My favorite church service of the week is Sunday night. Several years ago I wrote a little booklet called A Case for Sunday Evening Church. There are probably some things I would revise about it now, but in today’s video I want to talk about Sunday night church. If you are new here, my name is Ryan Rench, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Temecula, California, and I took over for my dad on our church’s 34th anniversary. Our church had this wonderful legacy of Sunday night services, and many churches in the past did that, but over time it seems many churches are dropping their Sunday night services, and even in our church there is sometimes a decline in attendance. But I am convinced there is still so much benefit to Sunday evening services. I was just talking to a missionary yesterday who has been around our area; he has known me since I was a little kid going to elementary school with his kids. He said, “It is hard to find churches anymore that have these Sunday night services. It used to be that Sunday nights were the life of the church. That was your family time.” He said Sunday mornings were fairly evangelistic, with a lot of guests, maybe some kids’ classes, but Sunday nights were all about the family, the time to really get serious. And I said, “Man, I know. I love our Sunday nights.” Someone also said that for missionaries, it has definitely increased the amount of time they are on deputation. If they are only in a church for one Sunday morning per week, it takes longer. It used to be they could get to a lot of different churches and raise support fairly quickly, partly because they could go to these Sunday night services, but now that is getting harder for them too. So in our little mini-book that we print here at our church, I try to make a case for Sunday evening services. I have broken the book into three parts: first, that it is biblical, with some biblical precedent; second, that it is logical, sharing some of the practical reasons; and third, an encouragement for Christians to make church attendance a priority in their lives.
It Is Biblical
So first, a loose biblical argument. There is not a whole lot of Scripture; it is just a tiny little book. But just by being Christians, I mean, we are called to be like Christ. We are called to be followers of Christ, and it is a life devoted to Christ’s teachings. I start with an article about the world kind of scratching its head, looking at Christians who are skipping church: “Wait a minute, you are supposed to be Christians. I thought that is what you guys do. Is that not what Christians do, go to church?” And as Christians, I believe we ought to say, “Yes, that is what we do. We gather for the worship of God and for growth and instruction in His Word.” I am convinced that Hebrews 10:25 speaks directly to our assembly times in church services: “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” Now, technically speaking, there are no imperatives in that verse, not strictly speaking, but there are three “let us” statements in the verses preceding it, and those are like the imperatives. In order to obey those verses, such as “let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works,” God says, “Do you know how to do that? You assemble yourselves together, and you do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together.” “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee”: in that same sense, do not forsake the assembly time. And you might go, “Wow, that is so radical. That is so legalistic.” Well, you have not seen anything yet. The next part of the verse says, “and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” So the verse is calling for more. The missionary I was talking to works with Ukrainians in the war there and with communist Southeast Asian countries, and he said, “Boy, the Christians here in America are getting so soft. We want to make everything easier for them, but boy, it is making the Christians weak.” I read the Scriptures, and there are many times the Scriptures call people to a morning and an evening kind of devotion to God. There is an example in Psalm 92: “To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night.” That is just another example of morning and night devotion. The fourth commandment is, at least in principle, a day per week given to the Lord. I do not believe we are observing a Christian Sabbath on Sunday, but the principle, which goes all the way back to creation, is that a full twenty-four-hour day is something even God practiced. It was an all-day kind of thing. Christians first started meeting on the day of the Lord’s resurrection, Sunday, the first day of the week, when He rose, so it was called the Lord’s day. John calls it the Lord’s day in Revelation 1:10, and I believe that is Sunday, based on when the disciples first met, such as in Acts 20:7: “And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight.” Hey, they were definitely in church at night, all the way till midnight. That was huge. When I was working in Stillwater, Oklahoma, they would say at the close of every Sunday morning service something like, “Folks, all day is the Lord’s day, not just the morning, so we will see you tonight.” It was this weekly reminder that all day is the Lord’s day. Being part of the night services is just a part of being part of a biblical church and hearing biblical preaching. Again, I believe that is a biblical part, and ought to be a part, of every Christian’s life. You get to hear the preaching of the Word of God. You get to encourage others with your spiritual gifts. And in general, I think you can step back and say, “Look, the more a Christian loves the Lord, I assume, the more he will also love the Lord’s house and the household of faith, the family of the Lord.” So even if you think this is not some direct commandment in Scripture, we do see this all-day type of devotion in the life of Christ. He was devoted to the Father all day and all night. The book of Acts records evening services, as we saw, as a way of life. They were just part of this church family, going from house to house. They were involved in each other’s lives. They were assembling all the time.
It Is Logical
So Sunday night is just another way to hear the preaching of the Word. It is another way to be blessed and to be a blessing through your spiritual gifts. God has blessed you to be a blessing to other people, and you can only do that by assembling with other people, by bumping into other people. It is another way to serve other people. We are called to serve, so the assembly times are just another chance to serve. We are called to fellowship with other believers, and the assembly times are another time to fellowship with other believers. So I look at all of that, and taken as a whole, I believe Christians ought to make every effort to be a part of every church service provided in their area, and for our church, that is at Calvary Baptist Church. I have found over my years of attending church that it has many other benefits too. There are biblical, scriptural benefits, but throughout history, you can ask some old-timers, and they can tell you what a blessing it was for their family to just make church a priority. I have talked to people who, once they finally committed to going to all the services, rather than being hit or miss, every now and then kind of going, found the greatest depth when they just committed to being a part of church. Missionaries come from other countries and tell stories of the incredible feats members go through, coming through the snow to the services, or traveling so far just to be a part of the family of God in those church services. When I hear those stories, I think, “Man, we are so weak. I am so weak in comparison to the things they are going through in other countries.”
Make It a Priority
Now, you might think, “Well, I am just too busy to make it to church.” I have found that many times that is just an excuse, not a reason. I know a lot of busy people; I would consider myself one of them. But all these busy people find time for the things they really want to do. So realistically, for most people, it is more about priority. It is about choosing to prioritize what you believe is most important in your life. I realize there are circumstances some people cannot get around, and I am not talking to those people. There are perhaps some seasons that demand that you prioritize something else over the evening services. Romans 14, I believe, and other passages of Scripture will give you the liberty to decide that between you and God, how you will face Him on judgment day about the decisions you make in that area. But I just want to challenge this mentality that says, “Man, I cannot make it. I am too busy.” I am just saying that a whole lot of people are very, very busy, and they still find time for what they value. So if you are weighing Sunday night church against anything else, I am convinced that most of the time, spiritually speaking, church attendance and being a part of church is going to outweigh almost anything else you value. You value sleep, you value your kids’ school, you value family time. I get all of that, but I am convinced that being in church on a Sunday evening will not hurt any of those things, and in fact I believe God will honor and bless you. I believe being in church is just so good for you. I have watched people really plug in once they start coming to Sunday night church and make sure it is not something they are going to miss. It is not going to be a question. Sunday mornings are rushed; they are an in-and-out kind of thing. But if that is your only time to connect with the church family, then it is no wonder some people say, “I am just not making connections.” A lot of times, Sunday nights are the times for family. I am thankful my parents made it a priority. It was never a question for us growing up. They instilled in my heart something I will never forget, and taken as a whole, that was so good. It is not that I remember every single sermon. I hardly remember any sermons. I hardly remember anything about any Sunday night sermon or service in particular, but I remember the collection of them as a whole. I remember that it was not even a question, whereas for some I was around and have seen since, it was just not a big deal to miss a service. Now, do not get me wrong; I am not one who thinks it is some great big deal to miss one service. If you say it is no big deal to miss one service, part of me might agree with that. It may not be about the one service you miss, but I am talking about the heart behind your priorities. How do you determine what takes priority over a church service? For our family, pretty much nothing took priority over it. We did not travel on Sundays. We did not do sports on Sundays. We were not even allowed to be sick on Sundays. I mean, that kind of mentality about church makes such a huge impact on a child and on a family, once you just fully commit to the Lord. I am not trying to say this in a legalistic sense, but in a way that says, “Man, we want to be all in on this church family.” So I encourage you, church: come to church. Be a part of the services. Encourage others: “Hey, come on tonight. Come on to the evening service.” And stick with it. Stay with it for the long term, and see what God does in your life after twenty years of faithful church attendance. I hope this video today is a help to you. God bless you, church, and please grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We will see you in the next video.
