New worship service for First UMC

The First United Methodist Church in Newton is making the transition from having a contemporary service and a traditional service to one, individual service combining the two services together.

“The worship planning team has been working with both services and its leaders to design a service of worship called ‘Service of Praise and Worship,’ which will give us the chance to come together as one church to praise and worship the Lord,” First United Methodist Church Reverend Gary Marzolf said. “The new worship will begin at 9 a.m., and 15 minutes prior to service, we invite everyone to come in and enjoy praise songs.”

The service time will start with traditional hymns followed by a time of prayer and conclude with a time of proclaiming God’s word through the Gospel which follows the mission of the First United Methodist Church.

“We’re about making disciples for Jesus Christ from a transformational world, which is the mission statement for our annual Iowa conference,” Gary said. “Worship is a key component in that, which is done through the events and opportunities in our church.”

The new worship format didn’t change the message of the church in the eyes of Gary.

“It also has a new breath breathed into it, giving us an opportunity to do different things in different ways centered around God’s word through prayer, scripture and proclamation,” he said.