As far as I am aware, Sunday evening worship services have long been part of the Christian Reformed tradition. Typically, in Christian Reformed congregations, the evening service was reserved for preaching through the Heidelberg Catechism. With the Heidelberg Catechism having been divided into 52 Lord's Days, the evening service ensured that the whole breadth of core doctrines were being taught to the congregation (and not just the ones the pastor fancied). While the message and its authority were ultimately derived from Scripture, the order of the topics was determined by the Heidelberg.
Now, the Church I grew up in cancelled the Sunday evening service around ten years ago. Admittedly, my childhood memories of the service was that it was sparsely attended and that my parents (usually) had to drag us kids there. The only highlight, in my boyish mind, was that sometimes they would take song requests. That was a whole lot of power for a young boy to have in church! After the Sunday evening service was discontinued, our pastor taught some adult education courses on various topics (e.g. the Holy Spirit, leadership, etc.). This was a more informal setting that seemed to appeal to more members of the congregation.
I have grown accustomed to having Sunday nights free. My wife and I quite enjoy it. We often use that time to relax together and have a special time of devotions and prayer. It is a restful Sabbath before the busyness of the week starts up.
Kevin DeYoung recently posted his reasons why churches should keep the practice of having a Sunday evening service. He offers practical and theological reasons for maintaining the tradition. Some of the reasons I found especially considerable were:
- If the preaching is a means of grace where God has promised to reveal himself to us, the church should be willing to make available more opportunities (and take advantage of available opportunities) to experience this grace.
- A healthy church is one that has a hunger to hear from God's Word, to learn from it, to be taught from it, and to be shaped by it. Hungry and healthy churches will desire to hear biblical preaching a second time in a Sunday.
- An evening service will encourage the pastor to spend more time studying the Bible. Also, an evening service will allow other members of the congregation to participate in the worship service in a smaller setting. In particular, an evening service would allow elders an opportunity to practice teaching sound doctrine to the congregation.
DeYoung admits that there is no command in Scripture, "Thou Shalt Worship on Sunday Evenings at 5 p.m.". However, I would encourage you to weigh his arguments for the benefits of an evening service and let me know: are you in favor of a Sunday Evening Service? Why or why not? Do you find any of Kevin DeYoung's arguments convincing? Have you thought of these reasons before?
This is a great post Wayne. The church I attended for my entire childhood and youth had a Sunday evening service and so attending church twice on Sundays has always been customary for me. When I moved away at 18, I was shocked to find that this wasn't common practice for most churches. I think DeYoung is right - Sunday evening service gives the pastor, the elders, and the congregation further opportunity to learn and grow. Plus, it means more face-time with others in the church community. We spend most of our week at work or school and for most that is in a non-Christian environment so spending more time in the church environment would be beneficial for the congregation especially. I hope this practice makes a comeback soon!
ReplyDeleteThanks Anna. Like I said, historically in my denomination it was a big deal. Now, it's a dying practice. What were your evening services like? Were they identical in form to your morning service, or did it differ somehow? Was it aiming for the same demographic? For a while our church did a special service that was more contemporary and was targeting younger people. Eventually, those who had played a key leadership in that moved on to other things, I believe.
ReplyDeleteI liked what DeYoung had to say and it caused me to rethink the importance or benefit of having a second service. In particular, I liked the possibility of using a second service as a "training ground" for the church. For some reason (probably the typically smaller attendance), the evening service seems like a less threatening place for elders to train "on the job" and for pastors and congregation members to be studying the Bible. I will be thinking more about this in the next little bit and hope to share my thoughts here as they become more intelligible.
I like the point you make about spending most of our week elsewhere and the need to offer time together worshiping. I think this point is stronger if a church is careful to guard against too many programs during the week (it would not be good if the Sunday evening service was the third or fourth time in a week that a family was spending at the Church). I look forward to hearing more about how your church did their worship services.