| What About Sunday Night Church By Eddie Hammett, Senior Discipleship and Leadership Consultant Baptist State Convention of North Carolina Recently I have been asked by several pastors and lay leaders “What about Sunday night church?”. Many churches are wrestling with the realities of declining Sunday night attendance and the traditional expectations that churches should gather on Sunday morning and Sunday night. Some believe the traditional format for Sunday night church is the greatest obstacle we have in making disciples today. The church wants to be faithful but they also want to be good stewards of time, power, and provide busy families family time. What’s a church to do about Sunday night? Glimpse of History Church history tells us that the beginning of Sunday night church evolved from those who worked hard on their farms early on Sunday to be able to travel by horse and buggy or by foot to get to church by about 10 or 11 for church. They had traveled so far to church and they hadn’t seen their friends all week they decided to have dinner on the grounds and stay around for evening fellowship, prayer, bible study and worship. They were trying to maximize their time too. Ronny Russell, author of Can A Church Live Again? explains, “I read somewhere years ago that Sunday evening services began in England (the good folks who gave us Sunday School) when gas lights became widely used in businesses and factories. Churches couldn't stand the thought of people going out on Sunday nights (it was still the Sabbath) and so they decided to install gas lights and open their churches for Sunday night services. In America a changing culture caused the church to take on the realities of Baptist Young People’s Union (BYPU) because the large gathering of adults for an extended time revealed a need to focus on something special for the children and youth. Then more organization emerged and more needs surfaced for leadership development. Church Training (CT) evolved to train church leaders to staff the programs and committees of a growing church during the million more in ’54 after effects. This track of history then evolved with the realities of a shifting culture, changing families and the realities that the leaders were in positions but the impact of the church on the culture and the families was waning. Such birthed Discipleship Training (DT) where the focus of Sunday night became discipleship – growing believers in their understanding of doctrine, ordinances, essence of salvation, church polity and missions. In the last decade there’s another shift occurring in the face of increasing secularization of our culture, busyness of our population, shifting demographics and new realities of what works and what does not work in this culture. Christian history has been sensitive through the decades to cultural realities. What needs to happen in the church to have the greatest impact on our membership and those we are commissioned to reach is the guiding question throughout church history. The pinch many feel today around these issues are not unfamiliar to history. For those of one generation grow up with certain expectations and those of the emerging generation have other needs – often the two needs and sets of expectations clash. (I discuss this further in my book Reframing Spiritual Formation: Discipleship in an Unchurched Culture and a new book due out in spring 2005 Spiritual Leadership in a Secular Age: Building Bridges Instead of Barriers www.transformingsolutions.org) Form Or Function? The New Testament talks much more about the functions of the church than the forms of the church. However, most of the time the debate about Sunday night programming ignores the issue of function and focuses on ‘we’ve always done it that way’. Most of the emotional charge is around preserving the forms of Sunday night church and little energy around being good stewards of time, energy and resources or what tangible fruit is coming from the scheduled events. Discipleship training at 6pm (or whatever is traditional) and Worship at 7pm is what we want whether anyone comes or benefits from the meetings or not. We want it because most of the decision-makers have always known this and nothing more. All too often the decision-makers want to maintain the programming but they rarely participate but they expect the preacher to open up for those who want to come. Is that really good stewardship and decision making? Consider what are you really trying to accomplish by Sunday programming? How’s it really working? What other options are available to help you more effectively accomplish the Biblical functions of the church? What adjustments could be made in programming and scheduling to more effectively fulfill the Biblical functions of the church in today’s culture? New Realities, Challenges, Opportunities Today’s new realities include busy people, multiple venues of competition for our time and attention in our communities, 7 day work week for many, challenge to find family time and at home time for families, increasing number of single parent families, dual career marriages, economic challenges of families and communities, churches. The list could easily continue. New challenge is how to grow believers, reach the unchurched and grow churches in the face of these new realities? A question many are wrestling with is “does downsizing of programs or times we meet at the church necessarily mean we are less effective or less faithful in our mission?” Families and individuals have a declining amount of discretionary time and money and they are deciding to give less of that to church programs and church meetings – especially if they are not meeting their life needs. All too often we struggle to preserve our forms without insuring we are accomplishing our desired functions. (For more information about this see my article “10/25/04 “”Fashioning the Role of Core Leadership” at www.biblicalrecorder.org and my book Making the Church Work www.transformingsolutions.org) New Opportunities are evolving for many churches out of the new cultural realities and challenges. Many churches have dismissed their Sunday night worship to meet in small discipleship or life groups. Sometimes these meet at church other times they meet in communities in homes to save travel time etc. (The Connecting Church by Randy Frazee is helpful with this). Other churches have prayer and Bible study for those who want that and it’s led by deacons or other lay leaders and the pastor and staff are cultivating and discipling new members, new prospects etc. in their homes, while others in the membership meet in small groups in homes throughout the week as their discipling ministry. Other churches use Sunday nights as a time of ministry and mission as the scattered community of faith instead of gathering again to repeat basically what was done on Sunday morning. Ministry projects for the family, community transformation events are planned and in other venues mission experiences with other cultures and other people groups are engaged on Sunday evenings. (See Externally Focused Church by Rick Rusaw and Eric Swanson www.group.com) Some churches use the Sunday night time for an alternative worship service or a second or third worship service for a specific target group such as people who work on Sunday morning or people who would rather sleep in on Sunday morning. “Discipling Busy Adults” is a real challenge. I have an article in the Winter edition 2004 of Leading Adults Magazine (www.lifeway.com) that overviews some of the innovative strategies of a decentralized discipleship ministry that reaches busy adults. Coaching Questions Deciding about your Sunday night must evolve around some critical questions that only you can answer for your congregation and community?
©Eddie Hammett, Author, Consultant, Coach www.transformingsolutions.org
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