Joseph Knowles
Puritan Board Freshman
I've posed this question to a couple men whose guidance I trust, but I thought it couldn't hurt to see if anyone here has some insights to offer as well.
I'm in the very early planning stages of trying to put together a small group retreat for a handful of couples (certainly no more than 20-25 people, if that; topic/theme TBD). Most would probably be members of my church, but a few others would not be. Most of the locations that I've looked into give a weekend rental rate such that we could (if we wanted to) arrive on a Friday evening and stay through until the middle of the day Sunday. I do not want to keep anyone from corporate worship on the Lord's Day. However, I think that if I proposed the idea of hosting our own worship service on that Sunday morning, most would probably be on board with the idea. What gives me pause is the question of whether gathering for such a service outside of the normal routine of our churches is something that we ought to do in the first place.
A year or two ago, I doubt I would have given it a second thought except, perhaps, to figure out what preacher we would need to bring along with us. Now, however, I think my understanding of what the local church is and is called to do has changed so much that this is not an issue that I can lightly pass over. Can anyone point offer any advice here? Can you point me in the direction of any materials that might discuss this or related issues?
I'm in the very early planning stages of trying to put together a small group retreat for a handful of couples (certainly no more than 20-25 people, if that; topic/theme TBD). Most would probably be members of my church, but a few others would not be. Most of the locations that I've looked into give a weekend rental rate such that we could (if we wanted to) arrive on a Friday evening and stay through until the middle of the day Sunday. I do not want to keep anyone from corporate worship on the Lord's Day. However, I think that if I proposed the idea of hosting our own worship service on that Sunday morning, most would probably be on board with the idea. What gives me pause is the question of whether gathering for such a service outside of the normal routine of our churches is something that we ought to do in the first place.
A year or two ago, I doubt I would have given it a second thought except, perhaps, to figure out what preacher we would need to bring along with us. Now, however, I think my understanding of what the local church is and is called to do has changed so much that this is not an issue that I can lightly pass over. Can anyone point offer any advice here? Can you point me in the direction of any materials that might discuss this or related issues?