In the past, Church gathering together many times a week seemed to be a much bigger part of life than it seems today...
I hesitate to say this, because Church may well still be like this for many...
...but it feels as if our lives are so busy with work, family life, the complex demands of modern life, Netflix, home life, hobbies etc etc...
that Church gathering together in practical, tangible ways occupies a smaller part of life than it is supposed to.
Reading diaries and journals from even 50 years ago, it seems that Church family life was a joyful obsession and life-giving service of Christians - here in the Western world as well as elsewhere.
Being an elderly or widowed or stay-at-home Church member was quite different... in terms of feeling part of a warm, active family.
Being a single Christian used to be a very different kind of experience of life.
[Again... I know that some still experience just this kind of warm Church life... but in speaking to many around the UK, I get the sense that things have changed... and not just in the last 18 months of Covid...]
The Church family would often meet TOGETHER to share life, with prayer and Bible study, service and social care, worship and work.
For example, when I grew up we would meet together three times on a Sunday - 10:30; 2:30 and 6:30... with a Youth Fellowship time AFTER the evening service.
Visiting one another was much more common - so I remember my parents often going to visit members of the Church family throughout the week. [They STILL do this in their 80's - and mum writes all kinds of letters and cards to keep in touch].
There was a relaxed Monday evening time for a few of the Church family to enjoy Bible study and prayer.
On Wednesday evening there was the Christian Endeavour - which is a meeting where everybody has an opportunity to lead, sing, speak, lead in prayer, do the Bible reading etc.
Thursday evening was a Youth Fellowship time of discipleship and prayer and there were other times of meeting for service, prayer and fellowship that I've forgotten!
Church gathering together was the engine and highlight of life.
The centre of life was gathering together as Church.
Church is how we share life, resources - joy, problems and pain.
To join Church was to join a warm active family with practical and spiritual energy.
Some of us will still experience something like this kind of very engaged Church family life - but many do not.
I spoke to a Church minister who said that much of the energy through the week went into preparing the Sunday morning gathering - which was almost like a theatre production... something that essentially people came to as an audience... rather than a more simple, predictable family gathering.
Another described the one Sunday gathering more as a kind of lecture - the goal of which was giving accurate information... which also took immense preparation... but which was a fairly passive weekly event for most of the Church family.
In other words, Church family gathering together was a small part of weekly life - and was essentially a fairly passive event.
If human beings are all designed to live as Church - to share life together in this full-hearted and physical way...
what does it mean if we have designed modern life to be so distracting, draining and demanding that Church life ends up being more like a hobby?
If Church is God's answer to all of life's problems, what is Church supposed to be like throughout the week so that we find these answers?
Just food for thought....