I’m currently on a three-week stint in Oklahoma City. I try to visit a church or two when I’m away, but my training schedule had me training this last Sunday and again this next Sunday.

The LCMS website listed one church (out of 5) in the Oklahoma City city limits that had a service outside of Sunday morning. Unfortunately, when I went to Messiah’s website, the Saturday evening service is now off its schedule. 1120 baptized members, but no worship scheduled on an alternative day.

Type in a zip code and expand to 30 miles, and one finds St. John in Okarche. I am calling them tomorrow to verify that they still have their service Saturday at 6pm. Holy Trinity in Edmond has a 7:15pm Wednesday service, regardless of season.

Besides these two congregations, I can expand the scope to 50 miles and find nothing else. At this point I’m happy just to have found those two.

WELS has two congregations within 50 miles. No extra services.
ELCA has 15 congregations with 50 miles. The five with web sites do not list an alternate service day, and the ELCA web site does not list the worship times of its congregations.
ELS has no churches in Oklahoma. Ditto the CLC, ALCA, CLBA, and the AALC.

I don’t need an organist; singing hymns a cappella might be, dare I say, fun. Throughout Psalms 95, 98, and 100, we are to make a joyful “Noise.” We might even maintain pitch through the service if the entire liturgy is sung. :grin:

I freely admit that worship takes resources, especially those of the pastor. It’s time he could be spent doing something else or being with his family. I know pastors work more than one hour a week, so much more so that they may not get time to read books suggested by their laity. :) Given that preaching is his calling and his main responsibility, though, should the opportunity to preach be more worthwhile than a lot of activities? Between Lent and Advent, this is already done 8-10 weeks a year, with new sermons for those services. If I’m missing Sunday mornings, I’m none the wiser if the pastor reuses the sermon for the previous Sunday. Maybe he tests next week’s sermon on the Wednesday night crew. Even if someone did recognize it, they can hear it again. We bore way too easily.

The oil industry works Sunday mornings; if a driller stops drilling for a day the drilled hole can cave in. Emergency personnel work Sunday mornings, as well as utilities, hotels, airports, restaurants, and in certain months, the American football industry. Are there not opportunities there for growth? Recall the outrage when churches closed for Christmas. Should we not be as concerned when society puts church time in its tidy little corner of the week?

Update: 1:36pm: The Okarche service is still there, and it’s “traditional”. Cool.