Observation and Experience

Radiant Church Juneau is determined to be a church that offers a gospel response to our Juneau culture. To understand our culture it's vital we know the daily and weekly rhythms of our city. We need to recognize our peculiar cultural seasons (of which there are three: Legislative Season, Tourist Season and Fall.)

In response to our culture we prayerfully determined to gather for corporate worship on Sunday evenings. The Yacht Club provided a serviceable venue at a relatively affordable price. (Meeting at a yacht club sounded cool, too.) We even had dinner together after, like families do. The decision behind our meeting time was driven by mission. We wanted to be accessible and visible to people who might want to see what a family of servant missionaries looks like when they're assembled together. We recognized in our city, and even in us, people are jealous for their weekends. At first blush, Sunday evenings didn't seem to interfere with weekends. Too much.

And while weekend jealousy here in Juneau is real, we learned something else. People in our city are even more jealous for their Sunday evenings. Through observation and experience we have learned that people, including us, look to Sunday evenings as time to get emotionally prepared for the work week, to put the proverbial game face back on. We've learned that Sunday evenings are really tough on families with littles who might have (God forbid) missed nap time. We've learned that business travel for Alaskans often begins Sunday evening. We've learned that Alaskans feel entitled to and thus play hard on the weekends, reserving Sunday evenings for recovery. And boat clean up.

In response, and starting this week we're back to Sunday mornings. Back to 10:00am. Back to Harborview Elementary School. Back to hauling our gear in and out. Back to what we did last year.

Sunday gatherings are not the sum total of who we are or what we do. We are a church made up of gospel communities (GC's) who gather throughout the week. That doesn't change. GC's are our foundational building blocks.

Some may say we cannot make up our minds. Others may suggest we change things too often. We'd like to think we're nimble, creative, flexible. Like a family of servant missionaries.