The Wednesday Night Service
Is it being overly optimistic to believe leaders of local churches can resurrect a Wednesday night service to the same level of the 70s, 80s, and 90s? Or was the 7 PM Wednesday night service simply something out of another era?
Here are my thoughts on that.
The biggest difference between the 70s, 80s, 90s and today is then we were able to move people (via guilt). Today we have to learn what moves people.
The first example I think of is 9/11. What a moment we missed!
9/11 moved people to return to church. They came looking for something of substance and found ‘church (ritual, tradition, etc.)’
posted by Fred Peatross @ 6:09 PM
7 Comments:
Well, many have gone to a sunday night small group format. My observation over the last 8-10 years is a misunderstanding of the potential strength of small groups. I've been a part of only one small group that functioned as a small group should function (in a nurtured environment of trust, transparency, and confessional).
All others were no more than a bible class exported into a home. I ask, does that move people today?
I know this is blasphemy, but I don't care about seeing results. I'd rather see (and experience) discipleship.
I'd rather spend Sunday night serving the lost instead of hoping that they'll show up at the church door uninvited through some miracle I never thought to pray for.
We have Wednesday night LIFE (small) groups, and I am enriched by them. But every once in a while, I get a niggling in my conscience that says, "You're rich enough. Go enrich someone else."
Maybe I ain't so rich after all.
I agree. We don't have to think church building or small group...we need to think missional.
Keith, it's not blasphemy...but that kind of attitude kind of has to stay under the radar...it doesn't keep ministers like us employed. :-)
dallasfan,
Sorry...my comment was sarcastic, but the reality of the situation is not. I haven't kept my views under the radar, but that has made me border-line unemployable. Wednesday night services truly are only the tip of the iceberg, but my exploring those sort of issues is truly at odds with my leadership's expectations of me.
The statistics after 9-11 showed no bump in church attendance after a couple of weeks. People panicked because they thought it was the end of the world.
Christ-followers need to live like Christ. People need to be missional. They will only become missional if they are discipled and become excited enough about God's grace that they will want others to know. Movement will come when the pre-Christian sees and experiences God's love from the Christian.
People were not scared or guilted into Wed. and Sunday nights in earlier years. They were just used to being more religious. Then other things became more important than religion.
Did other things become more important than religion or did people decide that the religion they were being fed on Sunday and Wednesday nights weren't accomplishing much? Nothing is more important than "good" religion, but most things are more important that "bad" relgion.
Post a Comment
<< Home