A Case for Evening Worship Services
James Ritchey
Evening worship services are not as common as they once were. There are a number of reasons for why this is the case. Rather than spend time on those reasons, I’d rather address why an evening service is a positive benefit for the church of Jesus Christ. From the start, I’ll say it is not wrong not to have an evening service, and in some cases it may not be possible or practical to have one. Nonetheless, I would argue that having both morning and evening worship services is a great way to bookend the Lord’s Day and that the people of God can be richly edified through it.
Evening services have been part of my life for almost as long as I can remember. Growing up, my Baptist church had a second Sunday evening worship service that felt in many ways like a family gathering. When I went to college, I began attending Sunday evening worship at First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, Mississippi. Hearing Rev. Derek Thomas preach through 2 Samuel on Sunday evenings was enriching, and his sermons were God glorifying and Christ-centered. By the time I joined First Presbyterian Church as a junior in college, the evening worship service had become a regular part of my routine. It began to feel as if something was missing if I missed the Sunday night service, as this too felt like a family gathering. Morning worship was of course, very important. But something was just special about the Sunday evening service.
There is a loose quotation that I have heard attributed to Sinclair Ferguson that I find very helpful: “When you come to morning worship, you come fresh from the world. When you come to evening worship, you come fresh from the Word. God has already begun to till the soil of your heart.” You’ll have to forgive me for not having this as a direct quotation, but hopefully it makes something of the point. When you’ve already been to one worship service, then you can come back for the second service having already had your mind and heart drawn to the worship of the Triune God, and already refreshed in the Word.
We as Reformed Presbyterians are committed to the ordinary means of grace. God is pleased by His Spirit to bless His ordinary means for extraordinary purposes. To have evening worship is simply to add to the opportunities for God’s people to sit under the means of grace. To paraphrase Rev. Jon Payne, you get twice the preaching, twice the prayers, twice the sacraments. Imagine the blessing to God’s people, that they have the opportunity to sit under the means of grace more than once on the Lord’s Day, that they get to fellowship with the people of God twice, that they have the opportunity to meet with their God in corporate worship twice.
Now, it is not sinful to not have an evening worship service. To create a legalistic burden is the furthest thing from the purpose of this article. But it is to say, that evening worship is a blessing to the people of God, and I would argue that it has precedent in Scripture. Psalm 92:1-2 says, “It is good to give thanks to the LORD, to sing praises to your name, O Most High; to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night.” This Psalm is referred to as “A Psalm. A Song for the Sabbath.” There is precedent, therefore, in the Psalter for bookending the Sabbath Day with worship. Not only this, but there is also an account in Acts 20 in which Paul preaches until midnight, which indicates the church was meeting in the evening. Now, it may not be practical to meet until midnight (the case of Eutychus might lead us to reconsider such an idea), but at the very least the church was meeting in the evening. To begin and end the day with the worship of God is a wonderful way to bookend the Lord’s Day and to see to it that the worship of God remains primary on the Lord’s Day.
I would also simply add that as a pastor, preaching in evening services is one of my favorite things. Sometimes we get visitors from nearby, like-minded churches who do not have evening worship services. Their presence is an encouragement to the congregation, and they often communicate that they are blessed in the second service. Typically evening worship is one of the most nourishing things for my own soul as well, as I too have had the opportunity to open God’s Word not once, but twice, and the Lord has already been using the day as a day of rest and refreshment in my own life. I have tried on Sunday evenings to employ a phrase that Terry Johnson of Independent Presbyterian Church in Savannah has used with his congregation: “There is no place in the world I’d rather be than with all of you right now in this Lord’s Day evening service.” And genuinely, I can think of no better place to be on Sunday evenings than with the people of God in His worship. As the Psalmist says, “For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.” (from Psalm 84:10)
I would encourage you, if your church has evening worship and if you are able, to attend evening service. If your church doesn’t have evening worship, perhaps you can attend another evening service near you if it doesn’t interfere with your commitment to your own church. And to pastors, if it is possible in your congregation, perhaps you will consider beginning an evening worship service and find that not only is it a blessing to your people, but it is a blessing to you as well.