Remember the days when you planned your Sunday social calendar so you could attend the “evening service” ? Personally I miss the more informal and more intimate services we used to have the option to attend in the evening. I would like to again make the Sunday evening an opportunity to connect with other believers in a time of worship, learning and renewal. To revive the old format would be a mistake but there are other ideas floating around that need to be explored. Somehow I feel like we are losing a valuable resource…Sunday evening…that could be used to foster community, growth and vision in our congregation.
I miss the liturgy we often had as part of the evening service like reciting the Apostles Creed or the Our World Belongs to God passsages etc. Somehow we need to incorporate the good things and try to avoid duplicating the morning service. Suggestions might be an intro followed by discussion groups, or a healing emphasis service, or a potluck followed by worship and prayer or small groups, a social, a community speaker followed by discussion, a service in which we sing only hymns, a bible study, prayer meeting, etc. I think we ought to experiment and and be open to various formats as long as they include worship, a time to learn and grow together, as well as an opportunity to deepen our walk with the Lord.
What do you think??
3 responses so far ↓
Karen // October 30, 2008 at 5:39 am |
I think there is a hunger for what you have suggested. I could and would fully support any of those suggestions. There was always something more ‘intimate’ in Sunday evenings, something we just can’t seem to experience in our more formal and structured Sunday morning services.
henry // November 9, 2008 at 9:49 pm |
I would also be intrested in some kind of informal worship time on Sunday evenings. Could be from Praise and Worship to Study and Discussion on Church History or time of reflection and discussion on doctrine and creeds!
Sounds exciting?
John // November 10, 2008 at 6:53 pm |
Henry your suggestions are all to do with a greater emphasis on teaching more about our roots and our beliefs. I think that is something we don’t focus on in the morning service so I support your idea. As a former history teacher I find myself thinking that we need to know as a church where we came from before we can know where we are going. There is definitely a need to address this issue of understanding the “faith of our fathers” as the old hymn says it.
Some won’t see this as exciting as you say but that does not make it any less important. I had to deal with that attitude many times when discussing such “exciting ” issues as constitutional history or economic development. But its critical to for example to understand the history of revivals like the reformation or the Azusa Street revival if we are to appreciate the need for revival today.
Let’s keep talking.