Pastor Gary Lamb of Ridge Stone Church in Georgia recently took a Sunday off (gasp!) and blogged about lessons learned from NOT attending church.
Some of the best lessons have to do with evangelism:
- The large majority of people do not go to church.
- Men don’t go to church.
- People are craving community and they will find it somewhere.
- A lot of people work on Sunday mornings.
When you spend all your time in the church you have to constantly remind yourself that some people do something entirely different on Sunday morning. I remember realizing this in 8th grade when all my friends at school talked about watching Ren & Stimpy on Sunday mornings while I was at church like a good little Baptist.
It’s also a good reminder that Sunday morning doesn’t work for everybody. Some people work, some people stay out too late on Saturday night, some people just aren’t morning people. Alternate service times are a must if you want to reach unchurched people.
More:
- Learn more about how to welcome church visitors with this massive collection of resources and blog posts.
- Walking into a church for the first time can be scary. Check out Unwelcome: 50 Ways Churches Drive Away First-Time Visitors by Jonathan Malm for practical ideas and perspective on first-time guests.
Jordan Dunn
November 30, 2006
I agree 100%. Our church is sharing a building with the Romanian Baptist’s in our area, and we have our church services at 2 to 4 in the afternoon on Sundays. We have had amazing reaction to the time with getting more and more families weekly! Instead of a Wednesday service we have it on Thursday now. It is amazing what time changes can do to help people become a larger part in your church!
Jenn Collins
November 30, 2006
Our church is about to take alternate service times to the next level. Starting January 20, we are going to 7 Nights of Worship…church every single night of the week at 7 p.m. We will still offer our Sunday morning services (4 between 2 locations). We are not a mega church by any means…and we know we’re the first church to do this, but we have a tremendous parking problem on Sundays and above all we want to offer church to anyone & everyone every night of the week. So, now no one has any excuses not to come! :) Check it out at http://www.7nightsofworship.com (the site needs to be updated, but you can get the gist there). And yeah, we’re crazy :)
Bill LaMorey
December 1, 2006
I hope I can learn some of these lessons firsthand very soon!
David Stryffeler
December 1, 2006
Good opportunity to learn! But I wonder what is the lesson to be learned? If the vast majority of people do not go to church on Sunday would they come at a more “convenient” time? I think the lesson to learn here is more on the lines of being the church and going and living missionally rather than finding ways to attract people to our services that they apparently not interested in. I think most people are perfectly, completely satisfied to not attend a church service on a regular basis. I know I am.
Tim
December 1, 2006
I guess I wonder how the, “Alternate service times are a must if you want to reach unchurched people” is true. Maybe they’ll reach some people, but my previous church found that unchurched people in general still associate church with Sunday morning and are willing to get up and come if they see value in it. Maybe reaching these people isn’t as much of a scheduling conflict as much as it is giving them something deemed worthy of their time.
Kevin D. Hendricks
December 2, 2006
Talk to someone who works on Sunday morning and tell me if it’s still worth only having services on Sunday morning.
David Stryffeler
December 3, 2006
Alternative service times are good; a whole new way of looking at “church” would even be better.
Gene Mason
December 10, 2006
There’s a difference between “coming to church” and “being the church.” Here again is a great example of the Americanization of the church–“If you want to be involved in church, then it pretty much has to happen on Sunday morning.” Shamefully our system is set up so that anything outside Sunday morning seems “really out there and risky” instead of the norm.
I realized last week that more people are listening to our pastor’s messages online than actually attend on Sundays. There is indeed a hunger for the Word–and we have to begin ministering to people without expecting them to come in our walls to do so.
Anybody care to look up Acts 2 and see if it tells us when the church met each week? Oh wait–you mean they met in homes and didn’t have a church building? Man, how did anyone ever come to know Christ?
If the world isn’t coming to us, maybe it’s time we put our own interests aside and started engaging the world on their own territory. I’m with Paul–“Put on your walking shoes… we’re headed to Rome…”
alan
December 12, 2006
Please keep in mind that God still has a Sabbath, the Lord’s Day. And he didn’t leave it up to us to decide which day that would be. The Lord’s Day is Sunday. We should be setting aside that day and making it holy. Remember the 4th Commandment? It’s the only one that God tells us TO “remember”, and yet, ironically, it’s the one that so many believers in Christ have forgotten.
We should strive to obey this command…let us NOT work (unless our work is necessary, like police, firefighters, EMT’s and the like)…let us NOT seek our entertainments (put down that golf club, fishing rod and remote control on the Lord’s Day!)…instead, let us devote all of our energies and faculties to the worship of the God who has redeemed us from the penalty and power of sin.
Sara
December 13, 2006
The Sabbath was originally Saturday, if we want to get technical.
Gene, I’m up for a trip to Rome.
alan
December 14, 2006
Sara,
Of course you are correct, the Sabbath was originally Saturday. But ever since Christ conquered death, the Christian church has transferred the day on which we celebrate the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. This couldn’t have been arbitrary, since Saturday-Sabbath was ingrained in the cultural fabric of the Jews, who comprised the majority of the early church. They would not have begun worshipping on Sunday without a specific command to do so, either from Christ Himself, or Christ through His Apostles.
You see, the principle of the Sabbath has always been there, ever since Creation. But the day on which we commemorate that Sabbath has been changed, by the only One who has the authority to do so.
It is not the Christian’s right to simply choose which day he wants to commemorate the Sabbath, just to make things more “convenient” for himself.
By the way, the issue of the Sabbath, and the way the Bible tells believers to celebrate the Sabbath, has MUCH relevance to such as issues as you address on this website. Isa. 58 and Exodus 20, as well as Neh. 10 and 13, militate against the idea that we should have Starbucks and Subways doing business on the Sabbath (i.e., Sunday, the Lord’s Day) AT ALL, let alone right inside the church building. Furthermore, we are told that we are not to seek our own pleasures (i.e., “entertainments”) on the Sabbath (Isa. 58), so here again the Word of God speaks directly to the prevalent practices we find in modern churches, such as having a band “warm up” the crowd…er….”congregation”… before the preaching, by playing the latest Top 40 hits. Another trend is to play the music of U2 during a worship service.
Look, I love to listen to most of U2’s music, but I love it for entertainment, not for worship. Our culture is addicted to entertainment; does the church really need to encourage the addiction? Shouldn’t the church rather offer something different than what people are getting 24/7 the other 6 days of the week, from TV, movies, internet, ipods, etc.?
Christians need to seriously consider what the Bible says about the Sabbath, and reclaim it!
christine
March 31, 2007
The fourth commandment is to keep the Sabbath Holy,and it is Saturday. Always was always will be. Sunday was adopted and changed by man, Not Jesus. he did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. I have heard and agree that Sunday keepers say it because Jesus rose on the 3rd day and therefore we now worship Sunday the first day of the week to honor Him. But Jesus never came to change any commandment. The Roman Catholic church changed the ten commandments. I have friends that were not even aware. We can not call Sunday the Sabbath, It never was never will be. In fact, there is some speculation as to whether we even have the day right, and there is a question whether Jesus even rose on Sunday. See below>>> it deserves research and consideration>>>
Roman Catholic Condessions SEE
http://www.biblesabbath.org/confessions.html
Saturday and the fourth commandment
http://www.ucgstp.org/lit/booklets/ten/fourthcommandment.htm
christine
March 31, 2007
Additionally regarding the Sabbath, I understand and respect the folks that have been taught and believe Sunday is the day of rest, I hear church folks all the time refer to it as the Lord’s Day. I will buy that. But it is not the fourth commandment. Our leaders need to get into discussion about this, and at least expell the truth. It deserves our attention. In fact for those of you who know about the NEW World Order, this is fact once implemented will be one of Satan’s ploy’s, to make all worship him, no buying or selling unless one receives the Mark of the beast in ther forehead or I believe right hand, and everyone to worship him on Sunday. If this is also to be true, be watchful, get to know God’s word, and preachers need to be discussing the Book of Revelation the last book in the Bible. We live in the end times. God be with us. Our nation needs to repent so our land can be healed. SEE BELOW. P. S. I was raised Greek Orthodox, taught some of the proof history by a Seventh Day Adventist, to this day, I have remained non-denominatinal since I was 13 years old, I am now 47. I believe in Bible based teaching only, and scruplously remain skeptical of aditional books added by other so-called prophets. Read with prayer and ask the Lord to reveal the truth in your hearts. Do not follow leaders, Follow The Word, Know the Word, Read the Word for yourself, and consult Jesus. Prayer is our telephone to Him.
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The Fourth Commandment: Key to a Relationship With Our Creator
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it” (Exodus 20:8-11).
Why is setting apart one day a week so important that God included it as one of His Ten Commandments?
The Fourth Commandment, to remember the Sabbath, concludes the section of the Ten Commandments that specifically helps define a proper relationship with God—how we are to love, worship and relate to Him. It explains why and when we need to take special time to draw closer to our Creator.
The Sabbath, the seventh day of the week, was set apart by God as a time of rest and spiritual rejuvenation. On our calendar the Sabbath begins at sunset Friday evening and ends at sunset Saturday evening.
Of course, someone will immediately ask: Why the seventh day? How can our relationship with God benefit any more from observing that particular day than any other day? After all, Friday night and Saturday bustle with all sorts of sports, business and other secular activities. Why should we be different? Isn’t this a symbolic commandment—one never meant to be taken literally—and didn’t Jesus Christ ignore this commandment, leaving us free from the burden of keeping it?
These questions represent some of the most widely assumed and long-held beliefs about the Fourth Commandment. But God’s command is simple and easy to understand. So why is this commandment so frequently ignored, attacked and explained away by so many? Could it be because the challenges to the Sabbath command are views generated by the god of this present evil world? After all, this being wants us to accept these views because he hates God’s law. He does all he can to influence us to ignore, avoid and reason our way around it.
Few grasp the extent of society’s indoctrination by Satan. As the real “god of this age” (2 Corinthians 4:4), he has deceived most of humankind (Revelation 12:9). The whole world falls prey to his influence (1 John 5:19). His objective has always been to destroy the relationship between the true God and humanity. He wants nothing more than to thwart people from developing a loving, personal relationship with their Creator—which is the purpose of the Fourth Commandment. He wants to prevent us from reaching our incredible destiny in God’s family!
Jesus and His apostles kept the Sabbath
What does Christ’s personal example teach us about the Sabbath? “So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read” (Luke 4:16). Jesus used the Sabbath for its intended purpose: to help people develop a personal relationship with their Creator.
After His death, we see that Christ’s apostles followed His example in their observance of the Sabbath day. “Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures” (Acts 17:2). “And (Paul) reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded both Jews and Greeks” (Acts 18:4).
Today, however, most people who profess to follow Christ do not follow the example set by Him and His apostles. Most fail to realize that the wholesale rejection of the Sabbath as the Christian day of worship did not start until almost 300 years after Christ’s ministry on earth.
The official substitution of Sunday for the Sabbath was orchestrated by the Roman emperor Constantine, who made Christianity the official state religion to secure political advantage over a defeated contender for the office of emperor. His rival supported a policy of persecuting and killing Christians. Constantine was quick to grasp the political advantage of accepting and supporting Christians, but that acceptance came with a price: state control over all religious matters.
Nowhere in the Bible does either the Father or Jesus Christ ever grant permission to change the time of the Sabbath from the seventh day to Sunday, the first day of the week. No human being, institution or state has ever had the right to tamper with what God has made sacred.
The Sabbath and a godly relationship
The Sabbath is vital to our relationship with God because it shapes the way we perceive and worship Him. We should remember the Sabbath by formally worshiping God on that day. Otherwise, we forfeit that special understanding that God wants to develop in us by worshiping Him on that day.
It is by ceasing our normal labor and activities that we are reminded of an essential lesson every week. After six days of fashioning this beautiful earth and everything in it, our Creator ceased molding the physical part of His creation and rested on the seventh day (Genesis 2:1-3).
The Sabbath is a special day to concentrate on developing our spiritual relationship with God. Although it is a day of rest from our normal routines and we do need even physical rejuvenation, it is not a day for doing nothing, as some assume. On the contrary, the Sabbath is a special day on which we dramatically change the focus of our activity. God intended that it be a delightful period during which we busily draw closer to Him.
God said, through the pen of Isaiah: “If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the LORD honorable, and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, then you shall delight yourself in the LORD; and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, and feed you with the heritage (the abundance of blessings) of Jacob your father. The mouth of the LORD has spoken” (Isaiah 58:13-14).
Indeed, to “delight yourself in the LORD” is the reason we should cease, for the 24 hours of the Sabbath, the labor and normal activities that consume our time the other six days of the week.
Relationships take time. Every successful association demands time. No close relationship can succeed without it—no courtship, no marriage, no friendship. Our relationship with God is no exception.
God, however, wants us to take special time to worship Him. That is what only the Sabbath—the seventh day of the week—can provide.
The Hebrew word for Sabbath, shabbath, means “to cease, to pause or take an intermission.” On the Sabbath we are to take the day off from our regular activities and devote our time and attention to our Creator. Why? Because “in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it” (Exodus 20:11). The Sabbath, in a different way from any other commandment, keeps us in touch with how real God is as our Creator.
A world without knowledge of the true God
Look at the world around us. The theory of evolution, that the world and everything in it developed from nothing, dominates the thinking of the most highly educated. Most scholars scoff at the idea that the creation requires a thoughtful, purposeful, almighty Creator. Even many professing-Christian scholars accept this point of view. Observance of the seventh-day Sabbath, however, keeps those who faithfully obey the Ten Commandments in constant remembrance that their faith is founded on the existence of a very real Creator.
We read, “By faith (by believing what the Bible tells us) we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible” (Hebrews 11:3). That faith is nothing less than an unshakable confidence that the Bible was inspired by the Spirit of God and accurately reveals how the world, and humankind, came into existence. (For more information, please request our free booklet Is the Bible True?)
God reveals few details about how He created the universe—only that He did create it. Observing the Sabbath brings that fact to the forefront of our minds every week. God does not want us to lose this understanding. He knows that everyone who neglects this knowledge loses sight of who and what He is. That is how crucial this knowledge is.
That is also why the weekly observance of the Sabbath is so important to our relationship with our Maker. It keeps us in constant remembrance that we worship the Creator of the universe.
A continuing creation
The Sabbath is not simply a reminder of a past creation. God finished the physical part of His creation in six days. However, the spiritual part is still under way. The Sabbath is the primary day on which that spiritual creation—the creation of the new person in Christ—takes place. As the apostle Paul tells us: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
The new spiritual creation is internal—in the heart and character of each person. It begins when “you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and (are) renewed in the spirit of your mind, and . . . put on the new man which (is) created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-24). This “new man . . . is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him” (Colossians 3:10).
Spiritual character cannot come solely by our own will. The “old man” will inevitably succumb to the weaknesses and pulls of human nature. Paul sums up this struggle: “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice” (Romans 7:18-19).
God Himself creates holy and righteous spiritual character in us. He reshapes our thinking and gives us the will and the power to resist our nature. Paul confirms this, telling us that “it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13, NRSV).
The day of renewal
Do you grasp how important this is? If we are in Christ, our heavenly Father is creating in us His own character, His divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). The weekly time He has set perpetually apart to remind us that He is the Creator is the same weekly period during which He instructs us as He molds us into a new creation.
God’s Word calls us “newborn babes” and says that we should “desire the pure milk of the word, that (we) may grow thereby” (1 Peter 2:2). The Sabbath is the time God has set aside for us to grow closer to Him through study of His Word, personal prayer and group instruction. He has sanctified it—set it apart—as holy time (Genesis 2:1-3). We should use it to delight ourselves in Him by diligently seeking His participation in our spiritual development (Isaiah 58:14).
The Sabbath is the day on which Christ’s disciples should be growing closer to each other. “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:24-25).
The Sabbath is the only day on which God ever commands a weekly assembly. “Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work on it; it is the Sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings” (Leviticus 23:3).
The internal evidence of the New Testament shows that Christ’s apostles and their converts continued to assemble on the seventh day, the Sabbath. They observed the day, however, with a renewed emphasis on the “new” person God is in the process of creating. The relationship of the seventh day to their lives grew in its importance to them. The book of Hebrews confirms that the followers of Christ and the apostles kept the Sabbath, affirming that “there remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God” (Hebrews 4:9, NIV).
Yes, Jesus and His apostles consistently obeyed God’s command to keep the Sabbath holy. They kept the seventh day as the Sabbath, just as their fellow Jews of that time did. God’s commandment to us remains “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8).
We desperately need to take time to grow close to our Creator. He tells us how much special time we need to set aside for our relationship with Him and when to take it. We have to decide whether we trust His judgment and are willing to obey His Sabbath commandment. Satan more often spreckles his lies with SOME truth don’t you know, anything to deceive man and teach falsely, he comes to rob, steal and destroy. Amen, Let us pray for the truth, In Jesus name. Search you heart. i am still and will always continue to study for the New testament is for us, after Jesus came and ascended. I hear some say we can worship now on any day.. I am just presenting to you, that all of us need to read, examine, and ask Christ for the truth. If it is otherwise, all of us need to see it in scripture. I am open to correction, I see in no way though that all 10 of the commandments are still not valid today. One can not be omitted, the integrity of all would fall. Any thoughts?
christine
March 31, 2007
http://www.biblesabbath.org/sabbathrestaurants.html READ IT
Most professing Christians do not keep God’s Sabbath. As a former Roman Catholic and Pentecostal, I, by the grace of God, have come out of religious Babylon and into His marvellous light (Revelation 18:4; I Peter 2:9). I can tell you that according to God’s Word, the Bible, Sunday is NOT the day that God has made Holy. There are, of course, differences in how these days are observed.
For those professing Christians who keep Sunday, most will get up and get the family together and plod off to church services about ten or eleven in the morning, and then after an hour or two at the most, they will go for breakfast or brunch with many of their friends to a local restaurant. It is a tradition for many, perhaps tens of thousands, do this every Sunday. If you don’t believe me, try to go out to eat at that time, it’s usually standing room only in most restaurants.
After this, families will often go home and lounge around the house, in a laid-back sort of way, watching TV, tinkering with a hobby, mow the lawn, do other yard work or attend to chores that may have piled up during the week. Some may spend the afternoon visiting friends or relatives, but this time is usually and generally viewed as their own free time.
Hundreds of thousands observe Sunday this way and they are not sinning by doing these things or their own things, because it is not God’s appointed time. The Sabbath, however, is different. All Bible students realize that the Sabbath has restrictions. Sabbath-keepers would never think of coming home from church services and mowing the lawn or doing chores. They wouldn’t think of spending a significant portion of the day watching TV, or being occupied with some sort of hobby. They know that these things are not pleasing to God on His Holy day, because these activities do not make His Sabbath separate, special, and holy, the way God intended.
In these later years, however, some Sabbath-keepers have begun, in some ways, to “Sunday-ize” God’s Holy Sabbath, that is, they have begun to let the spirit (attitude) of the way in which Sunday is kept, creep into their observance of God’s Holy day. They have begun to water down God’s Sabbath by not treating it as special as God wants us to keep it. While most would not watch their favorite TV show or sitcom, many Sabbath-keepers think little of going out to eat at restaurants before or after services just like Sunday-keepers do.
Should we be doing this? Is it wrong to eat in a restaurant on the Sabbath day or frequent restaurants as a regular part of our Sabbath worship? Is it sin? Have we, perhaps, allowed ourselves to go a little too far in permitting ourselves to do what we want to do, what we enjoy, instead of letting God’s Word be our sole guide? Again, I ask, is it wrong to go to a restaurant on the Sabbath, when you are feeling hungry? Is it all right to go once in a while, occasionally, as long as you don’t make it a habit? Are there exceptions to the rule, say, for example, when you are travelling or at the time of God’s annual Holy days, especially the Feast of Tabernacles?
One brother recalls that during the Feast of Trumpets in 1969 in Craftsman Hall, San Diego, as people were filing in that morning, carrying covered dishes, the serving tables were filling up with food that had been prepared the day before. After the morning service, the congregation enjoyed a potluck meal together before assembling for the afternoon service.
I’m told that such was the norm during the 50s, 60s, and early 70s. Obedient Church members never went out to a restaurant for a meal on a Holy Day or on the Sabbath.
So what has changed things? Are the Scriptures that were once used to demonstrate that purchasing food on the Sabbath is sin, no longer valid? Are people following people, the example of men, and not Christ? Why have we slackened in this regard? Is it our Christian liberty to do so? Has Christ loosened the Sabbath for us in this regard as many believe today? Did the liberalization which crept into the Church during the mid-70s have anything to do with the change in people’s hearts? I understand that Mr. Herbert Armstrong even began to eat out on the Sabbath, he said due to his continual travelling. An old saying comes to mind, “As goes the leadership, so goes the church!”
Were the early Church brethren taught that it was a sin to buy food on the Sabbath, either at a store or at a restaurant? Did the disciples frequent establishments to buy and eat food on the Sabbath? Did Christ, Himself, set an example for us in this regard? Did He eat in restaurants or the local “Inn” on the Sabbath at least “once” during His three-year ministry?
Brethren, God dealt with me on this very issue of buying food, or visiting restaurants on His Holy Sabbath day in 1995, and I am beginning to see that there are many others who are being awakened in these end times, having their minds impressed upon by God’s Holy Spirit, to know and to understand that God wants us to keep His Sabbath day HOLY.
Our Savior, Jesus Christ (Yeshua Meshiach) is coming back for a Church, His Bride, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing and NOW is the time to get our spiritual houses in order. “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?” (I Peter 4:17).
The convicting power of God’s Holy Spirit caused me to revisit this matter. It was not an issue of deciding to become more “strict” in my Sabbath observance, but simply started out from a sincere desire to please Him in everything and respond in loving obedience to His gentle correction.
As we approach this subject, we must fully realize, first of all, that God wants us to know and understand that He is our provider (Yahveh-Yireh). When He was showing (reminding) the Israelites which day was His Sabbath, after they had lost track of it during their many years of slavery in Egypt, He commanded them: “Tomorrow is a Sabbath rest, a Holy Sabbath to Yahveh. Bake what you will bake today, and boil what you will boil, and lay it up for the morning.” Then Moses said, “Eat that today, for today is a Sabbath to Yahveh, you will not find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day which is the Sabbath, THERE WILL BE NONE.” (Exodus16:23, 25-26).
Lara
October 31, 2011
I think its ok you don’t go to church once in a while.