Wisdom and ideas, please

[MissBrattified]

I like it, although I do miss the evening service sometimes. I agree with PP and FB on this point; once you cut the evening service, it will be next to impossible to get folks to attend again, because they will fill that night with other things. (Which isn't bad, especially if they use it for family time, or to fellowship with new converts or unsaved friends.)

[MissBrattified]

Another thing to think about: If you have multiple ministers in your church, the extra service times allow for them to preach or teach, whereas if you have only one service, they will have less opportunities.

[LaVonne]

Originally Posted by MissBrattified

I like it, although I do miss the evening service sometimes. I agree with PP and FB on this point; once you cut the evening service, it will be next to impossible to get folks to attend again, because they will fill that night with other things. (Which isn't bad, especially if they use it for family time, or to fellowship with new converts or unsaved friends.)

Right...we may be moving again and if so, the church we will attend has two services on Sunday, it will be hard to go back to that schedule.

[LaVonne]

Originally Posted by MissBrattified

Another thing to think about: If you have multiple ministers in your church, the extra service times allow for them to preach or teach, whereas if you have only one service, they will have less opportunities.

I think this is an excellent point to bring up. I recently talked to an out of state pastor, and he uses Sunday evenings exclusively for the other ministers in his church, not he and his son. Opportunities to preach are few and far between when you only have two services a week.

[Darcie]

One service on Sunday is a great idea. Speaking as a mom of 2 small kids, Sunday evening services are hard on the kids and the parents. We did it in NYC of a while and my kids weren't even in school. I couldn't even imagine how much harder it would have beenif my kids were in school at that time.

[freeatlast]

We went to one morning service about five years ago.

When we did that we also started adult Sunday school class at 9:30. Our main service is at 10:30.

We didsmisss our adult SS at 10:20 so folks have a few minutes to get to the auditorium.

We hold our Adult SS in the fellowship hall with coffee/juice and donuts served. We set at tables in a casual setting.

We do use Sunday nights or afternoons for special meetings departmentally.

Three times a year we use Sunday nights for a three consecutive sunday night series of bible teaching.

Our midweek services consist of 6 or 7 home groups that are well attended.

If you go to one service time, the regular @ 10 AM times works best.

Invited guests are more likely to come to a morning serivice trhan one at say 2 in the afternoon.

An afternoion service seems to "wreck" the whole day. You can't do much with your "free time" before or after a 2 PM service, where if you have a morning sevice you have the entire afternoon and evening free.

We start at 9:30 to 10:20 with Adult and childrens Sunday school.
Worship service in the auditorium is at 10:30 and we dismiss at @11:45

This scheduling also allows for our sunday School teachers to be in morning worship with everyone.

If yourSunday School is taking place at the same time as morning worship you'll have many SS teachers that rarely get to be in morning worship.

[LaVonne]

Originally Posted by freeatlast

We went to one morning service about five years ago.

When we did that we also started adult Sunday school class at 9:30. Our main service is at 10:30.

We didsmisss our adult SS at 10:20 so folks have a few minutes to get to the auditorium.

We hold our Adult SS in the fellowship hall with coffee/juice and donuts served. We set at tables in a casual setting.

We do use Sunday nights or afternoons for special meetings departmentally.

Three times a year we use Sunday nights for a three consecutive sunday night series of bible teaching.

Our midweek services consist of 6 or 7 home groups that are well attended.

If you go to one service time, the regular @ 10 AM times works best.
Invited guests are more likely to come to a morning serivice trhan one at say 2 in the afternoon.

An afternoion service seems to "wreck" the whole day. You can't do much with your "free time" before or after a 2 PM service, where if you have a morning sevice you have the entire afternoon and evening free.

We start at 9:30 to 10:20 with Adult and childrens Sunday school.
Worship service in the auditorium is at 10:30 and we dismiss at @11:45

This scheduling also allows for our sunday School teachers to be in morning worship with everyone.

If yourSunday School is taking place at the same time as morning worship you'll have many SS teachers that rarely get to be in morning worship.

Sounds good to me! Our service starts at 12 noon, with prayer starting at 11:30am. Church is usually done at 3pm and I tell you...by the time we get home it's almost 4 and we are sooooo hungry!

[freeatlast]

Originally Posted by CareyM

Sounds good to me! Our service starts at 12 noon, with prayer starting at 11:30am. Church is usually done at 3pm and I tell you...by the time we get home it's almost 4 and we are sooooo hungry!

We tried several diffent times a cpl years ago to figure what worked best for us.

We have many that travel @ 30 mles to church which makes our situation differnt than others.

If a start time sounds better to you, suggest it to your pastor or elder board to consider if it would be benificial for others too.

Maybe you can get it changed.

You'll never be able to make everyone happy...but hoopefully a majority will be.

[LaVonne]

Originally Posted by freeatlast

We tried several diffent times a cpl years ago to figure what worked best for us.

We have many that travel @ 30 mles to church which makes our situation differnt than others.

If a start time sounds better to you, suggest it to your pastor or elder board to consider if it would be benificial for others too.

Maybe you can get it changed.

You'll never be able to make everyone happy...but hoopefully a majority will be.

Right now, it's the only service time available to us as we are renting the building and the other congregation has services right before us. I'm not really complaining...it's working out pretty good for us, we don't have to get up really early for our commute and we still have the evening for family time.