Wednesday Night Fellowship

In recent years, many churches have reclaimed Wednesday night as a church night. But instead of worship as in the past, the focus is meal, Bible studies, choir practices and activities for all ages. First Church has shaped such a program for eight or nine years with varying levels of participation. Each year we survey, analyze, change and pray as plans are made to create a program that meets the greatest number of needs. It should also be noted that we have to carefully consider space when making decisions about what we will offer. Providing a good meal at a reasonable price is becoming an increasing challenge. All of this is to say, lots of thought is behind what we offer each week. However, Wednesday Night Fellowship is not what many persons envision and this provides a major dilemma for me as my name is attached to it. The only solace in this situation is that many of my peers in other churches are facing the same declining interest in this kind of program. One size does not fit all. Perhaps the season for this type of experience has passed. The most frequent comments I hear involve that family schedules cannot be stretched to include several hours at our North Campus on Wednesday night. There are also mileage and food cost considerations. Perhaps we are not considering the realities of 2008 in our planning. How important is this major focus to growing faithful disciples?