A decade ago, when I was church planting, I was in a season where I wasn’t “at” a local on Sunday mornings. I spent some of that time preaching for colleagues when they needed a Sunday off. I also led worship at another United Methodist Church frequently. But on the Sundays when I didn’t have some assignment at a local church, I decided to skip church.

I think you need to do it every now and then as well.

Does this sound a bit off? Well, I realized this past week how the idea is actually helpful for local church leadership.

I had a schedule putting me all over an area on a Sunday, but I had some time in the middle of the morning before I got to the next local church on my schedule. So I pulled into McDonald’s and decided to get a sausage biscuit and just watch things. I had also made a quick run into a Walmart that morning and remembered my short season of skipping church when I was planting.

Church people, especially pastors and other leaders, often don’t watch what others are doing on Sunday morning. As a pastors kid, I assumed church skippers were the dregs of society, much like the character in Kris Kristofferson’s hit Sunday Morning Coming Down.

But every time I am not in church, but in public on a Sunday morning, I always realize things about those folks who might not be planning on going to church that morning. Here are a couple of the things I consistently notice.

• It isn’t just one group of people. I see all ages, races, and socio-economic groups. Everyone skips church.
• I see lots of families, but especially I notice those with small children. They are usually running errands.
• I usually see at least one child (or whole set) being dropped off by one parent at the next. Sunday morning is a key time to understand the lives of single parents. 10 years ago, I would spend Sunday morning at a gas station cafe, and it seemed to be the agreed-upon meeting place for multiple families handing kids off to the other parent.
• I see families getting breakfast before sports games, and groups of adult men getting ready to go fish or golf for the day.
• I see that a massive group of American Adults who work on Sunday are just going about their business. 1/3rd of American Adults will work one weekend day, and if someone is in the service industry or in sales, 50% of them work on weekends.

Skipping church occasionally is one of the best ways to understand those in your community who might not be part of a local congregation. The demographic software we use in my annual conference usually lists 60% as the bare minimum of people who agree to the statement “belief in Jesus does not require participation in a local church.” All of the people you observe while church skipping don’t necessarily NOT engage with a local church, but a portion of them are simply casual attenders or cultural Christians who aren’t members of a local church.

And rarely do I find the dregs of society. What I see is normal people living a normal life during a part of the week, many of us only know as belonging to Sunday worship.

What I recommend is taking at least one Sunday a year to skip church.

Ask other staff at your church to do so as well (on a different day). On that Sunday, be in the community around 8 am and try to stay out until noon. Go get a cup of coffee at one place, sit and eat breakfast elsewhere. Make sure to go to Walmart or the grocery store as well. Observe what your community looks like during church hours on Sunday. See who is active. Note what they appear to be doing. Be curious about how this window into those lives can help you understand how and why church might NOT be a high priority for these people.

Sunday morning is an interesting time of the week. People typically use it for what matters the absolute most to them. Saturday has turned into a work day, or a chore day, or a day filled with other events.

Ask yourselves why those Sunday activities might be more important than being part of a worshipping community. This might be the best investment in evangelism you can make.

PS - Consider this an update to an older article I wrote during that season of life 10 years ago. You can read it here.