What do you guys emphasize on Wednesday nights?

Jimmy,
We devote much of the Wednesday Evening Service to church-wide prayer. We sing about three songs, give a few quick announcements, then I preach for about 30 minutes. I preach expositionally on Wednesday nights. Those in attendance are the "cream of the crop."

After the preaching, we have a time for prayer requests to be made public. A prayer request sheet is typed and given to everyone as they come in. As new prayer requests are given, they write them on their sheets.

We then break up into several smaller groups (3-5 people) and have 20 - 30 minutes of prayer time focused on those who are on the prayer list, our Missionaries, the various ministries of the church, and the church family as a whole.

After church we have Adult Choir practice.

 

We have a song, followed by 15-20 minutes of prayer, then I teach from the Bible for about half an hour, always in some kind of expositional series

 

I generally teach on our memory verse for the week, to try to draw some practical applications from it for daily life and to encourage people to memorize it.

We follow it with prayer.

 

Well, obviously I'm not a pastor, but I'll post anyway!
We have a typed prayer list we recive after getting to church. We sing about 4 songs. Then we have time for prayer requests, praise reports and testimonies.
Then the preacher preaches. I'm not sure what expository preaching is or if preacher does it. All I know is that he preaches what God lays on his heart.
After the service is over everyone usualy hangs around to fellowship. Sometimes choir will pracitice and if there is going to be a special service on SUnday, a few of us will clean the church and maybe bring something to eat for when we are finished. If we eat, we all get to fellowship some more.
I don't know about ya'll, but my favorite times of the week are when we get to meet in God's house for any reason. I love church services, visitation, church cleaning,church recreation, any thing we can do together as a church family, but our main perpose is to glorify the Lord.
We are very small,and only the really faithfull seem to show up on wensdays, so since there is really a small number we all sit on one side of the church.
~Abby

 

In the sanctuary, there are a few songs, announcements, Bible study and a short prayer time.

All around the rest of the building, we have children's classes, ESL, Knitting, Potter's house, lots of adult classes.

 

That is why I am an Independant Baptist. I can do here at our church as I feel God would have us do without trying to fit into an accepted tradition.

I, by the grace of God, do not use any time behind the pulpit to glorify "the worm." Be careful. Comments like this border on what Jesus preached against in Matthew 7:1-5.

I agree 100% that prayer is vital to the life and health of the church. But, corporate prayer is only as effective as personal, individual prayer. In other words, if we are not teaching our people to pray personally and get ahold of the throne of grace, corporate prayer on Wednesday night will be useless.

In addition, personal prayer is ineffective if the heart of the believer is not right with God. (Ps 66:18 "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.")

According to II Tim. 3:16 the Word of God is what is needed to teach doctrine, to reprove, to correct, and to instruct in righteousness. This is how we learn to keep our hearts right with God so that our prayers are not hindered. This should be done whenever the church meets, regardless of the day of the week.

I'll continue to preach on Wednesday evenings with a church-wide prayer meeting to follow.

 

Bob,

Just curious, Why turned away at the idea of a preaching service? If the "Midweek Prayer Service" is tradition, should we not be a bit more flexible about its existence? You have been an outspoken advocate of repenting of "Pharisaism" in fundamentalist traditions. This just seems a bit out of line. Perhaps I misunderstand you.

However, I do think we need more prayer and more corporate prayer. I am considering changing gears to a small group midweek meeting in homes instead of church.

[ August 01, 2002, 10:02 AM: Message edited by: Pastor Larry ]

 

Dr. Bob, I don't want to sound contrary here, but I'm going to anyway If people are turned off by the Word and it's preaching/teaching, what does that tell you? Yes we need more prayer. We need much more of it. Why? Because of the Word. The Word will drive people to their knees. The Word of God has an impact on people's lives that nothing else has. I'm not saying the Wed nite service should be identical to the others. I'm not saying it's wrong if they are. But I am saying that an emphasis on the Word cannot possibly be wrong and will lead to the other desired effects (Cf. Neh 8).

 

I don't know about ya'll, but I just don't think I could get along if I didn't have that preaching 3 times a week. I need it. I need to be feed spiritualy. I personaly think we don't have enough preaching. I think we need some good old-fashioned preaching everyday, but unfortuanatly not many people agree! I feel like i've missed something if I miss a service.
Why can't we do both? Why can't we preach and pray on Wenesday night?
Basicaly I think ya'll should do as the Lord leads ya'll. If the Lord wants you to have a time of only prayer, then by all means, do it. If He wasnts ya to preach and have prayer, why not?
Just last week 2 people got saved at my church on wenesday night. My best friend and a young man that we've had prayer for, for over a year now. A year and a half ago, my grandma got saved on a Wenesday night in a revival.
Maybe I don't know much, but the Lord does. Follow Him, and seek His will. Then everything will be okay.
In our Saviour, Abby

 

Here is what we do on Wednesday night. Hold on to you hat...after a 90-day trial period, we recently voted to eliminate Sunday night services and put a greater emphasis on Wednesday night activities. Call us heretical or whatever, but this has resulted in us reaching more people on Wednesday nights than we were reaching on Sunday nights and Wednesday nights combined! We consistently have visitors on Wednesday nights. Previously, visitors on Sunday nights were as scarce as hens' teeth. We still have two groups that meet on Sunday nights...a discipleship class of older people (most of them did not want to eliminate Sunday night services)and a Men's Ministry study group (all were supportive of the change). The long-range plan of this men's study group is to form small groups that meet throughout the week. So, what do we do on Wednesday nights? The first Wednesday night of each month is a full-blown worship service...just like Sunday mornings. We make it a celebration service and include baptisms, quarterly Lord's Supper, lots of celebration type music, Pastor's Pals (children's sermon) and preaching, and invitation. Sometimes a guest speaker is used. The rest of the Wednesday nights are devoted to discipleship classes for adults, children's choir, Team Kids for preschoolers, a college student Bible study, and a teen rally (singing, refreshments, Bible study). We also have a family meal each Wednesday prior to the other activities. It may not work for you, but it works well for us. We had only a very small minority that opposed the dropping of the Sunday night schedule (less than 10%). However, most of them have gracefully accepted the change and have never caused a problem over it. This change has freed up Sunday afternoons for some good ministry and fellowship activites. For instance, some of our Sunday School classes and ministries have parties (oops! I mean Baptist fellowships!) on Sunday afternoons. Some of my people use it as a time for hospital and nursing home visitation.

 

Just back from our Wednesday evcening wservice, here is how it went: One song, followed by ten minutes of public prayer requests, followed by 45 minutes of prayer, then an offering and 45-50 minutes of verse by verse chapter by chapter teaching through the book of Acts. service began at 7.30 pm and ended around 9.25 pm. I always teach through a book on Wednesday night, alternating between Old & New Testament books as we go. Contrary to Dr. Bob's "broad brush" as an IFB Pastor I avoid those stereotypical ailments mentioned (i.e legalism, easy believism, shallow Bible study)

 

Umm, I hear the word "legalisum" just about everytime someone talks about IFB's.
I'm IFB, and I'm wondering about what this word really means. {I'm really truly not being sarcastic or anything like that, I really want to understand what this word means.} Does anyone have a clear, specific definition?
It would be greatly apreciated,
Thanks, Abby

 

I almost alway teach on the topic of worship.

 

Start with prayer and then go to teaching, going through Galatians now. There isn't any singing and the focus is on sharing with one another, building realtionships. The prayer time is as long or short as those that are asked to pray, pray. Very informal, I usually wear jeans and have been known to wear shorts when it is hot, not that often where I live. We also have refreshments on occasion. We are starting to have prayer times during the week in small groups, which is proving to be ery good times of church togetherness.