Expanding Worship at Peace
A Season of Discernment and Growth
Over the past several months, Peace has been engaged in a thoughtful and prayerful process we call Expanding Worship—a multi‑year effort focused on strengthening how we gather, lead, and experience worship, both in the sanctuary and online.
At the heart of this work is a clear conviction: worship is about people. Every voice, every seat, every age, and every way of joining matters. Whether someone is seated in the front pew, worshiping from the Gathering Place, participating online, or relying on accessibility tools, our goal is to remove barriers so the Word of God can be heard clearly and worship can be fully shared by all.
Building the Team and Clarifying the Vision
Early in the year, Peace welcomed a Director of Modern Worship and Production, who is already working alongside staff and volunteers to shape modern worship and assess our current audio, video, and lighting systems. At the same time, the Expanding Worship Team has been working closely with Church Council, the Stewardship Team, and staff to ensure that discernment and planning are grounded in careful stewardship and shared leadership.
As conversations turned toward audio specifically, the team asked a foundational question: What should worship sound like? The answer was consistent—worship should be intelligible, balanced, accessible, and consistent throughout the room, while also being flexible enough to support both traditional and modern services and a growing online congregation.
Learning from Experience—Especially Easter
Holy Week and Easter offered a powerful snapshot of both the beauty of worship at Peace and the limits of our current systems. Nearly 3,200 people worshiped across five services, supported by almost 90 musicians—a visual and audible testament to the depth of gifts within the congregation.
At the same time, Easter served as an honest “stress test.” While in‑person worship was vibrant and full, many online worshipers experienced muffled audio and dim or shadowed video that didn’t reflect what was happening in the sanctuary. Inside the room, sound varied depending on where someone sat, ensembles relied heavily on shared microphones, and musicians had no way to monitor themselves—all signs of a system stretched beyond what it was designed to support.
Lighting challenges also became clear during services like Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, where light carries much of the theology. Our current lighting allows broad changes but lacks the ability to focus intentionally on particular spaces or moments, especially for online worshipers.
And many who worshiped from overflow spaces during Christmas and Easter did so using borrowed equipment—a reminder that while overflow worship is possible, it may not always reflect the hospitality and excellence we strive to offer guests and members alike.
Exploring the Building—and the Future
Looking ahead to fall, Pastor Jason has been meeting with groups of Peace members to discuss possible adjustments to worship service times—including the possibility of celebrating Holy Communion at every weekend service, supporting volunteers more sustainably, and shaping worship that better reaches youth and young adults not yet connected to Peace.
Moving Forward Together
This work remains in a season of exploration. No final decisions have been made, and the team remains mindful of financial realities, visual impact, volunteer capacity, and long‑term sustainability. What is clear, however, is that Expanding Worship is not about technology for its own sake. It is about faithfulness, hospitality, and making room for every person God is drawing into worship—in person and online.
As estimates continue to come in this spring, Church Council and the Stewardship Team will review options together this summer. And as the work continues, the congregation will keep hearing updates and invitations to participate through prayer, conversation, and generosity.
Peace is deeply grateful for a community that takes worship seriously and cares about how we gather—now, and for the generations to come.