Church Beyond Sunday Morning

Making The Case for Rethinking Sacred Time and Space

With the marking of All Saints Day on the church calendar, and the change back to standard time in most of the US and creep toward shorter days of the winter solstice, darkness seems to be every crowding in on us and our time. While many people struggle with longer nights and less daylight, I’ve always found it to have a strange warmness – not for what happens outdoors but what comes to life indoors. Gathering with friends and family on these long nights for warm meals, sharing special seasonal worship services all seem to have a mystical feeling where light pierces the darkness and connects with our inmost being. In the days of regular Sunday night services, I always enjoyed the weekly escape from the darkness of a winter night, into a brightly lit house of worship – it always felt more special to me. Passing other churches on these nights with their stained-glass windows glowing in the dark night – it was a visible sign of the work and witness of the church in the world. Not in the presence of the edifice, but radiating light that signified life.

As American church culture has changed and churches abandoned their Sunday night service – many being part of revival movements with evangelistic emphasis, I feel that we have lost this more intimate opportunity to gather as a faith community. While Sunday morning may be the cultural time to show up for church, Sunday nights drew a group that seemed to be more deeply committed to their faith – in some traditions tarrying into the night waiting expectantly for God to speak.

Along with the shift away from Sunday evening worship – Sunday morning worship has now become just one option among many for many peoples final weekend morning. The rush of life the other 6 days of the week causes some to need a slow and lingering morning to reset and regather. At the same time families with children see community activities taking their attention. And others would rather meet friends over brunch for those informal social connections we all crave. While changes in our culture are impacting worship attendance, when we look back farther in time we see that churches in the 19^th and early 20^th century gathered differently than we might remember. The Methodist church grew exponentially in the early 19^th century with circuit preachers and congregations who may have met only when a minister was available which was not always on Sunday morning. It was not until the post WWII era that solidified Sunday, and particularly Sunday morning as a time for the primary gathering of the church. The Blue Laws limiting business and commerce on Sundays further supported this reality until the 1960s when those lows slowly began to be repealed into the late 1990s.

In light of this evolution and changing priorities of how people choose to use their time, what if our congregations explored alternate times of worship? How can we think about diversity in worship gatherings that reflect the diversity of our congregants? What if we made the same bold moves to implement new or different ways of gathering as we did during the 2020 pandemic? Out of necessity, churches grew their online and digital access by leaps and bounds to keep their congregations connected and moving forward. It was a shift that many would have never made under normal circumstances and now would never reverse course on. What we saw was exponential adoption of virtual tools and opportunities. In 2019 only 19% of congregations offered online engagement or streaming of worship services compared to 85% by 2022. Proof that churches can adapt new ways of engagement, and quickly. While this increased access is a phenomenal change, it still cannot replace in person connection that we desire and need. Creating greater access to the worship, work, and witness of the church is never going to result in decline. What if we applied that same adaptability to when we offer our primary congregational gatherings for worship and fellowship?  Who might our primary emphasis on Sunday morning be leaving excluded or unable to participate?

In 2013, Rev. Dr. Katie Hays left traditional ministry to establish Galileo Church in Fort Worth, Texas, specifically designed to reach "spiritual refugees" – people for whom traditional church no longer resonated. Recognizing that many in the service and gig economy work Sunday mornings or have unpredictable schedules, they chose 5 PM Sunday evenings as their weekly worship time and offer at least nine weekly gathering opportunities. In a blog post, Hays noted that over 40% of part-time workers know their schedule only one week in advance, making traditional Sunday morning commitments nearly impossible. And in the years since their founding, they have continued to meet at this time and reach the people they sought to. Another example is Bloom Church in Denver, Colorado, first gathering in 2007 in homes in the city. Their model became a congregation that meets in various home groups and gather as one community for worship on Sunday nights in downtown Denver. While these examples were new churches, explicitly established outside the norm of Sunday morning services, existing congregations who only meet for worship on Sundays can learn from their experiences and witness that creating alternative worship and gathering times can result in growth. These churches prove alternative worship times aren't just theoretical—they're working. So what might this look like for established congregations?

What if a mainline congregation with two Sunday morning services moved one of those options to Sunday evening?  What if a congregation with mid week programming offered a monthly communion service on that night of the week? While not every experiment will succeed, and some communities may discover Sunday morning still serves them best, some of these ideas, though requiring intentional change management and resource reallocations, could be lifelines to new ways of doing ministry and reaching more people. If starting something new seems daunting or too heavy a lift, start small; start with a season. Here are a few ideas to jump start creative imagination.

Sunday Sanctuary – Sunday Evenings In Winter

Help combat long, lonely winter nights with Sunday Night Worship, not a duplicate of Sunday mornings, but perhaps a more contemplative and simple service with weekly communion, reflection, and music. The Sunday scaries are real for many working-class people and a small moment of retreat before the start of the week could be the spiritual and social nourishment they need. This could particularly serve shift workers in retail, hospitality, and healthcare who often work Sunday mornings but have Sunday evenings free.

Summer Flexibility

When weather is warmer and families opt for a day at the beach or at home relaxing instead of the routine of church, consider alternative outdoor gatherings.  Perhaps a Worship Without Walls in a local park or hiking trail where a small group informally worships in the cathedral of nature. If your church campus has outdoor space and a lawn to gather – offer vesper services in the cool of the evening or morning. In many congregations, summer attendance slumps so dramatically that maintaining weekly Sunday morning services feels like going through the motions for a scattered few. What if instead of limping through June, July, and August with half-empty sanctuaries and exhausted volunteers, a congregation intentionally shifted to one significant monthly gathering paired with alternative connections the other weeks?

Midweek Daytime Gathering

While evening and weekend options serve working families, let's not forget those whose schedules allow for daytime worship - primarily retired adults, but also remote workers, caregivers, and those working non-traditional shifts.

A Wednesday or Thursday midday service or gathering offers:

• Practical access for those who prefer not to drive after dark, especially during winter months

• Community connection through pairing worship with a fellowship meal, service projects, or Bible study

• Intergenerational opportunity by welcoming anyone with weekday flexibility - remote workers, parents with young children, shift workers with days off

The goal isn't segregating age groups but honoring availability. When churches only add opportunities to accommodate 9-5 workers, we inadvertently make church harder for those who've spent decades showing up faithfully to Sunday morning. Creating daytime options says, "We see you. Your participation still matters.”

While implementing any of these ideas may strike fear into church leaders or congregants, they can be tested without touching existing normalcy around the sacred Sunday morning hours. However, allow those who identify as part of your congregation but you seldom see on Sunday mornings to inform what new opportunities you may launch. View these as not only opportunities for growth but also as broad pastoral care and connection to more people.

The question at the root of these considerations is: Are we building the church for the people, or requiring people to conform to the institution? That is a deeply theological question every congregation should ask itself regularly.

The good news is that experimentation doesn't require abandoning what works. Start with one season. Try one alternative. Listen to your community. The same Spirit that empowered the historic American church to gather in homes, brush arbors, and civic halls—whenever and wherever they could—is still at work today, inviting us to meet people where they are, when they can come.

I began this reflection remembering the warmth of Sunday night services—those glowing windows piercing the darkness, signaling life and welcome. Perhaps it's time we asked: Who needs to see our light shining at a different hour? Who's been walking past in the darkness, longing for welcome, but unable to come when we've decided to unlock the doors?

As we enter the season of the longest night, may we work to nourish and fan the flame of our congregations to burn brighter—offering hope to the weary, warmth to the traveler, and good news to the downtrodden—in as many ways, and at as many times, as possible.

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If you or your congregation would like to discuss how Pinnacle Services can help you imagine new ways of ministry, please contact us at info@pinnserve.com