Weak on Wednesdays
So last Wednesday at church Matt and I were noticing we were about the only adults under 50 in the building. Why is that? Are the weeks busy enough without adding an additional commitment to come eat dinner at church and attend the prayer meeting? Is there any interest in attending a prayer meeting where you learn of prayer needs of some church members but often non-members followed by a 20-30 minute lecture with no discussion? Is the food worth paying $4 to eat? Are the activities for your children adequate? Let's discuss what it would take to make Wednesdays at our church a source of Christian growth for you and your family.
9 Comments:
To me, Wednesday night church is like exercise. It’s good for me, I know I should do it, I feel better after I do it but I just can’t seem to make the commitment. I bring Reagan every Wednesday night for her activities but most of the time I have Alexander with me and he is still at the age where separation anxiety is a problem so lately I have been taking him to Toys R Us and letting him play for that hour (most of the time Jennifer is not home from work when we leave for church).
I did attend more Wednesday night services last year and enjoyed them. I’m sure you are aware that young adult attendance for evening services is a problem at all churches. At my last church, I was treasurer and had to show up once a month to give the reports. They had the same problem…and still do. I just don’t think it is correctable. Most families our age just don’t see much of each other until 6 PM and then the kids usually go to bed 7:30- 8 PM. I think that for most folks, the bottom line is that it is just not worth the hassle.
I guess what I am trying to say is that the service is fine and I don’t see much that could be done to increase attendance at night for our age group given what I have already stated. Maybe we should tackle the problem of Sunday morning attendance
Sam
Thanks, Sam. To your point, most denominations don't focus on Wednesday nigts at all. They also don't so much with adult Sunday school, for that matter. Commintment to those two things are uniquely Baptist. I suppose you've spoken to the essence of our question. Are people staying away because they don't like the service, or would they stay at home no matter what happened at church on Wednesday nights because they've simply got too much to do?
-Stephen
Never participated in a "blog" so excuse any mistakes..we are into forgiveness aren't we? I have not been a regular Wed. night attender this year...I taught 3/4 yr. old choir last year and the kids(not just mine) were so worn out after preschool or school, dinner, mission friends, and then choir--it was usually 8:00 pm before we got home and the kids(and myself) had about had it...I keep saying that if we could move dinner up a little (5:00) and push the kids activities up as well, that might help things...but, I know few working folk that could make it by 5:00 pm, so that probably wouldn't work either...I truly don't know what the answer is..I know my kids get somehing out of the activities and I would like to be more involved ..I'm like Sam...it's like excercise! good analogy
Amy K.
Hello everyone! I'm with Amy...it is just too late for my kids. They go to bed between 7:15 and 7:30. They are exhausted by then and staying up at the church until 7:30 or 8:00 every Wednesday is not going to happen. Moving the dinner and activities up any earlier are also not a viable options for most people. It is not a problem of too many activities taking time away from Wed. church, it is that we are home every night by 6:45 or so. I agree with Sam in that I don't think there is much we can do to get the little ones, and therefore their parents, there at night. No easy answer on this one. Lori
All of the comments are about ditto for us. I do feel like we should be involved on Wednesdays but it just does not work very well for us right now. It creates a mad rush to get there and then getting home and taking baths, etc is even worse. It is even a struggle for Richard to get there at 6:00 to eat dinner so me trying to get three fed by myself is not very appealing. I do like the service but feel like the prayer requests go on for too long!!! Sorry that is just how I feel. I don't know what the answer is??
Gwynne
Same for us. We'd love to attend, but it's hard to get little ones to bed on time when attending Wed. night. Thanks for taking the time to try to make sure people are included, happy, fulfilled, etc.....
A side note....Pete looked at the Episcopal Church of Ascension website and thought some of their programming for Sun & Wed. nights was interesting. Not sure if any of it would apply for us....but interesting to get other ideas.
Thanks again, Kristen
I hear all of you on disrupting the kid's schedules. I am all too familiar with that since Kim started working nights. However, we as an age group suppored Wednesday nights last year.
Is there anyhting that would make people find a reason to come rather than a reason not to. Smaller bible study groups, different style of meal, or changes in the kids activities? If not, that is okay. I think I would probably attend more regularly if I was in a small group where my friends held me accountable for attending.
We are at a point where we need to grow the church body. If our age group does not support Wednedays, we will have to target others that will not support Wednesdays. That's okay too. We need to have good congregation attendance when we try to recruit and grow.
Will church become more feasible once your children are older and do not require bed at 7:30 and a bath before hand? Would it help to do less, as in either mission friends or choir?
Addressing Stephen's remark about whether or not we will attend Wednesday night services when our kids are older...
I would say no. The following is not a popular thing to say but I think I have heard something like it from you guys before. Being a newer member here I would have to say that I have not seen the commitment of its younger members here that I have seen other places. It is certainly easier to attend on Sunday morning than Wednesday night so I don't really see a hope for a Wednesday night turnaround at this point.
Another problem is the lack of members from ages 35 - 50 at this church. I think that conservative people in that age group would flock here if they knew of the traditional worship that takes place at WHBC. The problem is getting them to leave their home churches of 15-20 years. When I came here I tried to "recruit" a couple in this age bracket who I know were uncomfortable with their new contemporary worship services. They even visited here once. However, in the end I couldn't get them to leave their friends and comfort zone even though they were unhappy there.
All problems and no solutions again, I'm afraid.
Sam
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