The evening service may well be going the way of the dinosaur. What was one time a staple of Christian worship, at least in some traditions, is increasingly being relegated to the past. Or so it would seem. I, for one, consider it a pregnant loss.

I grew up with an evening service—or an afternoon service, I guess. I spent a good bit of my childhood in the Dutch Reformed tradition which was wholly committed to a 2d service. Those Christians were very practical, so they worked around farmers' schedules by having the second service at 3:30 or 4:00 in the afternoon. Regardless, there were e'er ii services and very almost every person in the church attended both. The starting time was dedicated to preaching God'due south Word and the 2d to teaching through the catechisms and confessions. In my life, an evening service was every bit natural as breathing.

Non also long ago I wrote about Why I Love an Evening Service and said, "Of all the casualties the church has suffered in recent decades, I wonder if many will have longer-lasting consequences than the loss of the evening service." While I shared why I love an evening service, I did not advise why the evening service has fallen out of favor. Recently Thom Rainer speculated on it and offered vi interesting ideas:

  • The appearance of Sunday evening services in many churches was a cultural adaptation for its time. Its decline or demise is thus a cultural response.
  • The disappearance of blue laws (mandatory Sunday closings) allowed many alternatives to Sunday evening worship, and many church members chose those options.
  • At that place has been an increasing emphasis on family time. Families with children at home particularly viewed one worship service on Sundays to be sufficient for them.
  • Many pastors simply do not have the desire, energy, or commitment to fix a 2d and different sermon. Their lack of emphasis was thus reflected in the congregation's lack of interest.
  • When many churches began offer services on culling days, such as Fridays or Saturdays, there was neither the want nor the resources to keep Lord's day evening services going.
  • A number of churches, particularly new church starts, are in leased facilities. They practise not have the option of returning on Sun evenings.

Each of those is intriguing in its own fashion and I doubtable each of them, or a combination of them, is truthful in many churches. Rainer invited feedback, so I am going to suggest a few other ideas. I believe evening services may also have declined because of:

  • A diminished view of preaching. More than annihilation else, an evening service provides a second opportunity to sit nether the preaching of the Discussion. When preaching goes into reject, and when people demand and await more of a service than preaching, it stands to reason that the evening service will no longer prove a pregnant draw. Not only that, just a pastor is far less likely to dedicate himself to preparing a second sermon when preaching has fallen out of favor. Where the pastor's job description used to have preaching at the very top of the list, today preaching tends to exist just 1 of many important tasks that consume his time and energy.
  • The growth of amateur and professional person sports. Sports boss life in North America. Amateur sports have migrated to Sunday (a relatively new development) while professional sports are a Sunday afternoon and Sunday evening staple for many families. I sometimes wonder if Superbowl parties held at churches marked the beginning of the end, proving the ascendency of sport and the decline of church building. Either fashion, unless you lot determine that yous will not permit sports to interfere with church building, sports will probable win at some point.
  • A diminished view of Lord's day. Blue laws have been rescinded, and this is important, I'one thousand sure. Only I remember we can dig a little deeper. There was a time in both Canada and America where Christian influence pushed a form of Sabbatarianism into the wider culture. Fifty-fifty though few people were convicted by Scripture, there was enough Christian influence to carry the day. As a result, sports, leagues, activities, and other entertainments tended to exist held six days per calendar week rather than seven. As Christian influence has waned, many of these activities have pushed their mode into Sunday. Merely about every league, every action, every hobby, now has a Sunday component.
  • A diminished Reformed influence. While the number of Evangelicals may be increasing, the number of traditionally Reformed Evangelicals (by which I especially hateful those forms that agree to a form of Sabbatarianism) has declined. The greater your commitment to a Christian Sabbath, the greater the likelihood that y'all will abet an evening service as a means of redeeming the entire 24-hour interval. As Evangelicals have become less convinced about the Sabbath, many have become less convinced about making all of Sunday the Lord's Day.
  • An amusement civilization. Our culture is increasingly driven by a desire for entertainment. Evening services are not fun and, therefore, cannot compete with the growing entertainment options. If nosotros mensurate what we do past entertainment value, an evening service will rarely win.

I want to add together one more factor, split from the others. I have seen that a lot of churches make their evening services drab. Coming to church a 2d fourth dimension in a 24-hour interval is a significant commitment, and especially so for families with young children. The commitment only feels heightened when near other Christians have already stopped attending on Sunday evenings. While nosotros should not measure out our services by their entertainment value, at that place are things nosotros can practise to make those evening services interesting and applicable. A skilful evening service is a delight; a boring evening service is a job. Many churches take undoubtedly had their evening service disappear because it did not receive plenty love and intendance to proceed information technology vibrant.

Is at that place anything y'all would add together? What is your sense nearly the refuse and the future of the evening service?