Still at The Edge Church.....

Well, it’s been months since I last wrote. Not because we haven’t been going to church, but we’ve been attending and serving at The Edge Church. It was the last church I blogged about. We like it there. The people are genuine and we sense a true desire from the leadership and the members to honor God and reach out to people. It is a church plant (less than 1 year old) and small (about 100 people). But we are excited about what God is doing there. I am helping out with worship and Jeanne is helping out with the children’s church and greeting new folks on Sunday. Another thing that we really like about it is that the services are on Sunday evening. We don’t have our own meeting place so we rent a church sanctuary out on Sunday nights. It is awesome. Jeanne, Selah and I have the entire day on Sunday to do whatever we want. Sleep in, go for a hike, work around the house. Church is at 6pm. It gives us two full days on the weekends so we can also go out of town for the weekend and get back on Sunday in time for church. We love it. I’m not sure I will be able to go back to a Sunday morning schedule again.

Is it mainly tradition the reason why we go to church on Sunday mornings? Or even Sunday itself? If we are supposed to rest and honor the Sabbath, then church should technically be on Friday night or Saturday. Right? As the church continues to change and evolve, I wonder if service times will as well. I know of the mega churches that have 15 services a week at all different times, but that is usually due to logistics and not being able to fit everyone in at the same time. With more single parent households and both parents working, weekends really do become a time of rest and restoration. If you serve in the church, most of your Sunday can be taken up with church activities. I know for me, church services could be 4-5 hours long including set up and tear down time. By the time I would get home Sunday afternoon, I would be cooked, so I would take a nap, then wake up at dinner time and not be able to fall asleep until late in the evening so I would end up dragging on Monday. Plus, being the outdoorsy guy that I am, I would only have Saturdays available for that.

I know many will say, “Brian, church is a time for the family.” I agree that it’s supposed to be…however, the reality is that most of the time it isn’t. Whether you’re serving or not, there is no interaction between you and your family during the service. Your kids are usually off somewhere else (i.e. children’s church, Sunday school) and interaction in the church service is non-existent.

Living in the Bible belt, Sunday morning church will be here for a very long time. And for many people that’s what they enjoy doing. I on the other hand enjoy an evening service. I hope I will always get to attend one.