Disordered Lives and the Death of Sunday Evening Ministry

We have witnessed the gradual demise of Sunday evening ministry. The questions for this article are why has this happened and what should the church’s response be.

Before getting to the heart of this article, I want to clear away some circumstantial realities in the lives of churches and people. We need to touch on these here so that they don’t clutter the main points below. Concerning churches, many have chosen to do other kinds of ministry on Sunday evening, such as small groups, instead of a typical service. Other churches group all ministry together into one large block of time on Sunday. For instance, they meet for a full service of preaching, prayer, and song, then they eat together, then they spend more time in the Word. There is nothing necessarily wrong with these options, and evaluating the pros and cons of doing something other than a typical service is not the goal of this article. Regarding people, there will always be medical reasons that limit what a person can do. For others, work obligations require them to work on Sunday. Still others are married to an unbelieving spouse who allows them to attend one service but balks at the extra time that participation at the evening ministry would call for. All of these various circumstantial realities are acknowledged up front so that we can now turn our attention to what I believe are the main reasons behind the death of Sunday evening ministry.

My main thesis is that Sunday evening ministry has disappeared because of a fundamental disordering of life for most church attenders. These various features of disordered living undermine the priority of the corporate worship on Sunday. An additional meeting with God’s people either becomes “too difficult” or it is viewed as unnecessary. Most churches have, therefore, ended Sunday evening ministry. But such action by the church leadership is a disordered response to already disordered lives.

The Disordered Family Life

One of the main reasons people give for staying home is to give time to the family. With the pervasive breakdown of families within our culture, this would seem to be a good reason. But that depends upon what actually makes a strong family. Strong families are first built upon biblical worldviews, whether or not that is even realized or acknowledged. Children in Christian homes need to know that a biblical worldview and Christian maturity call for a commitment to the preeminence of the church. Of course one must have a commitment to family. If you don’t care for your family you are “worse than an unbeliever.” (1 Tim 5:8) But, truly caring for the family means establishing the priority of church. Children need to see, in the actual scheduling of life, that other things are not allowed to push out the gathering together with God’s people. Family priority and church priority are commitments that are not in conflict. It is a rare instance when a family need takes precedence over a church commitment.

The problem isn’t that church is taking family time away; other activities are doing this. When weekday evenings and Saturdays are taken up by sports and drama practice and ballet, you are showing where your commitments lie. If you want family time, then drop the sports and have family time. Don’t drop the people of God. Don’t drop the pursuit of truth and growing in grace. Your family needs to see that one of the strongest commitments you have is to the blood-bought people of God, who are one of God’s major arteries of grace and blessing to you and your family. If that is not true of you, then your life is disordered.

The Disordered Life of Work and Rest

The principle set in place at creation is to work for 6 days and rest for one. That means you normally work all day, into the evenings, for six days. For those in the western civilization, Saturday is one of the six work days. You may not be paid by an employer on Saturday, but there is plenty of work that needs to be done. Work will include anything profitable; such as earning money under an employer, meeting family obligations (including playing with children), doing needful reading, and doing ministry God has for you to do. But Sunday is to be special. It is the Lord’s day. That is, it is the day for the Lord. It is not for mowing or fixing things, unless you are serving the needs of neighbors who need help. Sunday is for seeking rest and satisfaction in Christ. If that does not sound inviting, it means you have a disordered understanding of rest and work.

What is true rest? It is two things, because you are made up of two parts. First, it is physical rest, which is basically the same for everyone. This is sleep, relaxation, an enjoyable hobby, and the like. This should certainly be a part of everyone’s day of rest. But the other rest, the ultimate rest, is found in Christ (Heb. 4:1-11). It is knowing Him as the Savior who has done everything for you. You rest in Him when you breathe His air of holiness and feed on truth, both of which are mediated through God’s Word and God’s people. That happens at the assembly of God’s people like nowhere else. When Christ is your life, and you set aside a day for seeking Him wholeheartedly, then anything that the people of God do together will be a great benefit to you. Sunday evening ministry is a great help to this, not a hindrance.

However, for many, entertainment and solitude is their preferred source of rest. Those whose heart is bent in a worldly direction will attempt to find their soul’s satisfaction in worldly amusement and using God’s world in a variety of ways; but not in pursuing God. They won’t feel rested and refreshed by prayer, fellowship, and truth that is sung, taught and applied. If these right things don’t fill their souls, they won’t want to be with God’s people again.

This is a disordered life flowing from a warped understanding of true rest.

The Disordered Church Life

The last major category of disordered living has to do with the church. While features of church were touched on under the category of rest, there are other practical matters that contribute to the rejection of Sunday evening ministry.

Whether we realize it or not, the consumer mindset has infiltrated our church culture. This has created the demand for greater professionalism and higher quality church services. Simplicity is out, style is in. While style and professionalism are not necessarily bad, they certainly are not biblically demanded. But if such a demand for these things does exist in someone, if only in the subconscious, it does a couple things. First, it puts an undue burden upon God’s shepherds. Putting on a completely different service with such production demands is difficult enough, and is compounded when volunteer help is meager. This also creates a vicious feed-back loop. The high production demands are not met, leading to lower attendance and fewer volunteers, which leads to even lower production quality, and on the vicious cycle goes. Now, there is no excuse for poor teaching and poor leadership. But poor and simple are two different things. Expecting elaborate “productions” each time God’s people meet reveals a disordered understanding of what the gathering of God’s people is to look like and accomplish.

Second, the consumer mindset, with all its demands, has caused people to search out churches farther and farther away from where they live. The further people are from the church, the harder and more expensive it is to meet with God’s people, including making it back for Sunday evening ministry. Are there places where there is no healthy church close by? Occasionally; but even then, the cost to travel is far less than the cost of a stunted spiritual life resulting from spending less time with God’s people.

Another troubling trend in the church is a low view of preaching and teaching. These biblically mandated methods are viewed as outdated relics of the past. As such, the consumer principle of supply and demand shows itself. Where there is no demand, the suppliers close shop.

These problems, which mainly flow from a consumer mindset regarding church, have led to disordered thinking and living regarding the church.

The Church’s Response

Any one of the above disordered features can move a person to abandon the Sunday evening ministry. But we live in a culture where all three of these disordered realities are the norm. No wonder the Sunday evening ministry has all but disappeared.

So what should churches do? Most churches have already decided by closing their doors on Sunday evening. But is that the proper response to disordered living? If swimming against the current is hard, is the solution to just go with the flow? If teen pregnancy is increasing do you just hand out condoms? If secularism is on the rise do you just keep your religion at home and in the pew? That is not a solution; that is surrender.

The solution is not less but more. By more, I do not mean having two or three services on a Sunday evening. I mean that there needs to be more teaching and engaging on these matters. The church has dug itself a deep hole and getting out of it will take a long time. There will be a long and difficult shepherding process for bringing order back to these disordered lives. But it can be restored. This will happen through personal discipleship that confronts such living, by articles that address it, by leaders who speak to it, and certainly by making the Sunday evening ministry the blessing it is to be. By God’s grace, more and more will reorient their lives and rediscover the blessing of the Sunday evening ministry.