PALATKA — When the members of St. James United Methodist Church here decided three years ago to start a contemporary worship service, they started attending seminars and workshops on church growth and contemporary worship, according to the Rev. Hardee Sandlin III, the church’s pastor.

But it wasn’t until they experienced a contemporary worship service and workshop led by Mike Wycuff, minister of music and celebration at the United Methodist Pine Ridge Fellowship in Deltona, that they got excited about the potential for the new service.

"The workshop made for a very exciting day," Sandlin said. "It served as a catalyst to really get moving."

When he was appointed to St. James in June 1998 Sandlin said he knew he wanted to help the church start a contemporary worship service because he had seen that type of service effectively reach new people at previous appointments.

In the fall of 1998, Sandlin met Wycuff at a DeLand District pastors’ retreat. "Mike led the worship at the retreat," Sandlin said. "When the retreat was over, I cornered him and asked him to conduct a workshop at the church."

Nearly 40 St. James members attended the day-long workshop that featured a sample worship service by Wycuff and the Pine Ridge praise team. It was designed to give members a chance to experience contemporary worship, ask questions and get hands-on experience with the sound and projection equipment, according to Wycuff.

"I’ve discovered there are people in most churches who God has already tapped to do contemporary things," Wycuff said. "They just don’t know what to do. We need to model it for them."

Sandlin said planning moved into high gear after the workshop. He met with church leaders and formed a 16-person design team.

Since members wanted the service to be an outreach ministry, evangelism work area members were asked to provide leadership. People responsible for assembling the praise team, setting up and running the sound and projection equipment, drama, marketing and hospitality also worked with the team, Sandlin said.

Through it all, Wycuff has been available to answer questions about sound equipment, video projectors and sheet music. "We have called him on several occasions to get his expertise and ask opinions when we had questions," Sandlin said.

Wycuff said he has spent more than 40 hours over an eight-month period working with St. James. That included creating a list of equipment he believed would be best for the church’s worship space and helping the team negotiate prices.

Despite those prices, the church is still expecting to spend as much as $25,000 in the first year, according to Sandlin. More than $20,000 of that total has already been raised.

"You have your dreams and you know what’s the potential," he said. "And many times, the funding is not available. Due to the lack of funding you do less than what you wanted. But that’s not true in this case."

Sandlin said more than half of the money for the new service came from a single donor. Wycuff met that donor during the workshop.