I received a phone call from a pastor I have known for many years. Indeed, I consider him a leader and friend. His question was quick and to the point: “What can I do about our Sunday evening services?” Despite numerous valiant efforts, attendance continued to struggle. The church he serves is, by most standards, a healthy church. But the attendance on Sunday evening is going counter to all the other positive indicators in the church.
This pastor is not alone. Other church leaders are concerned as well. Some have given up on Sunday evening services out of frustration. Others have discontinued the services without much lament. And a few leaders have fairly good reports about these services.
The feelings tend to run strongly one way or another about these services, particularly among those whose traditions have affirmed them in past years. Perhaps a quick overview of the Sunday evening services would be helpful.
An Uncertain History
There will be a number of church leaders reading this article who will hardly give it a second glance. Their church traditions have never, or at least not in recent decades, had Sunday evening services. But there are many other traditions for which these services have been staples. Frankly, the decline in the Sunday evening services among these churches is both noticeable and getting worse.
For years, I have attempted to understand the history of these services. My efforts have not been conclusive. I’ve heard many times, for example, that the evening services began with the advent of the electric light in America. But that explanation seems unlikely since I have found examples of the services in both the 1600s and the 1700s.
Here are some other historical tidbits I have found, all unverifiable at this point:
- The services grew during the agricultural phase of our history. Farmers had to work their land six days a week. But, on Sunday, they would have come to a morning service, then have dinner on the grounds, and then have a second later afternoon services before returning home.
- During World War II, many men and women worked seven-day weeks to meet the production needs of the war. The Sunday evening service allowed them to attend worship since they couldn’t come on Sunday morning. Thus the service time grew in popularity.
- Some denominations and other church traditions focused one service on equipping the believers, and another one on reaching the lost. Thus the Sunday evening service became distinctively different than the Sunday morning service.
- As a reminder, some church traditions have little to no familiarity with Sunday evening services; their leaders often wonder why there is so much discussion about the issue outside their traditions.
Possible Reasons for the Decline in Sunday Evening Services
While the history of this service is largely unverifiable, the decline in its attendance, and the reduction in the number of churches offering are clearly evident. Let’s look at six possible reasons for its decline or demise.
- 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.
Trying to Be Objective
In my previous post on changes in church worship services, I stated my desire to be the objective researcher and not inject my own opinions on the issue. That remains my goal in this article as well. But the previous article engendered many comments and not a little emotion. I see that possibility in this endeavor as well.
I do want to hear from you. I continue to be impressed with the acumen and the insightfulness of the readers of this blog. It will be a joy to hear your comments and opinions on Sunday evening services.
Does your church have a Sunday evening service? If you do, is it thriving? Surviving? Struggling?
photo credit: patrickfranzis via photopin cc
Posted on May 10, 2014
With nearly 40 years of ministry experience, Thom Rainer has spent a lifetime committed to the growth and health of local churches across North America.
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233 Comments
We (in the UK) have had an evening service which has been around forever. Attendance has been around 200, about 35% of our morning attendance. Over the last months we have re-jigged our services which have increased attendance and started to bring families and younger people back out.
We have a song and a prayer then the sermon. After another couple of songs, we tend to have an interview with members of the congregation whose experience has been relevant to the sermon. The benefit is that we earth the sermon in real life experience. This has had a great impact on the congregation and has led to some great ministry conversations after the evening service.
I think a major reason why churches are moving away from Sunday night services is that you can use the time for strategic discipleship and evangelism to spend that time in small groups. Why spend that time and energy on another worship service that is poorly attended when you can engage the people in their neighborhoods, in a setting that involves the whole family in small groups. It is much easier to invite a non-believer to a small group, especially if it is in your neighborhood, than to a Sunday night service. It also fits the need for believers to joined together in fellowship.
I am not personally very familiar with Sunday evening services, but in respect to the historical question, I recently acquired a copy of the 1932 revision to the Book of Common Worship of the Presbyterian Church in the USA (which later became the PCUSA). It gives equal wait to Sunday morning and evening services, so the tradition was probably well-established at that point. In terms of content, there seems to be no substantial difference between the services.
Some of that traveling to get to another church is the result of the old local church refusing to have anything for youth. Sometimes the little churches out in the country had more for youth than the one in town.
I am a pastor in Brazil and we are experience not necessarily the Sunday evening problem but the “one service only change”. My church still has 2 services, morning and evening, with almost the same attendance but two different groups. Out of the 1,200 for each service, only 20-30% come to two services.
I am sure someone has already mentioned this but just in case not, one thing to remember too is that people used to be born, live , and die pretty much in the same town. And they used to go to a local church and many still do. But many others do travel further to church. I don’t know if that’s good or bad. I just is. So I see why the decline in Sunday eve services. Add to that something mentioned in comments from one of your previous posts that many feel they need to be somehow entertained or “moved” emotionally in someway and that does create extra hazard ship and it IS draining. But I would also add that many are NOT using that extra Sunday time to “rest” in The Lord. And believe me this includes me. Many are going to school or sports functions. Some go to work to get extra work done. And there are many other reasons too. I have been curious if there are any even underground efforts to take the Sabbath back. I’m talking no eating out, no housework, no shopping, etc… And if not on Sundays is that happening on Saturdays. I have just been doing a lot of soul searching on if I am Keeping the Sabbath Day and keeping it holy.
Sorry. Hardship. Not hazard ship.
Reading these different examples of “why” or “why not” have a Sunday evening service, reminded me of something I experienced several years ago in Budapest, Hungary.
We had traveled to Budapest to do a recording with the Hungarian Radio Symphony, and had been invited to do a concert in a local church while we were there. The concert was on a Sunday evening, in a converted theater. The room was packed with people standing around the walls. Others stood in the lobby, trying to hear what was going on. Although most of the audience couldn’t understand our lyrics, they really enjoyed the music, and we used an interpreter between songs, which worked out really well. We were able to get everyone involved, when we added some familiar, older songs to the program. They even sang along… in Hungarian, of course. It was a great experience.
After the service, I asked the Pastor how they managed to get everyone into the building on Sunday mornings, since the Sunday night service was an overflow crowd. He looked at me with a strange expression and said, “We don’t have church on Sunday mornings,” which was a shocking statement for an East Tennessee Southern Baptist to hear. “We meet on Sunday evenings.” Of course I had to ask why, and his response was very enlightening. He said, “Almost everyone is at home on Sunday mornings, here in the city…relaxing, reading, or watching television. We do our home visits on Sunday mornings, because we know we will find people at home. Then, we invite them to our Sunday evening service, and many come, like tonight, and the building is full every week.”
I’m certainly not suggesting that as a model, but it did make sense, and was obviously working in Budapest.
Some high churches say another mass at 5 pm on Sunday nights. Others, typically in big cities, have Evensong and /or Compline, which are derivatives of, if not the actual, old monastic services. There they have multiple clergy and, if there is a homily, it is short and to the point.
In a lot of churches though the Sunday night service was much simpler and the sermon was better because it was teaching, not one that was more evangelizing, like the morning sermon.
Dr, Rainer,
Back in the 60’s and 70’s, initially our Sunday night services were heavilly attended by nearly the same number of people that were present on Sunday mornings. Our church offered special sunday night programs and activities for all ages of youth, several different Bible studies to choose from for college age and older adults as well as the usual Sunday evening sermon and song time for those that were interested. We literally had something for everyone.
I am now 62 years of age and when I became an adult, I served as an elder in our church for many years and witnessed the transition first hand when Sunday evening services eventually went by the wayside. The reasons were a compilation of several that caused this to happen:
The first things we began to notice was the extreme difficulty in staffing all of the activities that took place on Sunday night. Typically, it was the same people that served in various capacities during the Sunday morning services that also filled slots of service during the Sunday evening service as well. Eventually, these fine servants grew older, more tired and frankly ended up burning out and we began hearing comments quite often that “we thought that Sunday’s were supposed to be a day of rest”. For many in the church this was hardly the case; some complained that Sunday was their busiest day of the week and hardly a day of rest.
Fast forward to present day with volunteerism in the church seeming to be at an all time low, it is very difficult for many churches to staff what they need to do on a Sunday morning, let alone recruit more volunteers for Sunday night. For many churches finding volunteers is like pulling teeth.
Quite frankly….when the Sunday evening service went by the wayside it was like a breath of fresh air. My wife and I were in that group for many years where it seemed like we were chasing our tails all day long on Sunday from sun up to sun down. It was anything but a day of rest.
Other family members that did not attend church on Sunday night often planned family gatherings on Sunday afternoons or Sunday evenings and my wife and I almost never attended these family events because we were already committed to our Sunday night duties at church. This often caused some hard feelings among our family members because they felt we were constantly putting the church ahead of family activities.
Another factor that I believe eventually played a role in the demise of Sunday evening services was the underlying attitude by some that if you did not attend church on Sunday night you were considered a second class Christian. One almost expected to find written somewhere in the Gospel the commandment that read “Thou Shalt Attend Church on Sunday Night or Be Doomed to Hell”. I think the hard core Sunday night group derived this from the verses that talk about not forsaking the fellowship of believers. I know there were some that only attended Sunday night services out of a sense of expected duty rather than out of desire.
Other factors that may have contributed to Sunday night services to be done away with is the economy; the cost of fuel for example.
I’m thirty-seven years old and have been attending all the normal weekly church meetings(Sunday School, AM Worship, PM Worship and Wednesday Evening) all of my life. My father took a pastorate in 1992 and continues at the same church today. The presence of a Sunday evening worship service is the norm in our community and most churches still observe it. It has always been a part of our church. Evening worship has always drawn a smaller attendance than Sunday Morning. Right now we average a 60% return and the best that we’ve ever averaged is about 75%. The format for the evening service is basically the same as the morning service.
I appreciate all the comments I’ve read, very relevant and helpful. I believe all have to weigh the pros and cons of all the decisions made in the church. There is clearly no scripture commanding that worship be held a certain time, so I believe it is something that is decided by the congregation based on God’s direction for that local church. As has been pointed out, what works for one may not work for another. I believe this is the beautiful aspect of God working through individuals, families, churches, etc. to accomplish the same goals but by different avenues.
I think one of the greatest problems in the modern church is that so many think that rather than call out on God to work through our churches in an individual manner, we should just copy what the church is doing down the street because it seems to be successful. One commenter mentioned the fact that the church at Jerusalem met daily and wondered when this practice was discontinued. The bible does say that they met daily in homes. This is interesting in that another commenter mentioned that a church that they were a member of grew to the extent that they realistically could not hold any more services due to cost, lack of volunteers, space, exhaustion, etc………SO, they moved the focus of the ministry into the homes. Hmmmm………sounds very similar to what was taking place in the New Testament churches. This also looks very similar to the “small group” model. The church at Jerusalem was large, especially after the Day of Pentecost sermon! There’s no way thousands, hundreds, or even dozens could all meet together as a congregation in the homes of Christians during that day and time. I guess the reason this model came to a halt was when Jerusalem was destroyed and the church was dispersed. I’m sure many congregations continued this practice. I’ve noticed that when someone suggests that Sunday Evening Worship is overkill, another will say “We could have church daily like the early church did!” as absolute proof that discontinuing a service is wrong no matter what. Interestingly, if we use the church at Jerusalem as a model most everything that we do now is different.
The reasons why I believe the Sunday Evening Worship Service has declined are:
1. – “I worshipped this morning, why do I need to return and do the exact same thing tonight?” I think many can’t understand why they would return to repeat what they did earlier.
2. – “I’m tired….” It’s true, many people are exhausted. They work 40+ hours per week, many have extracurricular activities with their children, home chores and maintenance requires some of their time, grocery shopping, etc. It leaves little time to exhale. Sunday evening is when this busy schedule catches up with many a church member.
3. – “This is our family time.” Many families do spend Sunday evening as a time for special family activities, visiting relatives, family wind-down after the weekly rush.
4. – “We have to prepare for Monday.” Mondays can be tough. Few like the idea of waking up and going back to work or school. Many desire to wake refreshed, so they don’t stay out late Sunday evening.
5. – “Others don’t, why should I?” Division. This is actually one of the most problematic aspects of the evening service. When the attendance to any/all church services is considered to be a characteristic of the “most faithful” members then it sets a standard, but it also establishes two distinct groups. Those who attend and those who do not. The results can be ill feelings toward each other. It does not create unity, in fact it usually results in one comparing themselves with others which we know is ungodly.
6. Apathy. Let’s face it. More and more church goers are losing interest in attending. The meetings that usually suffer the most in my community go in this order: Sunday School, Sunday Night Worship, Mid-week Service, Sunday Morning Worship.
7. Burn-out – The routine of repeating the same format week after week, month after month, year after year does take its toll on church goers. They do begin to desire a change. Good or bad, it’s the truth. This is especially true for those who have a leadership role in these services.
There’s probably several more that I can’t think of right now. It’s not to say that something couldn’t be put in place as an alternative, but I do think it is important to be sensitive to the make-up of the congregation. We know that ministry does involve sacrifice and service, and all members should be expected to partner with each other to accomplish something for Christ, but I personally believe that there should be more hands-on training. Too many congregations have fallen into the trap of believing that “having church” is their primary purpose. Unfortunately, people have been “churched” to death. Case in point, in 2013, 4000+ churches closed their doors in the USA.
I’ve heard some wonderful ideas on this thread and am happy that so many are taking circumstances that are initially discouraging and not giving up, turning it around in a way that God is still being allowed to work in so many congregations.
Though I am a pastor I want to respond to your article as a father. For me I work 50 and sometimes 60 hours a week (not in the church, I am serving as an elder on a team right now) outside of my home, so in my family I NEED Sunday nights as a time for me to engage with, instruct, and lead my own family. Some say that men have always worked long hours and therefore long hours are not a good reason to give up Sunday night worship. On that note I would point out that historically before the industrial revolution a man would work long hours, but often his sons would work with him, or his whole family would work with him in the family bussiness, we do not live in that world any more. If we want to compel men to engage and lead in their homes then we can’t expect them to be at the church 3 or more nights a week when they are already working 40+ hours a week outside the home. I appreciate your article! Thanks for writing!
Thom,
We’re a new church plant that was launched out of a healthy church. We intentionally ONLY meet on Sunday evening. Encouraging busy young adults and families that we’re reaching to take advantage of the one morning they have to sleep in. Taking family time. Them joining us to “end your weekend and jump start the week ahead”! We meet from 530-7pm and some folks gather for dinner together after. Some families head home it’s working well for us. 230-250 average. Trying to reach some folks that don’t have “Sunday morning” church on their radar screen and capitalize on “event” feel of nighttime service. I hear from some young families they enjoy not having to rally their kids for an early morning on Sunday. Our 2 cents.
I used to enjoy sunday evening services I was a member of the worship team and on sunday nights we would go a little deeper in worship some nights just music and prayer others reading the bible fun times i miss them so