September has been spent visiting a variety of churches to experience their worship. One of the things I was looking at was Midweek worship - who is it for? how is it shaped? what is it's purpose?

I was really hoping I would find somewhere that was serving younger folk with families for whom Sunday morning is a problem - but I didn't, these are all catering for people who available in the morning and so are largely the retired. Most are using this as their second service of the week - as they will also be found in church on a Sunday morning - "a top up" one person said, "quieter, more peaceful" said an office holder who spends Sunday morning busy organising. Two good reasons for midweek worship - but I am left wondering where those juggling work, family etc can find their worship space.

However, these services cater for the people who come and each one is well done and valued by those who come along. None are particularly different in style or content - "tame" one Minister described it as - but that suits the people who go and I must admit on each occasion suited me as well. Time is interesting - most were in the morning - 9.45am, 10am, 10.30am - one starts with coffee, another comes before the regular coffee morning (but meant that those setting up couldn't come in) another comes before a Bible Fellowship (although not on the week I visited) so those who want to are spending half a day involved in church activities. The alternative time was 12 noon - after a coffee morning; they had less people there than anywhere else and it was more of a meditation (which is how it was billed) than a service. But it's timing meant that it felt like an add on, and afterwards people were rushing away for buses and dinner. Our midweek communion at St. Andrew's follows the same pattern with the same result - perhaps we need to look at it again.

Nobody used their chapel. One used a foyer area - a good place just off the street for someone trying to find it. Others used community rooms with various issues about locked doors and how to find. One would have been impossible to find had I not been met by the Minister outside, as it was down a long winding corridor. In setting out the room, straight lines predominated - even when placed in a 3-sided horseshoe! Perhaps it's just me - but I do like circles and shape, it feels inclusive and welcoming. And it seems a terrible waste of space not to use the places designed as worship space - a result of course of them being hard to heat and inflexible - is it good stewardship to have big spaces used for an hour a week?

All of these services hoped that Mission would be part of what they are about. One service is used by a couple of people who don't use Sunday morning - this in effect has become their church and it was the establishment of this service that brought them back into church life. All of these would be good places to quietly invite someone to, gently re-introduce friends to worship life - but on the whole I didn't get the impression that was happening - in fact the service before coffee morning has to close it's door so that those arriving early for coffee morning don't disturb them and was set out in a way that would mean that quietly slipping in at the back was not possible. So are they too tame or are we just too embarrassed to invite people along?

So would anyone like to tell us about other forms of midweek worship? Is anyone trying to cater for working people? what else is going on? Anything in the Cambridge area that I could pay a visit to during October?

Next contributions will be on Cafe Church and Sunday morning - but will probably be written from Cambridge as I will be at Westminster College from tomorrow.