Local church adds upbeat, contemporary service on Sundays

Pastor Thomas Hyde and the First United Methodist church are introducing a new contemporary service on Sunday at 5:30 p.m.

This service will be geared toward the younger generation and their families.

“This church has been here for almost 130 years,” Hyde said. “We are a very traditional congregation, but we are branching out and starting a contemporary service for Sunday evenings.”

“Because of how spread out we are out here, some people are gone Saturday and Sunday mornings,” said church coordinator Lauri Beach. “Some people have expressed the need to have service when they get back. Some of the younger families are often busy with their kids during the weekend, and when they get back they can get ready for the week with a worship service.”

After the 5:30 service, the church plans on branching their youth into group meetings.

“It’s geared toward youth to a point, older members like it too,” Beach said. “But it’s definitely aimed at young people and their families.”

While providing a service for people who would not normally have time for the traditional morning service, this service provides an opportunity for parents to give their kids an activity for Sunday evenings.

“This provides an opportunity for parents and children to have a worship service at more of a convenient time,” said Beach.

This service will have an upbeat worship service with up-to-date music for worshippers.

“Our eight o’clock service is very traditional,” Hyde said. “Our nine o’clock has more blended praise music as well traditional music. This service will be much more diverse. We’ll have more instruments and video interaction.”

First United Methodist Church is also looking for more instrumentalists for their praise band and choir.

“We’d like to expand our praise band,” Beach said. “We are looking for more members to participate in the praise band. We’re really looking for more instrumentation and singers.”

By expanding their praise services, First UMC looks to provide an answer to lingering request for such a service.

“We were hearing comments from members,” Beach said. “We wanted to expand a little bit and look at the younger crowd. Cabela’s is expanding, Adams (Industries) is expanding. There’s just a lot of new growth in this city.”

First United Methodist church is located on 2622 11th Ave. in Sidney.