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Do You Have a Sunday Night Service?
Posted by Les Puryear in Church & Missions
It’s amazing how traditions are different around the country and even within each state. I have served in places where every church had a Sunday evening service and others where Sunday evening services were not held. In the church where I am privileged to pastor, we have a Sunday night service.Typically, our Sunday evening services goes like this: welcome, prayer, special music by a soloist, duo, trio, etc., congregational singing, sermon, invitation song, prayer, and benediction.
Sometimes our Sunday nights vary. For example, every 5th Sunday night is known as our Deacons 5th Sunday night. The deacons will plan something special for their Sunday night. Oftentimes they will plan a concert and then follow it up with homemade ice cream or something else equally delicious. We’ve had praise bands from other churches, well-known quartets, piano concerts, etc. One of the best concerts we ever had was a choir of mentally challenged adults from our area. They were great. Another popular 5th Sunday night is our annual talent show. Anyone who wants to do any kind of talent can sign up for it, including folks outside the church. We usually have a dozen or so in the talent show. There are no awards for best talent or anything like that. It’s just a fun time to enjoy each other in a different way.
Other times, Sunday nights are used for special times for our AWANA program. We have a fabulous AWANA ministry which meets on Sunday evenings. Approximately 60% of our kids in AWANA don’t attend church anywhere. This is a great way to reach these kids for Christ. Several times a year, the entire church will participate in an AWANA related function. One of the more popular Sunday nights is the AWANA Grand Prix in March. The whole church turns out to support that.
So what does your church do on Sunday night? I would love to hear some of your ideas.
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The church we attend only has Sunday night worship the first Sunday of each month and seeks to make it outstanding in some way.
I think it would also be interesting if those commenting would let us know if their church is urban, suburban, rural, or small town. Ours is suburban.
We’re about to do away with the Sunday night services, other than Discipleship Training. We’re also eliminating the Prayer Meeting, per se, and relegating that to people who come to the Wednesday evening suppers .. a small number .. praying at the tables.
It wasn’t my idea…..
The church my wife and I attend only has Sunday morning services. On Sunday nights, the youth meet for worship and Bible study. We are a new church, and our physical plant is a primary reason for this plan.
However, in our area, Sunday night services are the exception, rather than the rule. If my wife and I go out during the early evening, we see few, if any, churches meeting on Sunday nights.
Most of these churches still have prayer services on Wednesday nights–however, the crowds are very small.
The current trend seems to be away from evening services, whether on Wednesday or Sunday. Does that trend make it right or wrong? I don’t think either can be claimed.
When I served as a pastor, we always had Sunday night and Wednesday night services. However, I must admit, the majority of my church folks didn’t attend. I once joked, on a “trial sermon” Sunday morning that my sermon would be so great that morning that most of the people wouldn’t even feel the need to come back that night! They laughed. They saw the humor in what I was saying. And, yes, most of them agreed with me by not returning that night! I spent seven wonderful years with that church family. No matter what we did, most people did not come on Sunday night or Wednesday night.
I believe the local church must decide what God desires for them to do. Then, once they know His plan, do it with great joy!
We tried a “typical” Sunday evening service. I chose to make the sermons more topical while on Sunday morning I was preaching through books. The only people that were coming were those that wanted to encourage me. They had no desire to be there, but they didn’t want me to be hurt by lack of attendance.
So, we changed our Sunday nights to a fellowship time. Since we are a rural church, we built a camp-fire pit and picnic shelter. We get together and cook over an open fire and talk to each other about what is going on in our lives. It is totally informal and attended by the majority of our congregation.
Bob: Sorry to hear about prayer meeting. I tell our faithful ones at prayer meeting that the church rises and falls on their faithfulness to intercede for our church and our community.
My Church is rural..on the edge of a small town. We have Discipleship Training and an Evening Worship Service. We will usually have 60 to 70 people come back on Sunday night….we’ll have 170 on Sunday morning. We also meet on Wednesday night, and counting the children and youth ministries and the prayer meeting/bible study attendance…we’ll have 70 something on Wed. night.
A lot of Churches around these parts find Wed. nights a very good time to have Awana or Mission Kids and CIA and other ministries to children, and the Youth have good attendance on Wed. nights as well. They’ll show up for Wed. night events. Most of the Churches that have things for children and youth have great attendance on Wed. nights.
David
When Our church stopped having sunday night services,my reaction was,”Free at last.”
We are churched to death on Sundays.
Sunday School.9:45 to 10:45.
Worship.11-12.
Choir Practise.at 5.6
Discipleship..6-7
Preaching..7-8
Church council meeting after church….and the list goes on.In my opinion,many come on sunday night, out of duty or guilt..maybe both.
To me,not having to meet on Sunday nights is close to having a “religious experience.”Also,I find no precedent in the N.T.that warrents meeting on Sunday nights.
Bill
We only have one “official” meeting. We meet Sunday mornings at 10:30. Since we eat and pray together also, that meeting usually lasts 4-6 hours.
During the week, different people meet together to study Scripture, eat together, etc. These are organized and planned by the families and individuals involved. Some of these meetings happen weekly. Some happen every other week. Some of these meetings occur irregularly.
-Alan
We still do Sunday evening services at this point but the numbers aren’t always that encouraging. With a Sunday morning Sunday School attendance hovering around 600 and probably close to 100 more than that in the 2 worship services we do, our Sunday evening attendance typically is in the 100-120 range.
One of the bright spots of Sunday night is that our youth choir always sings. We have around 30-40 in that group but they don’t all stay for the entire service always, several making their exit after their special music is over.
We do get a bump in Sunday night attendance when we have special musical programs–children’s choir end of the year presentation, or our summer concert series when we bring in different groups with a wide variety of musical styles. Other times, we use Sunday evenings for missions trip reports.
We do dismiss Sunday evening services on national holiday 3 day weekends as well as Mothers and Fathers Day.
During the summer months it’s just tough to get back at 6:00 for the Sunday evening service. Usually you’re out and about all day and ready to chill upon returning home. And the one’s who do attend, sometimes start allowing the pride to come in that says: “Yep, I’m a Sunday nighter and you ain’t.”
When I pastored in Texas, I seriously questioned the purpose of the Sunday evening service. I personally felt that another “worship service” was not necessary (wasn’t what we did this morning good enough?), and the time could be better spent in discipleship, small groups, or another aspect of the teaching ministry of the church. But alas, I did not yet have enough credibility to tamper with the tradition.
Here in Canada, few of our churches own buildings; therefore, few of them have more than one worship service in the week. Some of our churches who rent space have their regular worship service on Sunday evening, with other activities (if any) on Sunday morning. In many ways, it meets the Canadian culture far better.
Of the churches who do own buildings, few have a regularly scheduled Sunday evening worship service. If something is held, it is usually a special function such as a special study, a business meeting, or the Lord’s Supper. (With so many non-Christians attending our worship services, it makes it much simpler to schedule the Lord’s Supper at another time, for committed believers.) We are also quite generous with our building for our sister churches who do not own one and need a baptistery or fellowship hall. Recently, our local church began a youth/young adult worship service on Sunday evenings. The music is pretty loud, so it keeps the older folks away!
About ten years ago, my wife and I committed our Sunday evenings to church planting. We attend our local church on Sunday mornings, but every Sunday evening we are either surveying, doing ministry in a new community, in Bible study in a home or other venue, or in a worship service. This has been one of the most fulfilling parts of our ministry. Of the four church plants we have been a part of, two never got past the Bible study stage after several months and eventually disbanded, one is an established church, and the one we are presently in just began a few months ago. It is a house church composed of ten precious people, and we meet regularly on Sunday evenings and minister and do outreach during the week.
Oh Canada!
Sounds like a great play you guys have worked out…ehh?
Does anyone know where Sunday night services come from–historically, I mean?
I’ve heard that back in the horse and wagon days, families ate lunch together at church after morning worship. Since they were already there, they went ahead and had another service (getting around wasn’t so convenient).
I’ve tried to do a little internet research but I didn’t find anything.
Kevin,
I don’t know when Sunday evening services began. It’s been a tradition in my part of NC since I was a little bitty baby (56 years).
Les
Growing up in SC, Sunday night services were a tradition like here in NC. Our current church is located in a small town about 30 miles from a major city. Sunday morning we average 325-350 and Sunday night 75-80 in worship plus that many more in children’s missions groups and youth. Prayer meeting is about 40-45 plus 25-30 youth and about 10 children in discipleship activities.
The church I grew up in has a vibrant Sunday evening service that is still very well attended…sometimes more than the 8:00 service. The pastor typically gives a much more believer focused message (i.e. teaching vs. evangelism) that has been very profitable for the body.
I contrast that with the church I just moved from (moved out of state). They did away with their evening service about a year ago and replaced it with more Lifegroup (i.e. Sunday School) classes for the adults. They are trying to move more adult classes into homes and have found that Sunday evening is typically the best time for most families.
The main down side in no evening service I’ve seen is related to business meetings. They are still held on Sunday evening and have difficulty attaining a quorum. This results in a small portion of the body making decisions that affect everyone. Granted, business meetings have typically never been crowd gatherers but when they are held after a regularly scheduled service there are more people.
Overall, I think it depends on the needs and dynamics of the congregation as to whether it is a good idea to cancel the service.
Our semi-rural church still has Sunday evening services except on Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, etc. I know of very few Baptist churches in Western North Carolina that have really gotten away from this tradition.
Brother Les,
Looks like I’m a little late to the dance. But we meet once as a full congregation on Saturday evenings. Our home groups then meet and serve in their respective communities throughout the week. We truly view the home groups as the core of our fellowship. Home groups are accountable to serve each other and their communities. Membership to our fellowship is considered based upon the recommendation of a home group where the prospective member has been attending and serving. We typically do outreaches in parks, neighborhoods, etc on Sunday mornings and evenings.
May His face shine upon you,
From the Middle East
At my last church we met in a gym for worship. On Sunday nights when I got there, they were running about 40 & were ready to call it quits. Then we decided to make it a coffee house style worship with round tables & coffee & donuts on Sunday night with a few songs & a message. We grew to 400 in 2 years. This was a church that was running 500 on Sunday mornings. People seemed to like it informal, but they also were hungry for the Word as well. This was in a town near a lake. Miracle!
Someone sent me this web address because of recent concerns I have regarding the church.
It seems that many pastors are influnced to cut out the Sunday night services. Last summer our pastor closed the doors of the church on Sunday nights for us to focus on home fellowships. It failed miserably. Our people are very weak from the watered down literature we are forced to teach to our people on Sunday mornings. We are told to teach it the way we want to which brings on a whole new set of concerns. Sunday nights could be used to develop the true Spirit of worship and strenghten the believer if a pastor had the heart to. I’m just concerned that our pastors are weakening the body by trying to fill a nitch (or itch). Bring back the Sunday night service!
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