This is part of a series of interviews with pastors of churches whose attendance has grown 20% or more in 5 years. We hope this series will be a resource of ideas to help increase worship attendance at your church.

Dr. A. Lynn Hill

The key word by which we measure everything we do here at Franklin First United Methodist Church is “excellence.” We use this standard not to call attention to ourselves, but we see that what we do is a spiritual offering to God. That being the case, only our best will do.

In worship we offer four weekly worship services.  In what we call “Sanctuary East”, our former gymnasium, we offer two blended worship services.  We call these services blended because it is not the traditional contemporary service.  Some contemporary hymns will be sung, but also traditional hymns to non-traditional arrangements.  We have a band composed of exceptional musicians who see themselves as worship leaders and not performers. They are behind the altar and not out front to be seen by the congregation.  They are active participants in every aspect of the worship services.  The hymns, responses, prayers, etc. in Sanctuary East are projected on two large screens.  These two services are typically our largest attended of the four services offered.

In our Historic Sanctuary, built in 1869, we offer two traditional worship services.  Each week at our 9:00 service we center our worship service around Word and Table with Holy Communion served weekly.  In this service we sing traditional hymns accompanied by a pipe organ.  The liturgy is more formal.  Our second service in the Historic Sanctuary is a “typical” UMC worship with processional hymns, chancel choir, anthems, etc.

The connecting link between the four services in two sanctuaries is the sermon. In Sanctuary East and the Historic Sanctuary are live worship leaders, musicians, liturgists, etc.  The music and liturgy have been focused around a scriptural theme in both sanctuaries.  When time for the sermon, the “preacher” is simulcast from the Historic Sanctuary to Sanctuary East.  This provides a common message which unites both sanctuaries and the congregation in worship. After the sermon, Sanctuary East is led by live worship leaders.

The worship services are designed to be relevant, inspiring, and challenging.  The word excellence guides us in our design and execution of our worship services.  If worship is boring, irrelevant, and does not address real life challenges to faithful living then people won’t continue to come.  Because of the steady increase in worship attendance, we feel that we are speaking to the spiritual needs of the people.

At Franklin FUMC, we also have excellence in Sunday school.  Our average attendance in Sunday school will be 90% of our attendance in morning worship.  Again, those who teach feel called to teach and approach it being well prepared.  We offer two Sunday school hours which run parallel to our worship services.  We have 1,000 children on roll from nursery to the 6^th grade and some 300 adult volunteers in our children’s ministry.  We have a dedicated floor for our youth ministry equipped with all the electronics this generation requires.  Again, many dedicated lay volunteers make this ministry excellent.  We offer 26 adult classes which range from Bible studies, book studies, dated lessons, etc.  Sunday school has been strengthened by a large number of persons who have participated in Disciple studies.  Franklin FUMC has the strongest Sunday school of any UMC I know of.

Small group studies is becoming more and more important to this congregation as it continues to grow in size.  These small groups, in many ways, become the source for spiritual support for many persons in this faith community.   This ministry is a work in progress, but one to which we will give more attention in the months ahead.

Missions and outreach are very important to the growth of this congregation. We participate in missions by sending VIM teams locally, nationally, and internationally.  These teams are made up of children, youth, and adults.  This ministry is carried out all year long.  We have had a 12 year partnership ministry with an inner city congregation which involves providing support on a weekly basis by providing food and adult leadership for their Saturday worship.  We also provide funding for the pastor and repairs on their facility.  In addition, our mission teams are involved in this inner city community by being in ministry with the people who live there to make their community better.  In addition to this particular ministry, the FUMC family is involved in numerous outreach ministries with persons of all ages.

If asked why Franklin FUMC has experienced such amazing growth over the last few years, I would have to say that it is the result of an amazing group of lay persons who take seriously the great commission of Jesus to make disciples. They do this through study in Sunday school, active participation in meaningful worship, and then living out their faith in ministry to the world through hands on missions.  These lay persons are guided by a dedicated staff who see their role as enabling, encouraging, and then getting out of the way so that God can do incredible things through this congregation.

Excellence is the word by which we measure everything we do.   We seek always to remember who and whose we are. We never forget that what we do is never to be about us, but always about God and our part in Kingdom building. While many United Methodist Churches look back to remember when, we lean forward into God’s future believing that the best is yet to be!!!  Thanks be to God!!!

Dr. A. Lynn Hill – lhill@franklinfumc.org Senior Pastor

Franklin First United Methodist Church website: www.franklinfumc.org