24.7

24.7

There is a rumor out there that I am involved in a new church plant, regardless of whether that is true or not, we are meeting tomorrow morning to talk about some things. Earlier in the week I may have tried to schedule a gathering and it was really hard. All of our work schedules are all over the place. I work nights. Wendy‘s work schedule may run her from starting at 8:00 a.m. some days to other days her getting home at 11:15 p.m. I want to say that others have crazy schedules as well but crazy seems to be the new normal for work. It isn’t that we are workaholics, we all work from 37.5 to 40 hours a week and get a couple of days off. It is just that those hours are often not 9-5 anymore.

Safeway, Superstore and other grocery stores are all open until 10:00 p.m. but all have staff working 24 hours a day. Most other big box stores are open until at least 9 p.m. and Wal-Mart in Saskatoon has experimented with 24 hours a day store hours which it does in many other cities. Even smaller retailers are now open on Sunday and open at noon. Banks which used to set the standard for never being open when you need them are even staying open later. As I was running some errands today, I heard a radio ad saying that the casino in Prince Albert is now opening early on Sunday mornings. Those restaurants that everyone goes to for Sunday lunch have to be staffed by someone and I bet their shift doesn’t start at 12:10 p.m. on Sundays so they can go to church.

It used to be that you could schedule a gathering or a meeting at 7:00 p.m. in the weekday and people would be there. No it isn’t quite that easy. One of the frustrations that I had while at Lakeview was that Wendy worked every weekday evening except for Monday and we had to choose between giving up our one evening alone or going to a small group. For us it was easy because there wasn’t any couple small groups that met at Monday while I was there but you get the point. I don’t blame Lakeview for it as we were in a very small minority where small groups didn’t work for us.

I think it was Leith Anderson who first talked about the 24/7 church and I admit, it sounds cool and is something that all mighty morphin’ mega churches should aspire to but it is something that I don’t see us making a lot of progress on. It is the chicken and egg dillema. Most churches don’t see the need to diversify their offerings because for the most part, the people that need that kind of community, aren’t coming to their services and small groups because they are working already. The people who are coming have the work schedules that work within a traditional work week.

The sad/funny/ironic thing is that I know a bunch of people who work shifts that don’t fit into the church week and they talk about wanting to come to church! There is actually a group of people out there that want to be a part of a church community and can’t find one, even in the Canadian Bible belt that is Saskatoon.

For all of our talking about North America being a mission field, a good place to start may be thinking about those that are working while the church is worshipping. This sounds stupid but what about looking at life with a missional eye and asking the question when you are out late or grabbing a coffee before church, “If they wanted to attend my church and work, could they?” There are so many ideas that one could work with.

Podcasts. Like I said before, the Mosaic, Allelon, Cedar Ridge and other podcasts get listened to and influence my thinking because they are automatically added to my iPod. I may not be there physically but I am under their sphere of influence and teaching. Most churches record their sermons anyways, how hard can it be to upload them to their website and provide a RSS feed. There are numerous tutorials available online.
Paragraph NY :: Everyone loves the idea of a third space like Paragraph NY. A space where people could read, find some silence, and even be creative during the day and be around other people but not too many churches want to do it. Here are some actual objections that I have heard. “We would have to add a couple of locks” and “People would get upset if there was spilled coffee”. Very few church buildings don’t have an empty room or twelve and I just saw an ad faxed to work for a 1.5 ghz computer with a 40 meg hard drive with a CD/RW for $150. You can get 19 inch monitors for under $100 and a mouse for $10. Why not?
Instead of offering everything in the evening, how about something in the mid-afternoon or morning? If you are going to do that, why not offer something else than just for mothers as well. Yes parents and kids need their play time but what about those that aren’t parents but are home during the mornings but can’t make the evening stuff?

I am not a big fan of Wal-Mart but Sam Walton was brilliant in his ability to try something and if it doesn’t work, try something else. Anyone else have any ideas?

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