Sunday night is still a good time to do ministry. Some churches are doing small groups on Sunday evenings and others have simply moved the evening worship up to an after lunch service (with lunch at church). Others have just simply cancelled out sunday evening services and maybe missing golden opportunities for ministry.
We understand that church families are really busy these days and more and more families stressed out from all the work, kids, and making ends meet. However, ministry needs to continue.
One of the biggest complaints about sunday night services is that very few are attending. Perhaps the approach needs to be changed. Lately (during the summer slump) our Sunday nights have nearly doubled in attendance. I don't know how long it will last but what we are doing is working for now. We're getting in guest speakers, missionaries, and young people with talent that need opportunity to minister. Then we publicize it through our people. We had Merle Haggard lately and we had an excellent turnout. But it was all about outreach and getting follow-up information on our guests. We now have over 50 contacts that have come as a result of this kind of outreach.
It has been my opinion (got lots of them) that we need to utilize every opportunity that we have while we have them to reach people for Christ. What might work for us might not work for you. But we need to know that we have genuinely worked every possible opportunity before we try something else or just plain give-up.
Because so many churches are shutting down their Sunday night services we have found that there are many believers who are looking to fill their Sunday nights with church somewhere. Our doors are open and they are coming.
Try something different to involve and motivate your church to look forward to coming on Sunday night and see what happens.
The old cliche is "when life hands you a lemon, make lemonade out of it."
David
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9 comments:
I would stop attending Sunday nights if my church started doing such stuff. The missionaries are good, we do that already, but I would have no interest or part of the entertainment stuff. Sure you are able to increase the number of people who attend, but I doubt that will increase the number of true disciples. Bait and switch never works.
Michael,
Some people would consider it entertainment to have Marty Haggard. But he wouldn't and I didn't, neither did our people. He preached more than he sang! People were challenged to become disciples of the Lord.
We have reached many new people through this kind of outreach that are searching. Don't jump to conclusions too quickly. Never say 'never' before you really know what you are talking about.
I agree with Michael. I don't go to church for entertainment purposes. I go to serve my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I don't agree with tricking people into coming to church with a gimmick to get them to fill the pews. It's about witnessing and knocking on doors and reaching people that way. It's about inviting people to church. I enjoy listening to missionaries also that is a good way to get people to come back on Sunday night. Again it's not about having 100's of people there if it's not done for the right reason. Church is a place of worship not a place of entertainment.
Tricking people? Gimmicks?
I believe some folks don't know what gimmicks are. Swallowing goldfish is a gimmick, but when a godly man sings godly songs for the glory of God and you invite others to come hear; that's not a gimmick.
Done for the right reason? What other reason is there to get hundreds of people to church than to preach the gospel to them and present the truth? Come on, give me a break!
I believe you are making assumptions based on preconceived ideas that have been planted into your theology of ministry without proving them to be good or bad.
If you honestly read my blog on "Sunday Night Ministry" you will see that entertainment was not on the agenda. It was outreach evangelism and worship combined.
David
Bro. David I say this in brotherly love so please don't take it in a negative way or offensive. As I read your current posts and past posts it appears to me that you only believe your way is the right way about doing things for the Lord ie: planting churches, sunday nights etc. I think it's a little unfair for you to say things such as in this current post and I quote you "I believe you are making assumptions based on preconceived ideas that have been planted into your theology of ministry without proving them to be good or bad." To me this statement comes across as you thinking that your way is the only way and that other people don't have valid reasons for their opinions. I have also read other posts where you tell people to get their facts straight before they post something. My question to you is how do you know what facts they do or don't have, just because it's not the same belief as you I don't believe you need to be writing those kinds of things to people, it has turned many people off from wanting to deal with you and I promise you brother many people have been talking about your blog. I would encourage you to be more open minded and not so closed minded to people because you do yourself a diservice and what you are trying to accomplish. I also would encourage you not to be so against what we do in the ABA but help to support it and be positive with your suggestions. I truely believe the work you are trying to do will suffer if you don't change your approach. I say these things to you to hopefully open your heart brother and realize we all want the Lord's work to succeed but there are many different ways that can be accompolished but not by attacking different viewpoints. I would like to see more information about what areas need works and more informative information than attacks on the current way we do things in the ABA. Just a thought brother tell me what you think.
Concerned Christian
Concerned Christian, I do appreciate your statements made in brotherly love. They do not go unheeded. Thanks for your concern.
David
Bro. anonymous, I was wondering...when you said "we" in the ABA who were you talking about. I know lots of ABA people that don't do things the way you do things. Marty Haggard has been to many of our churches and many of our churches don't even have services on 5th sunday evenings, and some don't have services on sunday nights when the cowboys are playing. Who and what do you mean by "we" or were you just assuming everyone is like you? Which is better.....to have Marty Haggard on a Sunday Night or cancel services because it's a fifth sunday and you ate dinner on the grounds and had a sleeping service afterward?
Seriously? We are missing opportunities every day and every week to provoke God's people to greater service and reach others with the Gospel. Why would someone stop attending a Church that creates opportunities to bring friends/neighbors to Church, and at the same time, build up the current ministries of that Church?
Just a thought on the Marty Haggard .... We had Marty Haggard at our home church a couple of years ago and David was right ... Marty probably presented more of the Bible and more of the Gospel than you hear on a traditional Sunday. If you have never heard him in a worship service, maybe you should. Instead of a couple of songs that no one sings like they mean, we had a complete hour of preaching with a few songs throughout the message and the complete message was about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I agree, we don't go for entertainment but look around you, most people that do attend on Sunday morning don't attend sunday night. I recently preached at a church that had 35 for SS then 70 for worship and 15 for evening service. Do we not see that as a problem? Do we not see that as a lack of commitment?
David may not have all the answers BUT he is doing something!!! How about the rest of you?
Why can't we quit the nonsense and focus on the only thing that matters .... winning souls .... UNITY! If David's method works for him, GREAT! If your method works for you, THAT IS GREAT TOO!
Let's quit splitting hairs, and JUST GET IT DONE!!!
John SKipworth
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