Articles
Tradition, Expediency, and Innovations
I don’t want to overstate the case, but I do think a trend has arisen in the past couple of years. A significant number of churches have disposed of the second meeting on Sunday evenings. Some observations:
1) The NT doesn’t specify the number of meetings, their times or their duration on the Lord’s day. This is left to congregational discretion.
2) Each congregation of God’s people is autonomous; i.e., it can make its own decisions that are best for its membership and peculiar circumstances.
3) There is nothing wrong with establishing continuity of practice; in fact, it is expedient to do so for it creates a degree of stability and predictability. At some point in the past, though the exact origin is debatable, churches thought it expedient to meet on two separate occasions on the Lord’s day. That trend then spread. This is not law; it does not suggest that meeting twice is more holy or that meeting once is necessarily a sign of weakness.
4) Over time, what began as an expediency became mere habit. Many churches probably retained the practice of meeting twice rather than explore other possibilities more edifying to its membership. When habit becomes harmful, reasoned change is helpful.
Having said that, let us also note …
5) Our motives are not always clear to us. A church may decide to discard its second Sunday meeting in order to free the members to engage in a variety of other spiritual activities – singings, visitations, smaller-venue Bible studies, evangelistic endeavors, etc. – only to find over time these things are not really happening.
6) Decreased Sunday evening attendance, itself a trend, may suggest to some that a change is in order. But will less preaching, less singing, less prayer, less interaction with each other lead to greater spirituality?
7) This article is NOT proposing any such change at Centreville nor endorsing the trend. But such changes are happening around us, and we would be wise to think through the issue ahead of time and avoid jumping on the “everybody else is doing it” bandwagon. What may appear “new and improved” on first glance may in the long run turn out to be just a mirage, shimmering palms in the desert heat promising refreshment – with no water in the well.
