Church by the Bridge (CBTB) has launched a new Saturday night service as part of its strategy to reach the Kirribilli community.
Saturday Night by the Bridge " which starts at 5.30pm " is being run as an informal service with an extended period of worship time and an "espresso break' before the Bible talk, finishing at around 7pm to allow people to continue with their Saturday night plans afterwards.
The decision to plant a Saturday night congregation is largely the result of a survey conducted by the church around the Kirribilli community, asking locals whether they would be interested in attending church, and if so, when.
While most said they wouldn't attend church, senior minister, the Rev Dr Paul Dale says those who expressed interest picked Saturday night as their second preferred timeslot, with Sunday evenings the most popular choice.
"We want to make it as easy as possible for locals to hear about Jesus, so we decided to start a service on Saturday nights.”
The first service - which was held on Saturday night - attracted close to 50 people, including a core group of 35 CBTB members who have elected to make Saturday Night by the Bridge their regular church service.
Dr Dale says gathering this core group to commit to Saturday night church has encouraged a "change of mindset" in which people have set aside their late Saturday afternoons as "church time'.
It is very early days, but some CBTB members have given good reviews of the first Saturday night church experience, Dr Dale says.
"A couple of people did comment to me that they appreciated coming to church with their minds focused rather than being distracted by the thought of work and the coming week."
While there are practical challenges such as coordinating Saturday afternoon weddings with this new service timeslot, Dr Dale says the beginnings of Saturday Night by the Bridge have been "very encouraging".
"What was most encouraging was the people who walked in off the street and stayed for 10 minutes," he says.
"We're really praying they'll come back."