the previous year for an increase of 30.77%. First, it should be noted that it now appears probable that the number for last year was improperly tabulated, so the rise in attendance is a multi-year rise. But with that noted, the growth at St. Paul’s is real and has been lasting. The change came primarily through two additional services being added. Strategically adding additional worship services can be an important tool in spurring church growth.
Adding a Liturgy with a Different Feel
The Misa en Espanol at 12:15 p.m. with more than a dozen on a typical week and the Celtic Mass at 6:30 p.m. with more than triple that number account for the increased attendance on a Sunday. Each of these services is significantly different in style from either the Low Mass at 8 a.m. or the Solemn High Mass at 10 a.m. This fits with some of the work of the Alban Institute which finds that unless a church is between 80 and 100% full on an average Sunday, a new service should be somewhat different in style to thereby attract a different group of worshippers. Consequently, churches that are 80% full on Sunday, should add an additional identical service to add capacity for those who want to join that worshipping community with its current style of worship.
At St. Paul the Apostle, its long-time Rector and the Dean of the Savannah Convocation, the Very Rev. William Willoughby III, led the process to work through adding the additional services, with support from those in the existing services. For example, Sunday morning worshippers coming back for the Celtic Mass made starting that new service viable. Now the evening group has developed more of a life of its own.
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The difficulty in adding additional services is that each service needs a dedicated group of lay leaders as well as those who attend for the roles of Lay Eucharist Minister and lay readers. For services with music, a musician or musicians who can take on an additional service in a different style is also vital. At St. Paul the Apostle, the mid-Sunday Spanish Eucharist also required celebrants and preachers who can lead worship in Spanish. The Celtic Eucharist was made possible both by The Rev. Liam Collins coming to Savannah with energy for the new service and a passion for Celtic Spirituality. That was married with a core team of lay leaders and musicians who could get the service off the ground and sustain it as interest grew. None of this is easy, but the effort is making a difference at St. Paul’s.
One Important Caveat
Adding a worship service is a useful growth strategy for any congregation. Do know that the additional service, particularly one in a different style from your other services, will take a lot of time and energy to begin and sustain. For example, members of the Society of Saint Aelred of Rievaulx are pictured here at the piano. That group helps both coordinate the Celtic Mass and provide music. This is vital as it is most important is to make sure you have a committed core group willing to stick with the new service over the long haul, including both lay leaders and a group willing to populate the service while the work is done to draw new people to that additional worship opportunity.
The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary
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