The Cost of Tuesday Church

Unique items usually cost more. It does not mean they are good quality or any better then common things. They just have a higher cost associated with their anomalous nature.

Take, for example, a church that forsakes the standard Sunday morning worship time for a mid-week evening gathering time. The Next Level Church has never had its main gathering on Sunday morning. As a matter of fact, TNL is the only known church that has its main gathering on a Tuesday night.

At its genesis TNL had to meet on Tuesday nights (Tuesday Night Live) because that was the only time when space at its mother church was available. Over the years meeting on Tuesday has become a missional value. However, holding to that value has it price. Here are a few:

• TNL has about 700 unique first time visitors a year walk through its doors, yet we are a community of 400. Many people come, check things our, like what they see but in the end move on because Tuesday night church is just weird.

• TNL has many people who hang out on Tuesday nights, but who are "members" at other churches in town. About 43% of a typical gathering "attends another church," our last annual survey told us. Its easy to "mistress" with TNL because people resonate with the communities vision and mission, they enjoy the vibe and it is different than their church. But ultimately their hearts, energies and offerings belong to another.
  

• TNL loses people regularly because we keep them up too late. Young families with little kids need to get them to bed so they get a good nights sleep. Students have class in the morning. Working professional need to get up early. For some people it is just plain hard to be out one more night a week.

• TNL has to fight the fatigue of the daily grind. Its difficult to get people to come to a church that starts at 7pm after putting in a long day at the office or in the class room.

• TNL is perceived by some not to be a "real" church because it does not meet on Sundays. Meeting on Tuesday somehow relegates us to being just a young adult ministry, a fake church or some odd quasi church-thingy.

So why do we continue meeting on Tuesday nights...? It a missional value.

My next post will be on the benefits of Tuesday church.