Sunday Nights Church Services?

[Mexdeaf]

It's a shame that a family HAS TO stay away from church on Sunday evening to spend "quality family time". Seems to me that would be the mark of a dysfunctional family.

So they are both dysfunctional and Sunday night service or lack thereof has zip to do with it.

 

[12strings]

Any church worth their weight in salt should be the center of the believers community. Something should be going on every night of the week. Burn that electricity. Let vehicles be seen in the parking lot. Activities for the kids, outside, weather permitting will catch the eye of those passing by.

Church should be the center of the believers community. However, I seems like having something every night of the week is a good way to drive parents of young children crazy and make them resent the church. Families need SOME nights at home to just relax and not have something to run off to.

I'm glad we have gotten so many responses to this...Here's where my church is right now:

We have a normal Sunday morning attendance of 175-185. Our sunday evening service for the last few years was around 25-30. First we moved it out of the sanctuary in to the smaller fellowship hall, and had some good times of teaching & prayer. It was just small. We decided about a year ago to adopt a new policy that basically goes as follows: If we look ahead to the next month or two, and there is a sunday night where we don't really know what we will do (who will speak, or no other special event going on)...then we simply say "NO PM Service" that week. We still end up having something more Sunday nights than not, and end up with 1 or two off each month. (we use sunday night for a lot of different church activities, some cookouts, business mtgs, Periodic prayer services, special programs, missionary presentations, etc.)... But if we don't have anything planned, we decided not to feel guilty to take one off sometimes, esp for holidays and things like that.

So now our weekly format looks like this:
-Sunday: sunday school, AM Service...Possible PM Service or fellowship time
-Wednesday: bible studies split as follows: Kids, Youth, Men, Ladies
-Thurs. morning: Senior adult bible study
--> There are also several small groups that meet throughout the week a different times and days.

Parents with young children seem to appreciate that we are seeking to provide discipleship opportunies without dominating their schedules. I know some of the women get together and do bible studies or just pray on their own.

For our church, this seems to really work well.

 

[humblethinker]

...we decided not to feel guilty...

Why did you have to bring that into the conversation!?! Who gave yall that authority? If you remove the guilty feelings then how could we ever hope to not change anything!?
;-):smilewinkgrin::tongue3:



:thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[HAMel]

However, I seems like having something every night of the week is a good way to drive parents of young children crazy and make them resent the church. Families need SOME nights at home to just relax and not have something to run off to.

Of course. That would be rather insane to expect "everyone" all the time.

Last Sunday our Pastor announced that beginning this Saturday evening the doors would be open at 7 PM for prayer.

Anyone who wanted to stop in and engage in prayer either in a group setting or individually..., was welcome to do so. Then, he followed it up with it was not a mandatory thing and he would certainly not be keeping a list of who attended. The doors will be open and the lights on for whoever wanted....

 

[SaggyWoman]

I used to love to go to Sunday night services. Before I took my last job, which I worked a week on and a week off, making it difficult to attend Sunday night services when I worked, I had since participated in a church that did not have Sunday night services.

I would rather go on Sunday night than morning, but most don't offer that. Not many in my area do Sunday night services.....

 

[HeDied4U]

Question 2: Can a healthy church eliminate their evening service and still be a faithful, effective body of disciples?

Yes. My previous church did and remained just as strong and dedicated.

 

[Crabtownboy]

We do not have a repeat of a Sunday morning service on Sunday night. That would fall utterly flat.

Currently we are going through the book, "Manna and Mercy," and that is very well attended. I'd say about half our church members and attendees are involved in the evening book study.

 

[dh1948]

Every church has to make its own decision regarding Sunday evening service, and that decision is based on the church's situation. It is asinine to condemn a church for dropping Sunday night services. It is just as asinine to condemn a church for having them.

In my situation, we have Sunday night service with about 20 peoplel attending. Attenders are mostly senior adults. IMHO, they are not there to worship the Lord. They are there out of habit or a feeling of duty. It would be okay with me if we stopped having Sunday night service. I mentioned it a few weeks back in a conversation with a few guys. It was funny that two of them who don't even attend on Sunday night were vehemently opposed to the idea because, "we have always had Sunday night church."

At some point, I think I will be able to lead the church to drop Sunday nights from the schedule. In the words of that famous general, Napolean (I think!), "If the horse is dead, dismount."