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Sunday Night Worship is Ineffective

The Birth and Propagation of the Split Service

I know what you are likely thinking from the title. What I am not advocating for is the removal of worship time, but rather the relocation of worship time from 3 hours that are arbitrarily spread across a day to 3 hours that are completed all at once in the morning. I believe this to be better stewardship of time, physical energy, emotional energy, focus, and physical resources. I would encourage you to suspend judgment temporarily, read these arguments from a detached, calm mental state and then decide if you agree or not.

If you agree or disagree, let us know in the comments below.

Origin of Split Services

There is some disagreement about the origin of split services in the church today. I tend to subscribe to what I believe is the most likely, probable, and believable situation in any discussion. When it comes to the origin of split Sunday night services, I believe the following: the industrial revolution theory.

At the time of the industrial revolution, the majority of the population was working 12-hour shifts in factories every single day of the week. There would be a morning and an evening shift for these factories so they could maximize productivity. They were also working most Sundays. What this means is that it would be impossible for some people to attend once-daily worship services. There was much less leniency for work-related absences in previous times.

What is the solution for this? Split day services! Worship provided on Sunday night!

The people who had the morning work shift could attend service in the evening. And the people with the evening shift would have their mornings free for the first session.

This was a great tool that allowed people to attend services when they otherwise would have been unable to do so!

Notice that never was it expected that people to attend both services. It was literally impossible. They could not take off work because they quite possibly did not have the physical means to do so.

Fast forward to the modern day, and the creation of the 40-hour workweek. 12 hour-long shifts were done away with, and most people had their weekends free. But the evening service remained, even though there was no longer a legitimate reason for its existence. Not that there is never a legitimate reason to continue to worship God, but rather because the practicality of the Sunday night service was no longer there.

In the past, twice-daily services existed with the expectation and understanding that half of the congregation would be unable to attend one of the services.

Split services were a necessity. Now it is a luxury to meet twice per day, and some people have made this a mark of righteousness to attend both services. They have made it into a divinely constructed necessity in a pharisaical manner.

“Here we are on Sunday night; the people in attendance are the cream of the crop”
A Literal line I heard from the pulpit one Sunday night. Not that it isn’t true, but this is the general attitude: those who attend Sunday night are more righteous than those who attend only on Sunday morning.

This attitude is a problem because we know that we have the liberty of individually governing churches to meet when we decide. Worship time [but not worship day – which must always be Sunday] is one of the things that is left to the discretion of the church elders and requires discretion and thought when establishing it because there are no requirements for it.

The modern split service remains a fossil and Relic of the past, and it is simply a form of tradition. This isn’t a bad tradition, some people love it, and each church has a right to opt into doing it based on the authority and governmental structure of the church by which the elders make decisions, but it has become a tradition of men that some have decided to bind on others as proof of righteousness.

Let’s now discuss why meeting once per day is better stewardship of time, physical energy, emotional energy, focus, and physical resources.

Time

I advocate for more time to be spent actually worshipping God. What Sunday evening services have turned into is an entertainment session complete with pastries, cookies, and bribes. I mean, how can we get people to attend evenings at night anymore if there isn’t a free meal involved? If we get lucky we will attract some people off the street who have no interest in God, but a large interest in a free meal, so we can lie to ourselves and say we are “engaged in evangelistic outreach to the community“. What we are actually doing is enabling.

Additionally, the reason it is a poor stewardship of time is because of logistical time lost. We lose time Traveling, preparing, getting dressed, and with all the other logistical factors involved with transporting yourself or your entire family to the local Gathering Place.

Physical Energy

Human energy wanes as the day goes on. This is not shocking. Why then would we give to God those hours when we are least energetic, and resultingly least able to concentrate during worship services? Yet we have made it noble to assemble and offer a low quality, low energy, low focus hour of worship to Go and call ourselves “the cream of the crop” for doing so.

Emotional Energy

It isn’t enough to talk about the poor use of physical energy, you also have to make comments about the emotional energy that is consumed dealing with other human beings and with all of the difficulties at the end of the day.

When you reassemble in the evening for a 5 p.m. service, you are exhausted emotionally which leads to a depletion of focus [which is the next point] as well as emotional energy.

Additionally, you have to consider the reality that most people are sad or even legitimately depressed about the fact that they have to return to work the next day. They have to return to their day jobs. To get there on time they need to be in bed within the next 5 hours.

Do you think people who are in such a state of mind are well suited to enter a place of worship at this time?

And of course, that is not to say we shouldn’t work on managing our own emotional states and improving ourselves to the point where we can manage our emotional energy and focus only on being in the assembly. But it is to say that we should work together to the greatest advantage by positioning the hours of worship in the most optimal times when emotional energy is at its highest.

This is in the morning when we still believe the full day is ahead of us. When we take the 1 hour in the evening and shift it to the morning, when emotional energy is at its highest, when physical energy is at its highest, when the focus is at its highest, and when our time is being used in the most optimal way possible, we vastly improve the quality of worship that is offered to God.

This allows us to offer our firstfruits, not our worst fruits.

If you’re interested in offering a garbage sacrifice to the Lord in the form of the worship of the emotionally exhausted, then by all means continue worshiping in the evening. If you want to offer a better sacrifice to God, and not be like Cain who gave less in his best to God in Genesis 4.

Focus

As emotional and physical energy themselves fade, the ability to focus is also drained and reduced as the day wanes. Focus drains as we use it throughout the day complete with the drainage on emotional energy and logistic details of living and transportation to and from the meeting place, the focus of the individual is left in a less than ideal position for an evening of concentration.

Physical Resources

It would be a better use of physical resources to have a combined morning service. Both in the resources needed to continue the maintenance of the church building itself [electricity, air conditioning], As well as the physical resources associated with Transportation and logistical resources for attending [gas, clothing, food].

Why waste twice the amount of physical resources when you can use one.

Reasons to replace late-night services with more extensive morning services

Give the first fruits, not the worst fruits: The late night is the worst fruits of a Christian’s day. They have the Sunday night blues, are exhausted from the day, and are arguably in no condition to worship God in spirit and in truth.

Just move the evening hours into the morning! What I am advocating for is not reducing the amount of time we are worshipping God. In fact, I would Advocate for an extra hour or two placed in the morning in addition to having only morning services. The average Church meets for two hours in the morning and 1 hour in the evening, so why not have 4 hours in the morning? Not only would you have more hours being spent doing what you think is necessary to do, but the hours offered would be of a better quality.

There is no longer a reason to have split morning and evening service. Again, this was the result likely of the Industrial Revolution, and arose out of necessity, not because it was supposed to be what was most beneficial to God. This was a requirement born of necessity. In the older days, people never would have conceived of a split service. By that, I mean in the days when transportation was much more difficult [horses and buggies], and the journey to the gathering place for worship services was multiple hours long, people would have been literally unable to attend services twice each day. It would have been unfathomable to suggest that people meet twice under these circumstances. Again, we have the freedom to choose what time of day to meet on the first day of the week, so why not make those meeting times productive?

I mean he wants, you also gain the advantage of being able to keep the momentum of worship going. It is extraordinarily difficult to meet in the morning, have a large. Of rest in the afternoon, and then require people to meet again in the evening and after rebuild the momentum that they spent during the morning hours preparing. Why not build a scenario where people would have to meet once, meet longer, and make that meeting more productive all at the same time? This can be done by meeting once in the morning. In my mind, it makes perfect and logical sense, and any alternative is silly, It is founded on traditionalism rather than on rationality inefficiency, and the willingness to offer God the best sacrifice possible.

Meeting once per day would provide better stewardship of individual time. Not because we’re spending less time worshipping God, but because we’re losing less time to the logistics of travel, preparing, getting ready to meet, concluding the meeting, dispersing from there, and engaging in the social aspect of the meeting. Each one of those units takes time and actually costs more time there would have been spent otherwise.

The proper, effective offering of praise to God requires emotional energy, physical energy, and focus levels. This praise is a sacrifice. It requires the best of our efforts, and this is an effort that cannot be maintained across an entire day.

Matthew 28:18 – Lightning Study

All authority was given to Christ in Matthew 28:18. Not partial authority. Nor “most authority”, but every bit of authority.

This authority is one of the foundational building blocks of the church as well as the church government. The way the church is structured follows the outline and command given by Christ. We as Christ’s bride must follow this outline.

How many people in this world act as if Christ has no authority? Even people who claim to love Christ and follow what He has to say.

This is true when speaking about many denominations who build religion in their image rather than Chrsists. they decide that their traditions and teachings of men are more important than what Christ had to say about how His church was to be structured.

Matthew 28:18 is an all-inclusive statement outlining the authority of Christ.

What we need to constantly be aware of is the tendency to build religion in our own image. We often want to ignore what Christ has to say because we want to do it our way. This is not the way we were called to live. We have to submit to Christ’s law even when it is inconveneint or we would rather do something else.

We have to submit ourselves to His laws and precepts. And very importantly we have to submit to His strucutre of the church. It is His bride, He gets to create it how He wants.

When choosing a church to attend, make sure that the church follows Christ’s prescription. Does it mean the model provided in the New Testament or does it add a bunch of concepts that you don’t find in scripture? Or perhaps that church takes away multiple requirements of the church, such as regularly partaking of the Lord’s Supper or refusal of the essential nature of baptism.

Whatever you do, make sure you do it in the shadow of the cross. Respect the authority of Christ in all things.

Biblical Headship – Why Most Preachers Are Wrong

We rarely hear about biblical headship in the church, at least the headship that follows the biblical standard. You would think this would be included in the concept of “biblical headship”, but most preachers leave it out. One of the reasons we do not hear about it is the fact that feminism has been leaking into the church and damaging the minds of young women [and even young men].

Religious people have been shown to have greater marriage satisfaction than non-religious people. It makes logical sense, then, that if philosophies of the world such as feminism leak into the church, it would cause a reduction in overall marital satisfaction. This is obvious when you realize that women are increasingly unhappy in their marriages, as are the men who are married to those women.

Additionally, many preachers are scared to preach about headship because they are in female-dominated marriages or they are afraid to offend women in the church.

Not only do they not preach the truth about headship, but they avoid the topic altogether! Speaking of offense, make no mistake about it, select, highly vocal women will without a doubt become offended by the truth about the headship message. And also be aware that it is truly a minority of women who will become offended, but they know how to scream the loudest. These contentious women can plague many neutral-thinking women and drag them into poor thinking. Because of all the potential blowback they may receive, most preachers blunt the truth.

We need to realize that the only reason that women can even be this vocal about the issue is due to the overwhelming safety of the modern civilized world.

This is similar to when we wrote about the effeminate man. More and more weak and effeminate men exist because there is no demand for men to be strong. When the demand is not there, the supply will not be there either.

The reason that vocal, contentious women exist is because of the safety of the world. When the world becomes dangerous, and men are called to become strong again, women naturally fall into a submissive role. They understand that now is the time to support their husbands in their marriages as those men have to go out to war and become ferociously violent for the protection of society.

A weak society creates weak men who get married to raise weak sons with nagging wives.
A dangerous society creates strong men who raise strong sons with wives who realize the importance of supporting and submitting to their men.

Back to headship being preached in the church: Let’s get the obvious facts out of the way when it comes to biblical headship.

Women are not less valuable than men.

Men are not less valuable than women.

Women simply have less authority than men.

This is simply the way God designed the authority structure of marriage and the church. But remember that the possession of authority does not equate with greater value. To state it another way, authority is not the same as value. We understand this logically.

The men at the top of businesses such as CEOs do not have more value as human beings than the people at the middle and bottom of the company. The CEO has more valuable skills which translate to a higher income, but they don’t have greater intrinsic worth as human beings simply because of their position and authority. In the same way, men have more authority than women, but they do not have greater intrinsic value. And when you begin to ask why men are given the authority instead of women, it comes down to the individual strengths and weaknesses of each of the two genders.

Women tend to have people-oriented personalities and are more suited to thrive in interpersonal relationships. They also possess excellent nurturing abilities that allow them to keep children alive. Mothers are generally better at keeping children alive than they are at making sure they are properly situated to thrive in the world emotionally, physically, and mentally – this is the role of the masculine father.

The father generally has more command over his emotion, is level-headed, and as such is in a better position to rationally exercise his authority. The mother nurtures and cares for her son, while the father symbolically trains the son for war. Because when his son enters the world, there will be war on every front – from the physical to the spiritual.

Given that men and women are of equal value, we need to address where preachers fall off the path with the biblical headship categories.

Here is the exact point most people and preachers go wrong when talking about biblical headship in the church. These churches/preachers teach variations of egalitarianism about the authority structure in the biblical home. They teach some form of a “50/50” model or something like the following: “husband and wife have equal decision-making authority but the husband has the final word”. While this is beautifully politically correct, it is not the way biblical headship was structured in the Bible, and this can be demonstrated with a few simple thought exercises.

First, we need to understand that marriage was designed by God with biblical headship from the beginning [Gen 3]. This was designed for the benefit of both men and women, to allow for greater marital satisfaction as both the man and the woman are allowed to act in the marriage in ways that best suit their sex-specific nature. [We are happier when we do things we are good at, including marital roles].

Additionally, as marriage is the structure designed by God, we can extrapolate that there must be a logical and beneficial reason for this structure.

We induce this because God does not make stupid, arbitrary laws without purpose – there is a logical root of the law of God that is linked to better life satisfaction when that law is obeyed. Therefore the first reason for traditional, Biblical male headship in marriage is the fact that God designed marriage this way. Of course, the reasons do not stop there. If they did, that would be poor logic and generally blind adherence that is encouraged by many religious people today.

Second, later in the Bible, we have the book of Ephesians which paints a picture of marriage as mirroring the relationship between Christ and the church.

Here are the critical questions that disprove the egalitarian, “50/50” authority structure of marriage that many preachers teach because they do not have the necessary boldness to teach the truth: is Christ’s relationship with His church a 50/50, egalitarian relationship on authority? Do we have equal decision-making authority with Christ, but Christ has the last word if there is a “disagreement”, whatever that might mean? No This is not the case.

Christ has all authority on heaven and earth as the husband of the church [Matt 28:18]. The man has all authority as the husband in the relationship. And if according to Ephesians, marriage symbolizes the relationship between Christ and the church, then the authority structure is the same. Man mirrors Christ and has all authority over his bride, as Christ has all authority over his bride which is the church.

This does not mean that the wife loses all ability to speak or request, talk and communicate or is placed in a subservient slave position in the marriage. We as the church, the bride of Christ, still pray to God and present our communications and our requests for Him to act in a specific way in our lives.

And we even exercise our free will in submitting to Him. And this requires discipline, as submission requires the subjugation of personal wants to align ourselves with the will of God.

Even so, the wife can voice concerns, contribute her thoughts, talk and communicate as one with equal value, but not as one with equal authority to make the decisions. And she must exercise her free will to submit to her husband.

Many Bible teachers are simply too afraid of their wives to act on their authority, so they defer to this egalitarian view of the marriage authority that is simply and logically unscriptural. “I’m too afraid to exercise authority, but I’ll just point to this conveniently created doctrine of men as a good excuse to justify my lack of gonads”.

As men, we have the heavy responsibility to lead our wives, to make decisions for the household, and to bear the consequences for each and every one of them. So lead your wife, make good decisions, and take ownership when your decisions are poor. Because this authority exists not so you can take some power trip and rule with an iron fist over your family. That may be required on very rare occasions with disobedient, rebellious children or wives, but it should be essentially unheard of in scriptural marriages and households.

But your decision-making authority is not something to gloat about.

Rather it is a cumbersome gift with consequences at each and every turn. Men are not sitting around, smoking cigars, and laughing about how much power they have. This may be how feminism perceives them, or men and women who do not understand the structure of marriage. In reality, the weight of authority is a heavy one, and many women do not consider this when they are busy airing grievances about their position of submission. Do not hold this position of authority with pride, hold it with wisdom, fear, rational thinking, and kindness. But hold this position as a man, and do what is in the best interest of the family unit despite the popularity of the decision.

Don’t Argue About Politics – Argue About Outcomes

Many times when we argue about politics, we forget the primary purpose of what we’re arguing about. The purpose is simple: We want to change the way the government functions in order to achieve some result.

That’s the entire purpose of political discussion of any kind. There is an end in mind whenever we are discussing politics – Or really anything that requires adjusting human behavior or regulating the laws surrounding human society. The politics associated with the formation and continuation of those laws exist for the betterment of society.

Therefore, when it comes to arguing politics, we need to remember that we’re actually arguing about an end result.

We’re trying to prevent negative situations from happening and promote positive events in society as a whole. Therefore, it would be beneficial when beginning a political or religious discussion to start with the end in mind. We need to clearly define the end result we’re after.

It could be that we and the person we are discussing politics with have totally different ends in mind. Having different goals would lead to confusion and difficulty throughout the entire discussion. Yet many people do this in their regular discussions! They are arguing about different problems or about different goals.

But if we can get on the same page with what we’re trying to achieve, we can have a better understanding of why a person thinks their approach is best or why we think ours is best and how to explain it with rationality and civility.

There are also people who think there is no reason to be involved in politics. These people tend to be cowardly in their beliefs, and lack initiative in their personal affairs. They’re too lazy to study politics or they’re too fearful of losing friends if they choose a side. There’s no honor in this type of cowardly behavior.

All that is necessary for evil to Prevail is for good men to do nothing
Edmund Burke

We should define the desired outcome anytime we’re discussing any matter of importance. This applies to both the political affairs of the world as well as the various politics of the church.

Make no mistake about it, there are political maneuvers made in the church.

The church has a political structure. It has an overarching government which is God, as well as an internal government through the eldership, and secondarily through the deacons. As much as the people who are anti-politics would like to deny it, the church is a political structure, and it mimics the same pathways by which humans enact government upon themselves because the group is still comprised of human beings!

When it comes to politics in religion, people need to get into the habit of discussing outcomes instead of details about politics.

The details of overarching politics are important, but they are often lost due to how rapidly people divide into camps. This demonstrates that they are not at all concerned about what the truth is, or about what is the best way to achieve an outcome, but rather about being right.

When discussing politics, before you even begin the actual discussion, you need to clearly define your outcome.

What is the result you are trying to achieve through politics and is that outcome beneficial or even good for society?

Whether it is the society of the church or the community itself, the same applies. You MUST define the desired outcome. Otherwise, there is no point in discussing anything.

You are enacting policy, whether on the church or communal scale, in order to achieve an outcome. Therefore you have to agree upon what that outcome is – that makes discussing ideas much more straightforward.

Now sometimes people have different ideas for desired outcomes, and that is fine. But at other times people actually agree on the outcome even when they differ by political party – meaning they differ in the way they think those outcomes are to be accomplished.

Most people would agree they want their church, community, state, or nation to be a better place. If we then agree on that, we have to agree on HOW it must be made better.

What part(s) the government is currently defective, why is it defective and how do we improve it? Can we agree on those smaller components of the path to a better church/state? If we can, now we just have to discuss the methods for how to get there. But without that initial discussion about the specified desired outcome, there is no point in any argument or discussion.

We cannot have a logical argument about how to get to a specific destination if you are trying to go to Florida and I am trying to go to California. There is no point arguing about the best way to get there because we are trying to get to different places. If that seems like a basic thought to you, remember that many people argue about the church or state politics without clearly defining the desired outcomes.

Keep in mind the big picture of what you’re arguing about.

This is the whole point. People get too involved in the details and forget that they’re simply trying to influence an end result. If we forget that fact, we simply devolve into screaming matches that change nothing. There’s no benefit to having those screaming matches, and no honor involved in them.

Define your outcomes. Get on the same team as the people you’re arguing with, and they’ll be much more receptive to your message.

Not everyone accepts the yelling and screaming protocol. While some people might like it, and I’m one of those people, I know I’m a rare person in this matter. And you likely are too if you like this kind of tactic. But when was the last time you changed your mind about animal rights because e vegan screamed at you?

You have to Define what is more important, the emotional satisfaction of proving someone wrong about their stance, or actually getting the results you want in your community or church. Think about this while you argue outcomes, not politics.

When discussing politics, remember that delivery is everything.

You may have the correct viewpoint, but if you do not learn how to express those viewpoints with the correct delivery, it will benefit nothing. People long to be manipulated – we call it “seduction. Many times politics is just mass-scale seduction. People long to change their minds when seduced properly. Deliver your answers and explanations softly, carefully, tactfully, and tactically. Guide people gently to your side. By doing this, you can win people without making enemies at the same time.

Your Days Are Numbered

The book of Psalms contains a psalm of Moses. Embedded in that psalm is one of the most practical and sobering verses you will find in scripture. It teaches us a very important lesson: that your days are numbered.

“Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom”.
Psalm 90:12

We know factually that we are going to die. Our days are numbered. This life is quickly coming to an end. And it goes faster the more life that we live. Each passing year is faster than the last.

What this verse actually teaches us is to remember that we are mortal. This is also the ancient stoic technique of meditating on our mortality. And by meditating on the fact that we will soon die, we act in a wise manner in our daily lives.

Think of individuals who have life-or-death events happen to them. What happens to those people?

Suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, they have the clarity that they have lacked for the last twenty years. All of the nonsense of daily life melts away, and only what is important remains.

These people suddenly overcome problems they never had been able to defeat before, and sometimes they have lasting character changes.

You do not need a life-or-death situation to happen to you for you to gain this same perspective. All you have to do is remember that your days are numbered.

Remember that this life is quickly coming to an end, just as quickly as it began.

All that matters is the fact that you were created by God, and you have to find a way to make yourself acceptable to Him. You have to find a way to become right in His sight. You will not do this through works of your own merit. No, but He saves you and does all the work for you. You will not be able to justify yourself, but you can find justification and clothe yourself with it through God.

So in your day-to-day life, remember the fact that life ends. Do not place too much emphasis and importance on the physical parts of this life. Though they are important, and we do have to live here on earth, this is not where we are staying permanently. Therefore live each day as if it were the last day, and you will behave with much more wisdom.

Number your days, and gain a heart of wisdom. Act with that same wisdom every day, as long as you live and you will have an easier time maintaining the correct perspective.

Learn the way to make yourself right with God through the process of salvation:

1. Hear
2. Believe
3. Repent
4. Confession
5. Baptism
6. Faithful Living

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