Whatever Happened to Evening Services?

… I don’t think it would be the end of the world if the members, out of love for their pastor and a desire to be pleasing to God, voluntarily decided to submit to the leadership of their pastor and attend…

Sure. It would be nice if kids always did what they were told, too… but if they don’t, good parents don’t always insist that the children stick to the plan. Sometimes, good parenting involves finding what works better. What worked for Child 1 doesn’t always for Child 2, and so on. I’m just observing that a good pastor needs to be willing to consider other options than just assume that it’s the fault of unspiritual members who hate God and their pastor… ;-)

my full quote did end with “…if it at all possible.” Sometimes its not possible. But again the thrust of what I am talking about is affections. Everyone, both pastors and congregants have struggled at times with affections. There are so many things in this culture that appeal to the hearts of people to pull them aside into something that is treasured more strongly than the things of God. I agree that the pastor needs to be willing to consider options, but its also part of the pastoral role to point people’s affections toward Christ, and warn them against the danger of treasuring the world. Again, my posts here are centered around the observation that someone may be in danger if the only reason one does not assemble together with the body of believers is because one treasures something else—something with no eternal value.

Again, my posts here are centered around the observation that someone may be in danger if the only reason one does not assemble together with the body of believers is because one treasures something else—something with no eternal value.

How would you know if that was the only reason? Would these people tell you?

I’m poking a little… :) but at the same time, I do think the evident value of a Sunday evening service escapes some- especially when it is in a lot of people’s minds a duplication of what they had in the AM service, and they have to get the kids to bed… end time with extended family… or even just go through the effort to pack up the kids for a second time that day. I don’t think it’s just a matter of they like sports and the beach more than they do God (though there was a time I might have thought that). Again, for our situation, I’ve tried to make sure that the service or meeting is demonstrably different than what you get in the AM service or SS hour. It helps people see what there is to be gained. In another situation (when I served a church in Maine) we did a long day with a potluck and afternoon service. That didn’t fit our situation as well here.

There are some traditions worth keeping… but the traditions need to serve building the affection, and if they aren’t effective, maybe the traditions need to be tweaked to better serve building the affection, rather than assuming that people are just affection-deficient and likely to remain so.

Back when nearly everyone farmed and walked or drove horses to church, evening services were impractical. Cows had to be milked and of course lighting was poor on roads. Evening services gained in popularity following the great revivals of the 19th century - a combination of folks moving to town, invention of electric lights and streetlights, and the evangelical/fundamentalist churches could use evening services as an evangelistic draw to townsfolk who attended mainline or RC churches on Sunday mornings. As evangelistic habits have changed (not arguing good, bad or otherwise), the focus of Sunday nights moved away from evangelism. Our church has a p.m. service and I will admit we do not generally go. I do know there are folks who attend the evening service who do not come in the morning, either for sleep or work reasons. I guess my point is there is nothing wrong with having an evening service, and there is nothing wrong or contrary to scripture by deciding it is something a church or family can do without (and hopefully use the time to strengthen family life and other relationships).

http://thomrainer.com/2014/05/10/whatever-happened-sunday-evening-services/

[ChristyM]

Back when nearly everyone farmed and walked or drove horses to church, evening services were impractical. Cows had to be milked and of course lighting was poor on roads. Evening services gained in popularity following the great revivals of the 19th century - a combination of folks moving to town, invention of electric lights and streetlights, and the evangelical/fundamentalist churches could use evening services as an evangelistic draw to townsfolk who attended mainline or RC churches on Sunday mornings. As evangelistic habits have changed (not arguing good, bad or otherwise), the focus of Sunday nights moved away from evangelism. Our church has a p.m. service and I will admit we do not generally go. I do know there are folks who attend the evening service who do not come in the morning, either for sleep or work reasons. I guess my point is there is nothing wrong with having an evening service, and there is nothing wrong or contrary to scripture by deciding it is something a church or family can do without (and hopefully use the time to strengthen family life and other relationships).

This is a misconception. People like John Knox, Calvin and Spurgeon had evening services on Sunday. There is even some evidence that Pliny the elder indicated two church services were going on. Now of course in America it has been a bit different. My great great grandmother, who was attending church in the 1880’s said that there were not evening services in the Oklahoma country side. My grandfather remembers a time when the farmers did not have an evening church service in the 1930’s, even though he keeps a Sunday evening service in his church today.

Greg L, I wouldn’t know. And nowhere did I suggest that people should be beaten over their heads. But the people who are making these decisions to attend or not attend do know. But when their affections are energized by the work of the Spirit through the Word, then you won’t be able to keep them from attending however you arrange your meetings because they want more. Again, my point is our treasure is where our heart is.

But when their affections are energized by the work of the Spirit through the Word, then you won’t be able to keep them from attending however you arrange your meetings because they want more. Again, my point is our treasure is where our heart is.

Again, I’m not sure it’s that simple. We have 4 children who are 7 and under (plus three who are older). I know from that experience that taking children to evening services can be a chore, and though you may “want more,” circumstances don’t always allow you to have access to as much as those without young children. One of the ways our adjusted format helped was giving parents a chance to participate without children in tow.
I have people who are non-native English speakers who attend faithfully every Sunday, but have found the benefit limited because of the language barrier. Sunday evenings were hard to justify when they had such difficulty making sense of what they could of the morning. The ESL Bible Study meets a need that way.

All I’m saying is that there are people who might legitimately have a desire for things of the Lord, but who also have obstacles that aren’t necessarily due to un-energized hearts. In making our decisions, these are things I looked into as I tried to determine why some weren’t participating like I would like.

Not to sidetrack the thread here but I was wondering Greg if you have ever wrote anything about your ministry to the Karen people in your congregation. It seems like a unique situation and I would like to hear more about it.

I took a church last July that has been around for over 20 years. For various reasons it has never had evening services.

So we have started by having Sunday evening services on the 1st & 3rd Sunday evenings. We get 40-50 people on Sunday morning with 20-30 ish coming back on Sunday night. We don’t have our own building so we have had to use an adjacent hall.

I certainly want our evening services to not just be a repetition of the morning. We generally have 20 minutes of favourites and then a message so the service is finished in an hour.

While I might personally like an evening service each Sunday I am seeing some benefits in having some sunday nights ‘free’ for personal ministry, hospitality, even some family time:)

We will see how things go by the years end and re-evaluate things for next year. I am thankful for those who have come out when they simply had not the last 20 years! God is good!

Greg L,

Again, I already addressed people who have circumstances that prevent them from attending all the services. And nowhere was I saying that additional services HAD to be Sunday evening. Throughout this thread my focus has been on the heart attitude on ONE specific set of circumstances…that is someone who could easily attend a service but instead sits at home to finish watching the football game or some other amusement that at that moment has become a treasure in his life greater than the treasure of being with God’s people sitting around the Word of God. I have been in the circumstance you introduced into the discussion of having young children, and yes, sometimes that is hard, but the heart’s desire is to be there if possible, but again that illustration is outside the scope of what I was saying. I am glad for you that your adjustments made it easier on them. My point was where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. I have known people who have overcome incredible obstacles to be there, just because they are so hungry to participate with other believers.

I’ve heard, “If you love church, you’ll be here Sunday morning. If you love God you’ll be here Sunday night!” (I probably even said it a few times. Greg Linscott will remind me if I did.) Guilt is always a good motivator. Supplement it with allegations that anyone who misses the evening service is watching sports or indulging the flesh and you’ve got a winner.

We are part of a growing church full of young couples with small children and hectic schedules (and at least one old couple with hectic schedules) who travel in city traffic from as much as an hour away. The need for additional fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ, study of the Word, and prayer is better met by meeting in various groups on Sunday night and throughout the week. We love corporate worship and supplement it with acts of community. I’d venture the assertion that we have more people involved in community groups than we would have if we conducted an evening service.

Ron, I agree that “guilting” people is not the right approach, as it a matter of affections. I would never make sweeping allegations or false charges against people who wanted to be there but couldn’t be. However, it is possible that regardless how you package your services, evening service, afternoon service, home fellowships, ministry nights, soup kitchens, however you do it, its possible for any member to be tempted to treasure something else, something like a football game, more than treasuring the assembly of God’s people. That is the point I have been making all along here. The question raised in the thread was about what’s happened to Sunday night services, and my point is that one aspect of this could be misplaced affections…where your treasure is, there your heart is also.

I was talking with a friend about this yesterday - we have a Sunday night service that is usually sparse in attendance (anywhere from 1 - 8 people; we run about 150 on Sun. AM), and I think that a large portion of it is that many people in our area are commuting and working in the NYC area and they’re simply exhausted by the end of the week (leading to the desire to ‘crash’ and finish the football game on Sunday, as Darrell noted) instead of mentally ‘gearing up’ to go back out to church (with the kids, as Greg Linscott noted) for a 6 PM service that lasts one hour. My personal work schedule starts when I leave the house before 7 and ends when I get home anywhere from 6:45 to as late as 8:30, depending. This excludes outliers like when we did a IT infrastructure upgrade in the office and I was home at 11 or cabling work that had to be done on Saturday. By the time we do all the other ‘home stuff’ on a weeknight and catch-up on Saturday, all I really want to do most Sunday afternoons is sleep!

I understand the rationale behind a Sunday night service, but I’m not sure that it serves its’ purpose anymore and think that Sunday afternoon services might be better for where I attend instead of trying to keep Sunday night alive.

Jay, with those circumstances, I would strongly consider trying something like right after morning worship, have everyone bring their crock-pots full of all sorts of good food, then after the meal, an afternoon service, and everyone is heading home by about 2:30 or 3pm. I know of at least one church in the north country that has been doing this for decades in the winter so as to save on heating the sanctuary.