Benefits of NOT being in church Sunday morning...

Church on the Rock has already revealed a significant side benefit for us, since we decided last Sunday (as a whole family) to make it our church home.

The obvious thing that first attracted us, of course, was that it's a radical church plant focussed on reaching the youth & young adult culture of Hamilton Mountain. As such, you have a very missionally-minded leadership team that is determined to strike a wholesome balance between building up those who call the church "home", and the ongoing outreaches they do into the youth subculture.

But this afternoon, I discovered another side benefit: Because COTR meets in the pub at Mohawk, our church "services" are Sunday evenings, meaning that we're home all Sunday morning and afternoon, just like our neighbours.

Which explains why, as I was making wooden shelves in my garage today, with the door open to allow for some cooler air to come in, I met most of my neighbours. Apparently, in this neighbourhood, the opening of your garage door (especially when coupled with sounds of power tools) means "come on over and say hello". I was even treated to one of my neighbour's home-brewed beers (very nice -- the offer and the beer itself). We all pitched in and helped the guy across the street put the cab back on his new GMC pickup truck, and I met more neighbours.

And it suddenly occurred to me, after two hours of visiting and meeting other neighbours had passed, that perhaps one of the greatest side benefits of a church that meets in the evenings is that I'm home and available for hangin' out when my neighbours are. In a more typical church setting, I'd be conspicuously absent during prime neighbourhood time. And as Canadians, there is little that says "welcome to our community" like the offering of beer.

I'm going to hook up our BBQ later today. It's suddenly become a tool for evangelism. And the beer store is at the end of our street.

And I still get to go to church in a few hours!