Whence Wednesday Services

No idea. For that matter, I know of no Biblical instruction to do a Sunday Service either, but I am quite sure God doesn't mind.

Joseph Botwinick

 

In Australia, Saturday nights are proving popular!

 

Not sure about Wed. but Sunday Eve. services started when gas light started. Some public buildings put indoor gas light in and churches caught the idea and because it drew people in the churches started preaching evangelistic messages (according to Christianity today article years ago.)

Friend of mine couldn't figure why his people wouldn't come to Wed. night service. His people were all very committed otherwise. Finally he asked every family in the church - all families had one or more members working the swing shift they started a Sat. morn prayer meeting and packed it out

 

I thought Wednesday's started out as "choir practice," and then kind of "grew" from there.

 

I've heard it called "mid-week" services. Those who really enjoyed the fellowship and prayer wanted to gather at that time as well - that's my guess.

 

Just a thought on this....aren't there some Baptists who believe Christ was crucified on Wednesday...in particular Landmark Baptists? If so, could the Wednesday night service be somehow connected with this belief?

 

You make a good point there, lets make a poll and find out!

http://www.baptistboard.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php/topic/39/1461.html#000000

 

I seem to remember Spurgeon writing about normally having 2 prayer services per week, but I don't think Wed was one of them. I'm pretty sure Monday was one of them.

 

Actually ther early Christians worshipped all seven days in the week. But as the Church grew more and more lukewarm some neo-evangelical pastor decided to cut it down to two days a week and it really caught on. It might have started with the advent of television.

 

Well I don't know when it started but I like it.

 

We have our Wednesday service on Thurday. Is that allowed?

I find the mid-week time together (bible study and prayer) a refreshing time to 'refuel' in the middle of the week, with fellowhip, the Word, and prayer.

By the way, do you count preaching/singing at nursing/rest homes as services? Our church provides a weekly Bible study at a nursing home Monday afternoon and once a month a 'service' with singing on sunday afternoons.

 

Back in the days when I was pastoring a church, we had a church service at 10:00 a.m., 2:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. on Sundays, a Bible study everyday Monday – Friday at 7:00 p.m., and special programs every Saturday. We also served dinner every night Monday – Saturday at 6:00, and at 3:00 p.m. on Sundays. Our entire facility was open seven days a week (including all holidays) till midnight for worship, Bible study, prayer, Christian fellowship, and Christian recreation. Wednesday was just another day of the week.

Church facilities are very expensive, why not be good stewards and use them to their fullest possible extent?

 

Me too. We call our Wednesday service "mid-week service." We'd be willing to change days, though, if that's what the people desired.

PJ

 

Change days! Sacrilige!

 

If I remember correctly, mid-week services in East Texas started as prayer meetings during the war (No. 1, I think). They were special services related to the times and not something done week after week year after year. But seems like they caught on and the Southern Baptists made them weekly (maybe after World War II). I remember most of the Missionary Baptists didn't adopt them as a regular thing until much later - mainly because they didn't want to be like the Southern Baptists! The church where I grew up had them only quarterly, which was a "joint prayer-meeting" with 3 other churches.

The older parts take with a grain of salt; my memory may be a little faulty.

 

Recently I was talking to a co-worker about my churches' services. She and her husband belong to a church called Fellowship Bible church. I do not know what denomination that is.

I mentioned our choir and the specials we have and she thought that was very strange. She also found it odd that we still have Sunday night and Wednesday night services. She says her chuch only has Sunday morning services and she thinks our church is very old fashioned and quite unique as far as church services go. I set her straight on the fact that most all Baptist churches still have the three weekly services and still have choirs. Her church has a four person Praise and Worship team that does all the music. Therefore, they have no "special music" by an individuals. She stated that this was the new way to worship.

All I had to say was: If this is the new way to worship, I really hope that our Baptist churches stay old fashioned because I never want to be in a church that has no choir, no specials and only one worship service a week.

Limiting God's time to a couple of hours on Sunday morning may lead to them soon not finding any time in their lives for God. It is very sad.

 

I don't know either, but years ago we were attending a church which provided dinner every Wednesday evening to get people to attend. It was sad that they had to resort to that to get people to attend. It did work and it worked very well.