CUMBERLAND — People had asked if the church had a Saturday evening service. At the time, it didn’t.
But the Buck Creek Baptist Church has one now.
“We’re just trying to offer this as another avenue that we can draw people to worship God,” said the Rev. Randy Stone, pastor of the church at 135 Muessing.
The church just added a service at 5:30 p.m. Saturdays, launching it April 17. It’s kept to an hour, and there’s a light meal afterward.
It’s designed to have a different feel from the church’s services at 10:30 a.m. Sundays, where the congregation sings mostly traditional hymns, accompanied by a piano.
The Saturday service uses recorded praise and worship music, with the lyrics on slides. No offering is taken. There’s not a time of announcements, and Stone tries to keep his message from the Bible brief.
“We’re hoping that will appeal to folks who are just not into the traditional church service,” he said.
Stone also knows that for some people, like some who had asked about Saturday services, work schedules make it hard to attend church on Sunday morning. He’s hoping people who work Sundays or, for whatever reason, find Saturday a good fit for attending church will take advantage of the opportunity.
Buck Creek adds to the group of congregations in the area who offer Saturday services.
The Rev. Jason Taylor, pastor of Zion Lutheran Church in New Palestine, said the church started a Saturday evening service about a year after his August 2007 arrival.
“The congregation wanted to have an alternative worship time and an alternative worship style to Sunday morning,” Taylor said. “A lot of people work on Sundays, or maybe have family commitments. And then there were people who also wanted to have a contemporary service.”
The service at 5 p.m. Saturdays brings guitar, drums and keyboard to the singing and is different from liturgical services on Sunday. Taylor said some of the regulars on Saturday are drawn to the style, and some like the time slot. He said different people have different reasons for choosing that service, and people of various generations come to it.
“It’s really a cross-section of demographics,” he said.
There’s an added layer of logistics in making such services happen. For example, Taylor said Saturday weddings at Zion Lutheran have to start at 2:30 p.m. or earlier so the church can set up for the Saturday service. He also said having groups of worshipers coming on different days can “segment” a congregation, as people are not passing each other in the hallway on Sunday morning.
A few churches in Hancock County once had Saturday services but don’t now. Mark Wright, senior pastor of Brandywine Community Church, recalls the days when the church had a Saturday service.
The congregation was meeting in a storefront at 1260 N. State St. when the Marsh was the anchor of that shopping center. (Brandywine would later open its current facility at 1551 W. New Road in 2006.) At the time, Brandywine’s three Sunday morning services were filling the storefront site, so the church launched a Saturday service meant to be like those on Sunday.
“Looking back, it accomplished exactly what we’d hoped it would. It created more space for us to grow and we were able to reach new people who found love and forgiveness in Christ!” Wright wrote in an email to the Daily Reporter.
But Wright said what organizers didn’t anticipate was how taxing it would be on children’s church volunteers. Saturday night volunteers were often coming back Sunday morning so they could worship with their families.
Wright said the church decided if it ever had Saturday services again, it would want to have two to make it easier to attend one service and serve during another.
St. Michael Catholic Church has a Vigil Mass at 5 p.m. Saturdays. The Rev. Aaron Jenkins, priest at the Greenfield parish, said there’s been a Saturday service for decades. He said having one follows the Jewish tradition of the new day starting at sundown, so technically that evening Mass is considered a “Sunday” Mass.
“After doing it for decades, I wonder if having Sunday evening services would not have helped to keep Sunday as the holy day because many folks use it as a convenience,” Jenkins wrote in an email to the Daily Reporter. “It does help families get to church, so I guess it helps.”
Stone of Buck Creek Baptist hopes it will help, too.
“It’s just hard to draw people to worship. It’s not part of the culture anymore,” he said.
He hopes a Saturday service, with a meal afterward, will make going to church accessible to people who might not manage to go otherwise.
“Come as you are. Just drop what you’re doing,” Stone said. “Come and worship for an hour with us.”
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These area churches have Saturday services. Each also has the service viewable, or the sermon listenable, online.
5 p.m.: Riley Friends Church, 323 W. Park Ave. (inside the Greenfield Friends building), Greenfield
5 p.m.: St. Michael Catholic Church, 519 Jefferson Blvd., Greenfield
5 p.m.: St. Thomas Catholic Church, 523 S. Merrill St., Fortville
5 p.m.: Zion Lutheran Church, 6513 W. County Road 300S, New Palestine
5:30 p.m.: Buck Creek Baptist Church, 135 Muessing, Cumberland
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