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Never on a Sunday?

Mid-week church

Many different kind of fresh expression of church could be grouped under the heading of midweek church. Changing patterns in society have greatly affected Sunday as the most accessible day for worship; many churches now offer a midweek option as noted in the last two English Church Censuses. What kinds of services are being created? Whom do they serve? Are these churches or are they just feeders for Sunday congregations? 

Encounters on the Edge no.11 Never on a Sunday tells two stories that are similar in serving primary school-aged children and meeting midweek but are very different in church tradition and geographic location. The numbers of UK child population in Sunday school have shrunk sadly to only 4% so patterns of midweek meeting are highly significant for re-engaging with children, as these stories are finding. 

Wider still, this issue goes onto comment on other midweek patterns such as youth services, weekday Eucharists and lunchtime services. It asks whether the development of midweek church should be understood as flexibility or compromise and suggests some key missiological advantages that freedom from Sunday constraints could offer us.