06/10/2026
Sunday Morning Service
Cumbernauld Church
• Early service 9:45 am
• Later Family Service 11 am
As you can see from the 11th of October we are moving to two Sunday morning services. There are various reasons for this.
One is that our Family Service is very busy and whilst we still have around 20-25 seats left, folks are struggling to find a seat when they come in. This can cause anxiety for some who find it difficult coming into a new set up. We thank God that we have new folks at this service and therefore it is often geared for them.
Secondly, it has become a working service for many of our folks who are involved in Creche, Toddlers, Sunday School, Bible Class, or Teens Group. We do have a 4/5 week rotas in place for each of these groups but often there are swaps or absentees so our volunteers seldom feel they can really have a morning off. Our coffee shop is also open every Sunday morning and that’s another 5 week rota that folks are on. Sometimes they are on both rotas. So our Sunday morning is very much a working meeting.
Thirdly, some folks are just finding it too busy at the end. Many folks linger at the end of a service and I like that they are able to feel at home with us. It’s the time each week when they can catch up with friends over a coffee and strengthen friendships.
Fourthly, folks travel a considerable distance to be with us. Some come as far away as Motherwell and Carluke which is a 30 mile journey one way. They can travel that distance and then be on Sunday School all morning without getting more than a couple of songs at the beginning of the service. We do have an evening service but folks are often too tired to make the return trip so this way they can come to both services if they want to. It means our workers can come and find the presence of God in the quiet before the busy Family Service. Or if they want to, and have no duties in the second service, can simply come to the earlier service and go home before the multitudes appear! Having said that we’d prefer not to lose all our workers at the second service and ask that folks prayerfully consider what God wants from them.
Both services will be a communion service. There will be no provision for children at the earlier service and it won’t be broadcasted. We will continue to make provision for children and broadcast at our Family Service at the later time of 11 am.
We are cancelling our evening service but if I have the strength and motivation I plan to have a tarry meeting on a Sunday evening once a month.
So there are many reasons (some natural and some spiritual) for starting this new part of our journey. We are trialling it for a month to see how it goes. If it works well for folks we will continue with both.
