Monday, July 24, 2006

Recon

Yesterday was one of those rare Sundays when I was not teaching and I did not have other worship celebration experience responsibilities. I wondered earlier in the week what I would do. I thought real hard about attending one of the more innovative churches in the Fredericksburg area to get ideas and see how other people were connecting others to Christ.

However I settled on doing a little recon instead. I wanted to see what people were doing who were not in church on Sunday. After all, if these are the people we are trying to reach why shouldn't we learn as much as we can about their Sunday morning habits. While it was strange to be driving around on Sunday morning the learning was invaluable. Here is what I observed from about 10:30 a.m. to noon.

  • In the neighborhood I drove through there were many garage doors open with people getting ready to mow grass or in the process of washing cars. There was not a tremendous amount of activity but more than I though there would be.
  • There were a significant amount of people at WaWa, Food Lion, Wal-Mart, Lowes, Toys R Us, and especially the brand spanking new Target.
  • One lady I was next to at a stop light was playing contemporary Christian music while smoking a cigarette. She would fit in well at New Season! Like Jesus, we love smokers though not their habit!
  • When I passed the big soccer complex at Loriella Park there were no soccer or baseball games going. Good for you Spotsylvania Parks and Rec.

Here are some take aways from what I saw.

  • While all these people were different and no doubt some were regularly connected to a faith community there are still vast amounts of people not connected to a faith community and no doubt vast amounts living without Christ.
  • All of the churches in are area could double and there would still be unchurched people in our area.
  • Future servant evangelism efforts (passing out free water/ drinks, free newspapers and coffee, free car washes) should take place on Sunday mornings if that is who we are trying to demonstrate the love of Christ to.
  • I dream of a day when we will cancel Sunday worship (maybe move it to Saturday) and be out serving in the community on a Sunday morning.

See you in church next week!

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