Earlier this month, we shared some exciting news about something new coming soon to Williamsburg United Methodist Church.
Beginning in early 2026, we will launch a Modern Worship Service at 9:30 AM on Sunday mornings in the Fellowship Hall. This service will include weekly Holy Communion and be led by a band with guitars, drums, piano, and other instruments. While the style will be more relaxed, it will still hold many of the same elements we cherish in our traditional services—prayer, Scripture readings, and a message.
Our hope is that this new worship experience will create a meaningful space for those who long for a modern style of worship while maintaining a deep connection to the message and theology of the United Methodist Church.
This new service is part of the larger vision established in our 2024 Strategic Plan, which calls us to “establish at least one additional worship service to meet the needs of people not currently attending WUMC.” It’s an intentional step toward reflecting the diversity of our wider Williamsburg community—growing younger, more varied, and more welcoming to those seeking faith in new ways.
Through months of prayer, research, and conversation that began in early 2025, we’ve recognized a unique opportunity. In our area, there are very few modern worship options grounded in mainline theology. Most contemporary services nearby lean non-denominational or evangelical. We believe this new service can help fill that gap—offering a space where faith and modern worship meet within the rich Wesleyan tradition.
You can find more details in our FAQ about the Modern Worship Service. For now, I’d like to lift up a few things that make this moment particularly meaningful:
-
It’s about reaching new people.
We believe the Gospel is truly Good News—life-changing and hope-filled—and we want to share it with as many people as possible. Sunday morning remains the primary time people seek to worship, and offering multiple styles helps us connect with more people from diverse backgrounds. -
It’s an addition, not a replacement.
Our traditional worship—rooted in faithful leadership, impressive depth, and extraordinary music—remains central to who we are. The same goes for our strong adult Sunday School program. If those are life-giving to you, please continue! Our goal is to reach and serve new people - this new service simply adds another way for others to encounter Christ through WUMC. Your Sunday morning routine can stay the same - and we are all for that! -
We’re embracing weekly communion.
The earliest Christians gathered each week for what we now call Holy Communion. “Word and Table” (Scripture/sermon and communion) is the most ancient pattern of Christian worship. We believe that in this sacred meal, Jesus meets us in a particularly powerful way. Offering weekly communion at this service will give us new opportunities to encounter God’s grace together. -
We ask everyone to be flexible and patient.
We’re trying something new, and that means we’ll need to learn and adapt along the way. This service will not be perfect the first time we offer it (it probably never will be—because the people leading it are human beings!). Our first “preview service” will take place in December, followed by weekly preview services in January, leading up to the official launch in mid-February. We’ll learn a lot as we go, and that’s part of the process. Thank you in advance for your patience, encouragement, and prayers as we take these steps forward in faith. -
We're asking for your help.
Maybe you will never attend this worship service—and that’s okay! But we would still ask you to encourage and support the people who are working hard to make it happen.Maybe you are interested in attending. We’re looking for folks who don’t currently attend Sunday School to commit to worshiping at 9:30 for six to nine months—perhaps even in addition to the service you already attend—to help us build the critical mass needed to create a welcoming space for new people.
Maybe you’d like to help in a supporting role—setting up before you go to Sunday School, greeting after you worship at 8:15, or something similar.
Maybe you want to help lead in some way. We’ll need musicians, vocalists, communion servers (every week!), ushers, greeters, Scripture readers, and more.
And, of course, you can always pray—for our church, for the leaders of this new worship service, for those who will attend, and for our entire community. Pray that this effort would help us reach new people and share the love of Jesus in real and meaningful ways.
If you’d like to sign up to help in a particular way, please reach out to me—we will happily find a place for you to get involved!
I am so excited about the opportunity to step into this new thing with you. God is doing something in and through Williamsburg UMC, and I can’t wait to see how this ministry will help more people encounter Christ’s love and grace.
With hope,
Pastor Brian