By Susan Kane
     Church Multiplication

Many people associate Sunday morning with worship services, Sunday school classes, and fellowship with other believers. However, not many people associate a church experience with Thursday evening. There is a congregation in Indiana that is setting out to change all that.

First Church of God, located in the small southern-Indiana town of Vincennes, was established more than 110 years ago. Styles have changed over the years, but holding weekly worship services on Sunday mornings has not. The church has grown and attendance has remained strong. Currently, there are more than 450 filling the pews on Sunday morning and participating in various ministries that take place during the week. But Pastor Debbie Salters, minister of Christian education, realized that there might be more to winning souls for Christ than holding the traditional service on Sunday morning. “In February 2006, I led a Power Team Crusade here at First Church. Over twelve hundred people gave their heart to the Lord, but we only kept five families. This was great because they were truly transformed, but I couldn’t shake the fact that there were so many unchurched baby believers out there. I asked God to give me direction. He did.” It was then that the idea for Thursday Church was born. In a question-and-answer session, Salters shared some background and the vision she has for this new ministry venture.

What situations brought about the idea for starting Thursday Church? I truly believe that First Church of God is a fantastic church to invite people to, but I couldn’t shake the idea that there were so many people not being ministered to. In January 2008, we asked the Power Team to return to our city, but with one major difference: This time we would give the new believers what they really needed. We would meet them where they were.

How did you find out what their needs were? I started asking people why they didn’t come to our church, and the answers were eye-opening; the most frequently mentioned were:

• The Sunday morning timeframe doesn’t work.

• Single moms, who often have low seniority in the work place, work on Sundays.

• It is the only day some folks have to sleep in.

• Often, Sunday is viewed as family activity day.

• The sanctuary is too formal or fancy and they don’t feel comfortable.

• They don’t have “appropriate” church clothes that fit in with the people who attend there.

• The service is just too long. New believers don’t feel obligated to give up over an hour and a half or more for worship.

Where did the idea to meet on Thursday night originate? Thursday night came about because that was the night Jesus washed his disciples’ feet. If it was a good teaching night for Jesus, I thought it might be a good teaching night for us.

Has this been as successful as you anticipated? Even after being advised that it wouldn’t work, we trusted that God knew more about building his church than anyone. The folks who attend wouldn’t fit into a normal church structure. Many have zero church background, and we continue to meet people who have never been to church at all. Once a person reaches adulthood without a church experience, they feel very odd and uncertain in a well-oiled church machine. I trusted that it would be fine. Wow! It has been fine! Our weekly attendance continues to rise. For April, we averaged 173. However, we are poor, real poor. Our average giving for April was $275. We have a lot of $1 givers, but they are giving and that’s a great start.

Where are you presently meeting? Presently we meet in the First Church fellowship hall, which we now call the Family Room because of the sofas and coffee-house atmosphere. It’s nothing fancy. In fact, the couches don’t even match.

What about the community? How is the church perceived in Vincennes? Folks are just learning about us. But everywhere you go, someone is talking about the church that meets on Thursday. We are very active in every local event possible—parades, park events, little league teams (which we sponsor), the high school band and sports teams, child abuse weekends and cancer fundraisers. You name it, we’re doing it.

Talk a little about the ministries you offer to the Thursday Church. We have eight life groups up and running; cooking; exercise; home repair; Thursday Church set up; dinner clubs; Bible studies; and more. We have a band that is out of this world and a team (which is my small group) that works like you wouldn’t believe. We have children’s classes and Caraway Street, our version of Sesame Street Christian-style. Our Thursday Church youth attend the youth group at First Church. We are focused on fellowship and relationship building, but we do have a small devotional at each life group. We won’t do a full-blown Bible study with these groups until the relationship is solid. We are still just a big group of strangers.

Finally, what is your vision for Thursday Church? Where do you see it headed? My personal goal is to have 1 percent of the city in a year, and we have a town of nineteen thousand people. We are actually a church within a church. It truly is a way to reach people who aren’t comfortable in a regular church. First Church gives us love and support, but we are an independent group that is totally dependent on the mother church. We don’t water down the message, but we do speak in very simple words. We use all types of media to be effective, and each week we try to help those attending experience the lesson. Our service is very different from a Sunday morning service, and that’s okay!

A recent billboard the church had in the community helps say it best:

Don’t Like Church? Try Again!
Thursday Church—
Doing Church Differently
Where it’s not about how bad you are,
But about how good Jesus is.