This morning I saw an article on Facebook regarding Sunday evening services. As the pastor of a church that does not do Sunday evening services I feel compelled to respond to some of his criticisms and explain some of my reasons for this decision.

I will not respond to each individual point because some are simply practical matters. Sunday evening services may be great for Pastor Chappell’s church because of these practical issues, and I have no desire to say that they aren’t legitimate reasons to have a Sunday evening service in his particular context; however, I plan to interact with a few concerns I have with this list.

A Problem Without A Solution

Throughout Pastor Chappell’s article he makes several accurate observations regarding the state of the American church. He says that we are ignorant of God’s way, biblically illiterate, lacking a relationship with the Bible’s author, afraid of the cost of discipleship, and in need of revival. I agree with his diagnosis, these are tremendous issues in our society and should be primary concerns of the church; however, I disagree with his prescription.

There is nothing in Pastor Chappell’s article that persuasively argues that a Sunday evening service solves the problems he has presented; he simply assumes that an additional service provides the solution. If the solution to these cultural deficiencies is a corporate worship service, it seems foolish to restrict that service to Sunday evenings. If a corporate service will solve these problems we ought to have them every night of the week! Of course, this isn’t practical. Both Pastor Chappell and I draw a practical line on the quantity of church services; we just draw it in a different place. Of course, just as the existence of these problems does nothing to argue for a Sunday evening service, it does not argue against it.

Freedom for a Reason

Pastor Chappell does little to interact with the reasons why a church might choose to avoid Sunday evening services. The only reason he does address is that some churches choose to stop having them because of a lack of interest. I agree lack of interest is a poor reason. If a church is unwilling to sacrifice (if going to church gets counted as making a sacrifice we seriously need to redefine sacrifice) a couple hours on a Sunday night to gather together because it is too hard, they have an anemic view of Christian discipleship that is utterly inconsistent with the expectations of Jesus. I don’t think Pastor Chappell and I disagree at all on that.

However, there are positive reasons why a church would choose not to have a Sunday evening service for the sake of discipleship rather than as a concession to the difficulty of discipleship. Rather than continuing to negatively argue against what Chappell proposes, allow me to give you the positive reasons why abandoning Sunday evening services has been right for our church.

Church isn’t a time of the week

We’ve all heard it said, “A church is not a building!” As a pastor of a church without a building, I certainly agree. I would go a step farther and say that church is not a time of the week. Being a part of a vibrant church is a daily experience. We gather all together on Sunday, but we have might have coffee on Monday, encourage one another while our kids play together on Tuesday, go to small group on Wednesday, meet with a friend to read the Bible together on Thursday, drop our kids off at another families house for a babysitting swap on Friday, and get together to tear off a roof on Saturday. We don’t go to church we are a church. Each of those activities are just as much a part of being the church as going to a Sunday evening service.

Our decision not to have Sunday evening services is intentional because we want our church to be more than weekly gatherings. My wife and I try to have every church attender over to our house at least once a year. Sunday nights are perfect for that because most people aren’t working. Of course people can also get together before or after the Sunday evening service, but in my experience making the whole evening available and emphasizing that the reason is to promote gathering together with other members has been very successful in promoting the type of community that is integral to church health.

Go Not Come

Our church has a very simple mission statement: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” I doubt that Pastor Chappell would object to that mission! This means that the a major purpose of our church is preparing people to not be at church. By keeping our church (institution) schedule light we are enabling our church (body of believers) to fulfill its mission. Not having a Sunday night service is part of this.

As an example, we have several church members who are involved with extracurricular activities in area schools. During the peak times, these activities prevent them from being as involved with church functions as they are for the rest of the year. Is this a bad thing? Is it bad that these men are spending hours mentoring and building relationships with unbelieving teenagers? I certainly don’t think so. A light schedule at church (including Sunday night) allows these men to be faithful to their vocation, family, church, and the Great Commission. By obligating them to further church services, at least one of those things would have to give.

Avenues for Discipleship

I often remind our church that we all have a responsibility to one another. Discipleship should be happening on a daily basis as church members interact with one another. Perhaps my biggest concern with Pastor Chappell’s article is the centrality of the pulpit. Let me be clear, I’m not challenging the centrality of the Word proclaimed, but I do have an issue with limiting the Word proclaimed to the pastor’s pulpit ministry.

As I mentioned before, Pastor Chappell rightly diagnoses several deficiencies in the church, but his solution is the gathering of the church under preaching. Preaching certainly plays a major role in the proclamation of the word, but so does confrontation, individual discipleship, counseling, and fellowship. These are only effective when they are word-saturated activities, but they can be word-saturated activities. I am concerned that, by making a corporate gathering the solution for these deficiencies, we are limiting the power of the Word to the power of the Word in the hands of the pastor. I believe that every person in my church needs more of the Word in their life; but I also believe that the Word itself is powerful, regardless of whether it is ministered from the pulpit by a pastor or in the living room by a brother in Christ.

In our church we have made the conscious decision to avoid Sunday evening services because we want to facilitate the ministry of the Word in contexts other than pulpit proclamation. In other churches, the evening service may be the best way to minister the Word, but it is certainly possible to have a healthy focus on the Word without a Sunday evening service.