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First Lutheran and Grace Lutheran churches are partnering for a new experience: outdoor worship.

“We started … having an outdoor worship service in Central Park,” said the Rev. Roger Fears with First Lutheran Church, noting that with the warmer weather it made sense to have the Wednesday services outside.

The entire concept — the brainchild of Joy Knoppel, pastor at First Lutheran Church — is new after Knoppel reached out to Shane Koepke, pastor at Grace Lutheran Church. Rather than sit on the idea,  Knoppel, Fears and Vicar Ashley Kuhlman from Grace Lutheran Church decided to do something, despite the lack of familiarity with doing an outdoor service.

“We wanted to try something different for summer,” Fears said, noting they’d been planning for the Wednesday services around Easter.“We knew that people enjoyed being outside when the weather is nice here, and it’s just a lot of fun,” he said, 

Kuhlman was also excited about the opportunity to work with First Lutheran and to provide a public service for the Albert Lea community.

Fears hopes the outdoor services, which he described as “laid-back and informal,” will build relationships with the two churches. Having them at Central Park also provided an easy location for patrons to gather.

“It’s been really encouraging,” he said. “People really seem to have a good time with it. They can enjoy being outside, they enjoy seeing people and meeting people that they didn’t know before.”

Kuhlman agreed.

“The services are a wonderful time to get together to do a worship service with multiple churches together,” she said. “It’s also wonderful to be able to do it in the great outdoors, especially after a long day of work.”

The 30-minute outdoor services, which started May 31, run at 6:30 p.m. every Wednesday through Aug. 3.

During services, a few songs will be performed along with a message. Communion is served twice monthly.

So far, the only challenge the outdoor services have faced was the larger-than-expected crowd for the first service, when they encountered double what they expected.

“It meant going back to get more communion supplies,” he said.

Kuhlman echoed a similar sentiment, noting attendance was more than what she expected.

On a more serious note, Fears said the joint service helped build camaraderie between the two churches. He also hoped the program would be continued next summer.

Anyone attending is encouraged to bring their own lawn chair.

And while the weather has been ideal so far, Fears said if the weather proved unaccommodating, services would be moved inside First Lutheran Church.