Matt Mings on 
Brian Niece on Thoughts while considering the future of my local church
There are basic needs shared by Christians and non-believers alike.
Some of these are: the need to be loved and to fellowship with other persons who express genuineness in relationship; the need to feel a part of something bigger than ourselves; the need to learn new things that excite and mystify us; and the need to be with people of the same age on a journey.
It seems that in our 21st-century, fast-paced world, Sunday morning worship tends to be a “fill-up”? in the spiritual tank rather than an overflow of preceding week-long worship. Our ancestors in the Nazarene tradition would find this an odd and disconcerting fact. They lived simpler lives which we simply can’t live even by deliberate and sustained effort in our post-industrial, technology age to be sure. But they considered Sunday a day of both celebration and Sabbath. It was a day to thank God for the worship they had experienced in their day-to-day lives the preceding week, while also finding time to love each other in tangible ways and thereby thank God for rest, refreshment, and renewal.
Could it be that we in the contemporary church are so focused on the whole local church Body gathering in one place at least three times a week, that we contribute to robbing a family’s valuable time, thereby leaving no room for thanksgiving, rest, and renewal? Sunday is the one day that many folks have free from their occupational jobs. And Wednesday nights are too hectic to do something unless it is very worthwhile, because it sits in the middle of the week with the flurry of work schedules, school schedules, social schedules and the like. Rather than becoming a partner with modern culture in robbing time and energy, could we be counter-cultural and provide something completely different? Could we provide something that would cause individuals and families to want to gather in a variety of ways and venues for the purposes nourishment and sharing the spiritual journey? If we endeavored to change our paradigm and our thinking, what might it look like?
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