A third striking aspect of Sunday evening worship was that there seemed more time for prayer. Often the pastoral prayer in the evening service was longer, and we prayed more slowly, so to speak. The concerns of the congregation which were shared throughout the day could be brought before the Lord in the evening, whether in public or private intercession. It was good to be able to approach the throne of grace one more time each Lord’s Day, as a congregation.

A person is more likely to be convinced of a good idea when, as well as understanding it, he also experiences it. I could tell you, for example, of the many reasons why Rugby Union is the greatest game on earth. But it would be more convincing if we went to a sold-out test match together – singing the national anthem, hearing the crowd, and feeling the collisions. This analogy may not be appreciated by Wallabies fans at the moment, but the point is made. We can more easily appreciate some ideas when we experience them first. This is what I found when I first regularly took part in evening worship.

Rather than being the time when the younger members of the congregation have their own separate gathering, evening worship is when the whole congregation together meets for a second time on the Lord’s Day. It’s something which I experienced, almost by accident, before I realised that this has been a normal way many churches have operated until more recent years.

Of course, there are reasons why it could be unhelpful to have a second worship service in certain contexts. Some believers around the world walk long distances to get to church, and then to get home again afterwards. Trudging back and forth may prove to be more of a chore than a help. For other legitimate reasons, churches in Australia also choose to have only the morning service. Such congregations (or even individual families within those congregations) find other ways to fill the day with praise.

It is good to praise the Lord

and make music to your name, O Most High,

proclaiming your love in the morning

and your faithfulness at night (Psalm 92:1-2).

While this captures the goodness in praising the Lord, it is still not quite a specific command to have two worship services each Sunday.

But my own experience of evening worship has been very positive. I first attended an evening worship service at a church in Sydney, then later at a church in England which also followed the two-service pattern. They are not that easy to find today! In each case, I didn’t have any intellectual predisposition about evening worship, yet enjoyed it very much.  A number of features of evening worship were striking.

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