Committed to Sunday Night Services

The Barna Group performed a research study in 2014 and found, not surprisingly, that many people were not attending church. The statistics revealed in this study are pre-pandemic – and are quite sobering. Tragically the pandemic only compounded the matter. While churches attempted to offer online streaming during the height of the pandemic, things only got worse as a result. The online streaming started out with good intentions, but the number of church dropouts has risen 64% since 2020! Many people have just stopped going to church.

The US is quickly becoming a non-religious, non-churchgoing population. Thousands of churches are shutting their doors and thousands more are not too far behind them in closing. According to Lifeway Research, 2019 marked the first time the number of churches in the US hadn’t grown since the evangelical firm first started studying the topic. Again, that’s a pre-pandemic number. Since the pandemic, things have only hastened toward that trend.

Today the typical church attendance is only 85% of pre-pandemic levels. The Survey Center on American Life found that in the Spring of 2022, 67% of Americans reported attending church at least once a year, compared with 75% before the pandemic.

But while the pandemic may have hastened the problem, this problem has been lurking long before 2020. In 2017, Lifeway Research studied young adults age 18 to 22 who attended church regularly during their high school years. The firm found that seven out of ten had stopped attending church. The same 2014 Barna poll referenced earlier noted that 59% of millennials who grew up in church had dropped church attendance at one point. The number one reason given why people dropped? “They found God elsewhere.”

Many people simply don’t think they need church anymore. Some act as if their life would be better off if they didn’t attend church at all. But I believe God is not done! The sun rose this morning because God is still building His church. Those stats may be sad to read but they are not the end of the story.

This decline is most startling when we come to Sunday nights. You have probably noticed that many churches are going away from Sunday night services or replacing them with small groups. I read a recent stat by researcher Thom Rainer that suggested only 5% of churches have a Sunday evening service anymore. That number startled me even more than the other numbers I’ve already shared.

As I considered that 5% number and contrasted it with how God continues to use Sunday evenings at our church, I jotted down some reasons why I don’t see us ever going away from these services.

1. We reach more people – Many churches who have gone away from Sunday evenings have done so in favor of small groups in homes. But did you know that the best statistics for Sunday evening small groups indicate you might get 35% of your Sunday morning attendance? In fact, all the stats I looked at indicated that long-term home study groups are less attended than scheduled services. Right now we are getting 90% or more of our Sunday morning attendance to rejoin us for Sunday night. If we went to small groups on Sunday nights we would be losing a huge group of people we are already reaching with our present service schedule.
2. There’s a better way to do small groups than on Sunday nights – I’ve often jokingly said that the guy who came up with in-home small groups on Sunday nights obviously didn’t have kids or his kids were all older. If we ever went to small groups, I could see that happening during our Growth Group (Sunday School) hour which would free moms and dads to really study, pray, and talk while their kids are also learning something valuable in a class built for them.
3. Preaching is still primary – Listen, I’m all for small groups (done well). I’ve taught on this before (you can watch that lesson here). But preaching is still primary in the church. I refuse to take away a preaching time and replace it with a small group time.
4. Biblical illiteracy is a problem – In my observation, the percentage of those who are ignorant of God’s Word is much higher among those who attend church only on Sunday mornings.
5. We seek to build committed Christians – One of the concerning reasons some churches have done away with Sunday night services is due to a lack of interest. Too many people are not interested in coming back for another service. To me, this indicates the need for Sunday evening services. Committed disciples have never based their decisions related to spiritual growth on convenience.
6. Sunday evening services are not Sunday morning services – While morning services tend to have an exegetical flavor with a Gospel emphasis, Sunday evening messages allow greater freedom for strong preaching that is concentrated to God’s people. Sunday evening is a unique preaching time tailored to committed Christians. Just by their presence these believers have indicated their greater commitment to the Lord and hunger for His Word. I intentionally “go down deeper” on Sunday nights than I may do on Sunday mornings.
7. Sunday evening is family time – Some folks who choose not to come on Sunday night do so in favor of “family time” at home. I would argue that Sunday nights at church are the very best form of family time. Gathering at church is not solely for the purpose of preaching. It is also for the purpose of relationships with a church family. In churches such as ours, where our Sunday mornings are packed with exciting programs, the Sunday evening services are especially needful in building community as a congregation.
8. We don’t want less, we want more! – Revival has not come to a country that has less emphasis on gathering for the preaching of the Word. I long for and pray for revival in our nation but history doesn’t indicate that it will begin with churches that lack fervor. Revival won’t come to those who only need one service a week and are content at that. Revival comes to those who are desperate for more!

Does a Christian have to attend church every time the doors are open? The simple answer is obviously no. Our walk with God is not a time-punch kind of thing. But having a nonchalant attitude about church attendance is a sign of a larger problem. We can’t be ambivalent about this subject.

In the book of Acts we read about the church being established and we come to discover that these people wanted to go to church daily. In Hebrews 10:25, we are told we should meet “so much the more.” That’s why I’m glad to be at a church that wants to be a “so much the more” kind of ministry. There are so many distractions that would keep us from coming to church: sports, music events, and even family nights. These can keep us from being a part of what God is trying to do.

That’s why at our church we have intentionally given our people opportunities to be a part of a local body of believers that has more than one service a week. All of these services are intentional as we strive to be a loving kind of people (1 John 4:21). The only way we can love the brethren is out of the natural overflow of a desire to be together.

We remain committed to our Sunday evening services and we pray you’ll be just as committed to them. Having three services a week—Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and a midweek Bible study and prayer service—is a benefit, not a burden, to the spiritual health of God’s people.

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Caleb Phelps is the pastor of Faith Baptist Church. This article first appeared in the Echoes of Faith newsletter. We republish it here with permission.