A Postmortem on the PM Service
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The handwriting was already on the wall before the pandemic killed it. Attendance at the evening service of a typical Bible-preaching church in America has been plummeting for years. Many abandoned it long before COVID restrictions forced each church to evaluate what was truly essential to its ministry. While some resolutely returned to the old schedule, many dropped their evening service in the subsequent years.
Admittedly, the elimination of the evening service has made Sundays more relaxing. It’s supposed to be a day of rest, right? We’ll leave the sabbath debate for another theological blog post, but is it not a good thing to have more time with family on the weekend? We have gained time, but what did we lose?
We Lost Opportunities for Deeper Teaching
Yes, we can (and should) preach rich, biblical messages in the Sunday morning worship service. But is this one sermon per week enough teaching for a group of growing believers? How can a pastor adequately cover both Old and New Testaments with just one preaching service per week?
While the Sunday morning message may be deep, the wide range of spiritual maturity in the audience limits that depth to some extent. In addition, the inevitable (and welcome) presence of unbelievers on a Sunday morning requires the preacher to spend some of his time getting back to the basics of the gospel. The available time for delving into a passage shrinks with each consideration. The evening service used to provide the forum for deeper teaching for maturing believers, but that slot has gone the way of the dodo.
We Lost Slots for Young Preachers
Pastors should be training their successors. New pastors rise from churches, not seminaries. Paul told Timothy to look for faithful men who will be able to teach others also (2 Timothy 2:2). We must follow the biblical example of leadership training in the local church.
The young preachers we train need opportunities to preach or they will never develop to the point of becoming effective communicators of God’s Word. The evening service used to be a prime time for these budding preachers. That’s when I gained much of my experience as a young Assistant Pastor. However, with the demise of the evening service, the young preachers lost their opportunities to preach regularly. Of course, the senior pastor should preach on Sunday morning. He cannot give up that space often because he has a responsibility to teach the whole council of God’s Word. But there is no room for him to train his successor. Then again, if training up new pastors is not a priority, then losing the evening service may not be that big of a deal.
We Lost Windows for Missions Reports
Missionaries provide the local church with the primary method of fulfilling the “uttermost part of the world” portion of the Great Commission. They come to churches and report on what God is doing around the world. They inspire the next generation to continue what God started in the book of Acts, taking the gospel to the regions beyond.
With no evening service, when do the missionaries speak? Do they get relegated to a quick ten-minute summary of their last four years of ministry, squeezed between the third hymn and the pastoral prayer? How can the congregation get to know the missionaries they support and their work? Furthermore, in the past, missionaries could visit two churches on one Sunday, allowing them to get back to their fields more efficiently. With only one service, furlough times must lengthen to the detriment of their overseas ministries.
Concluding Thoughts on the Evening Service
Maybe the evening service needed to die. Or maybe this postmortem is premature. The evening service may resurrect or reappear as a regular or occasional afternoon service. Or maybe we should view the evening service as a form that in some cases had lost its function. In the last few decades, congregations lost sight of what the evening service had been intended to do, and so saw little reason to attend.
The evening service itself is a tradition, not an essential. What is essential is the Great Commission—the evangelism and discipleship of the church. The pastor must preach and teach God’s people to observe all that Christ commanded—the whole council of God’s Word (Matthew 28:19; Acts 20:27). Times and places may change—those are forms—but the Great Commission functions cannot.
Maybe Sunday School will rise to fill in the gap left by the passing of the evening service. But it too is facing extinction. In some cases, Sunday School is merely renamed something cool—Adult Bible Fellowships, Small Groups, Ignite, etc. However, I have started to see a trend where only the morning worship service is left standing. One pastor told me that his church’s sole meeting each week is the morning service. How can we fulfill the Great Commission if the body of believers only meet once a week? The church in Acts may not have had traditional Sunday evening services, but they did meet regularly—even daily. We are not the Roman Catholic Church, requiring only a weekly check-in. The biblical church is a body that needs regular fellowship and camaraderie in spreading the Word (Philippians 1:5). We must have systematic teaching in Scripture and corporate prayer. Check-in Christianity is not biblical Christianity.
The Sunday evening service is fading off the scene. That in itself is not necessarily a tragedy. But what will replace it for the health and furtherance of God’s church in the world?
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MR Conrad Bio
Dr. Conrad serves in urban Asia. He, his wife, and their four children squeeze into a 700 square-foot apartment where he seizes rare moments of quiet to write amidst homeschooling, a cacophony of musical instruments, and the steady stream of visitors they so enjoy having in their home. He enjoys birding, board games, and basketball. He is the author of, so far, two books.
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"Is the evening service an American thing?"
I believe the evening service started on Resurrection Sunday evening.
Wally Morris
Huntington, IN
Cancelling evening services is a symptom of larger problems affecting more than the evening service. Notice how weekly church-wide prayer meeting is rare. People say they pray in small groups in homes, etc, which is fine. But why not do that as well as church-wide prayer meeting? Children and teens grow up never hearing on a regular basis how adults pray (except perhaps for their parents) and missing a great opportunity to learn about praying. Symptom of larger problems of apathy, cultural influence, etc. Similar to Saturday night services: Go on Saturday night so Sunday is completely free for recreation.
Wally Morris
Huntington, IN
Wally said: “Similar to Saturday night services: Go on Saturday night so Sunday is completely free for recreation.”
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Picture a Sunday morning. My alarm goes off at 5:00 am. I roll out of bed, and head for the light switch. (Somewhere, people are operating a power plant that supplies the electricity that ultimately reaches the LED bulbs in my home.) It’s a cold, winter morning in Minnesota, and my furnace is running. (Somewhere there are people making sure that natural gas is flowing through buried lines connected to my home.) I turn on my bathroom faucet, and water to brush my teeth & wash my face is instantly available. Same with the shower. (Somewhere people are ensuring that clean, safe water is making its way from a filtration plant to my home’s plumbing.) Once dressed, I’m out to my garage to start my car. It snowed overnight, but the roads look fine. (Hundreds of snow plow drivers statewide have been busy for hours to help prevent Minnesota drivers like me from getting stuck this morning.) Oh no!: two cars have collided a few blocks from my home. (There’s already a police officer on the scene.) One of the drivers appears to be injured. (I see & hear an ambulance approaching. And I’m thankful that there are doctors and nurses at a nearby hospital waiting to treat the driver’s injuries.) It’s obvious that neither car is drivable. (I suppose that tow trucks will be on the way, if they aren’t already.) I appreciate the working traffic signals along the way that smooth the flow of traffic. (Somewhere those are being monitored.) After a few more minutes of driving, I arrive at church.
My point? Lots of people regularly work on Sundays, many of whom are providing services that you & I who aren’t working on Sundays rely upon and/or expect to be available. Sure, many of the 30% (according to figures I’ve seen) of employed people who work on Sundays don’t provide essential services, but a good number do. I’ve seen firsthand the value of a Saturday evening option at my own church. Guess what? A good percentage of attendees who are believers will gladly come on Saturday evening when they know they are scheduled to work the next day. Plus, it gives church attendees another option to invite their non-Christian family/friends/neighbors who work on Sundays.
To say that Saturday evening attendance is entirely due to people wanting to keep their Sundays free for “recreation” is simply not factual.
I never said that everyone who goes on Saturday night goes for recreational reasons. However, the number of people who go on Saturday night because they have to work every Sunday is small.
Perhaps a Christian should reconsider accepting a job which keeps him out of church every Sunday. Survey those who attend regularly every Saturday. You may be surprised at the answers.
Wally Morris
Huntington, IN
Years ago, Moody Monthly Magazine carried an article about the origin of the evening service. According to that article, it was gas lighting that made the evening service possible, and attributed its widespread origin among evangelicals to that.
The problem with churches being too time grabbing (IMO) is based on the belief that “more is better.” Often in many churches, the evening service was a slightly less formal version of the morning service with a different sermon.
Evening services are great for people who want them, especially if they are unique (e.g., providing in depth Bible study or opportunities for missionaries, etc.). But the idea that most people have or will make time for an evening service is not in touch with modern realities. Some churches still have evening services, but I don’t think that will last much longer.
IMO, adult Sunday School is the thing to save, if it can be.
"The Midrash Detective"
And I never said that everyone who attends on Saturday evenings does so exclusively. Some may choose to, but in my experience they're the minority. No, I'm talking about the doctors, nurses, cops, nursing home staffers, air traffic controllers, etc. who I know that work some Sundays.
Should we insist that Christian nurses quit their jobs (whether or not they became believers prior to taking their positions) because the hospitals at which they work schedule them on some Sundays?
Never said anything about working "some Sundays", only missing church every Sunday because of work. Survey all those who attend Saturday night church. Their reasons are not because of Sunday work.
Ed mentioned hoping to save adult Sunday School. A symptom of deeper problems when people will only attend a Sunday morning service (or Sat night service), not attend Sun Sch, prayer meeting (if available). And we complain about the spiritual/cultural condition of our country?
Wally Morris
Huntington, IN
....Ed, are you telling me that the people running the evening service are "gaslighting" us? Sorry, couldn't resist. :^) Seriously, that is a good point--prior to affordable lighting, evening services would rely on candles and whale oil lamps, and that makes teaching difficult because it's hard to see your text and notes with that kind of lighting. So services in the evening tended (see my previous comment) to be more along the lines of "vespers" and the like.
Building more from Ed's comment, I think a key question for both the evening service and Sunday school is "what does it add?". Yes, I know this can be seen as somewhat confrontational, but in our circles, we seem to have an imperative on a LOT of teaching, and there are a few problems with that:
- Too much teaching can push out the other expressions of worship and praise from our services--things like singing, prayer, and the like.
- There is only so much teaching that a pastor can do each week--preparation ought to take time, and voices can tire, etc..
- There is only so much instruction that can be absorbed by your average congregant.
#2 and #3 are key here, and a model that is worth noting is that I've at least been told that the Pilgrims would indeed spend most of Sunday in meeting--a morning service, then lunch, then an afternoon service--but the afternoon service would be more about applying the sermon from the morning, and would not have its own sermon.
So I think some serious consideration needs to be given towards what the additional service is actually achieving. Is it a service that can be attended by medical and police/EMT workers who have to work on Sunday, a time of prayer and praise, or is it just "more of the same" that actually reduces the ability of the teaching elders to put a good lesson/sermon together?
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
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