I do love Sundays at St John’s. I love gathering with 200 or so people at our 3 different services, leading people in worship, praying and singing together and learning about God’s word. I love hearing about what has been going on in people’s lives through the week. I love meeting new people who are visiting our church or trying out our church for the first time. I miss people when they’re not there on a Sunday but I love it when people who haven’t been for a while can feel like they’ve never been away. I especially love the opportunity to present the church in a way that people might not expect when they are invited to something like a baptism service.
In my role there’s lots to do, hundreds of names to try and remember, and by the end of the day I usually collapse on the lounge but with a sense of accomplishment and purpose: another Sunday at St John’s complete! But is Sunday all there is to a Christian life – is it the crescendo to the week, is it the ultimate mountaintop experience, is it the one thing that holds everything together? As much as I love Sundays, my answer is no – Sundays are none of that – or at least should be none of those things.
Don’t get me wrong, I still want you to come on Sunday and I’ll still miss you if you’re not there BUT what I pray for is that the other 167 hours of your week are at least as meaningful, purposeful, God directed and Spirit inspired as the hour in which you attend Sunday worship. I do wonder if a lot of churches, including ours, have got it backwards when all their resources are focused on just one day.
Mark 2:27-28 says: “The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.” In context that has a particular meaning for the Jewish people but for us I think it can be a reminder that our sole purpose is not what happens on Sundays – Sundays is for our benefit, refreshment, motivation, education and so on but we are called to go from Sundays to the something else to which God is calling us – families, responsibilities, employment, relationships, and so on. These things are the heart of our Christian ministry.
At St John’s we want to encourage your other 167 hours, we want to support them, we want to pray for them and we want to enable them. And when we do gather together on Sundays we can share the many ways that God has worked in and through us, been present with us, comforted, restored and transformed us.
I’ve been called to lead the church on Sundays but to serve the church in it’s ministry for the rest of the week. I pray Sundays can be an encouragement and celebration of our ministry throughout the rest of the week.