White Alliance

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Unbolt the pews...

By Andrew Mackinnon

Church Bible study groups constitute a primary driver of the spiritual growth of individual church members, as well as newcomers to the church, and are indispensable for the relational growth of the church as a whole.  However, their effectiveness is greatly diminished by the severe time pressure under which they often operate during the evening in the middle of the working week.

The new format for conducting church services on Sunday proposed on this website involves moving the mid-week, evening church Bible study groups to the less pressured time of the second half of three Sunday church services of 3 hours in length each, being:

This church service is geared towards families with children aged 0 to 11 years at the start of the calendar year and parents whose children are now aged 18 plus years at the start of the calendar year.

> Includes Creche for children aged 0 to 2 years at the start of the calendar year and Sunday school for children aged 3 to 11 years at the start of the calendar year.

> Older married couples with children aged 18 plus years have an important role to play in this church service of the leadership of the Bible study groups, if they desire, utilising their wealth of wisdom and experience for the benefit of the younger parents of younger children.

> Only the Bible study groups for the parents of children that can’t fit at church are held off-site, ideally in fixed locations as close as possible to the church, such as in church members’ homes.

> For children aged 9 to 11 years at the start of the calendar year, Sunday school includes Bible study groups of fourteen members sitting in a circle, comprising a male leader, a female co-leader, six females and six males.  The format of these Bible study groups should be identical to the format of the Bible study groups for the parents of children attending Sunday school, except that the duration should be reduced.  The length of the Bible studies should be reduced to 30, 40 and 50 minutes depending on whether the attendees are aged 9, 10 or 11 years, respectively, at the start of the calendar year.

This church service is geared towards single adults aged 18 plus years at the start of the calendar year and married adults without children.

> Older married couples with children aged 18 plus years, as well as older single males and older single females, have an important role to play in this church service of the leadership of the Bible study groups, if they desire, utilising their wealth of wisdom and experience for the benefit of the younger married and single adults.

> All Bible study groups are held off-site, ideally in fixed locations as close as possible to the church, such as in church members’ homes, due to the clash between the finish time of this church service at 16:30 and the start time of the next church service at 15:15.

This church service is geared towards families with teenagers aged 12 to 17 years at the start of the calendar year and parents whose children are now aged 18 plus years at the start of the calendar year.

> Includes Youth Group in two separate locations divided up into teenagers aged 12 to 14 years at the start of the calendar year and teenagers aged 15 to 17 years at the start of the calendar year.

> Older married couples with children aged 18 plus years have an important role to play in this church service of the leadership of the Bible study groups, if they desire, utilising their wealth of wisdom and experience for the benefit of the younger parents of younger teenagers.

> Only the Bible study groups for the parents of teenagers that can’t fit at church are held off-site, ideally in fixed locations as close as possible to the church, such as in church members’ homes.

> For teenagers aged 12 to 17 years at the start of the calendar year, Youth Group includes Bible study groups of fourteen members sitting in a circle, comprising a male leader, a female co-leader, six females and six males.  The format and duration of these Bible study groups should be identical to the format and duration of the Bible study groups for the parents of teenagers attending Youth Group.

The effect of transferring weekly Bible study groups to the Sunday church services is to enable these highly valuable catalysts for the spiritual growth of their members to be conducted in a less hurried manner and to be of even more benefit to church members and newcomers alike.  This transfer requires that the Sunday church services be extended to 3 hours in length with start times of 9:00, 13:30 and 15:15, so that the Bible study groups take place in the second half of these Sunday church services after a 15 minute break to allow for all attendees to greet each other and socialise.

The new format for conducting church services on Sunday proposed on this website resembles much of the manner in which activities take place at church camps, characterised by prolonged interaction between church members and prolonged discussion between church members.  Ministers routinely claim that church camps are striking catalysts for spiritual growth in individual church members and in the church as a whole, probably because church camps are typically characterised by both time spent together listening to preaching and by time spent in groups studying the Bible and discussing issues that are directly and indirectly relevant.  Under this new format for conducting church services on Sunday, this kind of spiritual growth of individual church members would take place on a weekly basis, in the unhurried time of Sunday morning or Sunday afternoon, instead of infrequently in the same unhurried time of church camps.

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