Sunday Evening Services

Acts 20:7-9 Paul was preaching on a Sunday Night

 

Some insight as to why a foreigner might not have any familarity with evening services, is that some missionaries on the foreign field have chosen not to initiate evening services. I have visited Russia, Australia, Western Europe, Canada and Mexico and have found that some fundamental Baptist missionaries do not have evening services.

Since evening services are an existing part of America church culture (though slowing being lost) it is easier to start a church and have evening services here. On the foreign field, with many working six days a week it can be a challenge to get people to come out in the evening, so some missionaries put all their effort into a single Sunday service. That's my observation from talking with missionaries.

We do know that the early church met daily. Maybe we should go back to that.....

[ August 15, 2002, 06:37 PM: Message edited by: Circuitrider ]

 

Do you see any reason why we shouldnt have Sun. evening services?

 

Back in the "good old days", folks would travel a great distance to get to church...They'd have to bring their lunch & stay all day. There were no 'kitchens' etc; hence, dinner-on-the-ground.

Some churches still do this from what I gather & I wouldn't mind going to church everyday either. Revivals are getting shorter because people have "too much" to do elsewhere...

Are we fully, willingly and completely surrendered to the One Who died for us and rose again? Think how much it grieves our Lord and how much we lose whenever we let self and the world get in the way.

 

I agree. Although, one of the main reasons is Sunday night football

The question shouldn't be "why" but rather "why not". After all, wouldn't you rather spend Sunday evenings in church with fellow believers than staying homa and watching the Sopranos?

 

I don't the historical answer to your question, tfisher, but I know a little about our local area. As best as I have been able to discover, the original pattern here (going back to 1830/40) was Saturday evening and Sunday morning, once-a-month. The conference (business meeting) was on Saturday and included "divine services" - singing and preaching before the conference. Another service of singing and preaching (and for some, Sunday School) was held on Sunday morning. This seems to have been the "standard." One thing that governed this was the scarcity of preachers and the hardships of travel. The scarcity of preachers, combined with the desire for more frequent services, was a factor that brought part of the change. Two churches might share a preacher on the same weekend, so some adjustments of the schedule of one (or both) would be necessary for him to make his rounds. This brought on some of the Sunday evening/night services in our area. A preacher might preach at one church on Saturday morning and Saturday evening/night, then head to another church for Sunday morning and Sunday evening/night. More accessibility and other factors would combine to change many churches to twice-a-month services, and then later to every Sunday/weekend services. By the 1940's, probably most Southern Baptists were having service every weekend. Others (such as Free Will & Missionary) straggled behind until the 50's & 60's before most of their churches were consistently meeting each weekend. The Primitive Baptists would maintain their once-a-month tradition much longer. Most of the Regular (Limited Predestinarian) Primitive Baptists here have service each weekend, though only on Sunday morning. The Absolute Predestinarian Primitive Baptists usually have services on Saturday morning and Sunday morning, once-a-month. Rural electification played some part in having services at night very often becoming practical. This came in the 40's & 50's to our area.

This doesn't help a lot, but it does make me realize that what many think is the only way to "have church" - Sunday morning and Sunday night - is of fairly recent origin.

 

I was raised for the most part of my Christian life on going to church on Sunday night. When I was under 18, it was very much a growth time for me, as was in college. While in seminary, I had to work Sunday evenings, but upon getting out of school and into a "real" job, I was back to Sunday nights again.

To be honest, I LOVE SUNDAY NIGHTS! Especially if you can go socialize after church.

 

I don't know how or why Sunday night got started, but I am sure glad that they are part of our church schedule.

We just had our 25th Anniversary. The church has been there since 1875 or there about, but 25 years ago, it changed to a IFB church and has been one ever since.

Anyway we had one of the biggest Sunday evening services, since I have been there. It wasn't planned, but we had the pleasure of listening to 4 preachers that night, and the service lasted for almost 3 hours, and almost everyone stayed till the late hours, in sweet fellowship! (We talked about our Legalistic ways!) LOL

Then Wednesday night we had the pleasure of listening to 2 preachers, again not planned, and everyone stayed again in sweet fellowship. (We talked about our Legalistic ways, again!) LOL

Then on Tuesday nights we meet again for Bible studies at the church, and that will last for at least 2 - 3 hours.

The point is, that it is good that we are able and want meet so often. And it is good to see people wanting to meet to hear and learn and serve the Lord!

"It is always better to stand up for conservatism, then to fall into liberalism" Justified Version

 

I'll tell you what I heard the answer was on this, but I don't know if its true. Sunday evening services began as evangelistic services, and because they were held in the evening, people could still come, even if they attended a denominational church in the morning.

By the way, many African churches don't have evening services because it is not safe to walk about after dark. Their morning services are ususally quite long in order to compensate.

 

Sunday evening services.
Yeah, I miss that. Our church is made up of mostly older folks (Elder Jim Compton, our retired former pastor is 97 years old and his wife, Becie, is 94) and some come from as far as the PA-MD border so I guess I can understand why our church doesn't have Sunday evening worship.
Believe this or not, brethren, but in my country, the Philippines, in many of the provinces, believers would walk miles of mountain trails Sunday mornings packing their lunch just so they can have Sunday evening worship.
Some of these folks live in communist "liberated"
areas. Now, in these kinds of areas you have all kinds of armed men roaming around, from bandits to pseudo-rebels to renegade soldiers to genuine rebels, but the brethren there do not mind the danger.

Then you've got the cobras and the pythons and the leeches and all the regular stuff you see in mountain villages.

And then, these same people will walk the same trails through those same dangers right after lunch every Wednesday so they can attend Wednesday night services.
Yeah, these are some of the things you will see in foreign fields.

 

...and in our church in the Philippines, one of the instructors left home at 5am to ride the bus so he would be at school by 9am to teach. By the way, he received no salary as an instructor, he did this because of his love for the Lord that saved him.

For Pinoy, he lived in Iba and traveled to Angeles City, so you will know how far it was; the others probably can't appreciate the distance invoved or the mode of transport.

Ernie

 

This in news to me. After having spent 20 years in 2 countries in Eastern Europe, I never even heard of a Baptist church that did not have an evening service.

In fact, in the churches where I was member, the evening services had significantly higher attendance than the morning services.

I can also tell you that churches were full during the communist years despite the persecution. Unfortunately, this is no longer the case under the "free-market society".

[ August 18, 2002, 03:22 PM: Message edited by: webmaster ]

 

Here is a quote from the SBC's statement of faith:

 

Hey, Ernie.
Goodness, that would be like travelling from Washington DC to Bensalem, PA. And no salary.

Well, only love for the Lord can fuel him and sustain him.

But we PB's also do that here in the States. I've known of PB preachers who would travel from, say, his church in Georgia to preach in New Mexico and sometimes get love gifts not even enough to pay for his gas.
One preacher I know in Delaware received only $60.00 per year as his salary for more than 5 years.