Podcast Episode #064
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A recent post and podcast on changing trends in the church created quite a stir with one particular issue: Sunday night worship services. As Jonathan points out in this week’s podcast, there are typically four options for churches on Sunday nights: no service, a copy of the Sunday morning service, a different but less-attended worship service, and a time of discipleship either on- or off-campus.
While some faith traditions have no history of Sunday evening services, many do. If you do have Sunday evening services or a time of discipleship, I would encourage you to examine what you do as a church and ask if that’s the best thing for your context. While many churches are doing away with Sunday evening services, not every church should. If you continue to hold Sunday evening gatherings, be creative with what you do and make Sunday evenings work best for your church in your specific context.
That being said, here are the six main reasons Sunday evening worship services are on the decline:
- The advent of Sunday evening services in many churches was a cultural adaptation for its time. Its decline or demise is thus a cultural response.
- The disappearance of blue laws (mandatory Sunday closings) allowed many alternatives to Sunday evening worship, and many church members chose those options.
- There has been an increasing emphasis on family time. Families with children at home particularly viewed one worship service on Sundays to be sufficient for them.
- Many pastors simply do not have the desire, energy, or commitment to prepare a second and different sermon. Their lack of emphasis was thus reflected in the congregation’s lack of interest.
- When many churches began offering services on alternative days, such as Fridays or Saturdays, there was neither the desire nor the resources to keep Sunday evening services going.
- A number of churches, particularly new church starts, are in leased facilities. They do not have the option of returning on Sunday evenings.
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I recall the pastor of a church we attended in the early 70’s, who said he didn’t see a lot of logic in getting together on Sunday evening to do the same thing we did on Sunday mornings. He said if having 2 services was a good idea, let’s do them both in the morning, while we’re already there.
Then I became a Baptist and evening services became routine, but they never really did makes sense.
I can remember when the convention goal was for everyone to be “full-time!” In the 60’s the push was for quarter time churches to go half time; and for half-time churches to go full time. Full time was Sunday morning, evening, and Wednesday night! One should not be surprised that this also coincided with a curriculum for sale – Training Union materials! We do a modified Sunday night – and I am looking at a more intentional Discipleship process for Sunday evenings in which we do “hands on” discipleship work – learning while doing! Great blog post from SEBTS!
We do have an evening service on Sundays and one of our two pastors is going to preach. Normally the one who did not preach at the morning service is the one doing the evening.
I remember my grandmother (born 1903) telling me about BYPU (Baptist Young People’s Union) starting in her area in the ‘teens of the 20th century. I’ve looked into old church records in Kentucky and Georgia, and this seems about the time evening activities started in Baptist churches. So Sunday evening was originally a “youth program.” My Dad recounted how Sunday evening became the “evangelistic” service in his youth (1930s). By the time of my own childhood/youth in the 1950s/60s Sunday evening was full-blown–“Training Union”/”Church Training” for an hour PLUS another hour of worship service that was pretty much a clone of Sunday morning, except that sometimes the youth choir sang. During my own 40+ years of ministry I’ve seen Sunday evening activities dwindle away. I agree with the causes mentioned, plus would add another…many families now see Sunday evening as the only night they can be together as a family. My wife was a teacher, so Sunday evening needed to be an “early to bed” evening to get ready for the work week. At the last church I served as pastor before retirement, I would estimate that 90% of those who came on Sunday evening were either ‘veterans’ of BYPU or their children. And coming on Sunday night seemed to be more of a religious habit than something useful. I know I felt that the effort required to come up with an additional Sunday message, that would be of use and interest to people who’s generally been hearing preaching since before I was born, seemed a lot of effort for not much return.
Not only the absence of Sunday evening services, but many churches do not have mid-week services or even a Sunday School time, just prior to the regular worship service
Okay, I’ll play the you know who’s advocate. So why don’t we quit Wed evening activities as well? It’s tough for pastors to come up with an extra bible study, or, heaven forbid, lead a prayer meeting (which is all but dead in most churches). Next we can bag out on Sunday School, don’t want people to get up so early on Sunday to get their kids ready and also have to teach a class. Since families don’t have any time, we can just do church at home on Sunday mornings and skip coming to church altogether (and there is a trend in this area).
Should we draw a correlation with the decline of baptisms and growth in the SBC with the dearth of Sunday Evenings? It does seem to go hand-in-hand.
I’ve been a part of churches that meet on Sunday evenings and ones that don’t. The ones that don’t typically try to have small groups, but small groups tend to fellowship oriented and lack a variety of age groups. I’m sure there are some small groups that buck that trend, but I’ve chatted with quite a few pastors and this seems to be a fair assessment.
We run Sunday evenings for a variety of reasons. We teach on a variety of subjects (from theology, to hermeneutics, to even church history) as well as working through books of the bible or thematic series. Not only that, we have a program for children (many of whom walk to our church without their parents in the neighborhood). We also have a pot-luck dinner after worship which is great time to get to know folks and spend some time in conversation.
I know that Sunday evenings are on the decline and it seems to be trendy to move away from them, but all the comments so far didn’t even speak to alternatives they are doing in order to replace the time of study, discipleship, outreach, and fellowship that Sunday evenings are (at least in my church).
Frankly, if folks are too busy to come back on Sunday evening, they are probably going to be too busy any other night of the week as well. I don’t believe families are really any busier by the way, they have just changed their priorities. And church no longer seems to be a priority.
I have to admit I’m genuinely torn in this debate. As Dr. Rainer points out, the rise and fall of the Sunday evening service was largely driven by culture. On the one hand, nothing in the Bible suggests that we have to have two services on Sunday. On the other hand, you do raise a very valid point about priorities, and the fact that people find so many things to do on Sunday other than church does not speak very well of their priorities.
When I first came to the church I currently serve, we had an evening service that was fairly well-attended, and it was more contemporary than our Sunday morning service. Unfortunately, our music leaders had some personal difficulties and left the church as a result (that was a situation over which our church had no control). Some of the older people stopped attending because they didn’t like to get out at night, and others just drifted away. Since our church did not have a regular discipleship training program, I’ve started using our Sunday evening time for that purpose. Sometimes it works very well, depending on what study we do. Our attendance lately has been pretty low, but that’s normal for summer.
I’m not sure if that helps any, but that’s the best I can offer you. If anyone else has any suggestions, I’m certainly eager to hear them.
I agree with Nate. I never have understood the argument of “the culture has changed, so the church must change too”. We try so hard to get ahead of the cultural curve that we leave Bible principle behind. I am not saying that a Sunday night service is a doctrine at all. I don’t believe that. However, I have seen the church become a catering service to our culture. As people we do what we want to do and our actions are a direct reflection of what is in our heart. Should we do away with a particular service because it is attended poorly. Jesus didn’t always have multitudes of 5000+ when he preached. Some of his most influential “sermons” were to only one or two people. I believe it is an issue of being led by the Spirit rather than trying to give a blanket statement of what everyone else should do. Pastor, if you feel the Spirit leading you to get away from having a Sunday evening service and you can substantiate it with scripture then that is between you and God. Our decisions should be based on the tools God has given us (i.e. – the Holy Spirit and the Bible) and not emotions, culture, or the reaction of anyone else but God.
I think Dr. Rainer was largely talking about contextualization. Alvin Reid says the methodology of the 1950’s was highly contextualized, and that’s why it worked so well. However, you do make a valid point: there is a very fine line between legitimate contextualization and letting the culture set our agenda. We must be very careful that we not do the latter.
As a member first, dad second, husband third, and pastor last… I still don’t have an answer. One thing I can say about the churches that I served, more of the members that were strong in their faith, when on mission trips, worked on the church, worked in local missions and did more to evangelize the community were those who came mostly just on Sunday mornings for worship. Many of them take part in outreach and caring events while more of the ones that come on Wednesday nights and Sunday nights do. I have had numerous members tell me that they are lonely and just want to be around people. (that to me is not church)… There are so many ways to build a great worship on Sunday that will discipleship members allow praise and worship and also build the body of believers with the added opportunities to minister to others during the week instead of just coming and listening to another sermon. Some of my members have heard more sermons than I will ever preach and still have no clue what it means to “do” the gospel. On one hand I hear some say that the church if for the people and not the people for the church but out of the other side of their month they say one is not a good Christian if they are not at all the services. My goal is for each person to develop a stronger relationship with Christ, not a collection of notches on their sermon belt. If they don’t have that relationship with Christ Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, do we really think that they have it on Wednesday and Sunday. That being said, doing away with Wednesday and Sunday nights may not be the best thing either… of course they are commanded in the 3rd Book of Acts, right. Let’s look at our reasons, goals and needs and let’s develop what we need… the way some act, maybe they need to attend 7 days a week. I pray that we have that daily worship, daily praise, daily communication with our lord and on Sunday we focus on corporate worship and praise. His house is full, but his fields are empty….
Knowledge of the bible does not mean that one can show Christianity or live it. One can memorize verse after verse and not be able to apply it to ordinary life. It is a very simple religion and not loaded with rules.
I have never had a Hindu tell me much about their faith, but for years I have been around many people who are Hindu, and they seem to know how to show their faith in their honesty and how they treat others.
I learned how to live and show Christianity from Jews. The tenets are the same. Why the church did not teach those is beyond me.
I agree with Nate 100%
We have begun to take our Sunday night service as a study of the Sunday morning message. In the traditional setting the pastor has to study for three different messages, and usually they are three different subjects from three different books of the Bible (at least it is the way I have usually done it). Our congregations expect “homerun” sermons everytime, and we want to deliver.
The drawbacks that I see with this schedule is that (1) pastors are cutting corners to mass produce sermons and (2) the average church attendee is expected to ingest three different messages and apply all the truth that was given to them in these messages. It is my opinion that we are doing a disservice to our pastors and our congregations.
What I have found by studying our morning message on Sunday night is that I get to spend more time developing and studying the material for one sermon, as well as figuring out the application for myself and my people. I also have found that our people are much more engaged and, while they take away less information, they are able to apply and digest more truth. We have simply made our Sunday night messages/services a time of discipleship.
The result has been that our members have verbally told me several times over how much more they enjoy the service and how much more they get out of it. It gives them a chance to ask questions, and me a chance to talk about issues that I did not have time for in the morning message. The other result has been an increase in attendance.
We do not do this all the time, but we are moving in that direction. We started this by studying the seven letters to the churches in Revelation, and now we are going through Ephesians. I am excited for new energy on Sunday nights and a renewed interest in the Word from our people. Perhaps this approach will help others. Sunday nights are still valuable and profitable for the Kingdom.
In Christ,
Brett
This is a great idea, Brett.
This Sunday night services were born during the war when people worked shifts on Sunday and for those who had to work on Sunday morning they could go to church on Sunday night.
However the real evening services were born out of the old monastic service of Compline, which is still said in some churches, monasteries, and which became incorporated into Anglican Evensong, which is still sung as well.
For those preachers though who have to preach two complete sermons every Sunday it can be difficult for them. Also sometimes there is enough information in one sermon to last for three or four sermons. When I taught university courses I could tell when the students had hit saturation. I know from listening to many sermons there is a point of saturation and basically anything said beyond that point is not comprehended or remembered. The short, to the point ones are the ones people remember.
For those having Sunday evening worship services … it can be a “well of opportunity” for training the next generation for church leadership. Younger men and women, youth and children can all be given opportunity to serve on a regular basis. Preaching, teaching, singing, playing instruments, running sound and media systems, etc. Sunday evening can be an intentional time for developing leaders.
I don’t think it’s fair to question my “priorities” if I don’t attend Sunday evening services. In order for God to be first in my life I have to attend both a Sunday morning service and a Sunday evening service – and to skip Sunday evening makes me a bad person. Does that mean I also have to be at both Sunday morning services, Sunday evening and all the mid-week services to make sure God is first in my life?? Is church the only activity on a Sunday that I am permitted to do to be a good Christian? The minute I have “something else to do” on a Sunday, my priorities are called into question?
“Should we draw a correlation with the decline of baptisms and growth in the SBC with the dearth of Sunday Evenings?”
Ok, I’ll play. 🙂
Shall we draw a correlation with the decline of baptisms and growth in the SBC with the rise of conservative control of SBC agencies and offices?
How about drawing a correlation between the decline of baptisms and growth in the SBC and the rise of the commitment to expository preaching?
Correlation does not imply causation. So, please, let’s dispense with these silly arguments (and while we’re at it, let’s lose the heavy peer pressure attempts to guilt members into doing something that we have little to no Biblical basis for a mandate.)
What we need to do is do a serious, data driven, evaluation of how each of our ministries are actually impacting the core work of the church: disciple making.
“…the rise of the commitment to expository preaching?”
There’s been a rise?
The church I pastored for over 12 years had a robust evening service. We consistently enjoyed 75% attendence of those who were present in the moning worship services. In my eighth year there was a puch to remodel the worship center for which the congregation chose to suspend the evening services until the project was completed. When the remodeling project was done, we were never able to regain more than 25% of those who attended Sunday mornings. People did not leave the church but they simply decided not to attend the evening worship. Dr. Rainer’s article and other comments provide compelling reasons and explanations as to why there has been a decline in Sunday evening services. However, I also observe that churches of which I am familiar that ended Sunday evening services quickly lost a sense of community and growth momentum. Churches need more than one common place of worship once a week. To grow as disciples of Jesus they need to do life together and fellowship with one another. Sunday evening and Wednesday evening are not mandated in the Bible but people of strong faith communities (churches) desire to be together and rather than being a religious ritual, it is doing life together and growing as disciples.
We get about 20% of the Sunday morning attenders coming out on Sunday night. The church has voted with their feet! They dont attend Sunday nights. Get over it! If you go to church on Sunday morning and enjoy the service and the fellowship, why would you feel as though you had to attend on Sunday night. Legalism and guilting people into it are not the way to go. Its not the 50’s anymore, life has gotten busy, both parents work, Sunday night is a good time to relax with family and friends…I am just happy people decide to go to church on a Sunday morning!
Our church has implemented a staggered Sunday evening schedule which meets the varied needs/desires of our people and seems to work well in our context.
1st Sunday of month – regular morning schedule, dinner on the grounds, then an afternoon worship.
2nd & 4th Sunday of month – 6 pm worship time.
3rd Sunday evening of the month – small group home studies with discussion questions prepared by the pastor on the current sermon series.
This offers variety, discipleship, and evangelism without making the Sunday evening time slot a “sacred cow.”
Very interesting. Variety is often a good way to stimulate interest. You’ve given me some food for thought. Thanks!
Sometimes is shames me to be counted with “pastors” who have lost or some maybe never had a passion for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. God has really been dealing with me lately about Rev. ch 2 especially vs. 4 “…you have left your first love” and the complaints God has against the churches. So often when the Holy Spirit brings conviction about sin in our life we let it roll off of us like water on a duck’s back and point our finger at the “church” almost like it is a building that is missing the mark. These same “pastors” will then stand in the pulpits and proclaim that the church is not a building but it is people who are the church. It is past time for “pastors” to stand up and be the men of God they have been to be and stop whining and blaming everyone and everything for the lack of people having a passion and desire to be in God’s house whenever it is possible. I pray that those of you who are reading this post will take the time to get on your knees before almighty God and repent! I know that might hurt some of your’s feelings but get over yourself and humble yourself before God before its too late. It is time for “pastors” to start taking God seriously and believing His Word. I also pray that each of you will take a real hard look at Revelations Chapter 2–study it, ask God to create in you a clean heart and a heart after Him. I am sure you recall Phil 1:6 and that He will complete the work He began in you–again I detect another problem with how some interpret this–a lot of people began the work themselves it was their own idea. Not to say it wasn’t a good idea–but the way I read the scripture is He will complete the work “He began”. Too many want God to bless their idea because they did not want His idea on how and what should be done in ministry. Many of you will probably read this and blow me off as a nutcase and that is fine because I don’t answer to you but to my God and King. But until we allow the work of the Holy Spirit to be completed that was began when we accepted Jesus as our Savior and Lord we cannot and should not expect to “Church” become what God intended when He began its ministry over 2000 years ago. I could keep on going but I believe I have said enough and I will close with this scripture James 1:6-8 and simply “Ask in Faith”
Hebrews 10:25 tells us not to forsake the assembly of ourselves together… the verse goes on to say, “…so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” There can be no doubt about the approach of the return of Christ. So if I am going to change the church sign, it is going to be for adding an assembly of the saints and not taking away one. Also, in the gospel of Luke, on the day of the resurrection, later that evening, when the disciples were gathered in an upper room, Jesus appeared to them. Although I do not believe this is prescriptive of Sunday evening worship, I do not want to miss out on an occasion where Jesus may manifest his presence in an exceptional way. I thank God for the Sunday night service where God cornered me through the preaching of my pastor, and I surrendered it all to Jesus! God help a generation of believers that find it too inconvenient and worthless to attend upon the worship of God.
Those that “love Jesus” attend Sunday morning. Those that “really love Jesus” attend Sunday evening. With this reasoning, we should add a Sunday afternoon service for those that “really, really love Jesus”. Or a late night fourth service for those that “really, really, really love Jesus”. I don’t think Sunday evening attendance is a fair assessment of people’s love for Christ or an accurate measure of thier priorities. If it works in your church, fine. But if it doesn’t, churches shouldn’t be shamed into thinking they love Jesus any less because of the lack of a Sunday PM gathering.
I am grateful that I was saved in a church that held Sunday night services. The amount of exposure I had to the preaching of God’s Word accelerated my spiritual growth. I have noticed the same trend among my members now that I am a pastor. Those who only come on Sunday mornings just do not grow on the same level.
As for me, I preach four times every Sunday in two different languages. (English, Spanish, English in the morning and English – different sermon – at night) I struggle to understand the pastor who thinks it is too much of a burden to do half of that.
Wow! The differing views and the reaction to whether to have a Sunday evening service or not is pretty much what I have heard from church members when we have discussed this issue. We have tried Sunday evening worship, to bible study, then back to Sunday evening worship, then back to home bible studies, then back to bible studies in our church. The ones who cry the loudest are the first ones who don’t show up because of other activities in their lives. The bible studies start out strong, but always fade towards the end (regardless of who’s teaching or leading them). The bottom line is, as one pastor told me, they vote with their feet. I think that everyone can agree that it is up to the local church to determine when and how often they will meet.