Sunday morning I was brave, silly, or just myself and chose to post on facebook as church started. Think our pastor was staring, maybe glaring at me cause I am a slow typist and was still seated updating my status as the first song started. My status read “I am in church, if you are not, I hope it is because you live in a different time zone”. That silly thought ruined the service for me or at least distracted me for most of the next hour. I get that way too many times, mind running on its own track, and no singing, preaching, or wife pinching is bringing me back to the service I am attending.
To my point though. Drop me in any community in the US on a Sunday morning with a watch set to local time and I bet I can make it to Sunday school and Worship services, 9:30 Sunday school and worship services at anywhere from 10:30 to 11:00, almost like it was the 11th commandment. “Thou shalt start service by 11 but not before 10:30” That was the primary point of my status update, I also intended to point to others as to what they should be doing at this particular time, but as with most of God’s work he finds a way to turn it back on yourself, to what I should be doing.
The night before this morning’s thought provoking service my wife and I worked on our project house and finished for the day about 5pm. We decided that we needed a few things not available locally and left for an hour (one way) trip to Home Depot. They are open till 9pm. It’s for our convenience is what they say, but I bet it is so they can sell a little more stuff to us hobby carpenters. We spent 3 hours at Home Depot and several dollars. When we left we were a little hungry we went to Taco Bell which is open late, midnight or later just as their sign says. We got home well after 11 pm with full stomachs and a loaded up pickup, it was a good day!
Years ago small town main street businesses were open only till 5 pm Monday thru Friday and Saturdays till noon or early afternoon. If you needed something in off hours hopefully you knew the owner well enough to call and ask for a favor. As competition grew and society changed retail businesses learned and changed also by increasing the hours they were open to serve their customers and potential customers. That’s how 7 – 11 got started. Even in my job, grain used to trade from 9:30 to 1:15, now I take calls as late as 10pm and can trade grain from 6 pm to 7:15 in the morning. No, that doesn’t leave much time for sleeping, but grain trading is important!
At 8:45 pm this particular Saturday Home Depot was still very busy, the large 24 hour Wal-Mart located across the street had a full parking lot, and at 9pm I had to wait in line at Taco Bell, for fast food Mexican in a community full of good Mexican restaurants.
Where my attention and my mind kept drifting this Sunday morning were to these experiences the night before and this question…Why do we meet from 11 to noon on Sunday morning? Why does church keep such limited hours? Don’t people need spiritual help at 4 in the afternoon on Thursdays, noon on Mondays, midnight on Fridays? Yes if you belong to a church you know how to call the pastor or others for help, but what about those potential customers looking for help at odd hours that don’t know who or where to call? Where do they go to be fed and loaded up spiritually? How does a small church serving a small community, service the needs of a 24 hour society? Wonder if there are any 7-11 7 Day Adventist Churches, or instead of 1st Baptist a 24 Hour Baptist?
Society has changed and to reach the lost, churches (meaning us that attend) need to change. Isn’t our faith important enough to warrant some extended hours? Think I am going back to Taco Bell I need to borrow their sign… Patterson Avenue Church of God ”open late, midnight or later”!
David.
