A church meeting on a Friday night?! Most mainline congregations in this country fight just to keep people in the pews at the regularly scheduled “church time” of Sunday morning. But why would any church in its right mind schedule a gathering on Friday night when most Americans are thinking about pizza and a movie? Because the right mind for the Church is the mind of Christ who fills all time and existence with Himself, just as the famous Church on Park Street in Boston has done with a time slot usually reserved for worldly indulgence.

Their ministry to families includes a program called Friday Night Live which has run now for over a decade and gives parents a break from watching children for a few hours so that they can renew the ties of fellowship that make them husband and wife. The children meanwhile enjoy a few hours of fellowship, Bible stories, and raucous play. I bring my two oldest daughters here tonight after giving our first tour of the 2014 season to a small group from Park Street Church’s home school fellowship. It was by far the youngest group I have ever lead on tour with a mom that brought her fours boys ages 5-11 and another young man who was 15. It was a real treat to try out elements of our Faith-Based Freedom Trail tour on a younger crowd, and we somehow kept it under one hour for their attention’s sake. It was much more interactive than usual as you might imagine with mostly young boys!

At the end of the tour, I thought of how appropriate it was that the representative members of this pillar of the street named Park be so young. It is a symbol of the youthful, vibrant faith of this particular church that all year long invites tourists on Boston’s Freedom Trail and beyond to become spiritual pilgrims on their path to heaven. May its ministry and 200 year old outreach to the city of Boston be ever blessed!