On his blog, Lifeway President and CEO Thom Rainer observes that many churches have already dropped the traditional 11 a.m. Sunday service because they supposedly no longer fit the needs of their congregations. He asked several church leaders why they no longer hold services at 11 a.m. and found five common answers.
Others saw a lone 11 a.m. service to be too traditional and out-of-touch.
Meanwhile in Minnesota, many families are reportedly abandoning Sunday services to accommodate children’s sports schedules, week-end work shifts or out-of-town travel.
According to the StarTribune, mainline denominational churches in the state have long been holding services on Wednesdays.
Just like anybody else, churches in America are also trying to adapt to the changing times. That’s why even the time-honored tradition of 11 a.m. Sunday service is at risk.
Some churches are even rescheduling their services on weekdays, like those churches in Minnesota that have appointed “Wednesday as the new Sunday,” according to StarTribune.
On his blog, Lifeway President and CEO Thom Rainer observes that many churches have already dropped the traditional 11 a.m. Sunday service because they supposedly no longer fit the needs of their congregations.
He asked several church leaders why they no longer hold services at 11 a.m. and found five common answers.
One church said that when it added another Sunday service to accommodate more congregants, the 11:00 a.m. time did not fit anymore a “good schedule for traffic, flow, and length of service.”
Even churches with just one service said that 11 a.m. was “such a late time” because “most people had been awake for hours.” Moreover, “the worship service inevitably runs into lunchtime.”
He found more people now prefer a worship time beginning between 9 and 10:30 a.m. and millennials are “particularly averse to 11 a.m. services”.
Subscribe to Free “Top 10 Stories” Email
Get the top 10 stories from The Aquila Report in your inbox every Tuesday morning.