sunday reflections

Sarah was away at the weekend in Florence with friends celebrating Jo's birthday. Sounds like they had a great time.

I did as well! Being home alone with the children (for just a weekend!!) it's quite a cool experience as my children are so amazing.  I don't know whether it is true for most children, but in the main, ours will tend to run things past Sarah rather than me. With Sarah away stuff came to me and it was a joy being involved in their lives in a slightly different way.

We also took the excuse to catch up with friends either over takeaways or at Nandos ... and that was great too. I think this was massively helped by myself not being on the rota for Sunday ...

Not being on the rota gave an indication of what life is like for others who do not have a church connection that requires some form of attendance on a Sunday morning. The word that summed up the experience was 'relaxed'. With no rush to get out the door there were no arguments among people and the day was relatively stress free and happy.

With time being so precious today for families, and for most Sunday being the day when families can get together (I know this is not the case for everyone as people work Sundays too ... I know!!) I have been thinking for a while that maybe 'church' needs to view Sunday differently.

With the gathering I am wondering whether our Sunday's together should be more social, with less emphasis and worry on doing something that is worshipful and teaches us ... so that the Sunday can be a 'sabbath' experience where rest, fun, socialising and eating together can be really embraced. I guess to do that though, we would need to take on a commitment to worship at another time during the week, and that could well be costly and difficult itself ... or would it?

Would church on a Wednesday tea time, or a Monday evening really be any more of a challenge than church on a Sunday morning or afternoon? Do we need to think wider than we are ...?

Any comments ....