Church to meet Saturday night, not Sunday

A Scotts Valley church has made a leap that its leaders hope will allow more people to attend.
New Hope Church on Granite Creek Road has dropped its Sunday morning service in favor of a newly formed Saturday evening gathering.
“We really wanted to do something for our community,” the Rev. Steve Shober said.
“I sat down with the other pastors and just started talking about where people are at,” Shober added.
Shober, who’s been at the Christian Foursquare church for more than 10 years, cited the busy nature of Sunday mornings for families — sports events, family gatherings and simply catching up on much-needed rest for kids and their parents — as one of the factors leading to the unorthodox decision to drop the Sunday gathering.
“People’s lives are so busy, we just want to say that families are important,” Shober said.
Church leaders hope that Sunday will truly become a day of rest for everyone who attends the Saturday service.
“It gives that next day off for a lot of people,” Shober said.
The new services will start at 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 10, and run every Saturday going forward. It will be an hour and 15 minutes long and feature music, teaching, children’s ministries and youth ministry.
The church will continue its many weekly activities, including Hope Groups, men’s ministries and youth opportunities.
“There has been all positive response,” Shober said. “This was the right thing to do, because we were thinking about human beings and their schedules.”
New service times at New Hope Church
When: 5 p.m. Saturdays, beginning this weekend
Where: 4001 Granite Creek Road, in Scotts Valley
Info: 438-1771 or www.newhopesv.org