Pass the mic

Most Baptist churches in New England used to have a Sunday evening service. The church culture and resulting routine was that you got up early on Sunday morning, got dressed in your Sunday finest (shiny shoes a must), ate breakfast together as a family, and then drove off to church for both Sunday School and the Morning Worship Service. But that wasn't enough. Once you came home you then enjoyed a formal family dinner. ("Elbows off the table!") After dessert, it was time to go outside and toss a football with the kids in the front yard and then fall on the sofa and off to nap land.  Hold on, the day wasn't over. Everyone back in the car to yet another church service. Yipee! 

Somewhere along the course of time, things have changed just a bit. As a pastor, I notice very few people coming to church in a suit and tie (or a fancy dress and heels). Somehow Friday dress-down day at work has carried over to Sunday mornings.  And really, that's okay. I'm still going to wear my robe regardless of the current fashion trends.

Eating together for either breakfast or dinner seems to have totally disintegrated from the menu.  So what about the Sunday Evening Service? At least in South County, it's a rare church that bothers to open her doors in the evening.  Our church experimented with a Sunday Service a few years ago.  We found that most people didn't come.  The reasons ran from, "I need to put my kids to bed early" to "I need to do my homework" all the way to, "Seriously, there's no way I'm coming back for another church service... I really don't have the time... or interest."  

And yet, over the course of the last year I have sensed a ground swell to have, well, something happening on a Sunday evening at church.  This has resulted in us being creative and coming up with something that people will want to come to.  The idea isn't to get warm bodies into a building at a certain time of day.  That would seem like a totally useless waste of time and energy on everyone's part. Actually, the core idea is to simply provide an opportunity for those who want to draw closer to Jesus the possibility of doing so in a corporate setting.  

I have great expectations for our open mic night. What I don't have is a look into the future to see what the pastor fifty years from now will be cooking up for a Sunday evening.  Perhaps it will be a retro service where everyone dresses up and sings from old hymnbooks they find on Ebay.