AP

SURPRISING JOY IN EVENING WORSHIP

A person is more likely to be convinced of a good idea when, as well as understanding it, he also experiences it. I could tell you, for example, of the many reasons why Rugby Union is the greatest game on earth. But it would be more convincing if we went to a sold-out test match together – singing the national anthem, hearing the crowd, and feeling the collisions. This analogy may not be appreciated by Wallabies fans at the moment, but the point is made. We can more easily appreciate some ideas when we experience them first. This is what I found when I first regularly took part in evening worship.

Rather than being the time when the younger members of the congregation have their own separate gathering, evening worship is when the whole congregation together meets for a second time on the Lord’s Day. It’s something which I experienced, almost by accident, before I realised that this has been a normal way many churches have operated until more recent years.

Of course, there are reasons why it could be unhelpful to have a second worship service in certain contexts. Some believers around the world walk long distances to get to church, and then to get home again afterwards. Trudging back and forth may prove to be more of a chore than a help. For other legitimate reasons, churches in Australia also choose to have only the morning service. Such congregations (or even individual families within those congregations) find other ways to fill the day with praise.

It is good to praise the Lord

and make music to your name, O Most High,

proclaiming your love in the morning

and your faithfulness at night (Psalm 92:1-2).

While this captures the goodness in praising the Lord, it is still not quite a specific command to have two worship services each Sunday.

But my own experience of evening worship has been very positive. I first attended an evening worship service at a church in Sydney, then later at a church in England which also followed the two-service pattern. They are not that easy to find today! In each case, I didn’t have any intellectual predisposition about evening worship, yet enjoyed it very much.  A number of features of evening worship were striking.

It struck me that the evening services had an air of peacefulness and quiet, compared with the excitement of the morning services. There is nothing like the energy and laughter which accompanies the morning ‘children’s talk’ and morning tea which often follows the service, but the evening service allowed for a different kind of togetherness, like comparing Christmas lunch with a casual weekend brunch. Both are good, and they are different.

Another thing I noticed while taking part in evening worship was that the congregation seemed to be more deeply immersed in the Scriptures. Growing up with breakfast, lunch, and dinner, is better than getting just one meal a day, and receiving twice (or half) the normal amount of God’s word would make a big difference over a lifetime. Often the one service focussed on a passage from the New Testament, and the other on a passage from the Old Testament. Connections across the pages of Scripture were jumping out at us more frequently. Sometimes, the sermon series from the morning would continue in the evening, and the congregation was excited to find out what would happen next.

A third striking aspect of Sunday evening worship was that there seemed more time for prayer. Often the pastoral prayer in the evening service was longer, and we prayed more slowly, so to speak. The concerns of the congregation which were shared throughout the day could be brought before the Lord in the evening, whether in public or private intercession. It was good to be able to approach the throne of grace one more time each Lord’s Day, as a congregation.

I also found, to my surprise, that the evening worship service gave a pleasant structure to the day. The end of the morning service was only the beginning of the day’s worship and togetherness. After morning tea, families would go home for lunch, where the fellowship continued as they prayed, and sometimes read a Psalm. At one church I attended, the minister invited a few of the congregation – who had been at his home for lunch – to walk with him and his family along the local countryside paths after the meal. It was delightful Christian conversation and contemplation, although an afternoon nap would also have worked for me! After the walk, we all went together to the evening service, and continued together again in song, prayer, and God’s word. It was a perfect end to a great day.

By experiencing evening worship for myself, my eyes were – accidentally perhaps – opened to the beauty of the doctrine of the Lord’s Day (Rev. 1:10). Some argue that because it’s the only commandment which Jesus didn’t clearly reiterate, it’s no longer relevant, but, ‘Moses and the Nine Commandments’ doesn’t sound quite right. And since it was in the creation that one day in seven was set apart as special, we have a pattern for living which endures throughout changes in cultures and ages. No doubt, the day is changed (WCF 21.7), but it is by no means rescinded or irrelevant (Matt. 5:17). In worshipping at congregations where the elders led us in both morning and evening worship, I experienced great joy and rest in God each Lord’s Day. Morning and evening worship is an easy way that elders can help their congregations honour the fourth commandment.

Try the evening worship service at your own church, or if it isn’t held there, a church nearby. Perhaps you will be pleasantly surprised also. To reinforce the point, let me repeat the beginning of Psalm 92:

It is good to praise the Lord

and make music to your name, O Most High,

proclaiming your love in the morning

and your faithfulness at night.

– Jacques Nel