In regards to Rabbi Jaffie's article, the experience of my congregation might be informative. We have a very active Torah study group that meets Saturday mornings from 9-10 a.m. Each week a different congregant leads a discussion on the weekly parshah. The Rabbi might attend and comment but it was always lay lead and we average 40-60 people in attendance. After that we have our service with the Rabbi and Cantor-which is usually a Bar Mitzvah. Most of the Torah study people would go out for coffee. Very few went to the service. Several of us petitioned the Rabbi to make significant changes to the service to attract more congregants but he was reluctant to offend the Bar Mitzvah parents. The Rabbi suggested we start our own early minyon service before Torah study. His idea was that we meet only on Shabbat's when there is no Bar Mitzvah but we felt that in order to succeed, we had to meet every Shabbat.

The Minyon Service evolved slowly but it became a short (45 min.) service of chanting abbreviated prayers, (no torah Service) and a short decision on some Jewish issue. Like Torah Study, it was completely lay lead. Gradually it became very popular getting 30-45 people each week. It was easy to learn and people liked to go the Minyon, Torah Study and out for coffee. Unfortunately no one was going to the Main Service except Bar Mitzvah guests and when there was no Bar Mitzvah, hardly anyone attended.

We now have a new Rabbi who has committed himself to revitalizing the Main Service. In a perfect world both services would flourish but the reality is that the only way he can succeed is to syphon off members from the early Minyon Service and to some extent this has already happened. People feel that the success of the congregation depends on the Rabbi succeeding. The Minyon has a very loyal following and many people like the short service, (45 min. vs. 2 hours +) and would be very upset if it was ended but I'm not sure we can successfully sustain two services. The Rabbi has suggested that people go to both services but that makes for a very long morning and the coffee, socializing time after torah study is very important to people. The block of Minyon Service, Torah Study and coffee is our sacred time. It's our shabbat.

So that's our dilemma. The Rabbi feels that the Bar Mitzvah service will never succeed unless congregants attend. But if you attend Torah Study and then a 2 hour+ service, it makes for a very long day. Canceling the Minyon service would be very unpopular and canceling the Main service when there is no Bar Mitzvah is not an option the Rabbi would entertain.

How do we proceed?