'The Well' launches Sunday at St. Andrew UMC

The sounds of traditional Methodist hymns will be replaced by drums and electric guitars Sunday morning at St. Andrew United Methodist Church.

The 6,000-member west Plano church is adding a sixth service to its weekly calendar, a contemporary worship service featuring a live band, seven projection screens and a coffee bar. Associate Pastor Arthur Jones hopes the new service, dubbed "The Well," will attract an audience that heretofore might not have felt at home at one of the church's five traditional services.

"This will be an entirely different sound," said Jones, 28, a fifth-generation Methodist minister. "Traditional services go off hymns, organs, choirs and hand bells. They are very traditional and many people of all ages like the tradition and the rigidness of those services. The Well intentionally is opposite of that in many ways. It will feel more like a rock concert than a formal, traditional service."

The idea to launch a contemporary service came about after the church staff realized they were not reaching a large number a people who live near the church.

"We have noticed that it is hard to reach younger people," Jones said. "Our average worshiping age in our church is 57. The average age within a five-mile radius is 36. That means there is an entire population within five miles of this church that are not choosing to worship here. ... We are here to proclaim the gospel in a way that will be engaging and will be intentionally reaching those younger people."

The habit of many young people to find the church "boring, dull or irrelevant" was enough for the congregation of St. Andrew UMC to approve $1.3 million in fundraising to launch The Well, Jones said. The plan was officially launched about a year ago, but Jones said he feels it is something he has been groomed for his entire life.

"I have known I wanted to be a preacher since I was 3 or 4 years old," Jones said. "In many ways this launch feels like the culmination of a very long time even though I am only 28. My first sermon was when I was in the sixth grade at the First United Methodist Church in Commerce, Texas. ... Here I am finally living into where God has been calling me for most of my life."

The new service will begin at 10:39 a.m., a time that Jones said will never be confused with the start time of a traditional service. However, the start time was not completely arbitrary. The time is related to the scripture found in Acts 10:39, a verse that has been a key theme in Bible study over the past year at St. Andrew.

The decision to choose Jones as the leader of the church's new contemporary service was made partially because of Jones' young age, a trait that allowed him to relate to younger members of the church.

"This will allow us to reach a generation we are not currently reaching through our traditional services," said Robert Hasley, a pastor at St. Andrew since 1986. "When Arthur came on he said he could reach the 20- and 30-year-old group, and when I heard him say that I knew he felt that was his calling."

A number of members of the congregation mentioned that their children or grandchildren were no longer attending church, Hasley said. That input, plus Jones' enthusiasm, led to the decision to consider a contemporary service, a move that was overwhelmingly supported by the congregation.

"We have tried some contemporary services in the past, but we have never funded them in the way they needed to be funded; we have never went all in," Jones said. "The church has always been at the forefront of media shifts; the Gutenberg Bible for example. We have fallen behind in the digital age and this is our best effort to play catch-up. This is not about gathering cool toys, this is about proclaiming the gospel and using the best tools of the day to do so."

One of the "coolest toys" associated with The Well is the coffee bar, dubbed "The Cup." In addition to serving Starbucks' coffee and Frappuccinos, the relaxing lounge located just outside the worship area will serve another purpose.

"Churches are about community, and coffee is one of the ways we have community here in Plano," Jones said. "There is an intersection up there that has four Starbucks, one on each corner. In order for us to promote community, we needed a space that will be non-threatening. That coffee bar will have a television streaming the service, so it will actually end up being the cry room. In fact, some people who are not comfortable actually being in the church service, have been known in other churches to sit and watch the service for a few weeks before joining in. ... They feel closer to it."

While the church has no way of knowing how The Well will be received by the congregation, Jones said enthusiasm is high. He added that while the service may seem targeted toward younger members, he expects members as young as 15 and as old as 80 to venture into The Well and see what it has to offer.

"I have been a member of St. Andrew for 20 years -- most of my life -- and have found that this church offers so many options to grow and serve in Christ," Sara Brammer, a member of the congregation, said in a press release. "With the addition of The Well, I believe we will see a new energy at St. Andrew."

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