Inter-Mission

My pastor and I agree that the Wed night program needs to be radically different. Just like Sunday nights finally went away some years ago, we see the same thing happening in the near future with the mid-week service. It may not be the case in your church. If not, praise God. But around here, the culture is slowly getting a stranglehold on the church, just when we need to be the life blood of our communities. If they come to church at all, they're just trying to get by on an hour or two each week, which just isn't enough to keep a family healthy. The horrible "professional's" response to the challenges of COVID has made everything even worse. People definitely need a refresher in the middle of the week.

For Wednesday nights beginning in the fall, here's what I just proposed to the pastor (I'll leave out all the church-specific background):

InterMission is out-of-the-box outreach ministry that meets the needs of our community. Although it's on Wednesday night, it's not classes. It's people getting together with others who have the same passion. It's a few people making prayer quilts, a few people making walking sticks or canes, a few people providing tutoring help, a few people helping first responders feel appreciated, and so much more. It might be the youth witnessing at the skateboard park or creating a hopeful blog for our city's youth.

Studies show that up to 80% of young people leave the church after they go on to college, etc. The main reasons? It was their parents' church, not theirs. It was their parents' faith, not theirs. They weren't connected to the church. They weren't shown how to be servants. InterMission can help.

As far as the kids go, we'll still have the Third Light Cavalry, but we'll help them to get outside the fort, figuring out projects that will help other kids.

Jesus sent out the disciples two by two, which is a great model. We can help our people to connect with others who have similar passions. We can help fund the various ministries that our people come up with. Less spectators, more servants.

We can still have small groups, but they would move to different nights and be held in people's homes. Small groups work better there, anyway. The unchurched have never come to a Wednesday night class. Break out of the box. Break out of the pack. Jesus didn't stay inside the synagogue all the time. Neither should we.

I knew the pastor was starting to put together an outreach effort on a separate night. He shared it with me today, and it certainly has potential, although it's labor-intensive. (But if it's not hard, it's not worth it, right?) Still a lot of pieces to put into place, so he's not putting a date on his kick-off.

With our small congregation and a limited amount of workers, I don't see both our ideas working concurrently. So I guess I'm back to square one on Wednesday nights. How to keep it alive?

When you get right down to it, resisting the urge to spin it, it seems that most of our parents don't see the value in ministry to their children. And if they do, it's not very high on their family priority list. Two Sundays ago, only one child was brought to church.

Anybody got answers? I'm tired and getting oxygen on the sideline isn't an option. Nobody else is suited up for the game.