It seems glaringly obvious to me today that we the church who put most of our energy into a one-hour-a-week gathering have things upside down. Maybe this is why little churches that don't have a full-time pastor are often healthier than the churches that have one.
Think about the gospels. Jesus teaches, heals, prays. If there's a worship service in there somewhere, Jesus isn't the one leading it. The ones who are leading temple services are the ones that Jesus is arguing with, the ones that he calls "blind guides."
So why is the weekly worship service the biggest thing we do? Its the primary focus of my time and my pastoral training. I had classes in seminary about the Bible, Bible history, biblical languages, homiletics, and theology, all of which are geared toward preaching. I had one class in counseling, and zero classes in social work. If I could go back and do it over, I would get lots more training in counseling, social work, and administration.
Once in awhile I float the idea that we shift our focus away from worship. What if we spent some of our Sundays in other ways? Its not unusual for a church to have a day of service on a Sunday, but it's not a regular occurence. It happens once or twice a year. We've had a Sunday where we have groups of two to four discuss things, but, again, not a regular occurence.
I'm ready to make service and discussion part of the regular Sunday rotation. How about you?