4. At most churches the two meetings are quite distinctive. Failure to attend both may create an imbalance. In many places one meeting features teaching for ‘saints’ and the other a gospel message for ‘sinners’. Anyone receiving only one of these is getting an imbalanced diet. Even where this is not strictly followed there is usually a commitment to expository preaching morning and evening. Rarely will a minister preach on a book of the Bible in the later meeting that he has already expounded in the morning and vice-versa. Oncers are likely never to hear some parts of Scripture expounded even though a little effort would give them the opportunity. Listening to the message on tape is hardly the same thing as being there under the Word and worshipping with the people.
5. By coming to both meetings you may avoid the ‘Service’ mentality. Perhaps it is the word ‘service’ that gives the wrong impression. Undoubtedly some look on the church as providing a service for the public’s convenience. Services at different times of the day mean that one can come when it best suits. If you are a late riser or you like to have an elaborate Sunday lunch, fear not, you can always catch ‘the late show’. Or if you like to stop in on Sunday evenings watching TV or you go to see friends or family after lunch ‘the first sitting’ should be enough to keep you up to the mark. Full involvement in all the meetings of the Lord’s people should help to dispel that sort of consumer mentality which does so much harm to Christians.
6. Paradoxically it will enable you to be aware of everyone in the church orbit, even the Oncers. I have a friend whose church had a large number of Oncers, some the morning sort and some the evening type. Thus the morning and evening congregations were quite different. Some never met even though they went to the same church and heard the same men preach! While Oncers continue to exist the only way to know all those who attend the same place of worship, you cannot do the same.
7. You will be a great encouragement to your pastor and the rest of the congregation who have no doubt put as much effort into the earlier meeting as the later one if you will make the effort to come to both. The super-spiritual will reply that they do not come to church to please men but to please God. However, in Hebrews 10:25 the writer has no embarrassment in urging the people to meet more often in order to encourage one another. What an encouragement it might be, under God, if you decided to give up your lie in, your walk in the countryside, your cosy evenings in or whatever and started coming twice on Sundays. It will do you some good too if you stay humble. What about it?
5. By coming to both meetings you may avoid the ‘Service’ mentality. Perhaps it is the word ‘service’ that gives the wrong impression. Undoubtedly some look on the church as providing a service for the public’s convenience. Services at different times of the day mean that one can come when it best suits. If you are a late riser or you like to have an elaborate Sunday lunch, fear not, you can always catch ‘the late show’. Or if you like to stop in on Sunday evenings watching TV or you go to see friends or family after lunch ‘the first sitting’ should be enough to keep you up to the mark. Full involvement in all the meetings of the Lord’s people should help to dispel that sort of consumer mentality which does so much harm to Christians.
6. Paradoxically it will enable you to be aware of everyone in the church orbit, even the Oncers. I have a friend whose church had a large number of Oncers, some the morning sort and some the evening type. Thus the morning and evening congregations were quite different. Some never met even though they went to the same church and heard the same men preach! While Oncers continue to exist the only way to know all those who attend the same place of worship, you cannot do the same.
7. You will be a great encouragement to your pastor and the rest of the congregation who have no doubt put as much effort into the earlier meeting as the later one if you will make the effort to come to both. The super-spiritual will reply that they do not come to church to please men but to please God. However, in Hebrews 10:25 the writer has no embarrassment in urging the people to meet more often in order to encourage one another. What an encouragement it might be, under God, if you decided to give up your lie in, your walk in the countryside, your cosy evenings in or whatever and started coming twice on Sundays. It will do you some good too if you stay humble. What about it?
7 comments:
Hi Gary,
I know I'm at risk of being a serial commentator (even if my earlier comment was a bit cheeky!), but what you've shared here really resonates with a theme the Lord has been bringing to my heart over the past weeks. I love the characterisation of 'Oncers', and the mixture of practical and spiritual motivations highlighted.
This morning at Bible College, one of our tutors shared in the morning devotions from Hebrews 10 - showing that the atoning work of Christ is our supreme motivation for meeting together: challenging stuff indeed.
Thanks for making this available.
God bless,
Andrew
Come and comment any time. I can't remember where I first heard the word oncer.
Gary, Just a question for you. Two services are great but should one necessarily be evangelistic and the other not? The Holy Spirit can use any message on any passage to be evengelistic. Knowing a service is delibrately "evagleistic" may influence one's attendance.
We have two services too, and I'm very happy with that. But - pardon me for saying so - the arguments in the article don't make the case! Just one example: which of the arguments couldn't be used to argue for THREE services instead?
GB - Three's fine by me - I just can't get people to come out for 3. When a student I went to 6 many Sundays - too many I guess. I think 2 or 3's about right. I don't think putting 3 for 2 invalidates any argument I use.
RR - For the sake of oncers it's probably best to have both in both services though I admire the tradition some have of aiming at saints then sinners.
Gary,
three's fine by me, too. Except - well, there are other things for the good Christian to do. Family, for example. A Christian man works five full days a week - often very full days - then Saturday is his day for catching up round the house. Sunday is a day he'd really like to spend, as the Lord's Day, doing his part to make sure his children are brought up in the fear of the Lord. But he has morning service, his kids are out for Sunday School, then he has evening service, and then his kids are in bed.
One friend of mine told me that when evening services were introduced, conservative evangelicals of the day opposed them because, they said, it would destroy family worship. (They appear to have been right.)
It's a point you've heard (=read) me make before: we're very good at defending the status quo and talking about it as if it's THE Biblical way of doing it. Now, your articles weren't explicit in that, but it was implicit, I think.
Some years ago now Brian Edwards did an article on the use of Sunday where he suggested different models that may be appropriate in our pressured culture: did you see that?
I appreciate what you're saying Gary but given that we have two services (and for good biblical reasons)then the more who come to both the better. I don't think either of us would consider dropping one progress.
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