Why Move to Saturday Night?

It’s a good question. Going to worship on Saturday night is a pretty different idea for most of us. It’s kind of a big change for The Crossing— a change that The Crossing task force spent a lot of time researching, considering, and praying about before making a decision this summer. I want to share with you the reasons and hopes behind our move to Saturday nights.

1. Outreach Potential There isn’t another weekly Saturday night service in the Huntington area, yet in many other cities, it has proven to be a popular worship time for churches. We think (and hope) there might be a number of people in our community who would be interested in this non-traditional worship time. The Crossing has always been a different sort of worship service for people who might be looking for something different. 5:30 on Saturdays is different. Because of that we hope to reach out to new people. (And, by the way, we’d love for you to join us in reaching out. Who will you invite to worship with you? Who do you know that might be looking for a place to worship?)
2. It’s a Good Time to Go Out Saturday nights is the time when most people like to go out. Why not go to church and meet up with other friends for the night? 5:30 is early enough that you can come to worship before whatever else you have planned for the evening. Many people tell me that on Sunday nights they just don’t feel like going out of the house. Saturday night has a different feel to it. Because of this, we can see the potential for friends to meet for church then spend the evening together, or for small groups to meet for worship then stick together for fellowship or Bible study afterwards. It’s not a school night for families, students can still procrastinate by pushing their studying to Sunday night, and since you’ll have already been to church, you can stay out as long as you like and sleep in the next morning.
3. It’s a Fresh Start The Crossing Task force, as part of their work together, reaffirmed the core values of The Crossing worship service: That it be a place where people can hear and experience grace, that the worship would be engaging, modern, and multisensory with uplifting music and a challenging message, and that the environment would be informal and welcoming, connecting people to the broader ministry and mission of FPC. We love The Crossing worship service and community, but felt like it could use some more energy and excitement behind it—the kind that comes with doing something completely new and different.
4. “Why would I think it’s a good idea?” That’s the question one of our task force members raised in a meeting. She was expressing the fact that moving The Crossing to Saturday nights wasn’t, on the surface, anything she thought would appeal to her—she was happy coming on Sunday nights, it’s what she’s used to, she usually does other things on Saturdays, it seems like a kind of risky and weird switch to make. And yet she, along with other members of the task force, was experiencing what we could only describe as “God-tugs” - that odd excited feeling that maybe this was a different, risky, somewhat weird idea that God just might be behind.
   

I remember saying in a sermon a few weeks ago (sometimes my words come back to haunt me), “The danger in daring to discern where God might be calling you is that you never know where you might end up.” We’ve felt God calling us to Saturday nights at 5:30. We hope you’ll end up there too—beginning September 12th.