A church plant I know is considering whether to move its church meeting from 4pm to 10am. They are asking members of their congregation to give their thoughts on the matter – especially now it helps or hinders their mission.
Now as you can imagine all sorts of opinions are coming up. Some visionary, some more about personal convenience or needs.
An interesting one is some people saying that a 4pm service is a matter of 'market differentiation'. If lots of other local churches meet at 10am, then an afternoon church is a difference, and will 'attract' people for whom 10am doesn't work. This way of phrasing the issue sounds pretty consumer-oriented. Like it is catering to people's 'needs' and 'wants' and 'convenience', rather than anything mission-minded and outward looking.
But here is one email that was sent to the church planter, with a different outlook that I found compelling:
“God’s sovereignty is at work, and its not a mistake to be where we are right now. This is exactly how God has planned it. And that is something that should comfort and encourage us all to persevere. There is much to be thankful for!
I think the most important thing from a planning perspective, is to realise the environment of our suburb and acknowledge the different churches gathering at different times. If we are really serious about disciple making, then I think that will involve various forms of partnership, where instead of competing at the same times of service, we would be working together as a unified church in the mission to Make/Mature/Train disciples. That if people we meet would rather a morning service, then we are able to send them to other good local churches, and if they find people whom would rather an afternoon service, then they point them towards us.
I very much like the idea of covering all possible time slots on a Sunday – God’s word relentlessly being preached from 8am to 5pm. Thats cool. And a great blessing to have.”
