A few weeks ago at church, we had an ‘invite your friends’ week. Rightly or wrongly, I consciously didn’t invite anyone and for a particular reason.

I thought of my atheistic alter-ego, HNAC Alison. There is no way she would be coming to church at 10am on a Sunday. Don’t bother to invite her because she won’t come.

It’s true. If I wasn’t a believer, there’s no way you’d get me through the doors at 10am on a Sunday for a religious meeting.

It’s hard to imagine your life if you weren’t a believer, but I can surmise a few things that HNAC Alison would be doing instead of being at church on a Sunday morning.

If she’d had a busy week it would be a pyjama day for herself and the household. Easy like Sunday morning, all day. Thank you very much.

If she was a bit of a fitness junkie she’d be doing Sydney’s Bay Walk followed by brunch with friends.

If she had children she’d be at the local sports field or court and being one of those parents on the sidelines (ie. the ones for whose children I prefer not to umpire).

She would not be attending a church service and for the very simple reason that she would not see it as being of any benefit to society.

If you wanted HNAC Alison to get herself into a church building on a Sunday morning, you’d get yourself outside of the building first and be seen to be doing something of benefit to the community. You might even ask her to join you.

Do that a few times and she might return the favour and come onto your property. But until you do that – fat chance.

Maybe my alter ego is a tough nut to crack but I find it rather challenging to ask someone to come to church when I’m always thinking ‘gosh, I totally would not’.

Or maybe I just think we should be getting outdoors more too.

This post will jump online while I’ll be walking Sydney’s annual funrun known as “City to Surf”. I’ll be walking it with a group of people supporting Sydney’s Christian community radio station, HOPE.

I’ll be wearing my HOPE t-shirt and who knows, maybe I’ll have an amazing conversation with someone about the hope I have in Jesus.

Or maybe I won’t.

I’ve never walked the City to Surf before. I almost did in 2015 (again, for HOPE) until I came down with something.

I’ve also never participated in Clean Up Australia Day.

Simple reason being that both of these annual events occur on a Sunday morning.

It always irritated me as a teenager that I could never engage in the official clean up of the local community because it happens on a Sunday.

I (not HNAC Alison) always thought it was something beneficial to the community and wanted to be involved. This girl’s been ‘green’ long before it was politically cool.

But no, church on a Sunday.

I think it’s high time we stopped expecting people to instantly conform to our church structures. We can keep the gospel firm, central and unchanged and still mix it up.

We don’t have to keep churning out the same, old and tired sermons. Particularly if they’re not getting us anywhere much.

Jesus was a lot more outside of the box.

Perhaps it’s time we were the same. Even if it means walking 14 kilometres.

If it’s for the sake of the gospel, then it’s worth it.

Yours in her joggers,

Alison