Saturday night fever in church

Some folks don’t make fundamental changes in their lives until after they’ve seen the writing on the wall.

For Jess Whitnack, it was the writing on the roof.

A few years ago, Whitnack’s attention was drawn to giant lettering on a sloping church roof on 66th Street in Mill Woods [Edmonton] announcing Saturday evening worship.

Recently released from prison, Whitnack was trying hard to go straight. Although he’d started to turn his life around and was going to church, Saturday nights were always a danger zone. Typically, it was a time spent drinking or getting high with buddies.

On a whim, Whitnack checked out the writing on the roof at Summerside Community Church at 6608 28th Avenue and checked into Saturday night worship.

It was a good move.

In an interview, the 34-year-old journeyman plumber said he really enjoyed the high-energy music and was put at ease by the fact most worshippers were his age or younger.

But what really touched Whitnack was the way a couple of complete strangers came up and invited him to join them for card games at someone’s place after worship.

“It was a very weird experience for me,” said Whitnack, who only a few weeks earlier had completed a prison term for trafficking hard drugs.

“You know you belong to a church when God meets you at the door. And that’s what happened at Summerside: God met me at the door; welcomed me with both arms.”

He added that the worship service on Saturday evening and the socializing that goes on afterwards is great for someone like him with an “addictive personality.” As long as Saturday evenings were at his disposal, there was always the danger that he might slip up and step over onto the wrong side of the law again.

“Summerside gave me another option,” said Whitnack, who added that the church has helped him so much he’s introduced a former inmate friend to the Saturday night church.

While Sunday remains the day for worship, more churches are experimenting with new forms and new times for worship, in an effort to draw more people.

“It can be stressful getting up early for church Sunday morning,” observed Whitnack. “You’re always in a hurry; you’re always late. Saturday night just seems more convenient.”

The success of Summerside with its Saturday night worship has prompted some of the larger evangelical churches in town to offer Saturday night services of their own – usually upbeat services aimed at the young. Other churches are considering the move.

Pastor Ray Wiens, Summerside’s founder, said he deliberately chose Saturday night because he wanted to reach into the community. This Easter Saturday, Summerside will celebrate its third anniversary.

Worship in its leased building begins at 6 p.m. and generally lasts an hour and a half. Services are lively and may include guitars and drums, occasional performances by a drama dance group called Quest, maybe a PowerPoint presentation by Wiens or a movie clip that’s relevant to the message.

“The theme in our worship is celebration,” said Wiens, who moved here from Whistler, B.C. “We take the view that life is good and God is good and we need to take every opportunity that we have to celebrate goodness.”

The celebrating doesn’t end with the final Amen. Most churchgoers get together after worship for group activities like swimming, going to the gym, watching movies or just enjoying a meal and conversation. Social activities often run late into the night.

Another experiment that’s proved a big hit at the church is for several people in the congregation to go on a several-day hiking trip in the mountains in August.

Whitnack’s hearty endorsement of Saturday night church is in sharp contrast to some of the gloomy things Pastor Wiens heard when he brought up the idea with local clergy.

“Nobody will come to church on Saturday night because they’re busy doing other things,” one minister bluntly told Wiens.

“In Edmonton, Saturday night is party night,” another skeptic observed.

Rather than be deflated, Wiens said he decided that if Edmontonians want to party on Saturday night, “We’ll bring that party into the church.”

As a result of its success, Summerside plans eventually to build a church on 40 acres of land it owns near the city’s southern boundary.

—Reprinted by permission from Edmonton Journal, March 13, 2004.