An Argument for Sunday Evening Service
According to a 2019 poll, Thom Rainer noted that only 36% of churches in America have unique Sunday evening services. That stat has certainly changed following COVID-19 shutdowns and demographic shifts, but it’s a small number, regardless. The reasons for not having services on Sunday evenings abound:
Sunday evening services have significantly lower attendance numbers. Rainer says the typical attendance ratio is 1/3 of Sunday morning.
Sunday evening services require extra work from staff, church leadership, nursery workers, and other volunteers. Many churches don’t have the time or personnel to facilitate that.
Many churches replace Sunday evening church services with home/community/fellowship/life/recovery groups to increase their interpersonal/shepherding opportunities in the congregation.
One of the most popular reasons for doing away with Sunday evening services is for people to have additional family time. Family schedules are busier than ever and carving out time together with school and sports and work is difficult.
Still, I think churches should have Sunday evening services. Yes, my church does. No, I’m not suggesting that every church should be like mine. No, I’m not suggesting that churches who don’t have Sunday evening services are being unfaithful to the gospel or the great commission. Honestly, I have tried to do other things with our Sunday evening service for years and our elders have steadfastly argued against it. I am glad they prevailed in those discussions, and here is why:
On Sunday evening, I usually preach a completely different sermon, which pushes me to make sermon preparation both deep and efficient during the week. I am forced to saturate myself in Scripture during the week, knowing I’ll be preaching both Sunday morning and Sunday evening. It is a great benefit to my own walk with the Lord, but it is also a great benefit to our people who see the priority of expository preaching in our scheduling.
I have made a habit of including a Q&A at the end of our Sunday evening service which allows people an opportunity to ask questions about theology, Christian living, and how to more specifically apply the truths they’ve heard preached that day. This has become one of my favorite things we do. I get to walk through difficult questions with the congregation according to Scripture and it is a great shepherding opportunity.
Sunday evenings are also a great time to allow lay elders, interns, and guests to preach. We often have Southern Seminary and Boyce College students preach on Sunday evenings in our church, and our congregation responds to them verbally and in writing. The guest preachers appreciate the feedback, and our church loves investing in a new generation of preachers.
Upon finding a new point of view regarding Sunday evening gatherings, I have recently been encouraged by others to continue the practice.
Robert Godfrey answers the question, “Is There Biblical Warrant for Sunday Evening Worship?” in a great piece for Ligonier Ministries. He equates the decline in Sunday evening worship to many other evangelical struggles. He notes:
Speaking as a historian, one of the things that strikes me is that I think you can draw a pretty close corollary between the decline of Sunday evening worship in Christian churches in America and a decline in Bible knowledge, a decline in disciplined Christian living, a decline in Sabbath observance, and a decline of general cultural influence.
Joel Beeke, in his great Reformed Systematic Theology goes further, questioning some churches’ commitment to the regulative principle.
The lack of a second service makes it difficult to devote the whole day to the Lord, for other responsibilities and recreations beckon. Practically speaking, people who go only to a morning service tend to sanctify only the morning to the Lord instead of the whole Lord’s Day.
Simply put, Beeke would argue that Sunday is the Lord’s Day, not just the Lord’s morning, or the Lord’s hour. That idea was particularly convicting for me.
I believe Sunday evening services are a particularly helpful part of fulfilling the disciple-making mission of the church, and it has been a journey to get to that belief. I want to create a culture in our church where our time in Scripture is so valuable that the rest of our calendars orbit around it.
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
— Hebrews 10:23-25