In a changed world where businesses are open and youth travel clubs schedule tournaments on Sundays, many people are left to choose between church and obligations.
Mahomet Church of the Nazarene Pastors Lutz and Deb Braunig hope to fill that gap by offering Friday night services beginning March 7. Traditional Sunday services will still continue.
The Friday night service is not designed for Sunday morning worshippers to spend another night in church, but rather to offer an alternative worship for people who have other obligations, want to relax over the weekend or have an aversion to the traditional Sunday service.
As riders in a Harley Davidson group, the Braunigs understand people need to relax over the weekend, whether they take a trip or spend time at home with family. Through a year of prayer, the Braunigs were reminded of the eight years they spent traveling throughout the United States, often ministering to campground visitors.
“People wanted to be out on their boats, but they also wanted a time of worship,” Lutz said. “It’s kind of like God’s brought us back with a little kick in the butt. ‘Hey. Remember when you were on the road, and people still wanted to worship?’”
When they announced the Friday night addition to their congregation, some members seemed interested in the service as a time to unwind from the work week in worship, then spend the weekend truly resting. The Braunigs also believe this will give youth a safe place to gather on Friday nights.
“All week long we get beat up,” Deb said. “We’re hoping it becomes a highlight of people’s week, so they can be encouraged and refreshed. Then actually enjoy the weekend.”
While Lutz will continue to run a traditional Sunday morning service, the Friday night service, facilitated by Deb will include focuses on praise, prayer and practice. The Braunigs will remove some of the traditional row seating in the sanctuary to bring in tables for people to sit around.
The service will include worshipful music interjected between media, teaching and discussion on how discipleship looks in everyday life.
“I think religion has had a lot of connection with the don’ts,” Deb said. “Don’t do this and don’t do that. We’re going to be celebrating all of the dos. There are a lot of wonderful dos. Jesus said he came to give us life abundantly.”
“(The worship) very God-centered,” she said. “It’s not about us. The whole word worship means to adore and express and celebrate. We talk about being a discipline in very superficial terms. But how does it work? It’s more than coming to a worship service. If it’s not applied every day, it doesn’t work.”
The Braunigs do not want people to feel guilted into worshipping through obligation. They also noted that Jesus was not as structured as religion is.
“A lot of people see that denominations take the approach of divide and conquer,” Lutz said. “That’s not pleasing to God. It’s a matter of ministry philosophy and service. No one congregation can do it all. When you think about the 61853 area, it’s nearly 15,000 people. There is a lot of ministry and service to be done.”
The Braunigs enjoy being a part of the Mahomet Ministerial Association because the pastors involved in the organization overcome denomination boundaries to support each other’s programming.
“We’re here to support one another because we’re here working for the same reason, the same goal” Lutz said.
The Braunigs were mindful to not overlap with programs already provided in the area. With a few churches offering Saturday night services in Champaign, the Braunigs felt Friday may fill a need within the community.
Both Deb and Lutz hope the Friday night service will not provide an opportunity of worship, but that this process will encourage the Friday night group to serve communities outside of the church.
“During our time here, we’ve never really stopped to seek out our niche,” Deb said. “I hope it’s a new perspective, mindset, a different lense of looking at the community, and capturing a different vision of why we’re here.”
After 27 years of marriage and ministry together, the Braunigs are not only trying to reconnect with their ministerial roots, but to embrace their different strengths to provide other services within the Mahomet Church of the Nazarene. Deb is a business chaplain while Lutz is a law enforcement chaplain. Growing up in three different countries, Lutz is also billingual.
Deb’s great-grandmother founded the Mahomet Church of the Nazarene in 1927.
