mid-week mid-day services

Let me say a bit about the weekly mid-week service that we hold on a Wednesday lunch-time.

It's a brief(ish) sort of service, a mere half hour or so, and it's held at half past twelve. The day and the time and the length of the thing all suit the folk who come.

Sundays aren't that easy for a lot of folk today. Domestic life has got to be a pretty complicated thing for many folk - which sometimes makes a Sunday more a nightmare than a day of rest. So Wednesday, for some, works better.

And even for those for whom Sunday works fine, Wednesday is a useful sort of 'half-way house'. A lot can happen in the first few days of a week, and the chance for a spiritual 'breather' is a gift they're glad to take. Pausing mid-week to get your bearings again.

For a number of older folk as well a 12.30 start is about as good as it gets. The 10.30 start on a Sunday morning is way too early - they're simply not up and able to get on the go by then: and a 6.30 start (the time of our Sunday evening worship) is getting too late. A 12.30 start is ideal!

And the fact that it's only a short half hour is also a thing in its favour. For some that's about as much as their bodies can take.

So the thing works well for a sizeable sort of constituency now. We have maybe 30 or 40 (on a good day) along. Not many, perhaps, in the great grand scheme of things. But more than enough to make it worthwhile.

There's a lunch in the hall as well for them always afterwards. That's part of the package. Part of their worship as well. Meeting and eating and greeting each other. Catching up with each other and sharing the culture of faith.

Many live mainly alone. This is a weekly reminder of what God's in store for his people. The life of heaven. Together.

Getting them there is a part of the package as well. We hire a local mini-bus and pick them up - and take them back later on. I guess for a number the trip round the town as the bus picks folk up is a bit of a highlight each week.

The journey together in its own little way is a part of the worship as well. It's a version of a 'pilgrim' way of life. A people following Jesus, travelling down the path of faith together.

It costs, of course. I hadn't quite realised just how much it costs until the 'Annual Congregational Meeting' we held tonight. We pay about £1,500 a year to lease the bus each week.

We see it as a good and right investment of resources. Ministry always costs.

It costs in terms of time as well. The folk involved in ensuring the tables are set, the food is prepared, the people are welcomed and served - it costs all these folk their time and not a little energy.

That's part of their worship, too. That giving of ourselves in countless ways - each one an act of worship to the Lord who gave his all.

I don't always lead the lunch-time service myself. We have other very able people here and I try and make some use of them as well.

Today it was Douglas, the rector at the Scottish Episcopal Church at the other end of the street. He has a rich and resonant voice, and an easy, rather conversational sort of style.

His love for the Lord shines through as he speaks and his teachable spirit is always in evidence, too. He revels in the Scriptures and makes it his business to study and teach the Scriptures in his own church day by day. A good man. And he loves being here and sharing in this worship on a Wednesday.

He's not, by any means, the only one who does so. I've any number of folk on whom I can regularly call.

I want to give them that context to use their teaching gift. They're able folk whose leading of worship is reverent, warm and enriching.

I suspect more and more in the days ahead, both here and throughout the land, there will be a great need for the ministry folk like this have. I want to equip them, to afford them the chance to have worked on their gifts and be more and more able to lead folk in worship and teach what the Scriptures declare.

These Wednesday lunch-time services have a role to play for them. They're a sort of 'training ground' in many ways on which they hone their skills.

And, of course, it isn't just a help to me to have them take the lead in this: it's a ministry to me as well.

So these Wednesday lunch-time services are suggestive of a much more rich and 'fluid' sort of pattern that our life in coming days may well involve.

And closer, too, to how it's meant to be.